ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — Sean Roth’s birthday ended with a little bang Tuesday night.
“It was a beautiful day,” he said.
He and his family went on board the Starlite dinner cruise and took a trip around the intercoastal. It’s something they’ve done four times before.
“We always enjoy,” Roth said. “Everything was pretty normal until it wasn’t.”
That’s because the ship hit the Corey Causeway Bridge on the way back to the dock.
Most of the passengers were in the dining room at the time. Roth’s brother-in-law Garrett Tuck was on his way to the restroom when he saw one of the crew members running towards the galley.
“I felt a little knock, so I thought we just hit the dock a little rough,” Tuck said. “And the second time we hit, it would have thrown you on the ground if you didn’t have your feet under you. I knew something was not quite right.”
The family and several other guests told ABC Action News the crew jumped into action immediately.
“I thought the whole experience was well taken care of and everything,” Tina Roth said.
Tina is Sean Roth’s mother. She said the crew gave them life jackets and told them to hold them at first.
“Then when they said, ok you got to put the life jackets on now, we were like, oh,” she said. “It got real.”
The general manager for Starlite Crusies, Charlie Ward, explained exactly what happened.
“Winds were running anywhere from about 15 to 35 miles an hour. As the captain was making his approach back to the dock, he had a little anomaly with one of the throttles, so he had to maneuver the vessel,” he said.
“Fortunately, he maneuvered the vessel very carefully and it ended up resting against the Corey Causeway bridge.”
He said they couldn’t drop the anchor because they were too close to the bridge at the time. The coastguard, FWC, and the fire department all responded.
“I think we were up against the bridge for about two and a half hours, but everybody was very respectful and mindful of the work that these guys were trying to do,” said Sean.
They were able to get the ship off the bridge and get it safely back to the dock. Both the ship and the bridge were inspected. Officials said both were not damaged, and there were no major injuries reported.
The Coast Guard does safety inspections of the ship annually, and the ship has never had this throttle situation happen before Tuesday. Starlite has owned the ship for 10 years. Ward said they also do haul inspections of the ship every two years.
For Sean and his family are boaters, so they understand that things happen. He said it’s a birthday he’ll never forget.
“It gave me a story to tell for the rest of my life,” he said, laughing with his family.
Starlite Cruise has reached out to the guest and will give them another dinner cruise for free for the inconvenience.
