Cruise ship Mardi Gras rescues 16 people stranded at sea, Carnival Cruise Line says

(CNN) — While cruising in waters off the coast on Cuba on Friday morning, crew members of the cruise ship Mardi Gras spotted what had to be a chilling sight: a small vessel in rough seas stirred up by a tropical weather system.

The crew saw the distressed vessel just before 8 a.m., Carnival Cruise Line said in a news blog. The Mardi Gras stopped its leisure trip to assist, taking on 16 stranded people.

The Mardi Gras is on its final day of a seven-day voyage, Carnival said, and is scheduled to return to its home port of Port Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday morning.

Carnival said the US Coast Guard and “all other appropriate authorities” have been notified.

This is a photo of the distressed vessel rescued by crew members of the Mardi Gras, a ship operated Carnival Cruise Lines.

Carnival Cruise Line

Tropical Storm Alex expected

The distressed vessel was in a precarious position in regards to location and weather.

A broad swath of showers and thunderstorms over the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico could turn into Tropical Storm Alex or a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said on Friday. The system is expected to hit Florida on Saturday.

Tropical storm warnings are in effect Friday for more than 10 million people in the southern half of Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas.

CNN Travel has contacted Carnival Cruise Lines and the US Coast Guard for more details on the rescue and will update this story as they become available.

Top image: People gather on a fishing pier to watch the Carnival Cruise Line ship Mardi Gras as it departed on its maiden voyage, a seven-day cruise to the Caribbean from Port Canaveral, Florida, on July 31, 2021. (Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

CNN’s Judson Jones contributed to this report.

Quoted from Various Sources

Published for: Ipodifier