Ocean odyssey
From the "Wolf Blitzer Reports" staff
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hundreds of college students spending a Semester at Sea were counting on the trip of a lifetime -- and that's exactly what they got.
Almost 700 college students are taking part in the current term of the sea-based, study abroad program.
They were less than two weeks into their three-month voyage when their ship, the Explorer, encountered a storm off the coast of Alaska.
Early on the morning of January 26 the boat was rocked by a 50-foot wave.
"I woke up -- my bed was sliding across the floor. I pretty much hit my head on the other door, so I grabbed my life preserver and put my gear on to go down," says student Tim Clement.
"I tried to move the bed back and then I just moved to the ground, the bed was on top of me and I was in between the table," says Brittney Shipp.
As students donned life jackets and fled their rooms, the captain explained over the intercom that the giant wave had crippled the ship.
"This was just a big one and it was out of cycle with everybody else and pushed out a big center window in the bridge and brought in a lot of water. In fact, the wave was higher than the bridge so we had a lot of water and it shorted out all of our equipment up there and we are looking now to get it back," the captain announced over the ship's intercom.
With at least two of the four engines knocked out, the 24,000 ton ship was battered by gale force winds and high seas as it struggled to reach calmer waters.
The Coast Guard was dispatched, but in the end didn't have to intervene.
Under its own power, the Explorer finally limped into port at Honolulu Monday -- much to relief of anxious parents.
One of them, Pam Downing, said, "It was just frightening to think that these kids went through that."
