Royal Caribbean's Captain Kate shares harrowing bad weather story

Captain Kate McCue has become a legendary figure in the cruise world as the first woman to captain a so-called megaship. She works for Royal Caribbean's Celebrity Cruises brand where she serves as captain of Celebrity Beyond, a member of its top-tier Edge-class.

McCue has also become a social media celebrity boasting nearly 1 million Instagram followers. She shares behind-the-scenes details of running and living on a cruise ship as well as video of her hairless cat, Bug, who lives with her onboard.

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The Celebrity captain has given her followers candid access to what her job entails and that includes sometimes sharing how she handles difficult situations. Her Captain's Log videos offer everything from tours of the bridge to her experiences on the rare days she's able to get off the ship in port.

There's a lot happening on a ship as large as Celebrity Beyond and things that seem routine to passengers, like docking at the ship's home port, actually are a lot more involved than you might expect. That's especially true when McCue has to dock Celebrity Beyond in bad weather situations.

Captain Kate posts a daily video

Captain Kate, as she's known posts a daily "Captain's Log" video to her social media feeds. In her video on April 23, she shared that Celebrity Beyond was in Ft. Lauderdale for its turnaround day, the day one set of passengers gets off and another boards the ship.

"Mother nature made today very interesting," she shared to start the video.

She shared that the ship made its way into Port Everglades with the moon lined perfectly up with the bow. That night she shared, was going to be a "pink" moon.

"Pink does not refer to the color, it refers to a certain flower that blooms this time of year," she said.

Captain Kate added that she had a 4:30 a.m, wakeup call to pick up the pilot who helps the ship dock at its homeport.

Captain Kate shares a Celebrity docking story

"This morning, it was a Captain Kate BOGO deal," because the pilot who joined Beyond was also named Kate.

Around lunchtime, the original Captain Kate said she saw pods of dolphins, a rare event that's generally taken as a good luck sign. That was followed by seeing dragonflies, which is also considered a positive omen.

"They (dragonflies) represent strength and protection and protection was just what we were looking for as the winds picked up to 52 knots pushing us off the pier when a squall came through," said Captain Kate. "We could see that it was coming, so but the time it reached us we already had our propulsion and thrusters online so that we could hold ourselves alongside the pier."

Captain Kate also ordered a tugboat to stand by, which she called "the cheapest insurance we can buy."

"At one point the visibility was so poor that we couldn't see any of the other ships in port, much less our own stern. But as quick as the storm appeared, it disappeared just as fast," she shared.

Celebrity Beyond was slightly delayed in loading on its usual intake of supplies but was able to leave well in time to make its first stop, Royal Caribbean's private island Perfect Day at CocoCay.

"Just as special as sailing in on a full moon, we sailed out on a rainbow," she added.

Captain Kate also noted, as the ship sailed past an empty beach, that "if you want to have the beach all to yourself,  just go after a torrential rain shower."

Royal Caribbean, and all cruise companies, will always make decisions in the interest of keeping passengers and their ships safe. In cases of extreme weather that could mean delaying arrival or departure, cancelling ports, and sailing away from bad weather.