Missing cruise ship passenger found at home

DETROIT, Mich. (AP) -- A cruise ship passenger who officials feared had fallen overboard says she left the vessel because she got fed up with one of her traveling companions.

Sherry Caminita, 73, got off the Dawn Princess in Juneau carrying only her purse. She had left all her belongings on the ship, said Randy Holloway, the Coast Guard's search and rescue coordinator in Juneau.

Caminita, reached Saturday night at her home in St. Clair Shores, Mich., told The Associated Press that she cut short her cruise because of a disagreement with one of her traveling companions.

''You know, she's telling me what to wear and I thought, 'I don't think so,' so I just left,'' Caminita said. ''I just got sick of it.''

The captain of the cruise ship, owned by Princess Cruises, alerted the Coast Guard early Saturday that the woman hadn't been seen since Friday afternoon, and could have fallen over the ship's railing.

The Coast Guard sent two boats and a helicopter to retrace the cruise ship's path along a 225 mile stretch of water between Juneau and Ketchikan.

Caminita, meanwhile, had already returned to Michigan. She said she did not remember where she went immediately after leaving the Dawn Princess, and did not remember where she caught a plane to Detroit.

''I don't know. I didn't pay any attention,'' she said. ''I'm not really familiar with all that.''

The Dawn Princess left Juneau early Saturday and was on its way to Ketchikan when an employee assigned to clean the woman's cabin found her bed had not been slept in.

Wetherell said Caminita was traveling alone, but she said she had begun the trip with two couples -- including a longtime friend who clashed with her over her choice of what to wear to dinner.

''I told her what I was going to wear (Thursday) and she said, 'Oh, why don't you wear this?'' Caminita said. ''I said, 'I'm wearing a black velvet skirt and top. It matches. I brought the clothes, they're mine and they're really nice, with the heels and all that. It wasn't shabby, I'll tell you that.

''Then they left to go to a show, and I chose not to do that.''

The ship's crew checked the ship's computerized system that notes each time a passenger or crew member boards or departs the ship, but found no evidence that the woman had stepped off in Juneau.

Caminita said she reached Detroit Metropolitan Airport about 7 a.m. EDT Saturday and took a cab home. She said she was returning to the airport Sunday to retrieve her luggage.

Capt. Bernard John Warner authorized a physical search of the ship, and the Dawn Princess' intercom was used several times to call for her.

The ship was docked in Ketchikan on Saturday afternoon.

Caminita said she wasn't sure if more travel was in her future.

''If it is, I'm not going with her,'' she said of the companion she left behind.

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On the Net:

Princess Cruises: http://www.princess.com/

Coast Guard: http://www.uscg.mil/d17/