Rough Weather Buffets QE2 Even More : Transportation: Violations corrected, the superliner finally leaves New York for Caribbean cruise. The ship then hits 25-foot waves, high winds.

The trouble-plagued Queen Elizabeth 2 luxury liner was braving high winds and 25-foot waves Saturday as its star-crossed Caribbean Christmas cruise finally got underway.

The QE2 left New York Harbor about 1 a.m. EST after being delayed for 37 hours for a number of safety violations that had to be corrected.

Speaking by telephone as the vessel was in the open Atlantic Ocean, the ship’s radio operator said: “All I can tell you is that we’re on our way to St. Lucia and we’re on schedule.”

He said there had been “no problems” so far. He did not elaborate.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jim Tabor said the ship could continue to sail through rough weather as a storm system makes its way along the Eastern Seaboard.

“Right now, it’s pretty rough seas out there, but it would depend on exactly where they are,” he said.

Tabor said there were wind gusts of up to 50 m.p.h. and seas of up to 25 feet in different parts of the ocean.

“There is a low-pressure system out there, and it’s slowly moving north-northeast and will be for the next 24 hours,” Tabor said.

He said that the winds were gale force, but so far they were coming in gusts and were not sustained.

The Coast Guard had barred the QE2, the second ship named for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, from leaving New York after inspectors found numerous fire and safety violations aboard.

Coast Guard inspectors boarded the liner Thursday evening near Ambrose Lighthouse in New York Harbor and began what they called a “routine inspection.”

The inspectors said they noted several “safety-of-life-at-sea deficiencies.”

The Coast Guard said the majority of the violations were fire and safety hazards in the aft part of the ship, including openings in the main vertical-zone bulkheads and other areas. The main vertical zones are fire-resistant continuous bulkheads that serve to contain a fire within a zone.

Among the other violations were improperly working fire doors in the main vertical-zone bulkheads and obstructions in passageways.

Coast Guard officials said the ship’s crew had to repair holes, fix the fire doors and remove obstacles from the passageways before being allowed to leave New York.

The QE2 was scheduled to sail at noon Thursday on a 15-day Caribbean cruise via Florida to St. Lucia, St. Martin, Barbados and Aruba.

Some of the 1,000 passengers booked for the Caribbean cruise had boarded Thursday evening.

They took the place of other passengers who had arrived in New York earlier that day after a disaster-filled Atlantic crossing from Southampton, England.

*

Those passengers said they had a nightmarish voyage, during which toilets flooded, running water turned brown and debris spilled into the corridors.

The superliner had just undergone a $45-million renovation with most of the refurbishing done in Hamburg, Germany, according to a spokeswoman for Cunard Steamship Co., the liner’s owner.