The Cruise to Nowhere

We weighed anchor in the wee hours of the morning.  Blessedly, I slept through raising the anchor.  The seas were calm and stayed that way for most of the day.  I showered, went to the bridge lessons, had lunch, played bridge in the afternoon………. And then a weird thing happened.

I was looking out the window while playing bridge (I’ll get to that later) and noticed that we were stopped dead in the water.  Shortly thereafter, the captain announced that we were stopping right where we were (Michael calculated we had sailed about 250 miles from Panama) while waiting for a helicopter to come to the aid of a medical emergency.  Now this is the second medical in two days!  One of our passengers had severe stomach pains and left the ship yesterday to go to a hospital in Panama City.  Through the grapevine, we heard that a man had had a stroke.  We sat for a while, and then the captain came on the PA and said we were turning around and going back to Panama!  Now the rumor mill is running at full speed ahead.  I heard that the Panamanian government refused to send a rescue boat/helicopter, that we were too far off shore to be rescued, that the person died.  We really don’t know right now what is what.  What I do know is that we are headed right back from where we started.  We have gone exactly nowhere after 24 hours of running.  Plus, the nice calm seas have begun to get choppy.  Bahumbug!

In the meantime, there is nothing to do except go on with the daily business of sailing on a cruise ship.  I had to play bridge with another person who has seen better days playing.  I tried to get her to play social bridge, but she was determined to play duplicate.  Now we have some heavy duty, serious bridge players on board, and I did my best to play – but we were creamed so badily that if I was keeping score, I would owe points.  It was frustrating, but I played the good hostess.  I hope I don’t have to do this again.  If I play, I want to WIN!  Playing with a different person each time plays havoc with my game and I cannot get better doing this. 

After the game, I used my magic skills with the iPad to scan in and reproduce bridge information handouts for the beginner class.  What would Michael do without me??

I am going to teach the iPad 101 class tomorrow.  Egads, how am I going to get a two hour class into 45 minutes?  What do I leave in, what do I take out?  I am afraid that there will be too many people in the class; I will just have to lecture and ask them to just take notes.  I cannot help individual users under these circumstances.  I did save the Rabbi the other day.  He said his phone was broken and was going to buy a new one when we got to Sydney.  I played around with it, and of course, I got it working.  He was happy to get his games back, but sad that he still had his old iPhone 4.

Tonight was formal night.  The menu for the dining room was printed on a fancy scroll laid across the charger plate.  They like to spruce things up on formal night.  Oh how I wish Michael didn’t want to dine every night.  He won’t go to the dining room without me.  We dined again with Fred and Jan, and had an enjoyable evening swapping travel stories.  The desert was a really beautiful chocolate tower that was out of this world.

We clean up pretty good!  Formal Night.  Our waiter was a ham.

The Chocolate Tower -- Outstanding!

Beverly, Michael, Fred, Jan

Cocktail Time -- Jan, Reme, Linda, Beverly

 

We have to bunker (refuel) again and take on more supplies tonight.  We are wondering if, and how the captain will make up the lost day.  Will we lose a stop, or will he go full speed ahead to make up the time?  No one knows yet.