At Sea

May 31^st, 2024

This morning we were entertained by a pod of small dolphins, but unfortunately they were just not photogenic.

The Commodore Club binocular users were out in force today. They were scanning the horizon for any sign of life out there, and were rewarded with many bird sightings, but it was the lady quietly snoozing away next to me who suddenly woke up and yelled “dolphins!!!!!!”. She won my observant person of the day award. We were going very slowly and the dolphins had no trouble keeping up with us, and swam alongside for quite a while. I was loving watching them.

My joy was destroyed by a man coming and sitting himself down on another chair at my table (without asking me if it was OK), moving my Coke and paperwork out of his way, and taking out his phone and launching into a very noisy phone call.

Now it is not uncommon for people to make video phone calls with family members when they are in the Commodore Club, but these calls tend to be short and sweet, and at a reasonable noise level.

The interloper seemed to be totally unaware that this was a public space, and he was talking very loudly on the phone, and becoming increasingly agitated about losing “hundreds of thousands of pounds”. He ignored the gentleman at the next table to us who very gently said “my good man, could you possibly keep the noise level down?”. The waiters looked very uncomfortable, and the rest of us glared at him, but to no avail. He continued on his rampage, totally oblivious to the discomfort he was causing.

At that stage I grabbed my papers and Coke, and beat a hasty retreat back to our stateroom. In all my years of sitting in the Commodore Club I had never witnessed anything like that before. I don’t know what the outcome of the episode was, and I did feel sorry for him if he really did lose all of that money, but there is a time and a place for everything. This is a big ship; I just wish he had found somewhere else to have his meltdown.

I didn’t feel like returning to the Commodore Club in the afternoon, and decided to try to Grills Lounge instead. Most people have been very negative about this room, but as it turned out, I had a really lovely afternoon there.

Although the room does not have windows, you can see outside through the Queens Grill dining room, and through the sky light.

Best of all, you can see the funnel through the skylight – imagine being able to sit there and read in a cozy room, with a great view of the funnel. My idea of a good time.

We were meant to be doing scenic cruising today through the Scottish Isles, but I must say, like yesterday I really hadn’t seen much in the way of islands on either side of us.

I looked at Cruise Mapper, and lo and behold, it looked like we were heading to Boston.

This was very strange to say the least. We had also picked up speed and were finally going at a decent speed. Then Captain Inger made an announcement. We were heading towards the coast of Northern Island. We needed to do a medical evacuation by helicopter and would be assisted by the coast guard off the coast of Northern Ireland.

I checked our course again, and we were no longer heading west out across the Atlantic, but were once more heading east.

Captain Inger requested that no one go out on the decks towards the back of the ship, and that no one use a flash or take photographs of the medical evacuation.

Soon, I could hear the sound of the helicopter buzzing above us. Then the captain again requested that people leave the open decks and refrain from taking photographs. She added that people should not go out on their balconies, and should stay away from their balcony doors. Fair enough, there was quite a gale blowing outside.

Some time later she repeated the same request.  I could hear that the helicopter was still flying around.

She made the same request a couple of times more, each time sounding more irritated, and finally quite annoyed.

Eventually I heard the sound of the helicopter getting louder, and then looked up through the skylight and saw it fly overhead. Hopefully, the mission had been successful, although it did take a very long time. It is always so incredibly sad when something like that happens. Thank goodness we weren’t in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

Crisis over, we once more headed in the direction of the Scottish Isles, but by the time we got there, the light was fading, so yet again, we missed out on our scenic cruising. But hopefully our ailing passenger was able to get the medical care they needed. That’s so much more important.

With us being just a few days away from the naming ceremony I thought that there may be some information about it when we returned to our room tonight, but no there was just our chocolates and tomorrow’s daily programme. It would be so nice to know more details, but we will just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.