Saturday July 27 – At Sea

We have just returned from watching David James Guidice perform Billy Joel songs.  He was absolutely amazing. Did his own rendition of “We didn’t start the fire” with hilarious slides on the digital screen backdrop.

Today was another normal day until 7 pm tonight when the Captain came over the loud speaker to tell us that we have turned around to answer a distress signal from a boat containing three people.  The boat was filling with water.  At 9 pm he came on air again to tell us that the boat had sunk and the people were on a raft.  At least the seas are warm here and the night is hot.  The Captain has said that when we reach them they will have to stop the engines and mount a rescue operation.  This could entail much bouncing around of the ship.  He asked us not to go on the decks on level 7.  While I write this it is 11 pm and we can see the lights of the raft on our port side.  Hard to say how far away they are, but they would be able to see us now.  There is a plane circling the area now to pinpoint the raft and also another ship lights ablaze standing off to one side. We have got a small rescue boat lifted out of its storage position and ready to be lowered into the water.  It looks as if the rescue will take place on the port side because the waves are a bit smaller on this side tonight. A tiny light is blinking intermittently from the vast ocean.  We have just lowered our rescue boat into the water.  There are three crew on board.  They are in wet suits with harnesses and helmets.  Our ship has stopped its engines. 

It is now 11:45 pm and the three people have been rescued and the three rescuers are now on board.  All the people in the port side balconies have clapped and cheered at a fantastic ending.

Late arrival into Curacao.

Our trip to rescue the crew of the ship that sank.