A quiet day at Sea?

This was our only "at sea day' as we travelled from Malta to the eastern tip of Crete. Usually "at sea days" are pretty quiet with lots of activities on board, but this one threw in some drama. We started off the day having time issues as the world went back to Standard Time. However, we also crossed into Greek time - an hour later. The end result was that all my devices went to Standard time. The ship's computer did as well. But everyone else knew that the two time changes cancelled themselves out. For us, it meant hustling a bit as our stateroom attendant knocked on the door to clean and we discovered the real time. So, after a late breakfast, we went to an early lunch with Tony and Jackie, which was, as traditon lately would have it, a Perrier-Jouet champagne lunch.

By mid afternoon we were drinking again, this time at a wine tasting in Toscana. The tasting was led by our head Sommelier and included two whites, two reds and Mumm's Champagne. We discovered an Argentine malbec called Enamore, that was fabulous.

Then came the drama. We were informed that we had changed course slightly due to a medical emergency on board. This is never a good message as it often leads to cancellation of ports. They were quick to tell us that the Greek Coast Guard was on the way and we would still make tomorrow's port, Crete. The next thing we knew there was a helicopter hovering off deck. Our fire fighting crew were on deck ready for any mishaps.

There is no place on this ship that a helicopter could land, so they winched down a marine - or whatever they are called - and continued to hover over the ship. This was not the most modern helicopter I've seen with zero markings on it identifying it. In other words, the situation was less than encouraging. But they kept right with the ship that had not entirely stopped and soon winched up the medical emergency in a stretcher. It turned out to be a man as the next winching involved lifting his wife with the marine to the helicopter. After a good 30 minutes over the ship, they finally zoomed off to Kalamata in Greece for medical attention. We will apparently be kept appraised of the situation.

Then we were off to the Oceania Club reception. Dawn & I made the bronze level with this, our fifth cruise, but being the shy, restrained people we are, refused to be acknowledged at the reception. We did however wear our new pins and enjoyed more free booze. Next we were off to dine with Carol Harrington, the Oceania Club Ambassador, who provided free wine with dinner. We dined with Tony and Jackie and two couples from California. It was a nice evening, but just as dinner concluded the seas started to get a little rough again and that's - as they say - the story for today.