At Sea, Western Australia, Mar 20, 2020

And the beeline continues, oh hold on wait, we have a medical emergency where a guest needs to be disembarked by helicopter. You cannot make this stuff up. Late this morning there was a medical call to a guest’s room. This afternoon an announcement was made that this guest will need to be airlifted from the ship somewhere around Geraldton. This was a seamless process with the ship pulling within 60 miles of the coast and barely slowing down as the rescue helicopter came around and long line lifted the guest of the bow fo the ship. There was not enough room for the helicopter to land and yes, all the outer decks were closed as well as all deck facing the front of the ship - yes, a little privacy please. Amazing how these rescue operators work, all done within 30 minutes. We continue with the foot to the floor.

We finally received our evacuation instructions, although we are not totally pleased of our route we are learning to live with the restricted flight availability and the fact that it is important that we do get home as soon as possible. We are staying on board until the morning of the 23rd, we need to get off between 8 and 9 in the morning although our first flight doesn’t leave until 11:25pm. HAL has come through with providing us with a day room at a local hotel to stay in before we need to go to the airport. We fly from Perth to Melbourne, then after a 3 hour wait we head to Los Angelas, then another 3 hour wait before heading back to Vancouver. We should be home by about 12:30 pm, March 24th.

We also had a Mariner Good Bye wrap up dinner tonight with our retiring Captain Jonathon Mercer. I actually happened to stumble into a bit of a private party for the Captain at about 7:15 tonight in the Crow’s Nest and yes since I knew a great number of participants I was invited in and although not dressed the part was able to get a great picture with the Captain - he is really a very nice guy that was dealt with most unfortunate situation on his last run at the helm. We had a very nice dinner with Joanne and Michael (FCC’s) hosting our table, a very appropriate end for us on this cruise. We continue to say goodbye to all the friends that we have me and re-met on board. Today we also had an abbreviated version of a first ever combined, Indonesian / Filipino show - very well done and not a dry eye in the house.

So, we continue to wind down, very emotional on many fronts… A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy…

Quote of the day - “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished by you ability.” - John Wooden 

At Sea, Western Australia - Mar 19, 2020

With a 44 knot coming at us we are now barrelling our way to Perth/Fremantle running at about 20 plus knots, the concern is the closing of ports both sea and air. We had a streamed on board message from the president of the company today, Orlando Ashford. He started his message stating that his wife, son and his son’s friend are on board and their safety concerns is the same as he extend to all the guests here on the Amsterdam. His message was necessary because many, I mean many, guests are very unhappy that the ship cannot take us all the way back to Fort Lauderdale. The bottom line here, is that it is unsafe to do so. The route back will be remote along with the uncertainty of being able to refuel and get re-provisions, the Amsterdam may have to drop the hook and wait it out. Combine this uncertainty with the health requirements of those on board, they had a doctor speak to this and the medical facilities on board would not be adequate with and possible emergency evacuation impossible. So we are now rocking and rolling as we make a bee line to Perth. Orlando is asking for patience during this unprecedented time and they doing everything in their power to get us all home. The word now used is to consider this an evacuation back to our homes. So, yes we still patiently wait for our flight information even though now we are set to arrive a full day earlier than originally expected to be.

We begin to say goodbye to the friends we have met and re-met on board as our activities begin to quickly wind down. Jan’s HAL Chorale completed yesterday and today was when our water colour classes ended. Water colours was something that thought we would take this time around, what a great class. Carole, our instructor told me tonight, that I have come a long way and that I should keep pursuing this and to also try other mediums. I have included a few of my pieces in the pics so you can see how I am making out with this - please be kind if you make a comment, this is my first time after all. Great Indonesian dinner tonight and fantastic show from the Singers and Dancers - their last show together as a group as this is the last ship that will have on board singers and dancers, which is very sad. We are making the best of this lousy situation and remain positive at the outcome. A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy… BTW - the wifi is still crap as far as the blog is concerned, I have a few in the queue and at some point will be able to send…

Quote of the day - “As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.” - Thomas Edison