Today was a sea day. Not much going on -- mostly eating and resting.
During the afternoon, the Captain came on and said that they were having some kind of problems with the ship and we were not able to go as fast as we needed to go in order to get into Singapore at 9:00 am on Sunday as scheduled. His technical people were continuing to work on the problem and he would let us know of any changes but it was looking like we wouldn't get into Singapore until 1:00 pm on Sunday. We didn't have any formal tours booked so it wouldn't really affect us that much.
During dinner, an announcement was made that they had a medical emergency and needed anybody that donated blood regularly with O+ blood. I am not sure how many people were able to help out but we did see one man leave the dining room when the announcement was made.
Later around 10:00 pm the Captain came on the speakers in our state rooms. He never does that unless it is something really important. He said that because of the medical emergency we were going to have to airlift one of the crew out. We needed to be closer to Singapore before this could be done so they were going as fast as they could. The Singapore Air Force were going to be doing the airlift and would be there around midnight.
Probably about 10:45 pm or so, the Captain came back on and said the helicopter was already on its way and would be there earlier than midnight. We were told not to take any flash pictures. Several cabins on the 11th and 12th floor towards the front of the ship were evacuated from their cabins because of safety issues. They were moved to several of the lounges where they would be kept comfortable until this was completed.
It wasn't long until I heard the helicopter pass over our balcony so we all went outside to watch. They made several passes, getting lower each time. Finally we didn't see or hear them anymore. We heard the next morning that the airlift was successful and the crew member got to the hospital in Singapore safely.
No comments:
Post a Comment