May 8, 2019 – at Sea
The complete map. All heads in place.
Last night we experienced very rough seas as expected. We did breakfast and then hit the gym. A few minutes after we arrived, a member of the security showed us a photo of a woman and asked if we had seen her recently. We didn’t recognize her. She proceeded to ask everyone in the gym. I told Terri that there are only two places she could be. In someone else’s room or in the ocean.
Soon we heard security asking the missing woman to call guest services. A little while later, the same message. The captain then announced that a guest was missing and we were turning around to retrace our route. There is not chance that we left her in Ireland because ID cards are scanned when each person gets on and off. This meant she went overboard but that was never mentioned. Where and when was a mystery.
It was 9:50 am when we turned around. The sky was beginning to clear and now the sun was on the starboard side of the ship. We were heading back into the storm and to rougher water.
We did group trivia but the mood was less than jovial. Fred and Debbie couldn’t make trivia and Brian and Janet were not there. The two of started and another stray member joined us and Janet did show up by question 4. When Hamish struggles to pronounce words we know that the question is going to be very difficult. How long did it take to build 1 meter of the train tunnel in Flam? How many head hair sprouts is a human baby born with? We managed to answer only 4 correctly.
Captain Mercer did not do his usual location and meteorological data announcement at 12:20 pm. Hamish did do his usual announcement about what is happening on the ship. No other info shared.
Captain Mercer made an announcement a bit after 1 pm and said that we were about 4 hours away from the last location of the missing guest. She was last on the ship on 1:25 am and the ship authorities were notified that she was missing at 7:50 am. He was also keeping track of timing back to Ft. Lauderdale and the amount of fuel on board. He was working with the Maritime authorities in Ireland, and the UK.
The seas continued to get rougher as we traveled back to the northeast. A few hours passed and the Captain announced that we had been released by the maritime authorities and that he was turning the ship back toward Florida. He did say that by the time we arrived to the search area it would be getting dark, weather is bad, and it would be dangerous for his crew to go out on a fast rescue boat to search.
We received this after dinner.
Many assumptions have to be made since a lot is missing from this letter. One has to assume that she went into the ocean. Since the ship’s crew knew the location and time it must have been on camera. No extra safety warnings were given to guests about staying off balconies or decks during bad weather. Not all guests have balconies but we know that she was on the 7th floor and all of those rooms do. I did a bit of research on people going overboard on cruise ships. It is not as uncommon as I might have thought. Since the staff gave the guests no indication of foul play and the lack of increased safety warnings, one has to assume this was an intentional act.
The evening entertainment was a performance of The Runaway Kids. Lead, rhythm, bass guitars with drummer. They all sang hits from the 50s and 60s. They weren’t bad but just lacked a bit of experience. This was their first performance on the Amsterdam. I’m sure they will be back as the crowd enjoyed them. The lead guitarist was the star and had the most talent.
I hope you have enjoyed following this blog. I may continue to write until we get home but there are no other stops planned until we arrive in Florida.…