Re: “Jana Tha Japan, Pahoonch Gaye Cheen” – My Life On A Cruise Ship Quote:
Originally Posted by deky The 6 years that I spent working on cruise liners have been filled with excitement, fun, adventure, romance, happiness and sorrow. I was lucky to have done my cruise ship stunt at the age when I could take it all in my stride and remember them for years to come.
Here are a few incidents I would like to share with you that happened during my cruise ship days.
Please Note: - These incidents and the narration are real and not a figment of my imagination. - Jana Tha Japan, Pahoonch Gaye Cheen. (Wanted to go to someplace but ended up in altogether different place)
- Arrested in Spain
- Arrested in Mexico
- The Perfect Storm
|
As I was reading the travelogue I realised that I forgot to write about the last episode. Apologies THE PERFECT STORM
We were beginning our 14 days cruise from Southampton (U.K) to the Mediterranean Sea and back. The first port of call was La Corunna (Spain). The ETD was 1700hrs that evening, with next day at sea crossing the Bay Of Biscay and the ETA at La Coruna was 0800hrs the next day. This meant a sailing time of almost 39 hrs.
Before we set sail from Southampton (U.K) for La Coruna (Spain) that evening we had already got a warning of Gale Force winds measuring 10 on Beaufort scale while crossing The Bay of Biscay.
Bay of Biscay is anyways quite notorious for its rough seas and heavy weather and top of it expecting Gale force 10 winds was not a good sign. Winds are measured on Beaufort scale numbering from 1 to 12, and number 10 means exceptionally strong winds thus resulting in very rough seas.
The cruise could not have been shelved just because of bad weather. Canceling a cruise means lots of adverse publicity for the company plus lots of losses due to reimbursements of tickets or managing the backlog of passengers on later stages. Anyways modern day ships are not supposed to capsize in rough seas. So that evening we set sail on time to La Coruna.
It was steady sailing into the night. Apart from the regular motion, there was not much untoward motion, as yet, of the ship that would cause any alarm. Well, that was because it was only a few hours since we had set sail from Southampton and we were only crossed The Channel Islands so far. Being the first day for the passengers onboard, they were all very excited and curious to explore the ship. A very few of them had already started getting seasick, but that was very normal with any cruise, but most of them were happy and in high spirits and looking forward to the next 14 days. Basically, so far it was just another regular day at sea, with smooth sailing and passengers enjoying the facilities provided on board.
We, as the ships staff had work to do to prevent/minimize breakages due to ships motion. We had got such rough weather warnings before and we knew exactly what to do in case of such warnings. Few times these warning happened to be a non-event, but a force 10 wind warning could not be taken lightly. So before the restaurant staff went to sleep they had to secure all the chairs to the tables, secure all crockery, cutlery and glassware in trolleys and then in turn secure the trolleys together so that they don’t move with the motion of the ship. The wine stewards had to secure all their wine and other beverage bottles to prevent breakages. On the open decks the sun beds and the plastic chairs had to be secured properly to the bulkhead of the ship so that they don’t go flying overboard with high winds. Basically anything movable had to be tied down properly. Even the doors leading to the open decks were closed so that no one ventures out in the open.
Once everything was secure I called it a day and went to my cabin to sleep. Usually the crew cabins are below the water level but luckily my cabin was just one deck above the water line of the ship. I had a porthole with a sealed glass in my cabin. The porthole is a nice little circular window which allows sunlight to enter the cabin. Usually the portholes in the cabin on my deck were kept open but they were closed with Iron covers in case of rough seas, so finding the porthole fully covered today was not much of a surprise. I could hear the slapping of the waves against the bulkhead of the ship but still the seas were relatively calm and I slept of peacefully.
To be contd.... |