Wanderung 30

We awakened before dawn to the odd sound of deck chairs being dragged across the deck just above the ceiling of our cabin. I thought maybe I was dreaming it, but remember thinking, "They're re-arranging the deck chairs --- I sure hope this isn't the Titanic!", and then turned over to go back to sleep. But shortly thereafter our day started off with a bang when the Captain's voice boomed out of the ship's loudspeakers at O-dark-hundred (6 am?) and he informed us that all decks and balconies were closed in anticipation of a helicopter picking up a sick passenger and transporting him back to the hospital at Ponta Delgada.

First a turboprop circled the ship, apparently checking on sea and wind conditions. Then a chopper came in and hovered about 30 feet above the deck while they first hoisted up the patient in a stretcher, and then a second person, presumably a spouse or relative. Fortunately the ship's camera was aimed amidships so that we could see all the activity and not be in the way. The Portuguese chopper pilots were very, very good and the whole operation went without a hitch, thank heavens, and they were off back to Ponta Delgada, which I estimated would be about a 1-hour flight back. Hope the patient recovered !

After all that excitement, the rest of the day was anticlimactic . The morning enrichment lecture was on Ferdinand Magellan and his ship's circumnavigation of the world. I did not know that the ships and captains supplied by the Spanish spice merchants were specifically instructed to sabotage the expedition and make Magellan fail, but that does explain why there were repeated mutinies and why two ships simply turned around and deserted Magellan en route, one in the South Atlantic and one in the Pacific near the Phillipines. Magellan himself, of course, didn't make it, being killed on a shore expedition to subjugate the natives in the Philippines.

Curiously, Europeans consider Magellan a hero, but the Phillipinos consider him a dastardly colonizer and consider the warrior chief who killed him on the beach to be the hero! As the Native Americans might have said when Columbus met them and claimed that he had discovered America, "All depends on how you look at it, I guess!"

A slide show on giant squid and the dangers to humans posed by their increasing numbers off the coasts was quite chilling. It is a problem of our own making as we have killed off the sperm whales which are the chief predators of the giant squid in the deep sea. The net result of removing the top predator is that we now have a truly inhuman enemy species that is well equipped with tentacles and suckers to fight and eat us under water. The giant squid is also intelligent enough to try to rip the face masks and air hoses off Scuba divers, and social enough to hunt in cooperative packs. That is a very BAD combination of talents for an enemy and would make me think twice about sailing the oceans in a small boat! Apparently these "devil fish" do actually kill some fisherman and tourists in small boats off the coast of Mexico each year.

The helicopter rescue had awakened us much earlier than usual, and to make up for the short night's sleep I took a couple naps. But I roused myself for a review class on Salsa and Cha Cha, and to go to a Captain's Circle reception, where the main attraction was the free drinks while the Staff Captain and travel consultant talked about Princess Cruise Line and future new ships and itineraries. It was low-key but pleasant, and if there had not been a crowd of hundreds, I would have tried some of the dances with Monika as a live band was playing some nice dance tunes. It is somehow more embarrassing to make mistakes in front of a big crowd than when we are are taking lessons, where everybody else is also making mistakes, or on a dance floor when everybody else is already dancing. Sigh.