EMERGENCY DRILL DAY

Today, we were back at sea. Fortunately, it was not a class day for me; I say ‘fortunately’ because, it being two weeks since the last one, we were subjected to another Passenger Emergency Drill this morning (just in case everyone’s forgotten how to put lifejackets on since the last three drills). This meant that morning activities were disrupted, and I know I’d be livid if I’d had to break off in the middle of a class.

Other than the drill, and some time spent working in the cabin working, much of the day has been spent out on deck enjoying the wildlife.

The sea has been flat for most of the day, making the spotting of wildlife relatively easy. Funnily enough, this morning in the lift, we met an elderly gentleman who claimed he’d been coming away to sea for 17 years and never yet seen a whale. All he had to do was spend some time on the top deck today, and he would have seen loads. Not ony whales, but on two occasions, we had huge pods of dolphins, probably 50 or 60 (or more) at a time, pass us, bounding along, making everybody stood at the front of the ship very happy indeed.

Something else we’ve been seeing a lot of in these waters are seals. Most often single seals, but occasionally in groups of two or three, lying on their backs, lazily floating along on the surface of the sea with their flippers in the air. One in particular, lay on his back right up until the point when he (or she) was alongside the ship, then slowly dived straight downwards with a single flipper showing, as if waving goodbye to us. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen them for myself.