Merry Christmas

I did manage to hold my classes, despite the constant movement. We held onto brushes and paints as best we could, with only one incident of someone landing on the floor (fortunately, with no injuries other than to pride). The lounge just outside the room, where Tracey was sat while I did my class, didn’t fare too well, either; at one point, Tracey landed on the floor (and is now nursing a nasty carpet burn but is otherwise unharmed. On another occasion, all the furniture, plus occupants, in the Columbus lounge slid the length of the room and landed in a large pile outside the craft room.  To make matters worse the large wooden globe mounted in the centre of the lounge also came adrift and slid across the floor, to the amazement of onookers, finally toppling onto one poor lady who’d been tipped out of her chair.  Fortunately, there were no major injuries, but it left everyone feeling a bit shocked.  The ship’s crew were quite horrified, and immediately cleared the space of all furniture, preventing anyone else going for a slide!

There was a serious incident at dinner, with one lady being carried off in a stretcher after being hurled across the length of the Bistro and landing unceremoniously amidst a small pile of chairs and tables; a huge hats off to the staff, though, who were very quickly by her side and co-ordinating appropriate aid. It’s been a tough time for all, but everyone has stood up to the plate and acted efficiently and compassionately.

The knock-on effect of the rough seas, which are probably not the worst I’ve ever encountered, but are certainly the most sustained, and prolonged, is that we’ve had some changes to our itinerary. We won’t now be stopping off at Gibraltar (which was to be our first port-of-call), and we’ve lost Lanzarote. The decision was made to drop Gibraltar and head for somewhere a bit closer, so that passengers can enjoy their Christmas dinner in relative peace and tranquility. This morning, then, we’ve arrived at an unexpected port-of-call; La Caruna, in Spain, where we’ll stay until midday tomorrow.

All entertainments were cancelled last night, for the safety of passengers and crew, and the only bar open was in the Captain’s Club. It was highly recommended that passengers stay in their cabins, but many braved it out, determined to enjoy a Christmas Eve tipple amongst the companionship of fellow passengers… weather aside, it was a very pleasant evening..

My one enduring memory of the last 24 hours will be something that I witnessed last night, on my way up to the Captain’s Club. I was making my way along a corridor, just around the corner from our cabin, heading towards a T-junction of sorts. Imagine one of those fairground ‘Crazy House’ rides, where you have to walk along a corridor that’s tipping from side to side, and you get the picture….

Suddenly, a particularly violent roll of the ship was followed by the sight of a stewards trolley flying past the end of the T-junction ahead (these are quite large, heavy trolleys, that carry all the stewards cleaning stuff, water bottles, glasses, loo rolls, towels… you name it). What makes the moment memorable is the sight of three stewards chasing after it moments later, followed by an almighty crash as the trolley met a wall. The commotion was followed by folks gingerly opening their cabin doors to see what all the noise was about, anxious faces fearing the worse, and being confronted by stewards trying to retreive their stuff as quickly and quietly as possible.

The change in itinerary means we have a stable day (hurrah!) in a Spanish port, and I don’t have to work on Christmas Day (my lessons will resume tomorrow afternoon)…right on!

I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone reading this a very enjoyable, and peaceful Christmas.