3 / 4 ~ 5 /09 Fun and Sad Days at Sea

On 3/4/09 Ruth & I did our usual kicking around & found a warm place to sit without a draft for working on cross stitch where we could still see the ocean rolling by.

Everything went as usual & we = ½ ways to Arica, Chile our next port . . .

At dinner the 6 people who sat with us the night before left & we were absolutely blessed with 5 wonderful Chinese friends all from San Francisco.

From the left over ~ Ed is the oldest at 73 ~ a wannabe cowboy ~ hat, jeans belt & all ~ who immediately ordered a bottle of wine to share with everyone at the table & wanted to know which one of us single girls was going to ballroom dance with him this cruise ~ Ken is one & only single man at our table, then came Bonnie (Dennis’ wife), Betsy (Ken’s wife), Ken, a retired Engineer who brought his sheet music & was looking for a place to practice the piano & Dennis, a retired Dentist who chattered right along with the rest of us all thru dinner.

We all had the best time at our table that night ~ talking & laughing ~ never dreaming what was going to transpire the next day.

3/5/09
Ruth & I got up and headed out of our cabin a little before 9am – swung by arts & crafts & found out they were making visors again, so we left and went to the Splendido Dining Room for breakfast.

Once we got seated ~ the purser’s desk started calling for Ed Chan to please call 777 ~ .then they changed to Dennis Low & continued calling for him over & over with more & more urgency.

The ship’s staff began to combing the ship – looking everywhere in every nook & cranny.

Both Ruth & I looked at each other & knew immediately that they were looking for our tablemate Dennis from last night. And this was confirmed by a security officer who showed both of us his passport / picture.

After about the 10th call from the purser ~ Goose our Cruise Director came on the microphone and notified everyone that we had a man overboard & that we would be turning around & heading back to do search & rescue to the destination in the ocean that he was last seen ~ which was somewhere between 430 & 5 am this morning.

Around 3pm we arrived where he had last been seen & the Chilean Authorities directed our search & rescue in a grid pattern. We ~ North & South & them ~ East & West.

Goose made announcements every so often during the day keeping all the passengers informed. Everyone was somber.

Approximately 6pm Goose came on & announced that our man over board had not yet been found & that the Chilean Authority had released us to go on to Arica, Chile & they would continue the search.

At the Captain’s Cocktail Dinner tonight our dinner table was so empty tonight ~ Just Joan, Freda, Ruth & I.