Ten years ago today, October 29, 2012, while Superstorm Sandy was wallopping the Jersey shore, I boarded a cruise ship and headed to Bermuda. It's probably the craziest thing I've ever done...
A cruise ship in a storm
Photo credit: accuweather.com
HURRICANE CRUISE
Our pleasure cruise
to Bermuda with Aunt Carol Harris, Cousin Marie Gioia,
and our friends Bob & Patti Ley, on board Royal
Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas, during
Super Storm Sandy, October, 2012.
As
Sandy travels northward along the east coast intent
on ripping up the Jersey Shore we
board the Explorer of the Seas in
Bayonne—
Surely,
we think Royal
Caribbean won’t set out to sea with
3000 passengers on board if it isn’t safe
If
they haven’t canceled surely
there’s a plan…surely
The
plan, we discover, is to sail through the
very heart of the storm— Thus
begins our pleasure cruise to
beautiful Bermuda
The
clerk at the Accommodations Desk says This ship is built to
withstand storms fifty times worse! as
we heave high, plunge low hour
after hour day,
night, day, night aware
of the locations of our life vests aware
of the locations of the lifeboats
I
peer over the balcony at
twenty-five-foot waves and imagine if
we have to man lifeboats we’ll
be swallowed up in an instant
Meanwhile,
the three-masted replica of
an 18th-century square-rigger featured
in Mutiny on the Bounty sinks
off the coast of North Carolina (right
where we are heading!) The
captain and a crew member perish and
fourteen crew members are rescued by
a daring Coast Guard helicopter crew as
Sandy’s ferocious winds blow and
their little life raft thrashes about in
the angry Atlantic
Meanwhile,
my Dramamine isn’t working and
I become ill and
passengers are becoming ill all
over the ship They
close public restrooms because
housekeepers don’t know where
to take their slop buckets next A
putrid stench permeates the corridors Here,
there, stacks of little white bags wait
for pending emergencies
The
old ship plunges and lunges and groans as
deckhands perform duties with calm normalcy and
water bottles fly off countertops glasses
smash onto the floor food
trays slide off tables and crash We
learn that there’s damage on deck and
plenty of broken glass
Some
shows are canceled but
most go on even
as the theater curtain quivers and
the stage rocks back and forth and
comedians make light of our plight Somehow
I can’t help thinking about
the musicians who just kept playing as
the unsinkable Titanic sank, 101 years ago
I
appear to be somewhat inebriated as
I grip the handrails and
stumble along swaying hallways stateroom
to dining to shows and back again as
the ship heaves and lunges ad
infinitum
Finally,
on day three, we drop anchor at
the harbor in Bermuda where
the island sun is shining island
music is playing and
pink sand welcomes us to
spread our blankets and just say…
Ahhhhhhh
Maude
Carolan Pych Visit my website at: www.maudecarolanpych.net |
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