By the time I received my wake up call, the mountains of Haiti were clearly visible on our portside. The ship had just sailed by Cape Tiburon, that is more or less the most South western point of Haiti, at least the one with the most recognizable name. The weather forecast was not indicating any surprises apart from a large wave field in the late afternoon and early evening. That wave field was slowly moving to the West and by the time that we went through it, we skirted the edge and not the centre area and that caused a bit of movement but nothing to be concerned about.
My morning was occupied with the Remembrance/Veterans day meeting in the Showroom at Sea. Last year we had done it for the first time according to this formula and it had worked very well. Now I had the chance to fine tune and elaborate on it. Our security Officer is Royal Navy (British) Retired volunteered to read the Epitaph at the end and that gave an extra addition to the proceedings. New was also that our ships printer, who is a very creative man and produced a very nice program of events which was handed out to all guests joining in. Of those I counted about 700 by the time we started.
Cadet Lars Kastelein (ex Royal Navy (Neth.)) about to give eleven rings on the ships bell.
Before we started, our major challenge was to keep the ships bell from swinging. Nothing makes an audience feeling queasy more quickly than something with a pendulum motion in front of the eyes, while you feel the ship gently moving under you. Without that visual distraction your body might be able to cope with the moving ship but that extra movement in view, can be just too much.
So with bo’sun and stage crew we rigged supporting lines on each side and ensured that throughout the whole proceedings the bell remained motion less. When you do something on a ship, you run into challenges you never have ashore.
Another bone of contention can be the flags that we display. There are two options, either you know exactly which veterans will be attending from which country, and display all the flags, or display none and just use the company flag. Even when having all the flags, you can run into issues about which flag should be displayed more prominent than the other (not all fit on the stage) and that can give friction as well. So I use the company flag, as we are all in the same boat.
2 minute silence, after which the Epitaph was read by Security Officer Tim Lancaster (RN (Britain) Rtd)).
They shall not grow old, as we that are left to grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them
With all these things under control, we conducted our Memorial service in the show lounge. I do not know if all ships are doing it but find it extremely important to do this and with me at least half the ship. It only takes half an hour out of everybody’s day to remember those who gave so much that we can live, the way we want, and thus I make it point to centre the day around it. We almost got the bell ringing right on the 11th minute as well; I think my watch was just touching 11.12 when the cadet started the 11 rings on the bell. That was a bit touch and go, as we never know long the prayer of the invited Reverend will last, but it worked out well this time.
By 11.30 it was all out of the way and the ship could revert to being to being a cruise ship. Still it was the highlight of the day and that was the plan from the beginning.
For the remainder of the day we sailed on this one steady course towards Aruba. The schedule calls for arriving at 08.45 at the pilot station and to be docked with having the gangway out by 09.30. The weather calls for a gentle breeze from the East and a mostly cloudy sky, so that should be good for a first call. Not too warm and to too humid.
Leave a Reply