This was the second full day at sea and again we had glorious weather. A gentle breeze was blowing from the southeast, a low swell was running from the northeast and there were just a few clouds to the North of us. As we were heading into the wind with 20 knots (that is a wind force 5) it was a bit breezy in the bow area but it was perfect at the stern. Everybody was settling down in a nice routine, enjoying the ship and its amenities, and I was hoping for a “boring” day so I could deal with the last of the hand over paperwork. However sailing a cruise ship is never boring, even when you hope for it. Murphy is always around and as we sail with people things will always happen un-expectedly.

So it was no different today and suddenly I had a medivac (shipboard medical evacuation) on my hands. In the course of the afternoon a crewmember had been submitted to the ships hospital and his situation was so serious that the doctor requested to have him disembarked as soon as possible. That is not so easy in the North Atlantic when you are far away from land. You cannot just request a helicopter to coming flying over. If you need a helicopter you will have to be inside its acti-radius and that normally means changing course. This is called “deviating” at sea and that might even mean sailing the opposite way, back to where you came from, until you come to a port or are within helicopter reach. Thus a decision to approve a medivac is sometimes difficult to make as it quite often has a big impact on the cruise schedule. However a captain will always agree with the doctor’s request and arrange a medivac unless it would endanger the ship itself or it occupants. If this danger is not present then the medivac will take place even if it means that one or more future ports of call have to be cancelled because of the delays caused by it. Human life takes precedent over all.

However in this case I was in luck as we were passing by Bermuda in the course of the evening. As explained yesterday I had chosen the Great Circle route to Punta Delgada to save time and fuel and that route was taking the ship just South of Bermuda. So I only had to change course a bit to the North and head for St Georges sea buoy. The local agent was called and he set all things in motion. The pilot boat was arranged to come out and take the patient off. Only thing I had to do was to get as quickly as possible to the sea buoy which was our rendezvous point. With the pedal-to-the-metal we arrived there at 10.30 hrs. in the evening. I had advised the guests early in the evening about what was going to happen as it would have been a bit strange to suddenly see a fully lit up island passing on the portside while you are convinced that you are in the middle of the ocean; miles way from civilization.

Also Bermuda had beautiful weather and by keeping the wind on the beam of the portside of the ship; the sea was as smooth as a mirror on the starboard side, making it perfectly calm for the pilot boat to come alongside and do the transfer of the stretcher. Everything, clearing the ship, the ships doctors discussion with the shore doctor and the transfer was done within 20 minutes and before 23.00 hrs, the Prinsendam was on the way again. I lost in total about 2 hours of steaming time, so 40 miles to make good due to the deviation but with more than 4 days of sailing still to come, I will be able to make that up. We have a bit of Gulf Stream current pushing us in the back and with the very smooth weather that we have, I will be able to compensate for the lost time/mileage very quickly and thus I expect to arrive on time in the Azores.

Now we are all keeping our fingers crossed that everything will go well with our crewmember. We should get an update tomorrow, when the hospital in Bermuda has had time to evaluate the patient.

Tomorrow is again a sea day with expected good weather and we have now started loosing an hour each day due to the time difference between the USA and Europe. We do those time changes at noon time, clocks going forward, and I will explain the why behind that tomorrow.

Note:
Also uploaded: our new employee of the month. Please see the entry in the right hand column (next to the daily blog) under My ship the Prinsendam