It didn't seem like a lot of people paid attention to the schedule because as they would trickle in to where we sat waiting in the 3rd deck lounge to use the internet, they would be shocked at the mention of the scheduled tour and rush to get their spouses to join us. Third time ended up being the charm as we were finally invited by Captain Gillilan to come on in to the Pilot House for a tour. It started out being a small group so it was like a personal tour. I've seen the bridge on the biggest ocean cruise ships and smaller ocean cruise ships and while the bigger the ship even there had the biggest bridge, I was amazed at how small this pilot house/bridge was.
This Captain had no issue letting us hang out on the bridge wing where the officers step out to view the side of the ship while docking.
Top left: Looking down the side of the ship from the bridge wing. Top right: The secondary set of steering controls the Captain can use while watching the side of the ship. Bottom left: The walkway in front of the bridge. Bottom right: Dinner bell?
You could have a crew of 5 or 6 officers on the big bridge at one time, here if there was more than two you'd be sitting on top of each other. Captain Gillilan explained that when the ship is in motion, it's him and his first mate in the pilot house. He happily showed us how each of the mechanical tools worked and what all the various screens showed. He was a lot more trusting than I would have been with all the cruisers that wandered in and started randomly touching all the various mechanisms on the dashboard. I pictured a Steve Urkel moment where they pushed an important button while asking what it did. "Oh major alarms are going off and the Coast Guard just arrived? Did I do that?"
Just below the alarm system pictured here (above) was a big box of flashlights. Everyone questioned the Captain about if it was a sign of power outage issues (we'd heard our share of weird noises) and he laughed insisting it was simply that all of the flashlights accompanying the lifejackets were due to be checked and batteries replaced.
I think I need one of those giant arrows that says "You are Here" on this map:
I thought I'd grabbed a better picture of it while I was backed up against the wall during a rush of visitors (directly underneath this display is a sink for handwashing) but that small sheet of paper taped to the wall in the bottom right was a list of emergency phone numbers for the local area. Slight problem was that the numbers were all for Maine where the ship was during their last repetitive runs. Books all about New England area in the lounges and cabins, okay that's understandable but shouldn't the pilot house/bridge have a current and updated list of emergency contact numbers for at least this new Charleston to Jacksonville route they were starting?
We learned that Captain Gillilan's former job was piloting a cargo ship that ran between the US and South Africa. In a small world after all moment, we learned that his former employer was the company owned by Tom and Monica, the couple from Norway whom we'd enjoyed getting to know on this trip as well. Shoutout to Tom and Monica, hope your post cruise travel plans went well!
The door was left open while we toured so after a while we had a constant stream of passengers wandering in and asking the same questions over and over. It was during this visit that we became the first to learn the news that due to storms in the area and the necessity to tender in due to the lack of a standard dock, our expected call to Fernandina Beach, FL would be cancelled. Instead of leaving at 3AM the next morning from Brunswick, we would be leaving tonight at 10PM and have to go back out in open water in order to go straight to Jacksonville a day early. The plan was that once in Jacksonville, we would be safely docked and bus people back over to Fernandina for tours. The ship wide announcement was made while we were at dinner.
What I didn't realize until after the fact was that throughout the day I had started getting really dehydrated either from medication or the motion or what was later diagnosed as a bacterial infection of some sort or a combination of all three so by the time we were getting ready for dinner, my occasional vertigo was coming on with a vengeance.
We had previously requested a special order of pizza for dinner tonight after seeing another cruiser having it and I really didn't want to miss dinner. When we pre-ordered, our waiter Kevin gave us an option of single pizzas or one to split so we chose the one to split. Dad assured me that I could leave early if I felt too bad so we headed on down. It wasn't the most pleasant walk to the back of the dining salon but I felt better to be sitting and drinking water.
When our pizza came, I decided to try and eat a little but as soon as I took that first bite, I instantly felt sick to my stomach and had Dad escort me back upstairs to the cabin. All I remember from the walk upstairs is feeling like I was trying to part the Red Sea because at that moment, the masses chose to come down from the cocktail hour using the stairs. All I bothered to look at was people's knees as I pushed my way up the stairs as fast as my arthritic body would let me. I laid out on my bed sipping water and felt like I was having a panic attack with my heart pounding so bad. I was afraid to change into my nightshirt because I was convinced that I'd have to call for medical help. Once I was settled in the cabin, Dad went back downstairs to eat his dinner. After about an hour of laying there, I felt much calmer, clearheaded, and my heartbeat felt normal again. When Dad returned to check on me, he brought up more drinks and some crackers. For the rest of the evening, my stomach felt fine and I wished Dad had thought to bring up the rest of my pizza so I could try again. For the record, he very much enjoyed his half of the pizza.
No comments:
Post a Comment