Today’s activities didn’t go as planned - but there was anticipation about the ship just the same. We went to eat our breakfast by the Lido pool as usual this morning and found a plethora of towel animals surrounding the pool! Evidently the stewards had been busy late last night!
Animal towels by the pool!
J and I really wanted to hear Holland America’s origin story (all 150 years of it!) on the Mainstage at 11 am. In order to be sure we got a seat, we went and listened to Dr. Karen Woodman’s presentation on language. She referred to the French Immersion experience in Canada so it was at least somewhat interesting as our two boys paritipcated in the French Immersion program for 7 years each.
Ian Page was acting as narrator for the Holland America story and he stopped it after technical difficulties arose syncing the video clips and getting the audio to work. Ultimately, they determined it was not an immediate fix, so the same program will be offered tomorrow morning at 11 am.
It was at noon when the Captain made his regular announcement, that he announced they would be making a medical evacuation off this ship this afternoon. Keep in mind we are 450 nautical miles from San Diego - so this was going to be serious business. Serious enough for the patient to need to be taken off the ship before our arrival in San Diego in less than two days time. The Captain advised us that two helicopters and a refuelling plane would flying 5 hours from San Diego to carry out the medical evacuation and that a crew member was involved.
As we left our stateroom for lunch we ran into our two room stewards, Agust and Made (maw day) and asked them about the situation. We were told that generally when people are air lifted off it is due to a burst appendix. We ran into R & E at lunch (who had organized our Castaway Island excursion) so we sat with them to eat. I ran back to the room to get my laptop so that we could share our 12 minute slideshow of our pictures of this trip. We showed our pictures and air dropped a couple of them to R’s phone - the first he had ever received!
We continued to sit and talk about the medical evacuation, knowing that the helicopter was going to evacuate the patient from the Sea View pool situated at the back of deck nine, the Lido deck. The helicopter will not land, but it will hover above the ship and drop down a rescue person (or two) and a cage to load the passenger onto the stretcher, then lift the stretcher up into the helicopter. We walked back to the Sea View pool area and found all the tables, chairs and loungers tied up so they wouldn’t blow around with the powerful forces of the chopper blades. This was around 2:10 pm and the captain was back there talking to different officers and guests. I knew for sure then that the Ask the Captain anything session was cancelled for 2 pm on the Mainstage. He had far more important matters to attend to!
We got shuffled away from the back Sea View pool at that point. R & E decided to come to our room as we had a verandah on the right side of the shipping - facing east where we expected the helicopters and plane to appear. And that point one fixed wing aircraft was circling the ship at that point. We then saw another fixed wing plane arrive, then the two helicopters. They all circled the ship a few times - the Captain had told us he would drop our speed to 8 - 10 knots and keep moving during the evacuation. We then saw one helicopter circling on our side (starboard) and figured out it was an Air Force helicopter. It kept looping in a circle just on the starboard side for maybe 30 minutes. We then went to their stateroom on the port side and found the other helicopter making loops on that side of the ship. Without being able to see the back of the ship anyhow, we didn’t really see the action of retrieving the patient. R & E decided to try to go up to the Lido deck to look through the windows, but crew were stationed at the doors on the ninth floor and wouldn’t let them get off the elevator. So we returned to our staterooms - and eventually saw two helicopters head north and east to begin the five hour helicopter flight back to San Diego. After that, the Captain made an announcement that the patient had been successfully evacuated with no issues onboard. So now we hope the patient is successfully treated at a San Diego hospital.
Helicopter involved with medical evacuation.
Photo shared by ship the day after this evacuation!
We had our penultimate supper with our usual waiters (Juma and Wibi) and our friends R & C seated next to us. We then headed to the Zuiderdam Singers and Dancers show: All for Love. I find their shows to be really lively and entertaining. J headed back to the room to pack his bag. I stayed at the Billboard Onboard to enjoy the collaborative piano players for a set, then returned to the room to finish my blog! Tomorrow will be our last day at sea.
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