Contributed by: filbert Sunday, September 21 2008 @ 08:17 PM CST
Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert
Part Three
September 20 (Saturday, Day 5, At sea) –
Snookums’ cold is in full force but she did manage to attend the 10 AM cruisecritic.com get-together. cruisecritic.com[*1] is a website and it has a place for people that are going to be on the same cruise to trade information. Anyway, a get-together for the ~60 people was arranged so we went. Filbert purchased a polo shirt since Snookums felt sorry for the guy that organized the shirt purchase since he had several extras to sell.
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| At the CruiseCritic.com Meet-&-Greet |
At noon an announcement was made saying that we had a medical emergency and we would be turning back towards Canada for a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter rescue from Comox Air Base. We heard that a woman had a stroke and lost feeling on one side. We had a bird’s eye view of the rescue from our balcony. The helicopter was the biggest one weíve seen for a medical evacuation (this is our 4th!) and there was a DeHaviland Buffalo airplane flying around, too. The helicopter only took the sick passenger which meant that her traveling companion/luggage has to wait until the first stop (September 29) to get off. If she is traveling with someone it will be a LONG wait for that person.
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| Smooth waters and good weather for the rescue |
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| A Canadian Buffalo rescue plane circled the ship |
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| Watching the evac from the Crow’s Nest |
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| The helicopter hovered close to the ship while the Buffalo circled |
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| REALLY close to the ship |
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| An EVEN CLOSER close flyby while the stricken passenger was readied for the evac |
After that excitement Filbert went to the gym to work out while Janet slept off her cold. We then got ready for the Captain’s party for all suite guests. It was interesting that the invitation had a footnote that said something about not shaking hands in order to not spread germs but when we attended the party, all of the officers were shaking hands. Old habits are hard to break.
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| The gym on the Amsterdam |
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| Smooth waters–so far |