Fun with Hanna . . .

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Today was the day I was most excited about of my entire month down here. Today we’re in St. Thomas. And scheduled to be with us, is the Carnival Miracle. Onboard the Miracle are three very good friends of mine that I know from previous ships, two whom I haven’t seen for a year or more. We’ve had this marked on our calendars for weeks and we’d planned a big day.

But then along came Tropical Storm Hanna. This storm, which at times has had hurricane status, has really had its “fun” with the ships down here. First of all, our itinerary had to be changed to avoid the storm. We skipped Nassau two days ago and instead had an extra day at sea. This means that during this one week cruise, we are having FOUR sea days. That is a lot of days at sea. A lot of long days to entertain and care for the guests. And a lot of disappointed guests because they’re missing a port of call.

Saturday night, after we left Port Canaveral and started heading south, was ROUGH. I have had some rough days and nights at sea. I’ve been through some storms. I’ve been on a ship when there was a nearby earthquake. I’ve even slept in a cabin right above the mooring station and anchor where every port morning I’d be woken up to either construction work or what felt like an earthquake as the anchor was lowered. I’ve never felt anything like that night. It was rough. We were really being tossed around. You could feel it everywhere on the ship. But my cabin was an adventure on its own. My cabin on the Glory is on deck one, just above sea level, and at the very front of the ship, so right where we cut through the water. All evening and all night, until the sun rose on Sunday, you could feel the water slapping the sides of the ship. But slapping is an understatement. It would feel like a sudden jolt, followed by a massive shudder and at the same time, it was like I was being tossed a few feet in the air. Throughout the night, I was woken out of dead sleep by the shaking of the ship. And let me say, that when you’re woken out of sleep and you’re in pitch blackness and that’s all you feel . . . many times I was certain we were done.

Of course we weren’t. The captain is great. The ship is huge and safe. But it was a crazy ride that night.

And Hanna wasn’t done with me yet.

Not only was our itinerary changed this week, the Miracle’s was too. And so today, I find myself in St. Thomas but the Miracle and my friends are not. Big disappointment.

I thought I’d at least take advantage of being able to explore parts of the island I hadn’t been to before, like one of the more famous beaches. I woke up, ready to tackle the day, to find out that it was pouring rain. Even way far south of Hanna, we were being rained on.

And so I’m spending the day indoors, on the internet and treating myself to lunch. Not the big exciting day in St. Thomas that we’d planned. But there’s always tomorrow. I’m going back to St. Maarten and I’ve got a teen tour. Good times ahead.

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