Our Greek Odyssey -- Afterword

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Before our Greek cruise, we had never read or heard about ‘Sea Diamond’s sinking in the Santorini caldera.

Every day we read the English newspaper, watch TV news and generally keep ourselves informed about happenings around the globe. So, I still do not know how we could have missed this news or maybe we just forgot it because it did not hold any significance for us that time.

So, when the guide pointed out the area marked by buoys in the Santorini caldera and told us that, that is where Sea Diamond sank, we still had no inkling what she was talking about.

However, when we came back, I surfed the Internet for information about Sea Diamond.

I found plenty - articles, Wiki, You-tube, you name it.

The Sea Diamond belonged to the same company that our own cruise-ship belonged to and was in the same class. I mean it was also a cruise-ship with about 1200 passengers aboard, and it had done the same cruise, of which the last port of call was Santorini.

The ship never reached the Santorini port. It ran aground on 5th April 2007 in the Santorini caldera and sank on 6th April.

We were at Santorini on 9th April 2009, exactly 2 years and 3 days from that fateful day.

Prior to 5th April 2007, if someone had predicted this calamity, I would have pooh-poohed it, saying “Oh, come on, we live in twenty-first century and things like that do not happen.”

(Probably, the reaction of Titanic passengers would have been the same if someone had predicted its sinking.)

Fortunately, the loss of life was minimal. Unlike Titanic, most of the passengers were rescued safely.
I am giving the link below for more information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Sea_Diamond

I feel particularly sorry for the family of the two passengers who lost their lives. Only these two should lose their lives, while 1193 passengers were evacuated safely? Makes you believe in ‘Fates’ and ‘Furies’ of the Greek Mythology, right?

Looks like the official nautical charts that were being used on board the ship were all wrong.

However, that is just one excuse among so many, for Death to snatch precious lives from our midst. Sometimes, it is faulty equipment, sometimes it is frail human judgment, sometimes it is something as innocuous as a bird-hit.

The conclusion is that all travel is fraught with uncertainty. I would not categorically say that it is dangerous but it is decidedly unpredictable.

I know, I know, it still does not give me any right to call our 4-day cruise an ‘odyssey’, but what the heck! It is my blog after all, and I would call it what I like, whether the title is justifiable or not.

What else have I to tell?

Yes, I had to break my promise to the sun-god Apollo.

He had kept his part of the bargain and given us plenty of sunshine for the last three days. I too wanted to keep my part of the bargain and buy a 4-inch statue of him.

But, I could not find a fully-clothed statue of him anywhere. I would have been happy even with a statue of Apollo with at least a fig-leaf covering, but no way!

All the statue of all the Greek God were totally naked, whereas the Goddesses wore clothes with lots of pleats.

How shameless those Greek Gods were!!

I knew exactly what would happen when Mitali, my 9-year-old granddaughter (or even neighborhood children, who are as inquisitive as her) visited me and saw the naked statue of Apollo in the showcase.
I would be grilled and will have to answer all sorts of awkward questions and perhaps explain about ‘birds and bees’ to them.

How embarrassing! I wanted no part of that.

So, I broke my promise to Apollo and bought the statue of the Goddess Athena instead.

She is a darling - fully-clothed, helmeted and with a spear and shield in her hands, -- a lady after my own heart -- and the children can ask me any question about her without offending my delicacy.

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