Rescue at Sea

---

Easter Saturday
Well while we were at breakfast this morning, there was an emergency call, and several of the staff started running….the call was in code, so we didn’t know what it meant…..one of the waiters then told us the code meant a medical emergency. Another of the waiters told us a helicopter would be coming to airlift a person off the ship. The ship had to change course to try to link up with a Coast Guard ship, which had the helicopter on board, so the Captain had to make an announcement as to why the ship was turning. A lot of us gathered in the Horizon lounge with our cameras, and one woman was saying “oh it will be the US Coastguard doing the rescue”….I don’t really know why the US Coastguard would be way out in the middle of the Arabian Sea but thought , well maybe she knows something we don’t!.......the helicopter arrived, it had Indian writing and flags all over it……it circled the ship a few times…..then came very low over the deck we had been told they would be winching the patient from……( the deck where the forward Jacuzzi is) started to lower the winch……raised it again…….then flew off over the horizon! About 15 minutes later the Captain announced he had just heard from the Coast Guard boat, and the helicopter wasn’t going to be able to rescue the man….they took an awful long time advising the Captain of that! First choice was to sail back to Mumbai, which we had left 14 hours ago, but then the Captain announced we would be going to Porbandar and would arrive about 6pm., suppose that’s about 5 hours quicker than going back to Mumbai, but think I would prefer a hospital there than a place I have never heard of. Porbandar is on the North West Coast of India and isn’t too far from the Pakistan border, if anyone tries to find it on a map.
I suppose now we will have 3 sea days, and I would imagine we will miss Muscat, Oman, which will be a shame, but not to be helped. The ship at the moment is flying along, hopefully we might get back to India even quicker.


After writing all that…….an Indian Coast Guard boat just arrived, and they transferred the patient……so we don’t have to go all the way back to India after all. The poor man has a 3 hour trip in the Coast Guard boat now. His wife and all their luggage was transferred too. The Captain has just made an announcement, that the man is stable, and is going to a Private Hospital that is supposed to be very good….I certainly wouldn’t like to be in that position. I just wonder how on earth the poor wife is going to manage. We have saved at least 6 hours by not having to go back to the Indian port, so the Captain also announced that we should get to Muscat, Oman on time….the ship is still flying, so he is trying to make up time.

Continuing on from that story, last night we had dinner with a couple of doctors, and they assured us that India has very good Private Hospitals. Lets hope!

---