Still at Antigua
A beautiful sunny morning, and a lovely view of Antigua from my cabin. We should of course have moved to a different island by now, but I could hardly do that with so many passengers stuck on shore. The sea this morning has settled a little, but the harbormaster is still forbidding the use of the tenders. That’s unfortunate for all of us, but not least my poor passengers ashore. It seems that the emergency accommodation we arranged for them wasn’t entirely as promised. We were told that the toilets were functional, but the truth was that very few were, and that meant long queues at times. Also the food provided was not the quality we had been promised, basically just spiced rice with fried bananas. Worst of all in this situation is that the shipping company has already paid for the accommodation, in cash, and there’s no chance of any sort of refund.
The passengers on the ship seemed less irritable this morning, now that they’ve heard what’s happened onshore to the others. We’ve boosted this positive attitude, by offering them a complimentary breakfast cocktail, “Rum Fizz”, which is our own Chief Steward’s recipe, with orange juice, lemonade and of course a good portion of our rum. And it’s been a great success!
By the afternoon, the sea had become calmer, and our tenders were finally able to bring the stranded passengers back to shore.
One bit of good news is that we also welcomed on board a world-class singer and entertainer. He was due to board another ship, but due to the rough seas, that ship had not stopped at Antigua, and he was stuck for a while. I agreed to give him passage to Guadeloupe, provided he joined our entertainments staff in the next evening’s show in the theater. He agreed, and we immediately put up posters around the ship about his coming appearance. He’s quite famous, and that brought a real buzz of excitement to the passengers.
Finally, in the early evening, we were able to weigh anchor and head to our next destination, St Kitts. I went to bed more relaxed than yesterday, with the crisis over, although there’s still that puzzling business of the reports from the medical center. Ten more passengers have come there with the same ailments, of stomach ache, with headaches, and a temperature.
