October 17, 2012 Christmas Island, Kiribati

Expect the unexpected

We arrived just off Christmas Island and watched a motorized outrigger bring several people out to the ship. Not what I was expecting to transport a critically ill person to shore! I was wrong though – two crew members with their luggage transferred to the outrigger and left for the shore – and we all waited to see what would happen next.

After an hour and a half I gave up and headed up to breakfast. We soon learnt that the plane for the medical evacuation from Papeete never turned up and other arrangements had to be made. Just after lunch we were informed that a plane would now come from Hawaii to take the passenger there instead but as medical facilities on Christmas Island were pretty basic, it was decided to keep the patient on the Westerdam until the plane arrived, which wasn’t until this evening.

So, we have spent the whole day sitting off Christmas Island. They did look into seeing if they could get passengers ashore during the day and while it would be possible by tender, there is nowhere for the tenders to dock.

With this unexpected delay, our itinerary has now had to be amended. We will no longer be visiting Raratonga where I had booked a private snorkelling excursion and we have yet to see how it will affect our visit to the French Polynesian ports – the dates could shift a day or two.

Most passengers have been understanding of the circumstances of this delay but there are a few who are vocal about their displeasure. As Jason has said though, preservation of life takes precedence over everything else.

On a lighter note, my trivia team tied for first today, and even better, beat our arch rivals! We are slowly moving up the ratings! We had done badly at the beginning of the competition because the questions were very American-centric but they are more general now and the playing field has levelled out.