The cabin cruiser was returning to port. The pilot behind the wheel and our captain standing in front, a line in is hand, ready to moor the little craft. It was very obvious how excited he was about the catch. From more than a hundred feet away, he was already telling me about what a great morning they had and how much they had caught. The waiting passengers stretched their necks, as not to miss anything of what was being said. A few of them, obviously avid fishermen themselves, even joined in on the long distance conversation.
The captain at this time looked around, then turned around to the pilot and said; “Hey man slow down a bit, or we’re going to hit the dock.”
I saw the pilot stretching his neck from behind the wheel, his view obstructed by a collection of old lobster traps and other equipment on top of the cabin, and even more by the captain himself. He fumbled with the controls.
“I can’t see. You’re standing in my line of view. How far to go?”
“It’s okay. Just go a bit slower to get her stopped.”
Clearly the pilot misunderstood the captain’s words, and took the word “stop” a little too literally. He yanked the throttle back to full astern. The intermittent puffs coming from the antiquated exhaust pipe increased to a heavy boost of black smoke. Whatever my earlier thoughts were about the state of maintenance of the little boat and her engine, I must admit, her stopping power was certainly not affected at all. Who really was affected, was our captain. At the very front of the boat, he had just bent over to pick up a mooring line to throw to the dock, still more than 20 feet away. He uttered a startled cry, and with arms wildly flailing in the air, he lost his balance and disappeared into the black water of Sitka’s harbor, head first.
There was total silence. Nobody uttered a sound. Our passengers who had watched the approach, most of them with bored interest, were now holding their breath, eyes wide and mouths open in sheer amazement. The expression on their faces, however, changed in record time to one of sheer delight, when our captain surfaced like a breaching whale, screamed: “Get me out of here! It’s cold.”
Saving him bodily was done easy enough, but saving his pride was a different matter altogether. I think it drowned, right there in the dark depths of the harbor.
“You keep quiet about this.”
That was the first thing he said to me when he stood there dripping and shivering on the pier in front of me. I readily promised I would. He turned around and got into an empty tender and told the driver to get him back to the ship. Wisely, I didn’t suggest he share the boat with fifty or so waiting passengers, as based on his distorted facial expression, this likely would have been a serious career diverter. My real dilemma was how to keep this quiet. Impossible I thought! Two hundred passengers and a good number of crew had been spectator to this most unusual sight. I could imagine that just about everybody was dying to share witnessing this first class entertainment event.
The cruise industry is a small community; and this was evident once again the same day when all kinds of funny messages started arriving on our poor captain’s desk. Messages from other ships, offering him a supply of life rings or inquiring about the Sitka harbor water temperature. We hardly saw him in public during that cruise, and only the most pressing matters could lure him from his cabin. I felt sorry for him when I heard him sneezing, but couldn’t help myself from laughing and eventually sharing the story with others.
The Two Sisters
Going on a world cruise must be just about one of the most coveted ways of making a statement to the neighbors. Imagine the prospective travelers on tea gatherings throughout the world, or at the second hole of the golf course visiting the country club. Casually, they drop the idea that they might not be around during next winter.
“We are thinking about doing something else, perhaps taking a “world cruise.” Hate the weather here, you know.”
Remarks like this often are made to show off a little. The desired effect could be the opponent’s golf ball ending up in a sand trap or just to create envy. Casually making a remark about world cruising almost automatically puts the speaker in a different league. Normal mortals don’t take a world cruise, even though cruising has become a main stream vacation. The world cruise still stands out as special, and rightfully so. It’s the same for us as well. We all hope to be on the list of officers planned to be on board. I can still remember every single one I made. The privilege of being on board is usually preceded by some ferocious behind the screen scheming and trading of favors.
“I wasn’t planned last year, so it’s about time to put me on.”
We conveniently forget that the company has quite a few other ships, which need a crew as well. I will not tell you how many world cruises I’ve made, but I believe I have had my fair share of them, or not?
Every time again, it’s amazing to see the passengers come on board, usually in New York, as a cruise like this should start there; it’s tradition and nobody would want it otherwise. The far majority of them have done it before, traveling the world at leisure, and they know exactly what to expect. Often they even book the same cabin year after year. At first I could hardly believe the stories of people doing world cruises more than once, but now I find it almost normal when meeting somebody who tells me, she has done it every year for the last twenty or so. Amazing is also the amount of luggage that is carried on board. Twenty or thirty pieces does not seem to be excessive. Sometimes even a complete extra cabin is taken to be used for storage alone.
Watching people always has been one of my favorite diversions. Never do I complain when my wife feels the need to spend extended time walking around shopping malls or to fit new clothes in stores. I just sit down and wait, and in the mean time look around me with great curiosity.
Standing at the ship’s gangway, greeting guests boarding or returning from a visit to another exotic port, never has been a chore for me. It certainly was not, when embarking the passengers for my first world cruise, now about twenty-five years ago. I had been cruising for almost five years and felt on top of the world. The immediate advantage of this five years, being the fact that I already knew a fair number of the guests boarding.
Some of them would leave the ship three months later as friends, while a few … well, a very few I would rather never see again. The far majority of the world cruise passengers are advanced in years, as who else would have the money and above all, the time to take off for a hundred days or more.
There is nothing more diverse in background than the passengers on a world cruise. Some are generous, while others are as tight as can be. There are the old ladies, dumped on the ship by their grateful children, just to get rid of mom for a few months. There are the lottery winners, and there are those who have saved for a lifetime to make this voyage. Not all are rich, but most have fortunes of which most people only can dream about.
The arrival of some passengers is eagerly anticipated by the crew. To be honest, the reasons for this are usually selfish and go back to the basics, which is money. After all, when serving a select group of guests for three months in a row, it makes a huge difference for a steward if a particular person is generous or not. Not eagerly awaited in the least, were two sisters whom everybody already talked about before they even boarded. According to gossip they were fabulously wealthy, but unfortunately, at the same time had a big aversion to sharing even the tiniest amount of their fortune with others.
A crew as a whole can be very cruel in their verdict, and at the same time be very funny in their ways
