Memoirs of High Heels and Suitcases

VISITING A CRUISE SHIP

Living in Florida means many of our friends are retired. Retired doesn’t mean dead; and like my husband, many people decide to go back to work.

We had a friend who was a retired physician. A few times a year, he would take a job as ship’s doctor while the regular physician was on vacation. The cruise ship he worked on had an Italian crew. Our friend would always tell us how good the food was on board. While the ship was in port, getting ready to sail, he invited his wife and my husband, daughter and I to join him for a tour of the ship, which would also include lunch with the captain.

Dressed in our Sunday best, we arrived at the pier at the appointed time and were escorted aboard and directed to the infirmary. Our friend proceeded to show us all the facilities that were at hand. We were all quite impressed and lost track of the time. When we finally arrived in the dining room, we were told the captain had left to take care of an important matter. We sat down and savored the wonderful cuisine prepared for us. As we were enjoying our late lunch, I heard the ship’s horn blow.  Not to worry, our friend remarked, but I could see his wife was getting nervous, so we decided to head towards the gangway. When we arrived back at the boarding area, we saw the doors were closed.

”Don’t worry,” our friend said again, “you can get off at the loading entrance.”

Off we went, up and down stairs and halls to the cargo entrance, which was also closed. The doctor got on the phone to the captain, and the ensuing conversation could not be repeated. I was aware of the problem because I understood Italian, and the captain was speaking so loud over the phone I thought the whole ship could hear him. Much to our surprise, we were underway and had left the harbor. I presumed that the ship leaving port was the important matter that had taken the captain away from lunch early. I thought my friend’s wife was going to need his services as she kept wailing that we were stowaways and would probably have to be put off at the next port, and on and on......

Finally, we understood that we were to go back to port with the pilot boat. “How are we going to board the boat?” I asked.

“Well, they are going to open the cargo doors; then, the pilot boat will come alongside, you will go on board and be taken back to the port.”  He forgot to mention that, when the cargo doors did open, all we would be able to see were huge waves. At times, we even saw the pilot boat. The crew told us that, when the boat came alongside, we were to jump onto the side, hold ont