En Route to Sydney, Australia

At each Australian port, passengers have disembarked and new passengers have boarded. Since we have been on the ship for several weeks, all passengers who boarded in Hamburg, Southampton, and Cape Town, had to attend a lifeboat drill again—just in case we had forgotten what we were to do in an emergency. Attending the session made me think again about safety onboard and on shore.

Onboard Safety

Before we sailed, we attended a lifeboat drill where the crew explained the procedures for where to go in an emergency and how to put on our life vests. It makes you aware that we are at sea and things can happen. Being a Capricorn, I wanted to be doubly prepared.

With this in mind, while walking around decks, particularly on the promenade deck, I took note of the lifebuoys on the railings. The deck provides a place to get some exercise, sort of like walking laps around a school sports field. Three times around the deck is almost a mile. Once you’ve gone around a few times, it gets a little boring, and I found myself studying the safety features of the ship. I discovered there is no rhyme or reason for how many lifebuoys are on the deck or where they are positioned. On the port side (left facing the bow or front of the ship) there are six lifebuoys but only five on the starboard (or right) side.

Promenade Deck

They can be anywhere from 40 to 100 paces apart. Some have lights attached, some don’t. So if you happen to fall overboard, hope that it is on the starboard side closest to a lifebuoy, and if it is at night, close to one with a light. And, more importantly, hope that there is someone around to throw you a lifebuoy.

It was a comfort to notice that there are a number of lockers on the promenade deck filled with life vests. So if an announcement is made to report to an assigned lifeboat station and we don’t have time to get back to our cabin to get our life vests, vests will be available there.

Recently, I read that if you hear that someone has fallen overboard (and someone has reported the emergency) to immediately start counting from that point so that when the ship turns around, you can give the crew some idea of how far back it was. I read this in a murder mystery of all places. You never know where you are going to read a bit of useful information. Fortunately, we have never been on a ship where someone has gone overboard, but we have friends who have been on a ship that had to turn back to search for a passenger. Fortunately, the passenger was found okay.

On the deck, I also stopped to read the instructions mounted near the railing on how to launch a life raft. The life rafts are stored in large canisters along the deck, and unlike on the Titanic, there are lots of them. The notice board contained written instructions and illustrations. I could figure out many of the instructions but was stumped at the last one that said to cut the Painter Line and showed an illustration of a knife. John said that the Painter Line is a short line or rope. I could follow that, but the question arose, at least in my mind, about the knife. Is one provided on the lifeboat? Would a crewmember have one in an emergency? As a passenger, you can’t bring one onboard. If a crew member isn’t around to help, and you don’t have a knife to cut the line, would that mean the life raft would be pulled under by the line still connected to a sinking ship? To be prepared, you need to know these things.

Launch Instructions

For exercise, for exercise, for exercise. Man overboard (or Fire in the Laundry, or Emergency in Cabin XXXX). For exercise, for exercise, for exercise.

Periodically, announcements like that come across the loudspeaker from the bridge. Exercises are held that involve just a few crewmembers or a majority of the crew. During some of these exercises, all but essential personnel gather at their respective “survival” stations. On one occasion, we sat on the deck and watched as members of the crew from the engine room, laundry, kitchens, medical staff, etc., ones we would ordinarily not see, gather with their life vests. I hoped we would see them launch one of the life rafts on the deck as part of the exercise so we could see how it was done. But no such luck. On this occasion, the exercise demonstrated that the crew knew where to go if there had been an emergency, but the exercise didn’t go beyond that—at least that we could see. It would have made me feel more comfortable if they had demonstrated that more than just a few crewmembers knew how to launch the life rafts. I’m sure that’s the case, but still….

Fortunately, a large tender sits directly beneath our cabin balcony. In an emergency, we could jump onto the tender and pull back the canvas covering on the roof to get inside. It’s good to consider these things in advance of when you might need them.

One of the most interesting documentaries or docudramas I’ve seen was about a cruise ship that began to sink, I think in the South Atlantic, and the captain and crew deserted the ship. The entertainers radioed for assistance, kept the passengers calm, and eventually helped every single passenger onto helicopters and ships that came to their aid. That ship sank. If it hadn’t been for the entertainers, they would have all perished. A search on YouTube for “entertainers save sinking ship” or something like that will bring up videos about it.  It was quite the story and remarkable that people with little knowledge about the ship saved the day. So you can never be too prepared.

Safety Ashore

Before arriving in each port, Cunard includes in the daily program things to keep in mind about safety when going ashore—common sense things such as not wearing flashy jewelry, carrying bags that could easily be gotten into, etc.

As a precaution, we make it a practice to carry a photographic copy of the information page from our passports. Since the Purser’s Office keeps our passports so they can automatically get visas for us at some ports, we don’t have our passports to take with us when going ashore. We don’t need to show them to anyone, but having a copy would come in handy if something were to happen while we were ashore, or if we got left behind, etc. Having a copy would make it a lot easier to replace a passport if we had to.

Also, we take along the Cunard port contact information that is printed in the Daily Program for each port we visit. That way we would have someone to contact if we had an emergency on shore, or if we got left behind. Once, in Montevideo, we saw two passengers on the pier running toward the ship after it started pulling away. They got left there and had to fly to the next port to meet the ship. You can never be too prepared.

Dolphin Spotting

Today while having lunch, we looked out and saw dozens of dolphins swimming along side the ship. The water was clear enough that we could see the dolphins a few feet under the surface and as they jumped out of the water. Some were in pairs, and we realized that they were mother and baby dolphins. That was a lucky sighting and such a pleasure.

View from Rear of Ship