7:25 AM. What a bummer for Sheila, and others. Captain Wells just announced that the swells were such that more than a meter separated the tender boat from the pontoon landing platform, thus no tender access, thus Antigua has been cancelled as a port call. QM2 upped anchor and left the harbor’s entrance to “spend a leisurely day on the Caribbean Sea.”
I am awed by the facility with which this ship’s staff coped with the change in schedule. Three public announcements over the space of about 30 minutes listing newly created activities for a presumably very frustrated assembly of passengers were accompanied by new daily schedules printed and distributed within the same time frame.
Before Captain Wells’ announcement, Susan and Richard had called me over to join them at breakfast in The Court. We shared good tour memories for quite a few minutes until they left to get ready to disembark. I know they, too will be disappointed by the cancelled Antiguan experience as they had scheduled a “meet the locals” tour and were very excited about it.
I had a great morning, finding an open laundry and putting it to good use. I am good to go until I get home, barring any accidents, of course.
Heard Dr. Hal Tinberg’s lecture on the “The Lost Titanic Child.” I relish this kind of presentation as I learned so much I never knew. The ship had 2000 hull plates requiring 3 million rivets. The shipyard did not have enough steel rivets for the job so the steel ones were put in the center of the ship as the most stressed part of the vessel and the iron ones were used in the bow and stern. Also, the riveting machines were used with the steel rivets and the hand-riveters (many untrained) deployed the iron ones. No one anticipated the vessel being holed in the bow. The gash made by the iceberg was not very big, ending where the steel rivets began. And, the famed water-tight compartments did not extend to the ceilings of each compartment, so the gush of water from the gash went over the top of several, thus exceeding the limit of flooded compartments the ship could sustain and remain afloat. The reason there were only life boats for less than a third of the people aboard was that then current maritime law reflecting a maximum ship tonnage of 10,000 required only 20 lifeboats; the doomed ship weighed in at 47,000 tons so was designed with 64 davits which were cut to 20 as that was all law required!!! Additionally, the key to the box in the crow’s nest containing the binoculars never made it aboard the ship as the officer in whose pocket it lay was re-assigned to another ship just hours before Titanic set sail. Halifax became the resting place of the ship’s dead because maritime law did not allow any bodies of people dead at sea to be brought on land until each had been embalmed...and Halifax was the closest city with the necessary quantities of embalming fluid.
Cristian, my lovely bartender in Carinthia recognized me when I walked in and raised a hand asking if I wanted my regular diet drink. I feel llike a member of the QM2 family!!
Knitting was irksome as I could not figure out why these bumps kept appearing in the edges of the diamond scarf. I got help from Sandy and we conquered the problem. Sheila came by while we were working on it. She even asked me if she could have it!!!!!! We went to dinner in The court, then separated after having a latte, agreeing to meet at 10 in the morning at the gangway to go into St. Kitts.
I am spending this evening quietly listening to an audio book while kntting and transcribing Mom’s journals.
Durn!! The ship’s wi-fi is not cooperating; I’m procrastinating posting til later.
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