Tum mile love reprise It was

Tum mile love reprise

It was 6:05 am, this wasn t a fk! The following is going to be my honest and open account of what happened. It will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth because that is what I always write here and this particular blog thingy must be no different. And is what our President and CEO Gerry Cahill told me to write when I met with him today and more about that later. Just bear in mind that the times cited in this blog are all estimates as it has certainly been a long couple of days. So, there I am. It s 6:05 am and the bridge have just called for the fire squad and I knew what was about to happen next. And sure enough it did. I farted. Next the other thing that I knew would happen next did as well, my phone rang and a slightly breathless voice said John, come to the bridge immediately. So I jumped out of bed and decided that immediately probably wasn t a good idea because a I was in my underpants and b I had been in the middle of a dream about Megans bottom. if you know what I mean. Anyway, I threw on a T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants little knowing that I wouldnt be separated from these clothes for the next 24 hours. I had gotten dressed and started my journey to the bridge in the space of maybe 2 minutes after the call had come and all the while my heart began to pound this wasn t a was the real thing. Yet, on my way to the bridge the thoughts in my head were that it was a small fire and that within the next few minutes it would all be over. In fact I guess it s safe to say that even though I had just heard the Alpha Team call that as I approached the bridge I was as unprepared for what awaited as a Frenchman who has been asked to write an essay on the joys of taking a bath. I opened the door to the bridge to the sound of alarms screaming from the fire station control which were doing battle with the crackle of walkie talkies and the commands of Captain Cupisti. It s funny that throughout the last few days how certain things have stayed lodged in my memory as clear as crystal while some things have disappeared from my mind totally. One such memory is of Captain Cupisti s hair. Whenever I see him he looks like he has stepped off the front page of GQ Magazine but as I walked on the bridge his hair looked like he had slept in a crash helmet which he had just taken off. I stood there not wanting to interfere but making sure I put myself in the captain s eye line so that he knew I was there as and when needed. Let me try and explain what was happening. The captain had an internal ship s chart on the table marking off where each fire squad was stationed, where he wanted the cooling down teams and speaking slowly and with authority into the walkie talkie to the fire teams, the chief engineer and the staff captain. Meanwhile every deck officer was expertly doing what they had to do from checking the radar to assisting with the fire teams and organizing and putting on alert all the respective parties. What is so ironic of course is that just 24 hours earlier this same captain and officers and the same fire teams had done all of this in a simulation for our United States Coast Guard inspection which they passed with flying colours. Now remember all of what I have described so far has happened in a space of seconds but still I didnt realise how serious was this until something slapped me in the face as hard as the time I tried to grope Sally Pooles breasts behind the bike shed at school. At that wakeup call came when I heard our staff captain s voice come through the walkie talkie and say There is thick smoke, thick smoke. We can t see anything. That was when I said a silent Oh bugger and our adventures began. I now realised it was time for me to talk to the guests all of whom would have heard the Alpha Team call which was made through the emergency system. Can I just stop here and mention the following just once because I really don t want to sound like I am patting myself on the bottom and saying well done John. Because I am not. But I do want to mention a few things here about my role in all of this before the story continues. I have often written that in cases of unexpected occurrences on a cruise ship that it is the cruise director s job to inform the guests, truthfully at all times and to do so calmly and reassuringly and as often as possible. This is the CD s role and although it cannot be tum mile love reprise to the people who were currently in the engine room and on the bridge, it is none the less an important one and I can only hope that I managed to achieve the goals I have just described. So, let s get back to the story shall we and here is the first conversation between the captain and I as best as I can remember. CAPTAIN: JOHN, TELL THE GUESTS WE HAVE LOTS OF SMOKE IN THE ENGINE ROOM AND THAT WE ARE INVESTIGATING. JOHN: CAPTAIN, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO DO THIS THROUGH THE EMERGENCY SYSTEM And so I pressed the dreaded button number one on the PA system which apart from when we conduct the rehearsal safety briefing on embarkation day is a button that no cruise director ever likes to use because usually it means if you are that you are in the sht. Ladies and Gentlemen. My sincere apologies for waking you up but as you may have heard we have just used an Alpha Team call which is the alert for our fire teams to attend. At this moment the captain has informed me that there is lots of smoke in part of the aft engine room on deck A side note: I told the guests this in case they thought the engine room may be close to guests cabins which of course it isn t. Please would all guests remain in their cabins while we investigate tum mile love reprise regardless of if there is any more information I will return in 5 minutes with an update. Please don t worry and I promise I will keep you informed.