Monday - March 28, 2005

Dubai: Drama on the High Seas

We were scheduled to dock in Dubai at 8:00 am on March 25. However, the weather gods, who have not favored us on a good part of this voyage, struck again. The wind was blowing at 30 knots, and when the tugs tried to attach to the ship, they found it was impossible. So we had to spend the day off-shore, waiting for the winds to die down. However, we had a medical emergency on board that required immediate attention.

While at dinner the previous night, we heard a code Alpha call for assistance in one of the cabins. Usually the calls are a Priority 1 or 2, so we knew this was serious. Most often, one hears these announcements and then never knows what happened or how the situation played itself out. But the next morning, as the Captain explained that we couldn't get into the port of Dubai because of the high winds, he also announced that there would be a helicopter landing on the Sun Deck of the ship to transport a seriously ill passenger to the hospital. Well, this generated distress on behalf of the ill passenger, but also all kinds of excitement at the prospect of seeing a helicopter land in that small space in the kind of winds we were experiencing.

All I can say is that a helicopter is a kind of miracle. It is a miracle that it can fly at all, a miracle that it can hover in one spot for what seems like an eternity, and a miracle that it can lift itself up and away again. At about 9:15 am, the helicopter could be spotted coming in for a landing, but the hospital staff must not have been ready because it suddenly lifted up and took off again. As we were all standing around wondering what had gone wrong, we saw the crew clearing the way for the staff who had to carry the passenger on a gurney up a flight of stairs to the sun deck. It brought tears to my eyes as I saw the gentleman lying on the gurney with an oxygen mask on his face and an IV in his arm, and I was so thankful that it was not me or Mike who was needing this assistance.

Right on cue, the helicopter reappeared and lowered itself to about a foot above the sun deck and hovered there as they lifted the patient on board. I was anxious about the propellers, hoping the pilot knew exactly how little space he had in which to maneuver. Obviously, he had done this before because the transfer went smoothly and the helicopter lifted up and away, all within the space of a few minutes. As we watched the helicopter fly off in the direction of Dubai, I think that every person was saying a prayer for the recovery of their fellow passenger.