The captain was right. As soon as the ship sailed from the protection of the Fiords the winds of the Tasmanian Sea hit strong. Any passengers or crew who believed that big ships were steadier and motion couldn’t be felt, were about to find out how wrong they were. Bigger ships were only better until the waves started hitting deck 8. When it was that bad no ship could resist the rocking and rolling and even those with good sea legs would meet their limits.
The first day of trouble, the captain made an announcement advising that there was rough weather ahead and told everyone about the safety measures but a lot of people didn’t think it was going to be that bad, especially the crew. The open decks were closed and the water drained from the pools. Since a lot of passengers were nauseous there were no major complaints about the limitations of recreation onboard. All the shows in the theater had to be cancelled, the shops had secured everything they had in display and after the second passenger fell off a treadmill the fitness instructors turned them off. The gym remained open for anyone brave enough to be on deck 15 forward as long as they weren’t running on moving belts.
Denise was in the back office with a major head ache but at least there was no queue in the front desk because passengers couldn’t even stand up much less walk and the only idiot who showed up was a passenger who was already drunk so the fact that the ship felt like a rollercoaster in slow motion didn’t make much of a difference to him. He had already caused trouble and Leah had closed his account after his credit card had been declined for payments.
This time, and after insulting and shouting at all the receptionists because he wanted his account open again, Leah decided to talk to him. Denise couldn’t resist taking a look from the corner. There were some rare moments when it was good to have Leah as a supervisor.
As soon as the passenger saw how big she was compared to his little skinny figure, he took two steps back and nearly fell on his back before he leaned against the desk for support.
The passenger, a Scottish man named Richard Murphy, demanded for her to open his account because he couldn’t buy anything from the bar. Leah asked him how he managed to get so drunk if his account had been blocked for the last three days and he blamed it on his friends. For someone travelling alone he certainly had great social skills. Despite the amount of noise he produced, including a great deal of bad language, Leah proved that she could shout louder.
“If you’re not out of my way right now I’ll get security to lock you in your cabin for the rest of the cruise!” She told him. He turned around and went wobbling downstairs.
That was the most exciting event in the afternoon. The receptionists were bored and Denise had so much time in her hands she was able to finish the schedule for the following cruise. Despite her head ache and her chair being dragged from side to side by the motion, she was determined to make the best of the quiet time she was having and get as much work done as possible. By the time she was done she was very satisfied with her productivity but all she could think about was to go to bed and watch movies with a pillow behind her neck.
Since Diego seemed to be immune to sea sickness, she asked him to bring her a sandwich to avoid having to walk to officer’s mess, a difficult task with the ship moving like that. Not only he brought her the sandwich, he also stayed in the room and took off his uniform.
“Did they close the wardroom too?” Denise asked when she got out of the shower wrapped in a towel. She was less dizzy after drinking a can of ginger ale.
“No. But it’s empty. Everyone is either sick or tired. And I’m bored.” He answered sitting on the bed and changing channels on TV not really interested in any of them.
Denise used the bathroom door for support and dropped the towel on the floor.
“Are you sure you’re bored?” She murmured and he turned around, examining her with his eyes from top to bottom.
It didn’t take him more than one second to give her the answer and she felt grateful for the bad weather. With or without a head ache she had her boyfriend all for herself and she didn’t intend to waste the opportunity to have some quality time with him.