In the medical center things didn’t go quite so well and everyone was up to their eyes with patients. The entire Hit Squad team had been there the entire day cleaning vomit and no one could stand it anymore.
Most passengers didn’t spend a long time with the doctors and went to bed as soon as they were given some medication. By dinner time the madness was easing but far from being over, as the captain made another announcement advising that the bad weather was not going to ease anytime soon.
There were only a few tables with passengers in the dining rooms and the bars were empty, which translated into bad news for Richard Murphy who was finding it hard to make more friends to pay for his drinks.
Sofia only arrived in her cabin at ten in the evening and after such a day she too felt a bit sick. She took a sleeping pill to help her rest. There was nothing else to do and she really needed to sleep.
It was hard to rest with the feeling of being thrown out of bed any moment and there were squeaking sounds everywhere. She managed to get a few hours of sleep but not nearly as much as she desired.
The next morning she read in Ian’s report that some passengers had spent the night in the lobby wearing lifejackets. Despite his protests and guarantees that the ship wasn’t in any danger, the passengers insisted that they couldn’t stand being in their cabins on deck 12 and 14 and they decided to stay right there and sleep on the chairs.
The second day of stormy weather didn’t bring any changes. Everyone who was not suffering from sea sickness felt tired and most passengers spent the day in bed watching television. The ones who had balconies could appreciate the strength of the sea from the comfort of their cabins and the ones who didn’t could turn to the channel that showed the images captured by the bridge camera and be grateful they were not outside.
Denise felt all right as long as she didn’t have to stand up but some receptionists called in sick and she had to readjust the schedules of those not suffering from motion sickness. There weren’t any passengers visiting the front desk and everyone wondered how long it would take for the sea to calm down to a bearable level.
“I’ve never had this for so long before.” Tania commented in the back office looking as pale and tired as everyone else.
“I remember once in the Caribbean we had two days like this because there was a hurricane nearby and the wind was really strong. But I just called the bridge and it looks like we might still have it until tomorrow.” Kate said, looking helpless.
“Really? That’s crazy. Last night I couldn’t sleep much with the noise. Another night like this and I’ll be the one sick.” Denise complained as the ship went slowly up and then down again and she nearly fell of the chair.
“We might miss Hobart. But keep that information for now. It’s not confirmed yet. The captain will make the announcement if it gets to that.” Kate informed sounding nicer than usual, which reminded Denise that not everything was bad when the sea was rough.
During lunch break some people adventured to go to the officer’s mess for a meal. It was not a good idea to starve for another day. Most of them played safe and took dry food that wouldn’t make them sick so easily, but Denise was craving real food and there was pesto lasagna on the menu so she ordered it and hoped she wouldn’t regret being that bold.
Diego, Aaron and Amy ate normal meals and acted like the waves were not splashing the windows every five seconds and the ship wasn’t jumping up and down.
“I can’t believe you people are in this for two days and you don’t even feel a headache. What’s the trick?”
“I don’t know. Sea legs or whatever you want to call it.” Aaron replied.
“We all have sea legs. You people are just not normal!” Denise retorted.
“I could go on a roller coaster after lunch and I would still be fine. My stomach is strong.” Diego affirmed and Amy nodded affirmatively with her head.
Denise looked at them with annoyance. “I’m so jealous of you. I can barely move and my head weights a ton.”
Everyone giggled at her expression of misery.
“No worries. If you keep that lasagna in your stomach I promise you can join our club.” Amy told her with a grin.
Afraid that Amy could be right, Denise had only half a portion and ate some dry bread. The formula worked and in the afternoon she was feeling much better.
There were no further announcements and passengers were getting stressed and called the front desk asking how long the motion was going to last. No one knew for sure and that made them frustrated. Complains started piling up and some passengers even insulted the captain like he was doing it on purpose to ruin their holidays.
The receptionists discarded the bad comments, ignored the other ones and once the passengers realized that it didn’t matter how much they complained, it was not going to change, they left the reception alone.
“These people should get a life!” Sonya said typing another comment in the computer.
“Unfortunately we need them to pay our salaries.” Denise replied with compassion, knowing exactly how it felt to be in that position but feeling sorry for the passengers as well. They had expected a wonderful holiday and it was disappointing to face such harsh conditions.
“I would pay them to get out of my way and stop calling bad names to the captain. One of them came by this morning demanding to talk to the captain because apparently he knows of some route that would avoid the bad weather. Can you believe that?”
“Wannabe navigators. Don’t worry, once this is over they will forget all about it.” Denise said with conviction.
One more night of rocking and rolling and the next day, when the sea became less aggressive, everyone was dreaming about stepping on land again but the captain spoiled the fun and made an announcement at eight o’clock that due to weather conditions it wasn’t safe to go to Hobart so the ship was going to be sailing straight to Melbourne, where she would arrive the one day ahead of schedule and stay overnight.
It was joy for the crew and absolute distress for the passengers. The calm in the front desk disappeared and many came to complain and demand a credit for missing a port. The first purser had to explain that refunds wouldn’t be issued if a port was missed due to weather conditions because it was not something the cruise line could control. It was in the contracts but many passengers weren’t understanding and didn’t care what the contract said. All of a sudden their holidays were ruined since they only took the cruise because they wanted to see Hobart. The truth was that the passengers were bored and another sea day would only make it worse so they complained and complained hoping that the company would give them something in return to make them happy.
The ship still rocked but not nearly as bad and life slowly returned to normal. Crew made their plans for the unexpected overnight in Melbourne and the passengers who were not that excited about it came up with plans to use the extra time.
Sofia returned to the medical center anticipating a quiet afternoon when Richard Murphy came back from the land of the wasted. He ducked through the front door straight into the doctor’s office where luckily there was no one else and sat in front of her barefoot and with a broad smile. He smelled so bad she nearly threw up.
“Who are you and what do you want?” She asked belligerently. She remembered the first purser’s email with a picture of him and a warning of his behavior. She held a rubber glove against her nose to avoid the disgusting smell of alcohol mixed with smelly feet coming from him.
“There’s something wrong with my feet.” He affirmed, sounding confused.
“Yes, there is. You need to wash them. Actually, please put your entire body underneath the shower and stay there until you smell like a person.” She ordered.
“I’m serious.” He answered irritated.
“So am I. Now get out of my office. If you have medical problems go to the reception and fill the forms like everyone else.”
“You can’t talk to me like that, lassie. I’m sick.
” He insisted and didn’t move one inch.
Sofia couldn’t be bothered to reply and argue with a crazy person so she left the door open and called Mary and Carla. As soon as she stood up she could see the infection in both his feet. As drunk as he was, he was telling the truth about needing medical help.
While the nurses made sure he behaved, Sofia called Leah. The passenger had the account closed and medical care was not free. Leah confirmed that the only thing to do was to treat him, post the charges to his account and make him sign a promissory note. If by the end of the cruise he failed to pay his bills then the lawyers would take it from there. Pleased enough with the answer, Sofia returned to her office where both Mary and Carla were disgusted by the appearance of the man and the smell of his filthy body.
Sofia found some cuts between his toes that explained how the bacteria got into his blood stream. She gave him IV treatment to make it work faster and some pills. She told him he couldn’t have alcohol and he wasn’t pleased. He became abusive again. Ryan stepped in and they got into an argument that ended up with the first purser deciding to disembark him in Melbourne, for everyone’s relief.
15
Overnights were such a rare event that when they happened, crew members went wild before the chance to party in the city until very late hours.
For some department’s despair, the next morning many people weren’t there to work. Denise had three receptionists that decided to stay in bed and she was forced to wake them up with a harsh phone call. The tour office was also missing two of their staff at the time they needed to dispatch the tours and the restaurants were short staffed with many people too hangover to serve passengers.
“You know what?” Diego said at lunch time. “I was out last night too. We came back late and didn’t get much sleep. But I was in the office on time.”
“Unfortunately not everyone takes professional responsibility that seriously.” Natalie observed, quite upset with the mess her staff caused by being late. “I only got the tours out on time today because Denise sent me Sonya to help.”
“My three missing receptionists are getting it all back. Starting tomorrow they are working at six in the morning every day for the next two weeks.” Denise informed.
“I hope my guys had a good time last night because I’ll make sure they won’t have another one like that for a while.” Natalie added.
Amy nodded affirmatively. “I don’t like seeing adults being treated like children, but sometimes it’s necessary to show them that they can’t just ignore their duties and leave the burden for everyone else to deal with.”
“I must say I do understand them. They spend such a long time onboard with these tight rules and working every day without a proper break. It’s not like they have a weekend or a day off once in a while to enjoy themselves.” Tania reminded.
“Maybe that’s why we don’t normally have overnights. People abuse the freedom.” Diego suggested.
“The reason why we don’t overnights is because they would cost a lot of money to the company. Guests would eat in town instead of spending money onboard, the shops and the casino would close… big loss in revenue. Honestly, I prefer we sail during the night, less trouble and less paperwork.” Amy concluded.