Left Behind

So for those of you that missed the news: yesterday the ship left without me.

I signed out from the ship in the morning to go looking for guitars, and it turned out to be quite a long walk. Returning to the dock I saw the ship at a distance and noticed that I couldn't see the gangway and there seemed to be lots of action on the bow (the front of the ship) which is unusual. Then it looked as if the ship was starting to pull out from port, which is exactly what happened. So I see the ship suddenly leaving the quay without knowing the reason why. I knew it was not yet time for departure and I was going through possible announcements that I could have forgotten about, but couldn't remember any. I found some Spanish men who told me that the time was "terminado" and that the ship was leaving, but they couldn't give me any specific information. The fact that the ship vehicles were still parked along the dock made me feel a lot better and I assumed the ship wasn't going to move too far. In one of the cars I found a crew member and he told me the ship was just moving up the dock a bit, and so I sat down and waited for it to moor up again. 80 minutes later the gangway was in place and slightly sun burned I could make my way up the stairs to my mobile home. In the unlikely event of being left behind, the biggest issue would have been that my passport was still onboard the ship. Apart from that I would have been fine, I'm sure. I guess that's one of the beauties with God, you're never left on your own.

As a quick notice, yesterday evening I met the Swedish family that lives onboard the ship, and they are lovely! I have a standing invitation to their cabin, and they urged me to come and visit often. I also met one of the anaesthetists onboard, and it turned out she has lived most of her life in Bristol, working at the BRI. Sometimes a dose of familiarity is wonderful!

All Love