Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Wanderer wandering

Last night's 8.45pm ex-Auckland sailing on the Wanderer puttered all the way at half speed to North Head when the captain made a sudden 180 degree turnaround and started puttering back to town.
No announcement from the bridge, nor the staff (probably too busy selling day-old fish curries - man, did that stuff stink up the cabin!).
It took the effort of a passenger (Go, Nancy!) to find out from upstairs what the hell was going on and she relayed the bad news that the power basically had failed (hence the no audio on the ship's tannoy) and that we were on our way back to town.
Then suddenly the engines kicked in at full force and they decided to make another 180 degree turn and continue to Waiheke. Only 20 minutes late.

It was a serious dereliction of staff duty, I reckon, when they annoyingly and cloyingly announce at the start of each sailing that "you are to remain calm, seated and await instructions from your crew". If it had been a serious emergency, we would still be none the wiser.

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