Our Own Little Poseiden Adventure (8/3)

And the game plan for today was Rhodes. However, the night before they announced the port had been damaged and we were being diverted to Turkey. Our guide worked everything out and we were actually going to go to some places he had never been to so we were all pretty excited. However, when we got into port there, the winds were too high and we couldn't actually dock. You can kind of see the waves picking up here. This was in the morning when the winds were 30 to 40 miles per hour.
But this is as close as we got to Turkey - so we got to spend another day at sea.
So, the theme of the day was winds, winds, and more winds. We were having a group meeting at 2:00 so about 1:30 Mom, Dad and I went down to our room to grab a notebook and whatever else. All of a sudden while we were in there everything started tipping. The ladder for my bunk bed was the first thing to go down and just about took down everything on Mom's side table. Next Dad and I tried to keep everything on the vanity, I guess that would be what it was called, from falling off. That meant the little side counter left unguarded. That would have Mom's area to "defend" but instead she came out of the bathroom and just laughed at the view of Dad and I semi-crouched trying to keep everything where it belonged. The ship seemed to right itself for a second or at least not be tipped as much. At that point I sat down on the bed, laughing. That was a mistake. I was aimed in the wrong direction and couldn't get up so we were all laughing again. This time things just fell off. The only way to get off the bed was to roll off.

We did make it to our meeting and got other people's stories. Ty and Mark were in a first floor room (which was actually the room Jen and Will were supposed to be in, but for some odd reason they didn't want to have bunk beds). They actually had a port hole that was under water. (You can read about their adventure at http://www.tykroney.blogspot.com/ Our group leader, Alan, had been in the Rock Around the Clock lounge. All of the chairs slid across the room so he worked up quite the sweat fixing the chairs again. Jen and Will were up by one of the pools, apparently the same pool as Beth, but they were on the up side and both was on the down side. The watched the pool completely empty out. Beth had some guy guide her to a pole where she hung on for dear life. She was mad at Donald who had gone outside and had told her he would be back in 30 minutes or so. Unfortunately he went for the or so part of that statement. He was actually outside during the big storm. He was holding on for dear life. He watched deck chairs and blankets fly off into the ocean and some of the plexi-glass around the shower completely fly off. There was a lot of broken glass - I would be very curious to find out exactly how many glasses they lost, not really the monetary value, just the number.

We found out later our captain actually won an award for getting us out of the storm. Dominic, one of our English hosts, told us later the winds that tipped us were about 130 miles per hour. We tipped about 12 degrees. At 15 degrees they seriously think about lifeboats and the ship can roll between 20 and 30 degrees. It really was quite exciting!

And, yet, even with all of that chaos - the crew said they hadn't ever experienced anything like that - they were ready and raring for dinner, which was another dress up night. It was our Captain's Gala. He deserved any and all of the applause he got that night.

And the menu was:

Carpaccio di polo

(Octopus capaccio served with crunchy fennel enhanced, with pink pepper and balsami vinegar sauce)

Scaloppa di goie gras arrostito

(Roasted goose foie gras escalope served with caramelized pineapple, Port wine sauce and walnut bread)

Torta salata ai carciofi

(Artichoke pie served with cherry tomatoes)

**********

Crema di asparagi

(Cream of asparagus soup)

**********

Caserecce con ragu di vitella

(Pasta with veal meat sauce)

Lasagna gratinate con verdure e Taleggio

(Lasagna au gratin with vegetables and Taleggio cheese)

**********

Filetto di halibut in guazzetto

(Halibut fish fillet in tomato sauce, served with carrots and creamed potato leeks)

Castata di manzo arrosto

(Roasted beef prime rib served with natural gravy, Romanesco and roast potatoes)

Filetto di maiale gratinato con pane alle erbe

(Grilled pork fillet with herb bread and red wine sauce, served with rosemary potatoes and Brussel sprouts)

Souffle di formaggi

(Cheese souffle served with celery sauce)

**********

Insalata mista

(Garden crisp green salad with tomato, cucumber and radishes

Choice of dressings)

**********

Selezione di Formaggi

(Select from our Italian and International Cheese

Fontal, Gogonzola, Bel Paese

served with walnut bread, grapes, dry fruit)

What can I say: We look pretty good cleaned up!

It was a relief to go to bed and be back upright. If we had stayed tipped, we would have had to sleep with our heads at the foot of the bed.