Wednesday, November 20, 2019; Unscheduled Jedda Medical Evacuation and At Sea Aqaba to AbuDhabi Day 2

Wednesday, November 20, 2019; Unscheduled  Jedda, Saudi Arabia- At Sea Aqaba to Abu Dhabi Day 2

We awoke this morning to see containership cranes out our balcony.  The ship was docking in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, to conduct a medical evacuation.  The passenger being evacuated was wheeled down the gangway in a wheelchair.  She had been fitted with a headscarf since this was Saudi Arabia.  Her husband and luggage also came down the gangway.  There were ambulance attendants in dark blue scrubs, but also a couple of men in full length white gowns, and several men in military fatigues.  It took a long time for the Ambulance to depart from the side of the ship after loading up the woman, who was able to get out of the wheelchair and then climb into the back of the ambulance with only standby assistance.  The ambulance sat there for over an hour.  In the meanwhile, port operations were going on.  A naval ship came into the port  sailing right past our balcony.  The port has a very modern and stylish control tower rising above the containership cranes like a giant wingless seabird standing at the end of the jetty. Across the channel from our berth is a large containership port, and across from our berth,  a huge concrete parking garage, capable of holding thousands of vehicles stands adjacent to a pier with car carriers docked.  The ship set out the gangway at about 6:45AM.  Apparently, due to all the formalities involved with landing in another foreign country, it took hours for the ship to be cleared to leave, so we didn’t end up pushing off until 11:30AM.  Some people had seen some of the Port officials touring the ship, taking pictures like tourists, and having breakfast in the buffet. You have to wonder if Saudi Arabia was charging us rent by the minute in addition to helping themselves to a free breakfast.

After breakfast, we did laps around the Promenade deck before it got too hot outside.  It was already 81 degrees out on our balcony when we got up.  We did the morning trivia with our usual team, scoring 19/20, with one team scoring a perfect 20/20.  Then Ben spent some time at the fitness center while Janet started watching a Disney Penguin movie on the on-demand system.  It had some pretty incredible footage of Antarctica.  Linda and Paul have done an Antarctica cruise on a National Geographic expedition ship.  They say it was an incredible experience.  

Our we had a off day on trivia, scoring OK, but not winning.  Our first progressive trivia score put us solidly in the middle of the field of over 30 teams. There were a few teams that are well ahead of us by at least 5 points, so we have a lot of catching up to do if we are to have any chance of winning.  We did a little better than average on our second progressive trivia quiz, but not well enough to make up for our early deficits. 

The sun glared overhead the whole day, with temperatures reaching over 100 degrees on our balcony by noon.  It sure is a good thing the ship is air conditioned. It was 78 degrees in our cabin. Other public areas of the ship are significantly cooler.  It really makes a difference which direction the sun is hitting the ship.  The side of the ship in the sun is easily 10 degrees warmer than the shaded side.  

Earlier in the cruise, we had an opportunity to chat with Roo, one of the Cruise Director’s staff, after a trivia game. She is from Scotland, and was a competitive swimmer earlier in her career before a shoulder injury ended those dreams. She had actually made the Olympic Trials for Scotland, and had hoped to be in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.  Her boyfriend is one of the EMT’s on the ship. We had noticed him watching her host a trivia game.  He said that by far, the most common issues that arise on cruise ships are cardiac.  We’ll have to see if we can squeeze any details on the two medical disembarkations we have had to fit into our itinerary so far.  We hope there are no more unscheduled detours.