Isle of (No) Man

Dawn in the Irish Sea.

The Isle of Man.

This was to be a tender port.  We positioned nearby, and dropped anchor.  Theresa and I went to the restaurant for breakfast, and watched out the window, as our tour wasn’t until about 1:15PM.  Somewhere during breakfast, the Cruise Director came on and explained that the Captain was busy working, but the anchor wasn’t holding us, since the wind was too strong, and had gusts exceeding 43 knots (the ship’s limit for dropping the tenders is like 20-25).  Worse yet, the gusts were coming from different directions, so the crew was struggling to keep the ship in one place, with one orientation.  I guess they aren’t fond of shifting and spinning while trying to move people (mostly over 65) down ramps to a tender and back.  The Captain was still working it, and would get back to us with an update.  About an hour and a half later, the Captain came on and, with much apology, said we had to skip this port, as the conditions were not improving, and were not going to improve during the day. They looked up different options, but there was no place that we could visit in lieu of the Isle of Man. So, we were again going to take a cruise South.  People were…NOT HAPPY.  Well, it was one of the 4-5 key places we wanted to see, and two skips in a row, we’re going to start calling him “Skipper”!

Look!  A beautiful lighthouse and oil terminal!!

Just the lighthouse as we left.

Dinner is served!  Every course in a different plate/cover.

Anyway, day off, we took care of some personal business, had lunch, mishmash of stuff, and found our way to Trivia.  For dinner we decided we didn’t want to get all dressed up, so we ordered dinner for the room, and spent the evening in shorts, watching the rest of our movie (Bonhoeffer).

Tomorrow?  Who knows!  Actually, we’ve seen things go wrong, and had another cruise have to miss a stop due to winds.  So, it isn’t a surprise.  There is no point getting upset as there isn’t a reasonable options other than safety.  Besides, kudos to the Captain who—again—stepped out to be available for people to talk to about the missed stop.  He played lightning rod so the people didn’t take it out on his staff.