8.5

I'm in St. Johns, Antigua and the internet is big bass slow. The satellites are barely working on the island. In fact our satellites on the ship are not receiving any signals right now. We had to switch over to pre-recorded programming on our sat channels. I took a video of my room but I can't upload with this internet so you'll have to wait until I get a solid internet connection. I know you're all on the edge of your seat...

This morning we had boat drill. The crew is required to practice drills every week. Today was a BRAVO drill, meaning they simulated a fire somewhere on the ship. Apparently they set off smoke bombs and other devices to make it as real as possible. I'm part of CHARLIE team which handles security incidents, so I did not have to respond to the BRAVO call. After the team "contains the fire" an alarm is sound (7 short, 1 long) that tells all crew to report to their emergency stations. My current station is on the starboard side of the ship all they way aft. Basically because I haven't completed all of my training yet I'm just in the extra man waiting area. Once I finish training I will be assigned an emergency station that actually helps assist guests to their muster stations.

They make sure everyone is at their proper emergency station by calling out your assigned emergency number. Then we stood there while a safety officer came by asking random people random safety related questions. Things such as: How many over capacity rafts are on the ship? (3 per side), What are class B fires? (liquid, fuel, oil) or what is the capacity of a MES? (430 people).

Then they sound a single (long) alarm that tells us to go to our assembly stations. This is where you get ready to get into your assigned life raft. Once again, because I am a nobody without complete training, I don't even get a life raft. I am assigned to a MES (marine evacuation system). They are these awesome devices that when activated dump off the side of the ship (we are on deck 5) and splash into the water. On contact with water they inflate to form 4 huge life raft devices. It sort of looks like 4 floating inflatable bounce fun houses that you see at carnivals. They are connected to deck five with two tubes that look like enclosed Slinkies. You jump into one of the tubes and the path inside the tube is designed to make you descend in a 360 degree path to slow your descent. It looks like a lot of fun and I think we get to practice it in the upcoming weeks.

During every drill one side of the ship's lifeboats is required to be put into the water. This week it was the starboard side. So all the lifeboats, tender boats (used in ports when the ship can't pull into the port so you must transfer guests between ship and land by these boats) and rescue boats all lowered into the water and putted around the inlet in St. Johns. It was pretty funny to watch all the boats bobbing around in the water. They look like overstuffed bright yellow squash (aka squash from the farm garden!) and their diesel engines sound similar to a prop plane. When I complete my lifeboat training I will be assigned a boat so I can assist guests in an emergency. Once this happens I'll have to be lowered into the water when my side of the ship (starboard) goes in.

After the drill they held cabin inspections to make sure their aren't any fire or health violations in your cabin. They look for excess trash, super dirty bathrooms and who knows what else. I passed with flying colors. Apparently if you are found sleeping in bed for cabin inspections you get in trouble. I don't how this would be possible considering the entire crew was all standing outside on deck 5 ten minutes prior to inspection, but I guess if you really can't stay awake after drill they nail you.

I did walk around the island a bit today, but I don't have time to write about it now. What you've read above I had written earlier today in my cabin. I'm headed back to the ship now to get ready for this evening's activities.