12.28

I forgot to mention that early on Christmas day (between midnight and 5:00) we were involved in a search and rescue operation with the U.S. Coast Guard to search for a crew member from the Celebrity ship Summit who went overboard. We searched for about 5 hours and then were released from the search to continue on to St. Lucia as other Coast Guard ships arrived. We found two life rings but unfortunately no body. After searching 2,000 square miles the Coast Guard decided to call off the search yesterday with no results. While it is only speculation, many suspect suicide was the cause of the overboard. It is possible for crew members to get depressed, especially around the holidays, as we work long hard hours and are away from our family and friends for a prolonged period of time. Our thoughts are with the friends and family of the Summit CM. 

More uplifting news: Last night we were on our way from St. Kitts to Antigua when we had to turn around and return to St. Kitts to medivac a guest. We didn't even tie up when we returned. We literally just pressed the ship against the pier, opened a bulkhead door, quickly transferred the guest to a waiting ambulance on the pier and then backed away. It was pretty impressive how little time the whole operation took. Hopefully this speed helped save the guest's life. 

Kurtis' birthday was yesterday and we had a rock night in the crew bar. Typically in the crew bar the sound system is always blasting Latin, Caribbean or house music but Kurtis requested the keys to the DJ booth for his birthday and setup a Rock n Roll playlist. It was a lot of fun to sit around and listen to "real" music for a change. There were about 8 of us and we just blasted rock music until 3:30 in the morning.  Unfortunately the crew bar is always filled with smokers as that is one of the few places where you can smoke so I always have to purge my lungs and take a shower every time I leave the crew bar.