Thursday – February 26, 2026 – at sea to Wellington
Today’s featured photo is Gustavo showing the band-aid he applied to my hand to cover a cut I received while opening our cabin door. The reason there was a cut is that the arm that connects the door opener to the door came loose (a screw dropped out) and made the door very easy to pull open. When I opened the door for us to go to breakfast, I used the “normal” pressure which was too much and in doing so, banged the door against the closet wall with my hand sandwiched between door and wall. The impact tore my skin and bleeding began. By the time we reached the restaurant my index finger was covered with blood. I used the sink in the bathroom near the restaurant to clean the wound but needed something to prevent the flap of skin from opening again and the bleeding to resume. Gustavo saw the need and came back with a blue band-aid.
There aren’t many photos from today (a day at sea). The second photo is of the World Cruise game board with a “win” sticker for Air. We won the game today but don’t know what was required. While the game was being played, we were attending an information session in the theater concerning excursions between Sydney and Tokyo.
The final photo is of 3 singers who performed both traditional Māori and Māori-revised songs (like Let It Be translated to Māori).
The most exciting event of today was a helicopter rescue for a medical emergency on board. Around 8:40 pm there was an announcement that a helicopter would be coming to carry a patient from the ship within 30 minutes. The upper decks were all closed and we were not to photograph anything related to the patient transfer. I had already seen the show of the night, so I went to our cabin around 9:00. I thought I would hear the sound of a helicopter but did not hear anything until shortly after 10:00 pm. The heli came from behind the ship and tried to make an approach from the starboard. From our balcony I could see that the heli was not stable (shifting back and forth). After a few minutes the heli flew toward the bow of the ship. To me it appeared the ship changed direction and slowed. I sensed this based on the location of the moon changing. The heli came back along the starboard and this time seemed much more stable. I am not sure it landed because the rotor speed did not change and I have noted in helicopter rides I have taken. In addition, I wondered if there would be backwash from the sides of the ship in the area on deck 13 where a landing might be made. Within a few minutes the helicopter lifted up and flew off to the West – Either to Wellington or Auckland. Didn’t take any photos but sure wanted to.
You will find the photos for today here.
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