🛳️ How to get off a ship mid-ocean!

July 24,2022: In conversation with Biswajit Basu on mid ocean embarking and disembarking on ships.

Biswajit Basu: https://youtu.be/C8ER9Ladqg4

BB: 👆Sometimes we would have to embark/disembark from ships in weather like this.  In my last trip as Chief Engineer, I left my ship with my suitcases in this kind of weather.  I jumped and landed "SPLAT" on the roof of the launch bridge.

Me (Tina): Splat?!! 😳

BB: Yep!  It was a splat.  I landed on the roof of the crazily careering launch on my back and scrambled to get something to hold on to lest I be dumped into the roiling sea.

Me: Goodness!! 

Shifting from ship to boat mid sea is not easy even in the calmest waters!! I’ve done it a couple of times on cruises. Bumpiest was during our Lakshadweep trip in the late 80s. While I remember the rocky sea and the land boat bumping into and away from our ship Tipu Sultan, at 10years old you think it’s great fun! Not so for Ma! She remembered that for ages and even in our 2019 cruise in the Adriatic, the only port she didn’t want to disembark was the one where the harbour was too shallow for the cruise liner! It wasn’t anything like a splat though … we just walked the plank! 😂