After Tahiti, we set sail for the land of the trade winds, Hawaii. Another 5 days at sea before land. Our show for the night was a guy named Jeff Tracta. He had played Thorn in The Bold and The Beautiful for 8 years so I was thinking I could probably have an open eye snooze during his performance. Well that didn’t happen. He was an impersonator, comedian and actor singer and he blew the audience away with his act. Laughter is the best medicine that’s for sure.

Upon reaching 0 degrees latitude, the ship had a crossing the equator celebration and King Neptune made an appearance. The shellbacks (those that have crossed the equator before) got to indoctrinate the pollywogs (those that haven’t crossed the equator before). This involves kissing of dead fish and having spaghetti, flour and raw eggs thrown all over them. Luckily we are both shellbacks!

We also attended the dawn Anzac Day ceremony on the upper deck. It was currently very windy out on the ocean but the captain had manoeuvred the ship to give us shelter. It was a moving ceremony and the balmy conditions made it very different to the cooler dawn service we normally attend at home.

Having been up so early we were in bed at about 11pm. Ruthie was asleep when I heard the announcement “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar port side”. You hear announcements all the time and have learnt that Alpha means medical emergency. Suddenly I hear the engines shuddering and a knock on next doors cabin confirmed my suspicions that the ship had stopped! I turned on the TV to the ship map and sure enough it had turned around. I gently tried to wake Ruthie but she didn’t stir. I decided to get dressed and go upstairs. The crowd were milling and I soon heard the rumour that someone had gone overboard! A rescue boat had been launched and I also saw several life rings in the water that were illuminated and seemed to be remote controlled. Everyone was told to return to their cabins and all entertainment was ceased so they could account for numbers and report if anyone of their party was missing. My heart was racing as I rushed back to the cabin, this time to wake Ruthie. As she was rubbing her eyes, I gushed out the stories I had heard. That quickly woke her up! She was soon on the balcony, watching the searchlights and search vessels as were most of the passengers.

The next morning, after a late night, we were told the captain would make an announcement about the previous nights events. Ruthie had joined a group of ladies for a slot pull in the casino. I went to check on their progress when Ruthie handed me her phone, it was my daughter Paige. As soon as I said hello, she said Dad and started crying, it started my blubbering. Here I was in the middle of the casino crying like a child, tears streaming down my face. I think the crowd around me read the room. I hadn’t thought about the news reaching Australia before we had confirmation. An Australian man had gone overboard. There is too much love in my life for that to happen to me.

Fortunately, we had our premiere choir performance as part of the Quantum of the Seas choir in the Royal Theatre in front of 1,000 passengers to lift our spirits. We sung our hearts out and maybe it sounded shit but Ruthie and I walked away as rock stars. The sombre mood had lifted for us but our hearts were well and truly with the family grieving their loss.

Once our ship had done all it could, the search was handed over to the US Navy and Coast Guard.

The 70’s disco inferno party the next night is always a great event and continued to lift our spirits.

We sailed on to the land of Aloha.