About 0500 Randy was watching television and everything went
black. No lights, no TV, no nothing. Including no information from the captain until
0609 when he told us the “switchboard” had failed and thus stopped the engines
(he says they are following protocols to restart them). Randy says he’s never
heard of an electrical problem that would cause all the engines to quit.
Anyway, we have been lollygagging in the Tasman Sea without engine power (we
did get electricity back at about 0545) for almost two hours. There is a
contingent of Japanese reporters on board so I have a feeling that our plight
will be publicized to the world as soon as they can get the word out.
At 0630 and the engines were seemingly making abortive
attempts to start—they sound disconcertingly like muffled explosions—but they
haven’t succeeded yet. We’re in the Tasman Sea having gone around the top of New
Zealand and were heading in a straight line directly west to Sydney, Australia.
The power came back on strangely: First thing we noticed was
that the TV popped on, but without a picture. But, I’ve had a power failure at
home when the TV was on and when the power came back on, the TV didn’t come on,
we had to turn it on. We thought that might be an emergency power-on thing for
the ship, that the TV comes on automatically for announcements. Wrong on two
counts: our other TV didn’t come on and the ship has a ship-wide loudspeaker
capability that we can’t turn off so they don’t need the TV for announcements.
We did get underway at about 0730 and the captain has given us
no indication that we will be late into Sydney. Too bad in a way as it will probably
be dark as we steam under the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Somebody doesn't want the World Cruise to end!
