Dave's Live from Eurodam Trans-Atlantic, Aug. 27 - Sept. 12, 2013

[puli]

In a situation like the one reported on the Eurodam, what is the protocol for the patient's spouse/family? Clearly they remained on board and if i read correctly there follows several days at sea.

Will 'they' be in touch with the receiving medical facility and will there be help in arranging for ' their' joining up with the patient?

[Copper10-8]

In a situation like the one reported on the Eurodam, what is the protocol for the patient's spouse/family? Clearly they remained on board and if i read correctly there follows several days at sea.

Will 'they' be in touch with the receiving medical facility and will there be help in arranging for ' their' joining up with the patient?

 

Family members are (almost) never hoisted into a helicopter hovering over a cruise ship during an aerial medevac along with the patient/victim. If anybody else from the ship goes up, it will be one of the medical officers/nurses.

That situation is different if the medevac is ship-to-ship with a boat coming alongside or ship to land via ship's tender and/or shore ambulance. The family member(s) can/does, at his/her choosing, accompany the patient/victim under those circumstances to the medical facility.

In the first instance (helo medevac), the family usually disembarks at the next port the ship calls at, and receives assistance from ship's personnel/port agent/Seattle Care team in getting to the medical facility the patient has been transported to

Edited August 31, 2013 by Copper10-8

[puli]

Family members are (almost) never hoisted into a helicopter hovering over a cruise ship during an aerial medevac along with the patient/victim. If anybody else from the ship goes up, it will be one of the medical officers/nurses.

That situation is different if the medevac is ship-to-ship with a boat coming alongside or ship to land via ship's tender and/or shore ambulance. The family member(s) can/does, at his/her choosing, accompany the patient/victim under those circumstances to the medical facility.

In the first instance (helo medevac), the family usually disembarks at the next port the ship calls at, and receives assistance from ship's personnel/port agent/Seattle Care team in getting to the medical facility the patient has been transported to

 

Thanks for the explaination. We did witness the ship to land transfer twice on our last HAL cruise. Very efficient and I am sure reassuring to both the families involved.

[JamesEM]

Thanks Copper10-8 for the info.

[RetiredMustang]

Thanks John for the photos of the medevac procedures. I knew what happened from my Navy days, but your photos really explain the process well for everyone!

 

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Thx for the update. Is that all you had to eat? A bowl of soup?

 

Lorene,

You've seen me -- Of course I had more to eat; I just didn’t take any photos. I also had the beef stroganoff. It came with the meat pieces and sauce, with a dollop of sour cream that you stir in when it was served. In the middle was a molded bit of plain rice. It was pretty good, but I could have made better at home – but I didn’t have to; that’s one of the joys of cruising. Afterward, I indulged in some rocky road ice cream. But, I wished I had ordered what DW did – the brunterta. It was a wedge of chocolate cake with genache. She let me have a taste, as it was unusual. We think we tasted not only cinnamon, but also allspice, in the cake.

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Saturday, August 31, 2013, at sea

When we sailed from Bergen, the Captain said there was a storm over Ireland, and that we would be sailing a bit more north to avoid it as much as we could, but that there still would be some swells and wind.

The swell started last night, and so far as I could tell lasted all night (I slept well after being rocked to sleep by the sea). The seas and winds have continued this morning. But, it is a lovely sunny day, when looking through the windows in the Crow’s Nest; I have not ventured onto the decks. The scan channel shows a relative wind from the port bow at about 50 mph or so.

Luckily, there are plenty of activities for today, including lectures and culinary demonstrations. Here are the photos with today’s program:

More later,

Dave

[Krazy Kruizers]

Love the daily reports.

[Alphen]

Yes, countries with militaries (primarily Air Force, Navy and/or Coast Guard) that have available assets to perform aerial evacuation from ships by helicopter (in some countries supplemented by civilian units) train those type of evacs on a regular basis. They have to in order to stay sharp

For shipboard crews, primarily fire, medical and evacuation teams, they also train their procedures on a regular basis however, the actual aircraft/helos are not always available.

A while back, PRDM was in the Gulf of Aden and received an escort from the Dutch air command frigate Evertsen F-805. Both captains used that opportunity to practice/train on a medevac from PRDM using Evertsen's Westland Lynx helicopter

With apologies to Dave for temporarily hi-jacking his thread!

Dutch Navy Lynx hovering above Prinsendam with one of her fire teams getting into position

 

 

Evertsen's Lynx helo lowering its diver to Prinsendam

 

 

 

Practicing sending the basket/stretcher from PRDM to the hovering Lynx

 

 

 

One of Prinsendam's medical officers getting the ride of his life

 

The Royal Netherlands Navy's/HrMs Evertsen's Lynx' diver and medic on the deck of Prinsendam with her doctor a Deck officer/Fire Team leader and, I believe, her Hotel Manager at the time

 

 

Royal Netherlands Navy HrMs Evertsen and PRDM sailing side-by-side in the Gulf of Aden

 

We still train this if we have an opportunity, a collegue of mine practiced a nightly airlift on Rotterdam off the coast of Holland with a brand new NH90 helicopter.

[innlady1]

Lorene,

 

You've seen me -- Of course I had more to eat; I just didn’t take any photos. I also had the beef stroganoff. It came with the meat pieces and sauce, with a dollop of sour cream that you stir in when it was served. In the middle was a molded bit of plain rice. It was pretty good, but I could have made better at home – but I didn’t have to; that’s one of the joys of cruising. Afterward, I indulged in some rocky road ice cream. But, I wished I had ordered what DW did – the brunterta. It was a wedge of chocolate cake with genache. She let me have a taste, as it was unusual. We think we tasted not only cinnamon, but also allspice, in the cake.

 

Dave

 

Probably allspice. Scandinavians use a lot of that...I think my mother put it in everything...lol!

[RetiredMustang]

Sat., Aug. 31, 2013 (Cont.)

It has been windy all day, and we’ve run from periods of sun to rain and back. The Captain has closed the weather decks because we are experiencing about 50-knot winds. The seas are rough as well. The tops of the waves from the bow wake are being blown into spray by the wind. All weather decks are drenched, and the windows at least as high as the Lido deck have been sprayed thickly.

During his one o’clock announcements, Captain Emiel said that the weather would get a bit worse this afternoon and evening, but would improve after midnight. He said he expected that tomorrow would be better than today. He also said that we have made good way since Bergen, and were ahead of schedule, so he would be able to slow down a bit to make it a somewhat easier ride and still get to Reykjavik on time.

Almost all of the day’s activities are still proceeding, including Dancing with the Stars, although they have chosen the waltz as the dance of the day. We attended the presentation about Iceland by Jon Sigurdsson, and DW stayed for the presentation of the Virtual Bridge by the deck officers, while I went to the culinary arts center for a presentation from specialty restaurant chefs.

The chef from Tamarind prepared Vietnamese lamb, the one from Pinnacle did Land and Sea, and the Canaletto chef did penne alla boscaiola. Boscaiola is Italian for woodsman/lumberjack, and the dish has many variations, but all of them include the key ingredient of mushrooms. There was no menu card distributed for the lamb dish, but here are the other two:

I also wandered a bit and captured photos of the MDR lunch and dessert menus:

More later,

Dave

[NMLady]

Enjoying your live reports, thank you for taking the time to do so! I've often wanted to do a TA Crossing similar to this one.

 

Pullmantur is Spanish based cruise line owned by Royal Caribbean, in recent years their fleet consists of many former Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Ships.

 

Empress was previously the Empress of the Seas, and prior to that Nordic Empress.

 

Thank you for this tidbit of info. Hubby and I sailed on Nordic Empress in 1999 and then sailed on her again in 2004 after her dry dock, structural changes, and renaming as Empress of the Seas. It is good to know what happened to her.

 

To RetiredMustang-- I am really enjoying your review. The photos are awesome!

[greatver]

Re: Medevac - We were on eastbound Rotterdam transAtlantic 40th anniversary cruise ( NY to Rotterdam) when there was a medical emergency first night. Helicopter from Coast Guard station in Chatham (Cape Cod) performed evacuation and, contrary to normal procedure, Capt. convinced Coast Guard to take wife off ship as well. Couple were in their 80s and next port was Cobh, Ireland.

[RetiredMustang]

I have apparently reached my limit on photobucket, or there is an issue. Here are the recipe cards:

 

 

 

 

Dave

Edited August 31, 2013 by RetiredMustang

[RuthC]

I have apparently reached my limit on photobucket, or there is an issue.

Well let's just hope there's a problem at Photobucket, and that it's quickly resolved!

I rarely open images, but am clicking on most of yours. And like them.

I want more!

[NMLady]

I didn't know photo bucket had a limit. I hope not. Your photos are so helpful.

[RetiredMustang]

And the lunch menus:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

Sat., Aug. 31, 2013 (Cont.)

The Captain said the weather would worsen this afternoon, but I think it has actually improved a bit. The wind seems to have let back a bit, and there is almost no spray. The seas are still strong with a long swell, though, and we are taking the occasional deep pitch. Quite relaxing for

Although I have not mentioned it, there have been hot hors d’oeuvres in the Ocean Bar in the afternoon. Today’s included bitterballen, so I took this photo for lorekauf (Lorene), and anyone else interested:

Also, a special photo for Boytjie. Peter, I saw an earlier thread where you and Copper John discussed these being available at Explorations Café:

I clearly need to re-do my photo strategy. I'll be back with more later,

Dave

[Krazy Kruizers]

I didn't know photo bucket had a limit. I hope not. Your photos are so helpful.

 

 

When I first joined photobucket a few years ago, I think I was told that there wasn't a limit. I must have a couple of thousand pictures there.

Hope there isn't a problem with photobucket.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I am glad to see that some different items are being done in the cooking demonstrations.

We stopped going to them as they were not changing on our cruises.

We would go down -- check out the recipes and say "what -- again" and then leave.

[cruz chic]

Sat., Aug. 31, 2013 (Cont.)

The Captain said the weather would worsen this afternoon, but I think it has actually improved a bit. The wind seems to have let back a bit, and there is almost no spray. The seas are still strong with a long swell, though, and we are taking the occasional deep pitch. Quite relaxing for

Although I have not mentioned it, there have been hot hors d’oeuvres in the Ocean Bar in the afternoon. Today’s included bitterballen, so I took this photo for lorekauf (Lorene), and anyone else interested:

Also, a special photo for Boytjie. Peter, I saw an earlier thread where you and Copper John discussed these being available at Explorations Café:

I clearly need to re-do my photo strategy. I'll be back with more later,

Dave

 

Yum, I'm trying to pull those bitterballen off the screen. Thx for the pic. Your updates are great.

[sppunk]

Oh man if the Stoopwaffels are there in three weeks my waistline is in trouble.

[Thebes]

Yum, I'm trying to pull those bitterballen off the screen. Thx for the pic. Your updates are great.

 

Wondering what are those bitterballen taste like ? They look fried ? Like falafel?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Copper10-8]

Wondering what are those bitterballen taste like ? They look fried ? Like falafel?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Like Kroketten, another Dutch treat

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your daily updates and photos.