Mar 14 - Fortaleza, Brazil

Today the ship was to dock in Fortaleza, Brazil. There was a problem, with the waves and wind. Another ship that had tried to dock pulled one of the dock anchors out of the pier as the ocean rocked the ship. The Splendor is bigger than that ship. The captain tried to get close to the pier, but the water kept raising and lowering and pulling him into and away from the pier.

Even though the captain decided that we would not stay in Fortaleza, there was a passenger that had fallen in their cabin and broke a hip. That person needed to be taken from the ship and taken to a hospital. As the crew prepared to get the passenger off the ship, there was an accident on the pier. One of the large ropes used to secure the ship to the dock (about 3” diameter) snapped and struck a dock worker. The ambulance that was waiting for our passenger had to take the injured worker to the hospital. The crew managed to get our passenger off the ship. The stretcher had to be put in the back of a pickup truck to wait for another ambulance to come to the pier.

Sam did see some of the town from the deck of the ship……….