Anderson South America Adventure Day 25 – At Anchor off Panama “Greetings from the Plague Ship” March 29, 2020

As far as we know no one else passed away overnight and they are still at two cases of COVID-19. So I guess that this is a case of no news is good news. The ship rotated so that we could get a lovely view of the Rotterdam and the tenders heading there. I took a photo of the ship and got a fishing boat in the picture. I wanted to knock on my window to warn them that they were too close to the “Plague Ship.” They saw me take the picture and they moved. Makes me kind of wonder what they were up to. The captain made his morning announcement. He said that he did not want us to think about this as a healthy ship and a not healthy ship. They were splitting the passengers so that it would take the burden off of the crew of the Zaandam having to take care of people in their cabins. Yeah, they have to get our food to us three times a day but no one has been in our room to clean since last Sunday morning. I have been making the bed every day. We have to live in here and I need that to be neat. We have now gone two days without fresh towels, which does not bother me that much except that they do not dry real well in the bathroom. I do not want to think what this carpeting will be like by the time we are set free. You cannot eat three meals a day on a teeny tiny table and not spill food. In addition to anyone who showed any symptoms they also did not take over anyone who would need assistance getting on and off of the tender to eliminate contact. I can see that. They continued to move people over during the day. They had one more group to check and if they pass they will be moved tomorrow. Here are the steps for moving over: 1. Pack one bag with two changes of clothes, toiletries, medication and important documents 2. Pack the rest of your bags and place in hall 3. Someone will knock on your door to let you know that it is time to go, have your mask on before they come 4. Follow the crew member down the hall, keeping your distance from other passengers. 5. Do not touch anything in the hall 6. You will be placed on the elevator by cabin, do not touch anything on the elevator, crew will be operating the elevator for you 7. Get off of the elevator and head to the tender platform 8. Follow the instructions from the crew on where to sit on the tender 9. You will be given new cruise cards and they will be scanned when you board the Rotterdam 10. Do not stand up on the tender until instructed by crew 11. Follow instructions of crew to get on the ship, you carry on bags will be sanitized 12. Get in the elevator, do not touch anything in the elevator, it will be run by crew 13. Go directly to your cabin and enter, do not touch anything in the hall 14. Keep your mask on at all times 15. After your luggage is sanitized it will be returned to you. We are now instructed to have our masks on whenever we open our door like for getting meals, putting out our trash, etc. Actually we are supposed to wash our hands then put the mask on. So someone knocks on the door, go wash your hands then tie the mask on? I have my mask tied so that I can slip it on. I may take a couple of rubber bands and retrofit my mask so that it fits tightly but I can slip it on and off. One time I put the trash out without my mask and Rob called me on it. I told him that I held my breath the entire time. You do get a little testy after a while. We got a phone call this morning and I answered it. “Hello, Robert?” “No, Andrea” “Oh, I am so sorry” “Nah, don’t worry about it, I sing tenor” Then I coughed, probably scared the poor guy. They were asking about our drink order. Yesterday we did not receive our Diet Coke. Victoria offered to report that to the Hague for us. I heard the soda come, grabbed my mask and went out to grab the Coke Zero. Really bad timing, they were taking most of our hall off to the Rotterdam. Everyone was quiet and had their masks on. I even saw Alternate Jason go, he had started to call me “mom.” I do not know why this hit me so hard but it did. I really felt as if we had been left behind. I felt this awful pall come over me. I knew that we would not be leaving, but actually seeing the people leave was hard. It is probably a good thing that my Fitbit died earlier on the cruise. These days I might be topping out at 150 steps. It is 10 steps from my nightstand to the cabin door. There is just not that many places to walk here. I really do appreciate all of your kind comments and words of encouragement. Michelle set up a Google drive with pictures of the kids. A lot of the pictures they are using one of the blankets that I knit for them. Victoria has added a folder to the drive that has all of the well wishes from different people and pictures that kids have drawn for me. I try to not let this situation get to me, but come on, it does. Rob is sleeping a lot. I do not know if this is his cold, lack of activity or this is how he is dealing with the whole thing. It does beat how I am dealing with it which appears to be eating a hole in my stomach lining. I also appreciate those of you who have contacted anyone in government for with the news. The story of this ship needs to be kept out there so that we are not forgotten. Please help us to get home. I am considering setting up a betting pool for when meal arrive. Yesterday we got breakfast at 9:40 and lunch at 11:50. Today we got breakfast at 7:30 and lunch at 2:00. I cannot tell you how many times we have had scrambled eggs for breakfast with bacon and sausage. I like scrambled eggs, but mine usually have cheese on them, I am from Wisconsin. I also eat them with either ketchup or salsa. Today Rob said that his eggs were cold, mine were not exactly warm so I did not think anything about it. Then he gave me his potatoes since they are one thing that settles my stomach. I took a bite. Ice cold, he was not kidding that his eggs were cold. Cold scrambled eggs, yuck. Early this afternoon our internet went out. It happens sometimes then comes back on so we did not think much about it. Nope, it did not come back. We are trapped in a room, we cannot leave, no internet and I cannot call Donna anymore to see how they are doing since they have been moved to the plague free ship. We really did feel isolated. We immersed ourselves in a “Guys Grocery Games” marathon. Hey, we have slim pickings on TV. We watched “Speed” yesterday and the promised showing of “Breaking Away” today did not happen. The guest services counter has limited hours. They are busy assigning new rooms on the Rotterdam and making new key cards. We waited until 6:00 when they open to call. Several busy signals, being put on hold, cut off, more busy signals then being asked for our PIN? We gave up. I have been communicating with Victoria a lot. He helps to chat with someone. She is really following the situation very closely. I joked that if they did not get us back online soon Victoria would call out the Panamanian Navy. I called, the quality of the calls are not great but I explained the situation to her. I told her that her father’s back was getting worse. She asked if we brought a foam roller with us, no, I brought a lot of other stuff, but not that. I said that I could have him roll on the Lysol wipes container. “YOU HAVE LYSOL WIPES!” Um, yeah, we have been cleaning things with them, like the table and the carpet. She said that these go for big bucks on ebay. I told her that we bought 4 before we left and brought 2 with us. She told Jason who then declared that they could retire early. She said that we have missed this who shortage thing, toilet paper, bleach, hand sanitizer, and cleaning products. I had heard about eggs being a shortage. After seven days in a row of scrambled eggs, that might not be that much of an issue. Victoria did tell us that we had been cleared to pass through the Panama Canal so it looks as if we will be heading to Ft Lauderdale. Hopefully they allow us to dock. I did finally get through to the guest services counter. I got Kevin the cruise director answering the phone. Yes, they know that the internet is out, no, they do not know when it will be back on. Oh, wonderful. When they have paper for us they slide it under the door. I now hear that paper sliding under the door and across the carpet and wonder what news they have to us now. Sometimes it is only out daily program and the puzzle page but after what has been going on it is kind of Pavlovian dread response when you hear the paper. I am sure that in a few years I will look back on these writings and wonder why I was making such a big deal out of this but right now it is a huge deal to me.