6. A sad and tragic tale.

Tuesday lunchtime and we were sat having a bit of lunch in the buffet when we noticed that the ship had stopped moving. It was a little puzzling….was there a problem with the engines? …perhaps there had been a medical emergency and we were waiting for a helicopter to perform an urgent passenger or crew evacuation to a hospital ashore?

After some minutes the Captain came on the PA. An object had been spotted in the water which appeared to be a life jacket and a lifeless body, face down. The ship’s fast rib was then dispatched to see if it could locate anything….no easy task given that we had sailed a mile or two since the first sighting and the wind was whipping up the whitecaps. At the same time, contact had been made with the Spanish coastguard who were sending a patrol boat but had requested that Sky Princess remain on station until it arrived.

After another hour or so the Authorities arrived. By then, and very sadly, a body had been pulled from the water and indications were that it had been in the sea for some time. Understandably it put everyone in a rather somber mood for the remainder of the afternoon. 

Who it was or how they came to be there, of course we shall never know. The most likely explanation is that it was a migrant attempting to cross from North Africa to Europe but that is just speculation. But in any event it serves to remind how dangerous the sea can be and what risks people are prepared to take in search of a better life.