G & J away from home

Friday, 1 May

I have a few bridge photos to put up but the (completely unexpected) main event for the day was the turn out of the Vista's rescue boat to assist two men who overturned their boat directly in front of where we were moored.

Gary had come back from his shore excursion but had gone up to the Sky Deck to socialise with those enjoying the fine afternoon while I sat with the room's sliding doors open, reading in the sunshine.  A long boat (sort of canoe-shaped) with an outboard motor cruised by in front of me and then headed across the river doing a few circles as it went.

Over by the other bank it appeared to roll over and the next thing was there were two men in the water with the boat bobbing beside them.  I was interested enough to take a few photos, especially as they had one of the huge barges we've been seeing heading their way. From my perspective I couldn't see if they were in any danger from the barge but they had started calling for help so I trotted up to  reception to ask if the ship was going to rescue the two men that had fallen in the water.

Unexpected

Calling for help

There was a bit of panic until we established that they hadn't fallen off our boat, but then the captain was advised and the rescue boat was dispatched from the Vista.

Launching the rescue craft

Of course, the river hadn't stopped flowing so the men (still calling for help) had drifted quite some distance but with the dispatch of the rescue craft I felt I'd done all I could went upstairs to wait with Gary to see how the rescue went only to find he was facing the other bank and had no idea what was going on!

The Vista's little boat heads across the Danube

As the rescue craft approached the men two other boats came out from the Bulgarian bank and so in the end the Vista's little boat wasn't required and we heard when they returned that both men were fine.
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