´Hmmm... I can't figure this one out at all....

And it probably got very little coverage in the US, but yesterday a cruise ship ran into a cliff in the Toscana in Italy. And some people died. Which is very weird to me, because I have traveled with that company, and just can't imagine how that could have happened.

This was one of the company's very large ones, with over four thousand passengers. And some very dumb people jumped overboard... it must have been a real mess. And some guy had a heart attack, of course... not hard to figure, since a lot of oldies are usually on board.

Peter booked one for us one year when he was still half-way able to do long trip... he thought. And since he got a two-for-one deal... of COURSE he invited two other people to travel with us, and share some of the 'joy'. We became sort of notorious on that cruise, but all that is beside the point.

After our wonderful trip which was frustrating because he had a foot crisis and had to stay on board, but was wonderful anyway. We always said after that that if we did it again, the ship would have to be much smaller. It was already too much like a middle sized city, although it never felt crowded.

Little did I know that one day years later I'd be on a sailboat that slept six and travel half the adriatic sea on it, with everyone pitching in and sailing it. That was even more fun.

But am digressing. Am only writing, because I KNOW that company, and I know the routes. It makes no sense to me. Their first priority was passenger safety, and one of the first things was life-boat drill... have the pictures to prove it. And in Crete, did the crew get land-leave for the day? No, they were out doing practice drills lowering the lifeboats, and it was obvious they were extremely conscientious, which was a reassuring thing to observe.

Now there is a very tricky strait when they approach Corfu, and if it happened there, I'd sort of understand how that could happen. It's very narrow, and we entered it at sunrise back then. One of the most quiet, beautiful things I have ever experienced. We had Corfu on the one side, and Albania on the other, each so close it was amazing. Some things are unforgettable in life.

However, the latest news report says it happened near an island off the tuscany coast, and the captain maintains there were underwater cliffs that were not chartered on the maps. Hmmm.. possible.

On the sailboat junket, I really learned to lurv the sonar... and there were lots of sudden shallows that might have been dangerous...

Still.. it really seems odd.

I guess shit happens to even the best.