The call was to serve aboard the posh Seabourn Sojourn, a small, exclusive, all-inclusive 450-passenger craft where the liquor flows freely, all suites have sea views, and the passenger/crew ratio is nearly 1:1. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse.
So we boarded in Fort Lauderdale on January 3 and disembarked 40 days later in Capetown, a city I had longed to visit after hearing glowing reports—well-deserved, as it turned out—from our South African friends. The Sojourn was then scheduled to continue its around-the-world voyage with another rabbi onboard. Our plan was to fly home to prepare for the South American trip on a Holland America ship. But, as it turned out, neither the Sojourn’s full itinerary nor our second voyage would be completed in 2020.
In the end, the Sojourn floundered in the Indian Ocean looking for a port in the pandemic storm. Eventually, the State Department was called in to negotiate an emergency landing in Perth so passengers could be bussed directly to the airport for flights home, cutting their 116-day itinerary in half. And, ultimately, our anticipated second voyage was cancelled altogether.
We have been so blessed this past decade to have visited all seven continents and sailed upon all the oceans save the Arctic. How much more fortunate could we possibly be? Yet we look forward to the day when a vaccine will be approved and the cruise industry, however transformed, will be back in business. In the meantime, the watchword for all of us is, “Stay Safe.”
