HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-01-26, Page 12PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2012.
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the starboard side of the boat, their
rescue was quick and painless,
Laurie says. It wasn’t until the next
day that they realized how serious
the situation was.
“Little did we know it was as
tragic as it was,” she said. “Sure, we
lost stuff, we lost things, but we
didn’t lose our lives like some
people did.”
While waiting to board the life
boat, Alan was able to see lights in
the dark night, indicating that the
ship was still very close to land,
easing the pair’s tension. People on
the other side of the boat, however,
were not as lucky, Laurie said.
Those on the port side of the boat
could not see the land of Giglio
Island and because of the angle the
ship sat on, life boats could not be
deployed properly.
Once on Giglio Island, the pair
simply stood and watched for hours
as life boats repeatedly made the trip
back and forth to the ship, bringing
more and more survivors to land.
The pair remained on the island
until 8 a.m. the next morning,
huddling into a local community
centre for warmth.
“It was a cold and damp building.
It was not pleasant,” Laurie said,
“but we were indoors.”
In addition to the community
centre, there was a church on the
island that was housing several
hundred of the ship’s patrons and
local villagers were also welcoming
people into their homes on what
Laurie described as a cool, calm
night with no wind, but a chill in the
air.
As Laurie was roaming the island,
she saw a young man with a cell
phone who didn’t speak English.
She said “Facebook?” to him and he
nodded, handing her his phone. It
was at this time that Laurie was able
to access her account on the social
networking site, sending her
daughter Jory a message, letting her
know that her parents were alive and
on land.
Later that night Laurie spoke with
another young man from Austria
who gave her his phone to call Jory.
Unsure of how to access Canada
from an international phone, Laurie
said the man placed a call to his
mother who did the research and
found Canada’s country code,
allowing Alan and Laurie to speak to
their daughter, if only for a few
minutes.
While the couple felt fortunate to
be back on land, there was still a
sense of mass confusion among
those on the island.
“We were waiting for instructions,
but they never came,” she said. “We
were just kind of back to fending for
ourselves.”
It was at this time that Alan and
Laurie were reunited with the only
people they “knew” on the ship, the
couple they had dined with just
hours earlier.
Laurie says the two couples
simply exchanged pleasantriesduring dinner, but that they will nowbe “best friends forever”.
Alan was able to salvage a pair of
life jackets from the boat and he
deconstructed them to fashion a bed
out of them in the community centre.
Laurie was unable to sleep through
the night, but Alan was able to get a
minimal amount of sleep.
Alan awoke to the sound of people
collecting what possessions they
were able to grab before departing
from the ship. Alan and Laurie
boarded a car ferry that took them to
land. Upon reaching land, they were
offered medical services if they
needed them and provided internet
access if they wanted to reach any
family members.
Late Saturday (Jan. 14) afternoon,
the couple was welcomed to the
Hilton in Rome, nearly 24 hours
after leaving their cruise ship. It was
at that point that Alan and Laurie
realized their travel plans were
limited. Without their passports, they
could not check into any hotel in
Italy, the Hilton only accepted ship
patrons without passports on the
word of the cruise company, Costa
Crociere.
It was at that time that the pair was
put in touch with the Canadian
Embassy, which provided them with
new passports so they could
eventually resume their travels and
fly back home. They still had to pay,
however, which was co-ordinated
through Jory and a credit card she
had in Huron County.
With the couple slowly having
some level of normalcy restored to
their lives, Laurie said that while it
was nice to be at the Hilton, sleeping
was still an issue.
“It was pretty nice, but I still
wasn’t sleeping very well,” she said.“The adrenaline was still runningpretty high and we were in this state
of not knowing what was next.”
Food, however, was not an issue
once they were safe and sound.
“There was always lots of pasta,”
Laurie said. “It seemed like they
thought we all wanted pasta all the
time.”
During the several days at the
Hilton, Alan became restless and
started discussing his options with
Costa Crociere employees.
“Alan was insistent. ‘We bought a
holiday from you. You owe us a
holiday,’” Laurie said.
But Alan’s plight was not being
well received at first, with it takinghours upon hours and severaldifferent employees for him to get
his point across.
“The people looking after us were
sales agents. They had no training to
be doing what they were doing.
None whatsoever,” Alan said. “They
were just there to send everybody
home, but we were only on their
boat for four or five hours. We still
had a whole week ahead of us.”
Alan and Laurie had agreed that
they would stay if it was possible
and utilize their original flight home
on Saturday, rather than being sent
back to Canada as soon as possible,
The road to safety
Alan and Laurie Willits made their way to the mainland on
a car ferry from Giglio Island to mainland Italy. The group
then eventually made their way to Rome from there. (Photo
submitted)
Couple spends night in community centre
Getting some rest
Alan Willits did his best to get some rest in a community
centre on Giglio Island, Italy after the cruise ship he and his
wife Laurie were on ran aground leaving thousands to
scramble for land. (Photo submitted)
Shipwrecked
Once the sun came up, Alan and Laurie Willits could see
the full extent of the damage done to the cruise ship they
were aboard just hours earlier as they watched the rescue
mission from the shores of Giglio Island. (Photo submitted)
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