We finally completed the dreaded Coast Guard drill yesterday, but it wasn't anything near as bad as I thought it would be. I had heard stories about the last drill, which took three tries to pass and cancelled shore leave for a day. This one went smoothly and quickly. It took no longer than a regular drill.

I think maybe the crew was better prepared this time. We had been warned about what went wrong at the last Coast Guard drill and I don't think there was a crew member onboard who didn't know what not to do this time. Everyone was also much better prepared to answer questions about equipment and procedure. I guess those drills accomplish something.

By the time the Coast Guard guys came by our station (the last on their list) they already knew that the crew on this ship was prepared for them. They asked us only a couple of easy questions.

As easy as the questions were, I managed to get one wrong. I was not asked directly, but when the Coast Guard guy asked us as a group what the capacity of a life boat was, everyone said 150 people, except me. I said 35, which is how many a live raft holds. I wasn't listening carefully enough. The guy next to me jabbed me in the ribs and gave me a dirty look, as if my blunder might cause us to fail the test, but the evaluator apparently didn't hear me. (This is why I don't like answering questions – it's not that I don't know the answer, it's that I don't know the question.)

After the drill Captain Johnny sent a note around thanking the crew for a good showing. He said we were commended by the Coast Guard for our performance. The captain also thanked Sam Quantrell, the Safety Officer, for his good work in getting us prepared.

This is a bi-annual evaluation so we don't have to worry about another one for 6 months. By that time maybe we'll all have slipped back into our old ways! But I don't think so. The crew takes the drills seriously enough. I think maybe the first experience had been a result of the growing pains of a young ship.

***

The more interesting event of the day was the drug bust on the crew gangway. Someone got caught trying to smuggle cocaine off the ship and into the US. It was packed into the soles of a pair of sandals. You've got to wonder about somebody trying this one.

For one thing, the security at Port Canaveral is robust. Every week you have to run a gauntlet of security officials of both the human and canine variety positioned between the ship and the crew bus.

First you line up at the x-ray machine on the ship. This is where the guy slipped up (he didn't get very far, did he?). When you reach the x-ray machine you remove your shoes and put them on the belt, along with any bags or packs you might be carrying.

It so happens I was right there when they discovered the drug cache in the sandals – next in line, in fact.

“Bingo! We've got a hit!”, said a duty officer. “Who's sandals are those?”

“I don't see him. He was a black guy,” said the x-ray operator.

They look around, but the owner of the sandals has disappeared. He turned around and went back into the ship, as they discovered when they reviewed the video*.

I got through security because my stuff was already on the belt, but they “closed the window” behind me for an hour and a half while they tracked down the would-be smuggler. They found him, of course. You can't hide for long on a ship.

This guy was caught at the x-ray machine, but had he somehow made it through that checkpoint, he would have still had to pass another security agent (who pats you down), a gatekeeper (who checks you out electronically), and a US customs official (who checks your working papers) – and this is before you even leave the ship.

Then, once you're off the ship, you have to wait for a bit in a holding pen while the various US border guards and other cops prepare for you. When the gate to the pen finally opens, everyone going ashore proceeds in single file first past a K-9 patrol (drug-sniffing dog) and then past even more guards and cops. They're all armed, of course, this being the US of A. At the end of this line there is yet another gate.

So you wonder how anyone who has been through this before would even try to get away with the old sandal trick. Especially after the publicity another attempt, this one on the Brilliance of the Seas about a month ago, was given on our ship. The company had posted photos on the I-95 (the I-95 is the central gangway, if you recall) of the sandals that were found during that bust.

Since I was right there when the bust went down I've been asked a few questions about what I saw. I'm surprised that the first question has often been, “Was he black?”. I don't know why that might matter to someone.

“I think so”, I say, “but I didn't see him”. (Notice that we all assume it's a male...)

My first thoughts were that the guy must be really stupid, and that he deserves what he gets for being so greedy. It didn't occur to me until I was talking with my cabinmate later that there's a good chance the guy was motivated by desperation rather than greed. I've got to remind myself not to draw conclusions or make judgments too quickly.

A lot of the lowest-paid and hardest-working crew members are Haitians. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and has just been through what amounts to a civil war. Few Haitians enjoy the benefits of an extended education. I imagine many working on the ship are struggling to support families or help detainees back home. An offer to make a quick three or four thousand could be difficult to resist - especially if you have relatives or friends in detention whom you want to protect.

So I'm reserving judgment on whether or not the guy was stupid and/or greedy.

There are always suspicious characters hanging around the ports. Nassau is a well-known centre for smuggling activities, and I myself was approached in St Maarten by an unsavoury character (a skinny white guy with stringy, long blond hair, by the way) to make some “easy money”. I didn't talk to him long enough to find out how, though.

One thing I know, you don't have to look long or hard to find trouble in the Caribbean.

*remind me to tell you about the comprehensive video surveillance on the ship sometime.