High Alert!

A few nights ago Mom and I had a crazy moment while on stowaway watch. First of all, I think it’s kinda surreal that I was even on “stowaway watch!” Who gets to say that?!? Ok, moving on. Mom and I went and picked up our orange vests, radios, and giant mag lights and took our spot at the corner of the stern to keep watch. About ten minutes into our two-hour shift, the head security officer walked by and asked if we had radioed the gangway. He said that someone had radioed that they had heard noises coming from inside a container (the containers are giant boxcar-like metal boxes used to store things on ships). We told him that we hadn’t radioed and after looking around with his flashlight a bit, he left. About five minutes later I heard a faint rustling noise in the container nearby. I got Mom’s attention and the noise turned into an intermittent rattling! Now, do your best to picture this scene…Mom and me sneaking on tip-toe toward the container with mag lights up and ready to whack someone with them if necessary! Mom snuck around the side of the container and our head security officer was about halfway down that side of the ship so she scurried down there to tell him what we had heard. He, along with a gurkha (our Nepalese security guards), walked up to the container and when they went to open it, they realized the door was already unlocked! They opened the container door…and out jumped four stowaways, all armed, and Mom, the security officer, the gurkha, and I all took on one each and pitched ‘em overboard! Ok, sooooooo it might not have gone exactly like that…there was actually a mechanic working in the container without telling anyone he was in there, but still, a scary/concerning moment for Mom, the security officer, the gurkha and me. We resumed our cold watch on very high alert!