Wednesday March 5th, 2025 Queen Victoria, at Sea, South Pacific Ocean

We woke at around 4:30AM to find the ship stationary, close to a port but not berthed. Using my cellphone I discovered that we had steamed back to Callao in Peru, this was a bit of a shock.

At 9AM the captain announced that, due to the medical treatment required for the two ill passengers, he had to abandon the run up north and instead return to Callao – the two passengers were offloaded at 6:30AM and the ship headed back out to resume our northerly course. He also announced that the assumption was that the ship had lost a crew member, but he would again slow the ship down when we reached the location of interest and do a further sweep of the area and perhaps pay respects the lost crewman. With all the time taken for the search we will no longer be able to stop in Fuerte Amador (Panama City) which was the replacement port for previously cancelled Manta in Ecuador.

Noon announcement by the captain: we are currently 103 NM north of Callao and expect to reenter the search area in about 15 minutes time. The ship will resume the search for about 90 minutes before returning to our course for the Panama Canal.