They won't always wait til you get to the next port of call either. On one cruise we took a few years ago, we were returning from Bermuda in a storm. A man had a heart attack and they had to get the National Guard in a helicopter to lower a harness sling from the air, because there was no heliport on the ship. They strapped the guy to the harness sling and reeled him up to the copter, then lowered it again for the National Guardsman. All of this - in the middle of a pretty bad storm, pouring rain and lots of wind.
I was terrified just watching it, and felt so horrible for his wife, who had to remain onboard the cruise ship while her husband was taken back in the states without her.
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