Missing Passport 5/31/1996 Causes Anxious Moments at Airport

But Jordan's Passport Found On Bus
By Bob Van Leer

(AT SEA OFF ITALY, May 31, 1996) - Today was quiet and uneventful as we sailed back to Genoa where we left May 22. We passed through the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Italy for the second time. Navigation in the strait is tricky enough to require a pilot to take us through. It is not long, just a half hour to go through.

  About seven hours north of Messina we passed the famed Isle of Capri. I don't know what I was expecting, but the view we got wasn't it. From the south, the island is just sheer cliffs rising from the sea with patches of houses clinging to benches on the cliffs. It is a small island, 5-10 miles at its widest. The north view shows gentler slopes and reasonable places to live. We anchored at Sorrento, Italy, to disembark passengers living in the south of Italy. They were taken off by hydrofoil. Our ship then sailed for our starting point of Genoa 337 nautical miles away. Our ship is to dock at Genoa about 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, but disembarkation procedures begin tonight. Our bags have to be packed and left outside our cabin door.

  (ROME, Italy, June 1, 1996) - We need to spend a last night in Rome to meet our flight home tomorrow. Disembarking our cruise ship, the Eugenio Costa went well, but after we got to the airport at Genoa, there was a couple hours of panic because grandson Jordan's passport was missing. The cruise line people are used to disembarking and everything went smoothly. We picked up our passports at a counter on the ship. They had been turned in to facilitate customs processing.

  Son-in-law Dave Shuey picked up the passports for himself, our daughter, Sally, and three-year-old Jordan. They were put in a back pack that Sally or Dave carried. We were taken to the airport by bus. On checking in, they could find their own passports, but not Jordan's. How it got out of a zipped-closed bag is still a mystery. But a missing passport when you are ready to leave a country is the time to push the panic button. 

  The ship was called and reported back the ship had been searched and no passport was found. The recommendation was to contact the U. S. embassy in Rome when we got there. But this is Saturday afternoon, and nothing will be open Sunday and we are scheduled to leave Sunday morning. By now the other passengers going back to the U. S. are aware of the problem. We were sitting in the airport waiting room and stewing on this when a customs officer marched in waving the missing passport. It had been found on the bus.

  The crowd in the waiting room cheered. After that, we had an uneventful short flight to Rome and are staying in a Holiday Inn near the airport. We had a last dinner to toast the trip. Tomorrow will not be a fun day. The party is over and the trip here from Portland was 16 hours elapsed time. We take Al Italia to New York, and then TWA to Portland with an arrival time of 10:30 p.m. We are to leave here at noon, so that sounds like a 10.5 hour flight. But we will gain back the nine hours in time we are ahead of the west coast, so it will be a 19.5 hour trip. Jordan has behaved well for a three-year-old on this trip, but this last leg may try his patience. It has been an educational and fun trip, but we're ready to go home now.