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Aboard the Radiance of the Seasast summer, Gayle Breck started her first fan club. ×Ö´®5 The first surprise is that it's for the captain of a cruise liner. The second is that both she and co-president Janice Henck are 51 years old. They tell me, as I join them in their Deck 10 stateroom (aka International Fan Club Headquarters) that they couldn't stop themselves. ×Ö´®9 It all started in 2005 when Breck, of Atlanta, Georgia, was planning a cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas with her family and friends from church. She happened to come across the documentary Dry Dock on the Discovery Channel in which Captain Rune Loekling (who was about to take over the helm of the Radiance of the Seas) was featured. When Breck and her future travelling companions got together to discuss the show, Loekling was clearly a person of interest. ×Ö´®9 "None of us wanted to talk about the ship. All of us wanted to talk about the cute little Norwegian captain," she recalls laughing. So when they were on-board and the captain stopped by and said hello, near-pandemonium broke out. ×Ö´®6 "All of us women were giggling like a bunch of teenagers," Breck recalls. "Our husbands started teasing us and saying, `There's the captain's little fan club.'" ×Ö´®7 And so it began. ×Ö´®8 A letter to the cruise line thanking the captain for making her family's cruise unforgettable found its way to Loekling who struck up an email exchange with Breck. At the time she was battling cancer and the emails were a welcome diversion. ×Ö´®6 In one email, Loekling mentioned that if they were ever on board again, he would have them join him for dinner. ×Ö´®9 "Well baby, you're on," Breck thought at the time and began emailing girlfriends to join them on a cruise in April. She also shared her enthusiasm for the handsome captain online in a chat room on www.cruisecritic.com and the fan club was officially born. The club's first fan party, boasting more than 60 members, was held on-board the Nov. 11, 2006, sailing out of Fort Lauderdale. ×Ö´®5 This time the ladies came armed. ×Ö´®9 "All of this is because he's such a nice guy," says Breck gesturing to a desk laden with fan club paraphernalia. ×Ö´®9 There are large cookies that have his face super-imposed on them, giant lollipops with the fan club logo and small bags of Hershey's Kisses marked "Kisses for the captain." Both Breck and Henck have t-shirts bearing his image and others that simply state their loyalty in words. ×Ö´®5 It could easily be a distraction for a man charged with maintaining order on the 2,300-person ship. ×Ö´®5 "I think it's cute," says the often outspoken but suddenly shy captain when I confront him about the club. ×Ö´®2 "It's mostly women," Loekling points out, brightening, " but there are a couple of guys ?mostly husbands who've been dragged along." ×Ö´®6 Cruise Director Kieron Buffery says he is unaware of any other ship captain who has had the same honour bestowed upon them. ×Ö´®2 But don't confuse awe with jealousy. ×Ö´®3 "I am actually not at all envious," says Buffery, laughing. And chosing Loekling makes sense, he adds. "There are no other captains like this guy. He has the most guest comments in the history of this company. He sets the tone for the whole ship." ×Ö´®8 Breck and Henck are not slowing down. In fact, the club is happily accepting new members, despite the fact that Loekling will soon start a 10-week holiday away from the ship. ×Ö´®2 "It started out basically as a joke," they admit. But after scoring a private party just for the fan club, dining at the captain's table on formal night, fielding personal calls from him just about daily (and thanks to call display, using his direct number to call him back) they say that they have no intention of backing down. ×Ö´®8 "We got his schedule today so we know he's coming back in March," giggles Henck. "We're booking it tomorrow." ×Ö´®9 ×Ö´®2 <
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