25 hours (I am a busy girl. I have to fit 25 hours in my day.):
00:00 Sitting with friends in the O Bar (Officer’s Bar)
01:00 Chatting with friends on Deck 6 Aft which is the outdoor patio for crew, as we cruise up the Amazon. Maria, Helena and I have a shopping date for Buenos Ares, in 16 days.
02:00 Dance to the blasting music with a hundred of my co-workers, despite being drenched from the 85 degree heat and amazing humidity. Our dance club has very clean bathrooms… unfortunately you have to walk all the way back to your own cabin to use them.
02:00 Déjà vu, not really. There was a time change, not that anything changed. I was still dancing the night away. (As a moving ship, we often cross time zones and change time.)
03:00 Tired of dancing, I go visit Edson, who is still on duty. Then wandering down the corridor toward my cabin (or Cabeanna as Maria calls it), I run into a Marcos and chat for a while.
04:00 Sleep!
05:00 Still sleeping.
06:00 Get up at some time. Check my emails, deal with a couple things.
07:00 Try to go back to sleep.
08:00 Breakfast with Lisa, Sallie and Lesley. Then off to work.
09:00 Work, Captain has an email problem
10:00 Work, Begin building a new 2003 server
11:00 Work, Due to listing, my new 2003 server falls hard… but it still seems to work.
12:00 Finish working, meet people for lunch, I can’t remember who.
13:00 Watch The OC in the O Bar. We have very little TV out here. An episode of The OC plays on repeat all day. The entire crew is hooked. (I am sure if we had anything else to watch we would be less interested in The OC.) This time I caught it from middle to end to beginning.
14:00 Nap!
15:00 Rise and shine, catch coffee with Jasminka, Sallie and Leslie in the Bistro. Then, we wandered out to Deck 6 Aft to look over the side at fifteen or so little wood boats laden with fresh produce to sell to the rich tourists.
16:00 Work, fix gangway system which went offline
17:00 Work, continue work on new server
18:00 Work, service ving machine
19:00 Dinner with Sasha, Dale, Paulina and another guy whose name I don’t know.
20:00 Work, Nadja’s two accounting reports don’t match. Work on it for a while before deciding I would rather work on it tomorrow.
21:00 Visit other offices and chat.
22:00 Help a friend with some computer work, and more chatting
23:00 Crew bar for a drink. Chat with Erika.
24:00 Dance class, a little Salsa and a little Meringue. This was a crew only class and we laughed up a storm. Taking dance classes when the ship is listing to and fro adds a fun dimension.
Rinse and Repeat…
(If this is coherent it is a miracle. I should really sleep more. But life onboard is so much fun.)
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
Loveboat?
So Valentine’s Day has come and gone, showing in its wake, that ship life is not shore life.
Amongst the funnier aspects of Valentine’s Day was our Crew Officer’s hopes and expectations. The Crew Officer onboard is like a wing of human resources. His responsibilities include placing crew into cabins. For particularly popular cruises, there are more crew aboard, sometimes out numbering space available. This is currently the case. It requires people to double up. This means officers with single cabins are encouraged and even paid to give up the privilege of single occupancy and share their cabin with another.
The Crew Officer facing a shortage of beds was hoping for a particularly romantic Valentine’s Day. If a large portion of the crew would find someone to love it would increase double occupancy, and reducing his need to find beds for people.
Romantic of him, huh?
Also with Valentine’s Day came a number of engagements. The wonderful thing about living onboard is meeting people from all over the world. The problem with finding love aboard, is it is from all over the world. Peter of Sweden found Petra of Australia. (They are not engaged, but it is just a matter of time.) Maria, Norwegian, is engaged to Benjy, Filipino.
They then have to answer the question of which country to live in. In the case of Benjy and Maria, this includes learning a new language.
(On the up side, one of them rarely has to see the in-laws.)
In Antigua, just the other day a good portion of the ships crew wore their nicest beachwear for the beach wedding of two crew members.
The reception at a beach front restaurant was cut short by sailing time, 5 pm. (All crew had to be aboard at 4:30 pm.) The bride and groom were punctually at work an hour later, 6pm.
Another oddity of ship life, is the expiration date. Most relationships have an expiration date of the earliest contract end date. We live aboard for one contract, which varies from a few months to ten months. Contract scheduling results in people leaving the ship staggered at random. When two people get together, say Gabor and Kelly, and Kelly leaves September 30 and Gabor December third, then there is often an unspoken agreement that the relationship is over on September 30.
It is possible, with people from different countries, and different schedules, and even working different ships, that couples will never see each other again. Some people will resume or commit to their relationship until they are both onboard again. Some couples do the long distance relationship thing. A lot of crew members have significant others at home whom they don’t see for many months at a time. Then there are even the odd few married couples aboard. Louise and Ben have been married eight years. They live together aboard but rarely have vacation together due to scheduling.
It all makes for an unusual relationship life.
Hope you had a romantic Valentine’s Day, and not just to increase double occupancy.
Amongst the funnier aspects of Valentine’s Day was our Crew Officer’s hopes and expectations. The Crew Officer onboard is like a wing of human resources. His responsibilities include placing crew into cabins. For particularly popular cruises, there are more crew aboard, sometimes out numbering space available. This is currently the case. It requires people to double up. This means officers with single cabins are encouraged and even paid to give up the privilege of single occupancy and share their cabin with another.
The Crew Officer facing a shortage of beds was hoping for a particularly romantic Valentine’s Day. If a large portion of the crew would find someone to love it would increase double occupancy, and reducing his need to find beds for people.
Romantic of him, huh?
Also with Valentine’s Day came a number of engagements. The wonderful thing about living onboard is meeting people from all over the world. The problem with finding love aboard, is it is from all over the world. Peter of Sweden found Petra of Australia. (They are not engaged, but it is just a matter of time.) Maria, Norwegian, is engaged to Benjy, Filipino.
They then have to answer the question of which country to live in. In the case of Benjy and Maria, this includes learning a new language.
(On the up side, one of them rarely has to see the in-laws.)
In Antigua, just the other day a good portion of the ships crew wore their nicest beachwear for the beach wedding of two crew members.
The reception at a beach front restaurant was cut short by sailing time, 5 pm. (All crew had to be aboard at 4:30 pm.) The bride and groom were punctually at work an hour later, 6pm.
Another oddity of ship life, is the expiration date. Most relationships have an expiration date of the earliest contract end date. We live aboard for one contract, which varies from a few months to ten months. Contract scheduling results in people leaving the ship staggered at random. When two people get together, say Gabor and Kelly, and Kelly leaves September 30 and Gabor December third, then there is often an unspoken agreement that the relationship is over on September 30.
It is possible, with people from different countries, and different schedules, and even working different ships, that couples will never see each other again. Some people will resume or commit to their relationship until they are both onboard again. Some couples do the long distance relationship thing. A lot of crew members have significant others at home whom they don’t see for many months at a time. Then there are even the odd few married couples aboard. Louise and Ben have been married eight years. They live together aboard but rarely have vacation together due to scheduling.
It all makes for an unusual relationship life.
Hope you had a romantic Valentine’s Day, and not just to increase double occupancy.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
When Did Fast Food
Get SO Expensive?
(Keene, New Hampshire October 2005)
Stupid: Either the people who wrote the sign, or the education they received.
Cool: They probably won't charge you ninety-nine dollars for any item on the menu.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Headlines From Around The World
The Prime Minister of Italy has promised not to have sex until April 9th, the date of the general elections.
I don’t know about you, but that is a little more information about the Prime Minister of Italy than I really cared to know.
I wonder if this will improve his chances at the polls
By the way, I have decided “Canal” is a ludicrous understatement.
I don’t know about you, but that is a little more information about the Prime Minister of Italy than I really cared to know.
I wonder if this will improve his chances at the polls
By the way, I have decided “Canal” is a ludicrous understatement.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Pictures of the Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a stunning feat of engineering. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
The statistics surrounding it are astonishing. For example, 30,000 people died in the building of the Panama Canal.
The price of admission is based on tonnage. For us, it was $155,000. And that was just for today’s trip through. We do an about face and go back through, for another $155,000, in a couple days, but with a different group of guests.
I have to be honest, it is a bit eerie to look out the window, while eating breakfast, and see the wall quickly moving down beside us. The rate we rise and fall in the locks is stunning. Unlike an elevator though, it is so even and so gradual you have to be look outside to know you are rising/falling.
And if you ever thought parallel parking was hard, try pulling a 96 foot wide, 51,000 ton ship into a slip with only a feet of clearance on either side. Let me give you an idea how close this is. On deck seven, where I was standing, the ship is wider than deck three, which is where the water line is. When I looked over the side on deck seven while at the top of the locks motion, I was looking at dock, not water. There was no water visible. Given that at the bottom of the lock, the deck seven width has to clear the locks walls, it is mighty close. I imagine I could jump the distance. So that is a few feet clearance on either side of a 96 foot wide ship.
So if you ever feel like complaining about tight parking jobs, don’t complain to our Captain. He has you beat.
In the last two locks, it occurred to me I could share the experience in a cheesy way. So enjoy:
After the last lock, the Captain comes on the public address system, and says, “Well…” And he paused. “That was that.”
um... talk about an undertatement.
Maybe you had to have crossed a continent in a 51,000 ton ship, raised some hundred feet, traveled 50 miles, and lowered, to a different ocean all together, through an amazing display of engineering living well 100 years later, to appreciate what an understatement, “Well… That was that” is.
And you guys were watching some pigskin between overpriced commercials…
The Panama Canal is a stunning feat of engineering. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
The statistics surrounding it are astonishing. For example, 30,000 people died in the building of the Panama Canal.
The price of admission is based on tonnage. For us, it was $155,000. And that was just for today’s trip through. We do an about face and go back through, for another $155,000, in a couple days, but with a different group of guests.
I have to be honest, it is a bit eerie to look out the window, while eating breakfast, and see the wall quickly moving down beside us. The rate we rise and fall in the locks is stunning. Unlike an elevator though, it is so even and so gradual you have to be look outside to know you are rising/falling.
And if you ever thought parallel parking was hard, try pulling a 96 foot wide, 51,000 ton ship into a slip with only a feet of clearance on either side. Let me give you an idea how close this is. On deck seven, where I was standing, the ship is wider than deck three, which is where the water line is. When I looked over the side on deck seven while at the top of the locks motion, I was looking at dock, not water. There was no water visible. Given that at the bottom of the lock, the deck seven width has to clear the locks walls, it is mighty close. I imagine I could jump the distance. So that is a few feet clearance on either side of a 96 foot wide ship.
So if you ever feel like complaining about tight parking jobs, don’t complain to our Captain. He has you beat.
In the last two locks, it occurred to me I could share the experience in a cheesy way. So enjoy:
After the last lock, the Captain comes on the public address system, and says, “Well…” And he paused. “That was that.”
um... talk about an undertatement.
Maybe you had to have crossed a continent in a 51,000 ton ship, raised some hundred feet, traveled 50 miles, and lowered, to a different ocean all together, through an amazing display of engineering living well 100 years later, to appreciate what an understatement, “Well… That was that” is.
And you guys were watching some pigskin between overpriced commercials…
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