13 April - The iPod Affair

A funny thing happened on the way to the foc'sle. Today was a workout day for me (I know, it should be every day, but it isn't), and as customary I climbed up to Ops to fetch my iPod music player. For those who don't know, this is a new device about the size of a deck of cards, which stores about 1,000 songs in a little hard drive. It's like the ultimate Walkman, and I got it for this trip so I wouldn't have to bring CD's. It has been popular on watch, and alternates with a CD Walkman as our on-duty source of music. So I, quite graciously I must say, leave it for the watchstanders.

So anyway, I got the iPod, chatted with Sue and the gang, got catcalls for a bad joke, and headed down a deck and forward to the foc'sle. After a bit of stretching, I sat on the rowing machine, turned on the iPod and went to select from the myriad of music at my disposal and chose ... Barry Manilow singing "At the Copa Cabana". I selected this because that was my only choice!

I made the mistake of explaining to Shawn and Sue how it works. They couldn't resist playing with it and managed to wipe its disk clean. Normal people would think "Oh no, what will I tell Dave?" Did they think that? NO! They thought, "How can we make a practical joke out of this situation?" Since they couldn't restore it the way it was, they reloaded it with one song. You got it.

16 (17) April - Hot Tubs & Star Shots

Over the last couple of days, RJ rigged up a real treat for us: a "hot tub". It has been really hot and sultry for a while, and we stare at water we can't swim in all day. So RJ (with help from Bruce, I'm sure) fashioned a box about 4X4 feet, 2 1/2 feet deep, lined it with a large blue plastic tarp, sealed the leaks, and ran a hose from the fire main into it. The fire main draws on seawater, so there is an endless supply. He runs the hose full blast into it, and just lets it overflow onto the weather deck, near an overboard drain. As the ship rolls, it sloshes out and refills, always keeping near full. It's a hot tub! It is so relaxing, especially after a workout, and the warm seawater feels nice. My aunt already thinks this is a pleasure cruise, and I'm afraid that this addition does nothing to dispel that assessment.

Julie and Kristin relaxing after a hard days work.

Spence and I got up at 0430 to get morning stars, but it was somewhat cloudy so we couldn't see the horizon in the sextant. Also, the best part of the horizon was behind our well-lit ship, so you couldn't see it. It's good to experience the practical problems.

Basically, Spence and I (with part-time help from Bill, Jonathan, and Sue) are navigating to Tarawa using only the ship's course by compass, speed by engine setting, and the sky. No GPS or other electronic means, other than using the clock for accurate time. This is more or less equivalent to the state of the art of navigation around the time of WW II, and it's useful as an exercise because we often deal with data from that era. It's also fun in a nerdy sort of way.

Crew members taking a well earned break