May 22

If a tourist says he’s a traveler, then what’s a traveler?

~myself

Wow, we are sailing. This morning, upon awakening, I had the sudden realization that what I considered my wall was now my floor. Its something you have to get used to on a sailing ship. Anyways, since it is the first time we have had some semi-serious sailing this semester it is time for much celebration. Well, at least everyone just seems happier. Last night (after leaving Italy) our “free time” was filled with a couple hours of sail-manoeuvres as we set, and sequentially doused various sails. Finally we ended up with a solid set o’sails and now are moving along at a merry 7.5 knots. (at least last time I checked)

On slightly worse news, it’s a day 5 today, which means no spares for me. (My day began at 0400 today, and will finish at around 1800) …painful I know.

Oh yea, I almost forgot. In Italy, during a very interesting 2 hours standing gangway, I happened to talk to a couple travelers and locals who were equally as interested in the ship as I was in them. All were extremely interesting and I happened to record a couple of notes about each. My plan is that for the rest of my gangway watches, I shall record the stories of the people who I meet, and post them here for you all to read. If I can get pictures of the people it would be a plus, but very difficult. You try asking a stranger if you could take their picture. So look forward to it, it’s a’gonna be fun.

May 23

Take what you can from your dreams; Make them as real as possible.

~D. Mathews

Memory is forever. Well, that’s the idea.

Oh and a much deeper quote:

Fresh Frozen Fish

~Box at the Stern

Last night I got up, as usual, for my 0400-0600 night watch. Usually that means I would be awake for around 45 minutes and asleep for an hour n’15 minutes. Not too shabby neh? However, last night was much much worse. My watch and I got up at the regular time and stayed up, setting’n’dousing sails until the next change of watch (0600). It was a painful night, involving many new blisters and aching limbs.

Another experience to remember: Only but 120 minutes before this time of 1805hours, I finished spending an enjoyable time learning new things about lines. More accurately, I spent my two hours of day-watch learning how to short-splice. Yup, that thing sailers do to attach two ropes together; and heck, it’s much easier than it looks. Funny, I just considered a hour of work easy. Well, the actual splice didn’t take an hour, but with setting up and all that jazz, well it sure adds up. Oh, and my second hour was spent whipping up some sexy whippings. Maybe in Poland I can show those who come my various additions to the ship. That would be fun.

And today’s letter is O: Orange Orang-utans eat O-rings.

May 24 (1130hours)

Dear mom, what do we leave behind when we cross a frontier?

Each moment seems split in two

Melancholy for what is left behind

and the excitement of entering a new land.

~The Motorcycle Diaries

That has to be one of my favourite quotes. Damn it’s good. Phiew. As you will probably imagine, in order for me to suddenly come upon this beauty, I probably just watched the Motorcycle diaries. Well your right! Here’s your sign.

Oh and the movie is good too. I recommend seeing it. (make sure it has English subtitles unless you want to practice your Spanish)

In other news, I am reading “The Stone Angel” in English and I really like it. According to everyone else (including Ms. Harris funnily enough), the book is a bore. Eh, some people like it some people don’t. So, I’m not saying you’ll like it, but if you need a quick read that gets you thinking consider picking it up.

Uhhh what else? Well, I think I’ll mount my laptop (the actual computer) up behind my screen today. It’ll save me the annoyance of down rigging it every night and then setting it back up the next morning. I love saving my own time. Its such a nice feeling.

Last night we had another bout of sail manoeuvres. However this time it was worse. First, I wasn’t standing ‘till 0430, so I didn’t bother to sleep the first 30 mins… What’s more, after my watch was done with, we set the main staysail at 0445. Soon later (around 0530) we began the readying of the Royal and the Main, which we sequentially set at 0600 (yes that means my watch lasted from 0400-0630, 30 mins longer than normal…) Yet the worst part of all was that since I figured fitness wouldn’t be cancelled due to weather, I simply stayed up till 0700. Then it was cancelled. I won’t continue, but it was a pretty heavy duty morning to say the least. I assume I’ll crash sometime this afternoon… Probably in class.

Of course, all this complaining really isn’t serious. I really love sail-manoeuvres and enjoy working hard with my crew-mates. I can make up the sleep lost another time… As it is, I am young which apparently means I bounce back from things like this. That’s good.

May 24 (1900hours)

I didn’t fall asleep. Well, I almost fell asleep but I was saved by the bell (er, end of class) at which time I returned to my cabin thinking about the upcoming food. Mmm, food, tasty but rarely filling.

What to write, what to write? Perhaps the humour in Alex P? He just walked right into a job jar. That is, he was late for class. Too bad, this is the last class of the day… thus in an hour he will spend 30 minutes doing something undoubtedly disgusting.

Has anyone heard of “Abby Road”? I don’t know the specifics but apparently it relates to a famous picture on a Beatles cover. Well, a couple buddies and I have faithfully recreated the picture amid the dense streets of Italy. It’ll be available for showing whenever I get online.

Oh, before I forget, let me tell you a short Italy tale… more specifically the details of our port-program…….

It was early in the morning when we left to a lookout point above Cagliari, and it was soon later that we were once again on our way. Our second stop was Nora, an ancient village that had gone through countless changes in management. You think department stores have complaints, try being re-colonized hundreds of times by people who hate you. Yea, that sucks. But, the real reason I am spending my time explaining the time I spent on that great day was the beauties of San Sparati. Indeed, a city after my mothers heart. The walls of the city are required to be painted white too allow for the proper “going abouts” in the city. Curious? The city is an art town, where any artist can just get up and paint. Anywhere. There are beautiful murals, statues, paintings, creative works, etc. decorating every surface of the city. I wish I could have met one of the inhabitants. Stay tuned for pictures… Oh and, to top it all off we finished the tour of the town in an amazing “singing” rock garden. Essentially this certain sculptor creates abstract rock carvings that have an interesting grid like pattern engraved into a face. Upon tapping or rubbing these tiny grid-squares a beautiful hum rolls out of the stones, produced from the vibration of the grid. Its amazing in everyway something can be amazing. Indeed!

*cough*class*cough*