Day 8

Hello from the Compass Rose. Well, at least that is what our resident astronomer said. This is the area of the planet where they seem to put it on the map (for those of you scratching your heads, the compass rose is that thing on the map which shows which way north, south, east and west are). So the next time you look at a map of the world think of me. We are finishing up our third Sea Day of eight consecutive ones on the way to Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. I intend to go topside with my video camera and do a 360º pan to show what miles and miles and a whole lot more miles of ocean looks like. Last night, after two days of open water sailing we had sailed 2500 miles from Ft. Lauderdale and had 2900 miles to go to reach our next port, Nuku Hiva. Currently, for those of you with GPS, we are at 1º 44' 66" N and 99º 40:65" W.

I'm writing this on day 10 at just about midnight. Sea days might seem to be boring but there are some on the cruise who actually prefer them. After three consecutive days of activity a rest is good but 8 days may be a bit much for me. On the other hand, I'm not even close to being bored yet. There are so many things to do that it is hard to choose.

On Day 8 (Jan 11) I had breakfast on the Lido deck, went to Tai Chi, Vantage group, Astronomy lecture, Lunch, Talk about Nuku Hiva, took a nap, ran about 2.5 miles, had dinner, tried to star gaze, and had a beer with a tablemate who was celebrating her birthday.

The food was all good. Kind of wish it wasn't so good.

Tai Chi needs to step it up or I may go back to my David Caradine DVD. OK, to be fair this was only the second class and our instructor, Lian Sae (sounds pretty authentic right - she talks with a Brooklyn accent, go figure!), has two things to contend with that David doesn't. First, the class has a lot of old people in it (I mean old from my 63 year old perspective). Many are doing what they can from their chairs (and more power to them). The second limitation is more to the point perhaps. That is, we're on a ship! Have you ever tried to balance on one foot while the floor keeps moving? I thought not. So, I have decided to go with her program for a few more classes. It is slowly improving and I have learned some things that David didn't teach me.

The Vantage Group discussion was about Religious Fundamentalism. We will clearly solve all the world's problems before we get to the middle east so you can rest easy.

The Astronomy dude is awesome. He has a great sense of humor and his lectures are quite entertaining (not just to me and other physics geeks, to real people too!)

Apparently Nuku Hiva was the location for the Survivor season in the Marquesas. Who knew. Unfortunately, that may be its claim to fame. We will be porting there but there are no shore excursions and we will be on our own on a small island without much in the way of roads or transportation. I guess you need to have someplace to go to have transportation come to think of it. It is supposed to have some history and some great scenery. Oh, of course there will be souveniers. The word is Tikis.

A sad note. While I was eating lunch I was looking out at the passing ocean and I noticed a piece of trash. Then another , another, and on and on. I hope we were just in a bad patch because if not it appears we have polluted the whole Pacific. I have to hope we are just in a shipping lane and that the trash isn't everywhere.

Star gazing was a bust. In fact we had to leave the forward deck where the lights are dim so the bridge crew (no they don't play cards, they drive the boat!) can see at night. The reason we had to leave was that we were going through a fog bank and getting wet.