Come Sail Away

12/21/2008
It Sunday here. Still Saturday night for you lowly Norte Americanos. For the most part, this is a day of rest for us while out at sea. I still had to work mid to 0400 but I was able to sleep in. Of course, I didn't : (( , my body is used to getting up after a few hours and why screw up my sleep pattern for one day.

Excuse me if some of these messages are in different formats. I wasn't able to get my mil copy of Office before I departed and didn't pay the upgrade from the trial offer. I just realized that I can only open "Word" six more times. Ooops. It will be straightend up some time in the future.

We have finished our weekly cleanup of our humble abode here. It smells clean and fresh for the moment.

The equator is behind us now. We are making our way up towards the NW point of Indonesia and into the Strait of Malacca (one of the original pirate enclaves).

The fishing boat traffic is starting to pick up. Seriously, if I were out in a small wooden boat and near shipping lanes, I would light up my boat with more than a flash light. I can't count the number of close calls on boats that seem to appear out of nowhere. Suddenly, you see a guy waving a flash light at you. And they don't move. They are expecting/hoping you will veer off. They don't seem to understand that steel beats wood every time!

We have made our pirate preparedness a top priority. Fire hoses and spotlights. Oooh, they're scared now! Well, it has worked so far (once again (this happens often here), Richard knocks on wood vigorously).

We pull into Singapore Christmas morning. We won't be there long (12-20 hrs). Hopefully, I can get ashore to take care of my email and pick up a few things. Hmmm, maybe a Hooters Singapore shirt! LOL.

More flashbacks here. My trip over here wasn't anything special, except for its length. New Orleans 33F to Chicago 22F to Tokyo 55F to Singapore 85F. All in about 30 hrs of travel. I got lucky, no really lengthy layovers.

I just barely had some time to grab some sushi to go in Tokyo. You have to grab something at the airport. I don't think it is physically possible to survive 30 hrs on airline food alone. How many bags of pretzels or peanuts can a man eat?

We arrived at our hotel aroun 0130, met the ship the next morning at 0900 and the nightmare began. I will try to get some pictures from the outside of the ship. Then you will have a slight idea of our sense of foreboding and as we got closer and the huge amounts of rust became more and more apparent.

Seeing that much neglect so easily is a sure sign of lots of stuff that you haven't seen yet. And this ship has proven that theory in spades.

Wow, I bought the Trapt Cd the other day. I was looking for some new music. My advice, look elsewhere! I am deleting these songs as quickly as I can listen to them. I want my money back!

It almost time for a little work out here. We haven't much of a gym. The few pieces we do have are outside on a dirty rusty deck. A couple of plates, worn out bench and a pullup bar. The hardest part is having nothing for cardio besides walking up and down the stairs here. It was sooo nice to get out on the island and go for a run.

The gym situation is one of the hardest parts here. That has always been my refuge when on a ship. A good place to work out the stresses of confinement.

Sometimes, shipping isn't much different than jail. I come up for parole in a few months! Actually, prisoners have more rights; cable, gyms, and I think their rooms are bigger than ours.

I need to go do something before bed time. Maybe grab a book, that seems like the best option.

And it is only 1400 (2pm folks!) I hope I can sleep more than a few hours at a time once I get home....