Growing sea legs
February 2, 2010
Our current environment resembles a topsy fun park ride….only, with no period of rest during the rocking! I walk zigzags through hallways, constantly bouncing from one wall to the other. Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself by letting you know that I have largely avoided motion sickness. We steered off course today in order to escape more of the large swells we had last night (apparently we tipped up to 23 degrees!), but it seems that whenever we change course there is half an hour or so of enormous waves. The most amusing place to be when this occurs is the dining room, especially during meal time. Chairs slide, plates fall off of tables, people laugh and squeal and topple. Quite an amusement!
There are some things that I wish I could capture with my camera, but I am beginning to think that one reason for their beauty is that I cannot. This morning we were not alone in our ocean adventure! The bridge personnel came onto the intercom to alert us to, first, a pod of 3 whales beside us, cresting slightly and shooting huge vertical puffs of mist out of their blowholes. Just minutes later a school of at least 25 dolphins swam by, as if playfully tagging along. Several cleared the water completely! Their jumps last only fractions of a second, and then they disappear. It was a wonderful little gift before the first meeting of the morning.
ora et labora 
That’s amazing! How do you sleep? Are you strapped in at night? Have you made many friends? Do you sing the song “I’m on a Boat”?
Questions, questions, questions! But most importantly, I hope you’re doing well. Put that awesome camera of yours to good use when you can; I understand what it’s like to be unable to capture your adventures on film, but while they may be poor imitations of your experience, I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that we hunger to see what you see, to experience even one iota of what you’re experiencing.
I’m interested in the answer to Jon’s question: How do you stay in bed under those rock-and-roll conditions? Are you strapped in? Can you actually sleep?
Fortunately, the position of my bed is perpendicular to the length of the ship, meaning I sway head to toe as opposed to side to side. Otherwise I’m sure I would have fallen out by now! I have slept pretty well, just waking up when the swells become very large. Others have had trouble sleeping. We seem to be past the choppy waters now…hopefully it’s smooth sailing from here!
How interesting!!