Land HO!

4° 42.547' W by 36° 3.821' N. Course: 94° Speed: 8.0 knots

Our journey across the Atlantic is over and even as I write this at 1800
our ship, and the Bibliographic Mariner, has survived the tumults of the
open ocean, the travails of leaking ceilings, the trials of sea disease,
and the torrid heats of sitting atop fuel tanks for hours to pass between
the legendary Straits of Gibraltar.

Africa is to our right (starboard) and more distant to our left (port) is
Europe. Unfortunately for us sea nomads, the land is covered in a deep
haze so that only a shadow of it can be seen. Also, in this lane, there
are many other numerous floating machines (I believe they are called
ships), that funnel from all over the world to this entrance to the
Mediterranean Sea. One of the deck officers pointed out an interesting
looking ship to me called a Ro-Ro. These big, and bulky barge like
vessels are called ‘Ro-Ro’ being short for ‘Roll-on Roll-off.’ They are
apparently a pain to navigate because the have a very shallow draft
(meaning that they are high in the water). I took a picture of one and
will post it with my others tomorrow.

The wind is blowing hard on deck, although it is warm. One of the deck
officers estimated it to be blowing in between 30 to 40 knots.

The mood of everybody, especially at the sight of land, is ebullient and
it is most so in the cases of the cadets, some of whom are making this
trip for the first time.

We move the clocks ahead one last time tonight which will put us 6 hours
ahead of New York. We are due to be docked at 8am tomorrow which about
2am eastern time. Crew who are off duty (which includes myself for three
days) will be able to leave whenever they’d like. The cadets, however,
have to endure one last inspection before they are given shore leave so
right now they are furiously cleaning the ship so that they can get off
tomorrow. I for one would completely hate having to stay on the ship for
extra duty.

They have arranged for three tours while in Spain. The first is a
half-day tour to the village of Nerja where they will have a spelunking
expedition to some caverns. I am opting not to do this since I’ve already
been in caves.

The second tour will be a half day visit to the village of Mijas where
donkey cart rides will occur (as well as an exploration of the town).

The third tour, and the one I am likely to go on, will be a full day
expedition to Granada, where the tour will see the legendary Alhambra, the
Moorish Palace that is supposed to be one of the greatest sites to see in
the country.

The sign up for the tours was quite chaotic.

Each tour is repeated each day and students will be signing up tonight for
the ones they want to go on. Once the cadets get leave, they will be
allowed to enter, with each class having a different curfew. The 3rd and
4th classes (freshmen and sophomores) have a curfew of midnight, 2nd class
(juniors) 1am and 1st class (seniors) 3am. These times of course might
alter depending on how well they behave.

Now even as we near this first port, I am finding it remarkable with how
much alumni in this school are involved. I would say almost half of the
instructors here are alumni of the school, which always provides
interesting conversation when they start comparing the old days to today.
Most notably, the school has liberalized much in the last 30 years – that
is not to say liberal ideology, but rather they have become less rigid in
terms of what the cadets can do. When I offered to two alumni from the
1970s that the current FTE (full time enrolled) is over 1,600 students
they were taken aback since they graduated with only a hundred or so
people.

This is because the school had to change with the times and began offering
non-regimented degrees and graduate programs. The heart of the school is
still the summer sea term, but it also has broadened its scope
substantially, which sometimes rankles old timers.

For example, the other night, one of the old timers was telling the
Captain how these kids should have *nothing.* That is to say, no email, no
computer games, no ipods, etc. I think this would result in *no*
students, but there is a certain appeal I must admit to really doing the
program, and learning the trade in a very old-fashioned and traditional
style. Thankfully for the students, modern desires are usually met (or
maybe occasionally).

So what is the assessment of this trip across the Atlantic? It was by far
one of the most interesting experiences I’ve been on with definite highs
(the day I saw whales) and lows (the bed wetting incident/sea disease).
For the cadets and crew, my feeling is that to them, this was a good
cruise so far since there have been no incidents and we are safely here.

Tomorrow, I’ll be uploading my photos for you folks, and I’ll be sure to
send a batch from Spain before we leave.

Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Joe