Too Square to be a Mate

-71° 24.472' W by 40° 51.318' N. Course: 133° Speed: 14.1 knots

Since our last entry we have had some email illnesses, but hopefully that
has passed. We are now under steam and have left Montauk to begin the
crossing of the Homeric wine dark sea. The last shreds of land are
passing slowly out of sight and the ship has a slight, rolling feeling but
generally smooth. So far so good and have not had to draw upon my vast
stores of Dramamine.

The temperature of the room was much better last night as well. It was
still cold, but not nearly as bitter from the night before. Also, the
machinery seems to have come off its caffeine high and seems a bit
quieter. The only strangish thing about my sleep was that upon entering
my cabin, my roommate (and no we haven’t talked about the weather yet) was
sitting on the chair conked out asleep. He is also a very deep sleeper in
that he did not even move when I entered. I thought he might have been
dead – but he’s still ticking. In fact, he slept in that position all
night – just sitting on the chair. I imagine he may prefer that to the
very thin-matressed bed. I am even surprised that I was able to sleep
myself with him just sitting there.

I have just come to the realization that at least till we get to Malaga, I
am not going to know complete silence, because the machinery provides a
constant backdrop of noise – if you’ve ever seen the movie “2001”, it can
be compared to the last scenes where Bowman is wandering through those
weird rooms and there is that odd noise-like muttering in the back.

After my last entry, I had an inspection from the Admiral. He seemed to
like the shape of the library, and he commented on the heat, but there
doesn’t seem to be much that can be done about it until some of the fuel
under my feet is burned off. In fact, the heat radiates from the floor
itself which creates a rather torrid and humid climate that is similar to
a sauna and steamroom combined.

The Admiral also debarked at Montauk last night as well as at least one
crew member who had a seizure of some kind.

Today I worked out for the first time aboard ship. I used the punching
bag and the elliptical trainer. It is interesting using the bag while the
ship is underway since there is a slight roll to floor which makes one
think that they are drunk. On really heavy rolls, this would be an
excellent method of training Drunken Style Kung Fu.

After this, I proceeded to the mess deck where I found they had burritos
for lunch, but I wasn’t feeling the love, so I opted for a salad. Just as
I was finishing getting my salad, a gruff looking Engineer called over,
“Hey, I gotta question for you.”

I opted to play tough and replied DeNiroishly, “Are you talkin’ to me?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Who are you?”

At this I laughed since not to know me is not to know what the Sun or Moon
are. So I said I was the librarian. “Ah,” he said, “I see. I thought
they were putting on the other guy – the guy with the Colonel Sanders
beard…. You looked too square to be a Mate.”

By the word “square” of course I had to consult my passé slang internal
lexicon. Luckily, I am a big fan of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Maybe
just by me liking Sinatra makes me a square by definition. In any event,
I sat down with him and some of the other engineers and began to make
small talk.

The conversation in this case was demonstrative of the caste system within
this ship that I am just beginning to realize. Caste may be a wrong term
for it, but rather there are definite divisions aboard between the Deck
and Engineering departments and very little social interaction from what I
can tell. This may be in part from the nature of the training curriculum
here, or it might be otherwise. In any event almost all those I have met
seem to know their business very well.

And of course an update on our course. I have heard it is still up in the
air whether or not we go to Greece, but there is a very good chance of us
going to Split, Croatia instead.

That’s all for today.

Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Joe