WHALES HO! (5/18)

18° 57.424' W by 36° 35.007' N. Course: 102° Speed: 15.4 knots

Today marked the nicest day weather-wise on the cruise heretofore. Clear
skies, and barely any wind except that which was made by our own motion.
The waters had a slow and hypnotic ripple to them that you could stare at
for hours. I took pictures of it, but they will hardly do it justice.

It was in the water, that I saw my first marine wildlife! There was a
large dolphin fish, and then later, a sea turtle about the size of a
soccer ball. Unfortunately, it was too quick so I couldn’t snap a
picture.

I also went up to the bow of the ship in the morning and joined the cadet
who was on watch. I asked him about what they do on watch. As one might
suspect, they watch! They are posted all about the ship and have to
report in anything they see which would include whales, but not dolphins.
Why the porpoises would be so discriminated against, I would imagine has
to do with their size.

The cadet in question, who will remain nameless, then began to complain to
me about how much “Watch sucks.” They are put on watch in four hour
shifts, and every hour, they relocate to a new position on the ship.
“Sometimes,” he told me. “The bridge already tells me what’s out there
because they have radar. I don’t see the point of doing this if they
already know what’s out there and see it before me!”

I left before he could devolve into more of a tirade against the evils of
watch standing. I then went up to the bridge which I took some more
photos (I’ll upload them when I get to Spain), and then went to the Chart
room, where the students practice their navigation.

Now the highlight of the day was the drills. Abandon ship, and fire and
safety drills. Aside from what I’ve previously described about drills,
there were two other occurrences during this drill which makes them
notable. First, I saw two students given 10 demerits for horsing around
during the drill. This will equate to 2 ED (extra duty) for them which is
4 hours total each. Anybody with over 5 ED’s will not be getting liberty
at Malaga.

The other thing, was I saw WHALES! I only caught a glimpse of them as
they were surfacing, and it was hard to tell how big they were, but I
believe there were three. I suspect to my eye they were bigger than they
actually were, and were probably merely Pilot Whales. Still, it was
really cool to see them. Unfortunately, this occurred during the drills,
so it distracted enough of the cadets to let them get a good tongue
lashing (if not more demerits).

The other good news is that our crashed email system is back online.
However, I suspect that a large amount of incoming emails that I was
supposed to get got lost. It was super annoying, especially because I
have been enjoying communicating with everybody back home.

In any case, we should be getting to the Straits of Gibraltar within the
next day or so, so this will be our last day completely out of the sight
of land. I am looking forward to passing the Pillars of Hercules and
nearing our first port.

Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Joe