The Bay of Biscay

As we sail full steam ahead into the Bay of Biscay the rough seas have
continued. This time, however, the Bibliographic Mariner has learned his
lesson and has firmly secured everything with bungee cords. I have had no
incidents of flying book carts!

In fact, although we are in a 10 foot swell, it is not nearly as obnoxious
as our initial crossing (or I have learned to tolerate it better). I have
only had one teeny passing bout of sea disease, and now I’m fine.

On the plus side I did see a pod of small dolphins today. They couldn’t
have been more than four or five feet long as they followed the ship and
were playing. There was also a whale sighting (dead ahead), but I didn’t
see the leviathan unfortunately. Yet I ponder what the ship would do if
the whale decided if he didn’t want to move. Do we play chicken with it?

I firmly believe there is a conspiracy aboard. This is not a conspiracy
to mutiny, but a conspiracy to make all the hands grotesquely obese. For
dinner tonight we were served chicken fried steak with some sort of cream
sauce on top, as well as cheese grits. I forwent any hint of green in
this meal and the current capacity of my innards is at full. Naturally,
the slow rocking of the ship does not aid digestion. Still, it was a very
good meal.

So today is my last full day behind the desk. Tomorrow, I am doing
abbreviated hours in the evening. The extra time will be spent packing
and cleaning up my mess for Richard, my replacement (this may take hours)..

Also, I was inundated with a flood of donations today. It seems that as
some of the crew wraps things up, they want to get rid of their of their
paperbacks and other material they don’t want to bring home. So among
today’s contributions were a couple of Clive Cussler books, a book on
spider silk (a rather esoteric topic), flies (I guess if you have a book
on spider silk, it naturally follows to have one on flies), snowflakes,
and covert Navy SEAL operations. The largest donation came in the form of
a stack of Life magazines that one of the officers thought the cadets
might find interesting since they are from the 1960s and 70s. On the
covers: “Disney World Opens,” “Ali vs. Frazier” (with photos taken by
Frank Sinatra), “The Love and Terror Cult” (with a photo of Charles
Manson), “Paul Mcartney and Linda,” “John Lennon” (psychedelic photo),
“Marijuana: At least 12 million Americans have now tried it. Are
penalties too severe? Should it be legalized?” (amazing how the debate is
the same), etc.

You get the idea.

So I need to figure out what to do with these. On the one hand they are
interesting to look at for historic value, but on the other, they make my
library seem even more out of date! Oh what to do. Maybe I’ll just let
Richard figure it out.

You see, that is the best part about being a short-timer. All the hard
decisions can be passed onto the new guy!

Anyway…

The cadets are now finishing up their tests, so tomorrow should be a free
day for them (more or less). This does not mean that they are free not to
work, so I am still expecting a noisome onslaught in the morning.

In other news, I have completed the Dublin port guide and have begun
distribution. Of the sites the cadets are asking about two in particular
have come up repeatedly: The Old Jameson Distillery and the Guinness
Factory. These are *actually* supposedly really cool museums and high on
the tourist itinerary, but this observation is merely an insight into the
mind of our future mariners.

That’s all for today!

Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Joe