04 Dec 2003 - we depart from Oakland & sail to Los Angeles
I went to bed last night about midnight. About 0200 I could feel that the ship moving. Outside, a tugboat was along side pushing the stern towards the dock. We were scheduled to leave at 0400 but apparently the the loading finished early. I got up and dressed warmly and went outside to watch.
When I went on deck, the ship was away from the dock and slowly moving up the channel. To the starboard (right) side, we were passing other ships still tied up and loading. On the port side, there was undeveloped land with a few odd buildings without lights here and there. Ahead, out past the end of the harbor channel, the bay opened up and in the distance, I could see the Oakland Bay Bridge with traffic passing over it.
It was cold and windy so I spent a lot of time figuring out where I could stand for wind shelter and yet still see. I brought my GPS unit out (thank, Alicia and Gene!). It worked like a champ.
Once we passed under the bridge, we hit a fog bank in the bay. The ship began sounding its horn in one long blast every two or three minutes. I fired up the GPS and even though I couldn't see around me in the fog, I could see where we were and what we were passing on its screen.
We sailed under the bridge and to the east of Treasure Island and then angled straight towards Angel Island. On the GPS it showed little circles on or near the water and they contained letters in them like 'W' and 'R'. I figured out pretty soon that these are navigation lights at known positions. Once I understood, I could pick them out of the fog when it wasn't too thick.
When we neared Angel Island, we turned to port and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge. I was really looking forward to seeing the ship ass under it but there wasn't much to see. We were pretty close to it before you could see the lights above us. To our port side, we could hear the horns of other ships announcing their locations in the fog.
I stayed up on the bridge wing (not sure if that's the right name but it is the uncovered part of the bridge that sticks out to the side) and watched our progress towards the open sea on the GPS. At one point, the captain walked up in the dark and surprised me. I think he was curious to see what I was doing there with my small device.
I stuck around until we passed out into the open sea and I could feel the swells getting bigger. Then I went in a took a Dramamine as a preventative against seasickness and I went to bed again about 0330.
At 0730, I went down to breakfast. The officer's mess is on Deck B and my cabin is on deck E so it is three flights of steep stairs each time. Great for the old legs. The Captain was there briefly. I had a big mushroom omelet and then went back to bed.
1000 - I woke and looked out and we were stopped. That bore investigating so I got up again and headed up to the bridge which I hadn't actually entered yet.
Before I went into the bridge, I got the GPS out and determined that we were at 36.16N, 122.18W which is about 24 miles off shore from Big Sur.
The Captain and Kyaw Min Oo (Third in command) were there and the Captain told me that we were early so we were going to sit here until it was time to proceed to LA.
I asked him about E-mail and he said there was none because the diskette drive on the E-mail computer was broken. He told me that they'd tried to get one in Australia and it would have taken three weeks! I told him I have a lot of computer experience and I could help if he liked. He said they should get a diskette drive in LA.
I had a good look around the bridge. Very modern compared to the Akademic Shulakin which I was on in '99.
1230 - Just had lunch. Meals so far are poorly attended events. I think the most I've seen is four people at the table. The captain and I seem always to be there. There are 22 people in the crew and eight of them are officers. I looked at the roster on the bridge. The big majority of the crew are from Myanmar and the rest are Eastern European. Polish, Romanian and Latvian.
With so few people, I've decided it is best to just eat what's put in front of me rather than requesting non-meat items. Meals are interesting. Usually, there's something on the plate I don't recognize. Last night, there was something I thought might be sauerkraut but it tasted completely different and it was good. Today, at lunch, we had vegetable that was cut like you might cut cabbage but it was an intense purple. Maybe it was a form of cabbage.
The Captain and I talked about Arnold Swartzeneger, the Kennedy assassinations and global warming today. Michael, the electrician, told me he's jet lagged after flying from Poland to be on-board just be fore we sailed.
1309 - We're underway again.
1342 - Just came back from a big exploratory walk. I went down onto the main deck aft and then walked all the way up to the bow on the port side and then back to the stern again on the starboard side. Very interesting. I took a lot of photos.
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1630 - I've been working on a long E-mail about the North Kelsey street development in Monroe and Ron Sher, a developer. I decided to take the GPS and go outside and see where we are. We were at 35.21N 121.42W @ 1620. That's about 30 miles off the coast by Morro Bay.
1930 - My long E-mail is done and ready to send once I get ashore tomorrow. I've setup my laptop so that I can send and receive E-mail using my E-mail server at home. This assumes I can link to the Internet via T*Mobile at a Starbucks.
Went to supper tonight and there wasn't a soul there. I think I'm going to start carrying a book with me for those times. There are eight officers and I think four of them are from Myanmar and I think they must eat with the crew rather than the other officers as I've never seen them in the officer's mess. In general, the Myanmarese are friendly and ready with a smile. The Eastern Europeans are more reserved. I think it is work for them to talk English so they are not keen on doing a lot of it.
Currently, it is dark and the sea is smooth. I haven't had any problem with seasickness. I took two Dramamine's last night as a preventative. I didn't like the way they made me feel (slightly drugged and head-achy) but they seemed to do the trick. Maybe I'll adapt this time without have to enjoy 12 hours of toilet hugging time.
2220 - Just finished watching the Mystic Masseur which was based on a book by V.S. Naipal. Excellent.
Time is so strange. Yesterday was a very long day. I came to the ship, dropped my bags and ate lunch and then left again to tour the Berkeley campus and then return my rental car. After that, I returned to the ship and ate supper. Then I went to bed at midnight and got up again at 0200 to watch the ship leave SF Bay. And, then there was today. It seems like I've been here for three or four days and I only just arrived yesterday.