12 Dec 2003 - Sixth day at sea
0815
- I went up to the bridge at about 0700 and both Anatoly (Chief Engineer)
and Emil (1st Officer) were there. I've found talk around the mess
table to be fairly inhibited but in this situation, they were very talkative.
They expressed some interest in the fact that I have not been across the equator
in a ship before. We are scheduled to cross around 1800 tonight and
I would not be surprised if there wasn't a small ceremony of some sort.
Then we went off on a long talk about military service and the pros and cons in our three countries. Then it was time for breakfast. I think I may visit the bridge more on the 0400 to 0800 watch. If they are willing to talk, I'd love to engage them and learn all about them and their lives and the ship and etc.
At 0807, we were at 3.31N, 145.56W.
The weather has cleared up a lot today. Mostly sky and a few clouds. Promises to be hot except the wind will cool us. And we have a strong head wind though the sea is quiet.
1545 - Just came back from 1500 coffee with John. We always find something interesting to talk about. We went through various authors we've read today.
I finished a nice chunk of programming today so about 1300, I decided to read for a few hours. I grabbed The Emergence of Everything by Morowitz and went up to the bow with a pillow for my back (leaning against the iron rails is hard). I read for about 40 minutes but I got worried that I might misjudge the sun. It is high and hot though the wind makes everything seem a lot cooler.
After I quit that, I came back to my cabin and took out the folding chair onto the deck/balcony just outside. It was shaded there and I read more of Morowitz until I O.D.'d on him. He's giving a very long lead up to his subject which is emergence'. If it's all going to be like the lead in, I'll probably bail but I'm hoping he'll start dishing out some stuff soon that will make reading the book worth while. I also get that he's got a personal agenda in which he's going to try to weave his religious convictions into his explanations of the various levels of existence as seen through the lens of Complexity and Emergence. I'd as soon that he left that out and just gave me the facts as clearly as he can and leave me to make up my own mind on such matters. Well, we'll see.
Then I decide to read something lighter - though in fact it could hardly be called light in some respects. I grabbed a copy of The Goebbels Diaries - 1942-1943 published in 1948. Sharon doesn't understand why I read stuff like this but I think it is important to try to have some understanding of how such people think.
So far, I've just gone through the introductory material but it looks like it will be interesting.
At 1330 we were at 2.11N, 146.56W. The equator's getting close.
1930 - Back from dinner. Anatoly talked with John and I for a long time after dinner. He was telling us about various problems in Poland and the Ukraine where he was recently. We went on for a long time about the various political systems and health care and insurance and contracts and etc. But at the end, he smiled and said that his life was good and he meant it. He has a good contract as chief engineer with a German company. Each time his contract finishes, there's another waiting. His wages are tax-free because he works as an ex-patriot. His expenses are nil because the ship feeds and houses him. He ends a contract and goes home with a chunk of money in his pocket. He travels all over the world.
He said that in the Second World War, both his parents were taken to Germany as slave laborers in the factories - so, how could the life he has be bad?
I had to smile because he surprised me since all the stuff we'd been talking about was problem oriented. He's happy about his life as a sailor.
We're over the equator. I haven't taken a GPS fix, but I'm sure we are.
2246 - Nope, we weren't. It just happened at 2244 at 0.0, 148.34W. It was beautiful out there. The stars were burning in a dark sky and near the horizon to the east, hung a 2/3s moon pointing and illuminating the water with silver. In the sky was a large V shaped cloud with the bottom of the V just above the moon and its two arms reaching like huge black sentinels covering half the span of the sky. And beneath it all, the ship shaking and grumbling through an empty sea. Inexpressible, but for a moment, it was mine.