... after the sailing through a mediterannean gale last night's sale was, to use the expression, a relative breeze ... today things've slowly calmed in terms of the ship's pitching and rolling, but the wind is still over forty-five miles-per-hour across the exposed decks ...
... six levels below the "poop deck" i found a stowaway ... the term, by the way, has absolutely nothing to do with—well, with you-know-what ... it's from the latin (through french), puppis, meaning "stern" ... it probably dates from when the roman galleys had only one below-deck level, so the puppis was the highest deck at the rear of the ship ... okay, so pa told us it was called that 'cause in order for the sailors to keep a neat ship when they needed to do their "business" they had to hang their—right, you get the picture ... truthfully, i like pa's definition better ...
... the lido cafe salad section, custom layered as you like ...
... one of the crew prepares for lunch ...
... on deck crew members are constantly scraping and painting ...
... five-hundred years ago, along this very same coast of spain, i'm sure one of columbus' sailors grumbled, "seems like we never catch up with it, why doesn't he just pull the plug and beg himself a new ship" ...
... here on the sea rust is an enemy—one that no matter how hard or diligently they work, in the end the rust'll still be victorious ...
... "patrick," who seems to have a built-in rust radar ...
... "is a little leak, sir" ... hmmmm, not something i really like hearing while i'm sailing in the middle of a very, very deep sea ...
... some of the dining crew take the word "ham" to heart ...
... 100% task focussed, i was impressed ...
... my lunch ... breaded fish, fresh green beans, noodles with gravy, and, just to fill the spot on the plate, some excellent coconut curry chicken ...
... my shipboard nemesis, ma's bread pudding ... ohhhhh, for this the wisdom of a great philosophy lesson rings in my ears ... "resistance is futile" ...
... one of the engineers managed to latch on to a cell tower along the spanish coast ... he's got two daughters back in croatia that he misses ... "this is a good job, i earn a nice salary and i'm treated well, but it isn't easy being away" ... we chatted for awhile about this and finally agreed that being the "best dad possible" was about other things ... he seemed very nice, i feel good he's keeping the motors going smoothly ...
... on the promenade deck, no matter the wind nor the spray, there's always at least one doing the "3-1/2 laps to the mile" circuit ...
... what a beautiful day it is ...