picture of a chunk of tree with the word "log" on it
March 28 - April 8
Cape Town to Salvador
Fred Hansen, Winter, 2005
 FRED Home


Monday, March 28
Beautiful morning. I awoke early enough (6:30) to see the backside of Table Mountain; it too has a flat top.

Diplomatic briefing after breakfast. Cape Town has more rapes and murders than the US. But we "should be safe" in the area where we docked. And there is much to do in Cape Town.

To get off the ship, however, there was a line with about an hour wait. I lost it. If I could have done something with the good will earned by doing global studies notes, it would have been to go to the head of lines. But no one even noticed me. Now I think I really do want to go home. I have yet to discuss this w/ S, who is usually too busy doing something to talk. Yesterday afternoon it was a book; last night it was Hotel Rwanda with Don Cheadle. We are supposed to go to Table Mountain around dinner time. But it will probably be dark by the time she returns from her trip to Robben Island and gets ready to debark.

My anger was so great I had to exercise immediately.
Exercise: eliptical 2.3 mi 33 minutes
I am now able to sit still and watch

Hotel Rwanda reminds me of Schindler's list. In each case the hero sets about saving the hides of a select group of people who have, willy-nilly, come under his protection. In the meantime, millions of others are destroyed by processes jujst as random as those that brought the saved souls under his protection.

Speakers at the pre-port lectures have suggested that I have not really visited Cape Town until I have visited a township.  Somehow it is important that I should see the misery that makes possible the opulence of Cape Town. If it were to be an experience that might shape my future life, perhaps I should go; but I already have plans for whatever future is left to me.  It is not clear to me that seeing the misery of others would do much to lift my own misery. It's not as though I were a proven leader-of-men who could bring about a change in cultures forged over centuries.

This afternoon I am making one last stab at entering the old back-log of logs. Perhaps that may be a key to my present malaise.

S did return from Robben island  in time to go get money and then  take a taxi to Table Mountain. Closed. So we taxied on to lookout point to see the sunset. The only way we got out of there without bogging down in traffic was to leave before the sun actually set. So we did get back to the wharf and have dinner.

When getting money, I wanted US50$ so I multiplied 50 times the six rands to the dollar and got 3000 Rand. Egad. And the sad part is S and E spent it all.

The port area in Cape Town is a glorious shopping mall worthy of the Hamptons. Lots of up-scale shops well beyond anything I would want to buy. It is hard to believe, standing there, how many poor people are in the townships. South Africa mostly looks like a wealthy first world country. It seems to me, however, that it is easy to have a wealthy looking country if you arrange to have 40% unemployment. Wages stay down because there are so many eager to take any job at all.

I heard later that the government is 100% Xhosa. All other tribes are excluded. Our taxi driver was himself Xhosa. So, how will other tribes fare in the new South Africa? Time will tell. Can a country with a history of brutal repression put aside that history? (The Russians threw out the tsars, but their Communist successors behaved not much differently. Stalin killed millions.)

Tuesday, March 29

This day was my day for "Cycling in the Winelands". As with most tours, it turned out to be other than as described and not quite as much fun. Still, It was a fine trip and I am glad to have done it.

On the way to the cycling area, I saw my first township. A big bunch of shacks. Two surprises: It was not as vast as I imagined. There were electric power poles supplying electricity to each shack. As in old England, people buy electricity as they are able. In England they put shillings in a slot. In Africa they buy smart cards at a store and insert these into a reader on their power meter. Water is provided free, but with only one faucet for every 50-60 shacks. (Maximum walk, about 7 shacks or 50 meters.) There are concrete latrines on the periphery of the township/squatter areas, but there are also informal pit toilets throughout. There is no gargabe collection service. There are no roads and thus no access for fire vehicles. Once started, fire can destroy an entire area. Electricity has helped by reducing the need for open fires.

The area of the originally scheduled for our cycle tour had had a fire. The chosen alternative site was in a park at the end of a valley. It was uphill for the fisrt half, we stoped at a bridge over the valley's stream, then downhill back to the start. My most fun was spotting a hut up the side of the valley near a stand of planted pines. I told a companion that that was the herders hut for the pines. There was a satisfying second of acceptance and then a wonderful change of expression as reality dawned.

In wine making, oak trees make barrels for aging wine and cork trees  make bottle corks. Both types of tree grow in the wine area. Indeed, the oak trees are national monuments. But both tree types grow too fast in South Africa. Their wood is not dense, so they let air seep through and  spoil the wine. A world wide shortage of cork is forcing more use of plastic corks and screw tops. These are impervious to air and quite satisfactory for white wines. It is still not known if the cork is important to the quality of red wine, so cork is till used for those wines.

After the park we cycled on to a vineyard for our first winetasting. It was noon, but lunch was not to be. After drinking, we had to cycle on for half an hour to a store, Oom Samie's. (They're lucky none of us were drunk enough to have an accident. The route was along a moderately busy road.) We had to shop for half an hour while they loaded the bike's on the truck. Then more bus ride onward to another winery. Finally, after more winetasting, we got lunch at 2:30. By then it tasted really good. Afterward the vineyard manager gave us a cursory tour through the cellar: intake area, yeasting area, and champagne recorkery. There were bottles being twisted in the champagne area, but he described a machine we did not see; a machine that held a whole bunch of bottles and titlted them en masse.

There were the usual oak barrels for red wine in the yeasting area. The barrels cost over US $1000 and can be used only three or four times. In the champagne area we noticed large boxes of sand 2 meters square and a meter high. Upon inquiry we learned that the sand covered a sheet of plastic covering the real contents: oak chips. For some red wines the process of aging in a barrel is simulated by simply dumping the chips into the wine in a large still vat. Sigh: One more example of using up our resources.

After a long bus ride home, we returned to the ship.

Wednesday, March 30

The first day of this trip was so disappointing that I wrote a review and pretty much lambasted the trip and the entire SAS field program. As typical of a field office trip, the itinerary was over-full, with too many extraneous visits and too little time to explore the key sites. Meals were scheduled at irregular hours and the schedule was not met, leaving meals at ridiculous hours. (S suggested before this trip that I should always carry a bit of food. Because, she claimed, I get grumpy when not fed. I must ruefully own up to this failing. Anyway, I snacked appropriately and believe I was not as grumpy and testy as in the past. You'll have to ask one of my companions if my belief is justified.)  This trip did avoid the usual manditory stop at the over-priced store where the guide gets a cut of the take. I concluded the review by recommending that, "The entire field program should be revised reinvented scrapped." {The deletions here are as in the original.} The second day of the trip was so fabulous, however, as to redeem the first day, if not to completely dispel my disillusion with the field program planning.

I'll describe that second day as tomorrow's entry in this log. For today, let's consider the itinerary in more detail. Here it is as presented in the "Final Field Program:" http://www.semesteratsea.com/voyages/spring2005/S05-FinalCape Town.pdf  (I've added the line numbers for reference, otherwise the text is verbatim. All field program descriptions are written in this breathless ad-speak--dense, discursive, and full of hyperbole. The author(s) seem not to understand the difference between an advertisement and a simple, comprhensi{bl/v}e list of where the tour goes. Almost never is there a map.)
Day 1:
1a
 Depart by motorcoach and travel towards the mountains of the Western Cape, stopping for a visit at Mamre, former home of the Khoi Khoi tribe and the second oldest mission station in South Africa.
1b
 Continue through Stellenbosch and 
1c
 Gordon’s Bay towards Hermanus.
1d
 Have lunch at a unique restaurant, Bientang’s Cave, which is built into the rocky sea cliffs. While listening to the sounds of the ocean, guests are treated to a feast of fresh seafood.
1e
 After lunch, proceed on the dirt road to Elim, the only town in South Africa with a monument to commemorate the freedom of the slaves. In fact, the entire town has been declared a National Monument. Visit the Elim Home, the Old Watermill, and the Moravian Church.
1f
 Continue through Struis Bay to Cape Agulhas, the southernmost town in Africa. (L,D; Die Herberg Resort)
Day 2:
2a
 After breakfast, visit the Cape Agulhas Lighthouse, the country's second oldest lighthouse. Built in 1848 in Pharos style, it has been restored and now houses the only lighthouse museum in South Africa. The southern tip territory is known as the Graveyard of Ships, and the lighthouse was constructed as a result of the many ships that ran aground during the last century.
2b
 Drive to Bredasdorp for a visit to the Shipwreck Museum.
2c
 After lunch, continue to Genadendal, the oldest mission station in South Africa where you will meet Dr. Isaac Balie who will discuss the Genandendal culture.
2d
 Continue through apple country and visit a farm stall en route. (B, L)

When the tour guide and driver looked over the itinerary they were given, it bore only passing resemblance to the above. It dropped Elim and added two stops in Hermanus. (Both revisions were good ideas.) The guide and driver immediately recognized that the new schedule could not be met, so they revised it some more.  I am convinced their revisions were appropriate and beneficial. The final revised scehdule that we followed was this:
Notice the profound change. No longer is this a tour to Cape Agulhas. Now we are on a juant through the country east of Cape Town, concentrating on Hermanus. The Cape appears as a brief side stop. Moreover, we were not told that the lighthouse, where the bus stopped, was not itself at the very southern tip of Africa. An additional walk of 15-20 minutes was needed to get there. Some went on that walk and others did not. (I skipped it to stay out of the sun. Being exactly at the tip was not important to me anyway. And there were no penguins to be seen.) About a third of the students were so disappointed that they hired a driver to take them back the 50 km to the Cape the next morning. They got what they wanted from the tour, but it cost them the nature walk. They should not have had to make that sacrifice. (Their loss was NOT the fault of our tour guide. She gave a great tour, making the best of the schedule she was handed. Nor can any blame be attached to the field office staff on the ship, Adriene, Joseph, and Summer. They have done outstanding work on this and all other ocassions, except on those ocassions when their work has been so far beyond outstanding as to demonstrate the poverty of our language.)
 
Mamre, Elim, and Genadendal were all early Moravian settlements. I have no idea why they were all included in the original plan of the tour, to the exclusion of other religions. TheMoravians did good missionary work, but were hardly the dominant religion. 

Early on in the trip we passed the only atomic energy electric generation plant in South Africa. There is an oil-fired plant near downtown Cape Town and it has huge cooling towers. The atomic plant did not have such towers; I assume it draws cooling water from the Atlantic and discharges heated water back again. There are international standards for limitations on population density near atomic power plants. These limits will reduce the potential population of that area.

Next came the town of Atlantis. This was supposed to be a planned resettlement town with its own industry--diesel engine production--and other services as needed for a town. But it is far from resources or markets, so the diesel factory and other factories have failed. Unemployment is high. Morale is low.

At Mamre we encountered the "Mercia and John show." Mercia was a dominant scatterbrain who has been muddling through tours for years. No paragraph was ever completed without a digression into some personal issue. John was an older gentleman and a musician. He was supposed to begin taking over guide chores from Mercia. The first three times John started up he made some defferential remark toward Mercia and she barged right in, taking over. We learned little about the Mamre settlement, but the show had its diverting moments. John did play the old organ for us and it sounded great. A former opera singer, he wishes he could read music, but seems to do just fine without.

There followed a long drive across Sir Lowry's pass with a pit stop at a farm store/cafe. Very nice. Then drive through Caeldon with its enormous grain elevator in support of a Carling Black Label brewery. Lots of drinking in Africa.

As we drove, Inge Hugo, the tour guide, discussed some of the problems facing South Africa. I was especially interested in the educational system, since I feel it is the key to many other problems. The government does try to provide equal educational opportunities to all, but of course the wealthy (i.e., white) citizens have their own private schools with many more facilities and available courses. A public school is only required to teach six courses. And two of those must be languages, usually a tribal language and either English or Afrikaans.  Early on after the whites left power, it seemed that there were too many teachers to pay them all. So the government offered to buy teachers out of their contracts with two years pay and a promise to never teach again. Disaster. It was the best teachers in the most sought after subjects who resigned. Many of them then began teaching at the better-paying private schools. Inequality is not dead in South Africa.

Finally we arrived at the Cape Agulhas lighthouse. As promised in the tour prospectus, it was in the shape of the Pharos lighthouse. Somewhat unusually, there was not a spiral staircare. Instead there were three floors within the tower and a steep ladder connected each with the one above. It was really windy at the top, so I left my hat inside the tower before venturing out on the viewing edge around the light. Many students had their pictures taken there with a "word" from the message they are composing for their parents or other bill payer. Typically the fully assembled messages read, "Thanks for giving me the world."

Some walked from the lighthouse down to the ocean. I just sat in the shade. Quite peaceful after I shifted to the lee side of the tower.

After the lighthouse we had a yet to visit the shipwreck museum in Bredasdorp. The most interesting part was the fact that when the building was complete except for the roof, the congregation ran out of money. They prayed. Soon a shipwreck provided the timbers and planks they needed to complete the church. It lasted as a congregation for only ten years and nsucccessivelynhoused various enterprises, including a skating rink. It nows houses the shipwreck museum. There's lots of stuff that fell into the sea from ships. Not much of any real interest, however. I thought the whole thing lame.

Dinner at the World Hotel in Hermanus did not happen until 7:30, although we arrived at 6:30 and were ready to eat at 7. It was a barbecue with South African foods. Quite good. Prowling the tree overhead was a mongoose. After dinner we gave Inge a tweenty minute gripe session on thefailings of the day's tour. Failings over which she, of course, had no control.

My set of adaptor plugs finally failed. South Africa has plugs unlike any other. But the hotel desk staff promptly provided an adaptor I could use.

Thursday, March 31

The major reason for the success of the second day was the establishment of the constraint that we be back at the ship by 1730, as per schedule. This forced the setting of priorities and time limits that made the whole day go more smoothly. In particular, visits to the fishing museum and Genadendal were mercifully brief.

A brilliant day. The morning was the best part of the trip. We had a nature walk through "Fernkloof" with Frank Woodvine, the naturalist who had run the place for twenty years until his retirement. He still had so many projects in hand that I asked if he had noticed when  he retired. Well, yes, he admited, that was about the time he started working harder and getting paid less.

On its 1800 hectares, Fernkloof has 1543 plant species. This is just about the same number of species as all of Britain. Many of the species are endemic to Fernkloof--that is, they are found nowhere else. There are 92 species of birds, mostly endemic to Fernkloof. There are seven major biosphere zones in the world, and one of them is Fenkloof. Indeed, a local society does such an excellent job of maintaining a herbarium that they are a recognized cataloging agency. Their collection is an important repository of species diversity.

The Fernkloof area vegetation is mainly a type called fynbos. This comprises a series of small grasses and other dry area plants. Principally, a fynbos has examples of proteas, erica, and  Restionaceae. The diversity of these species is amazing. For one proteas, Frank showed us that the flowers were just at ground level. This is a rare species that is pollinated by mice. One species of erica is pollinated by the sunbird. Its bill is curved precisely to match the curve in the flower. The throat of the flower has sticky spines that trap insects, so the sunbird gets these insects as a bonus when  it goes after the nectar deep within the flower. Of late, however, a beetle species has evolved the habit of avoiding the spines by eating through the base of the flower to get the nectar. It does not pollinate the flower. Hopefully, the flower will adapt. Among the  Restionaceae, six endemic species were known to be carnivarous. Until Frank arrived and found a seventh.

Fire is important to the Hermanus fynbos. Naturally occurring fires rip quickly across the vegetation, cutting it back. Then seeds that have been waiting for fire--perhaps for two decades--are released and germinate, starting the fynbos anew. Fernkloof managers have adopted a policy that includes starting fires periodically to simulate the natural cycles. As yet, however, they have started no fires because tourists start enough of them to suffice. One way in which seeds are protected from fire is that they are covered in a nutritious coating. A small local ant carries the seeds into its burrows and eats the coating. The seed itself remains buried underground until the next fire. Then--by some unknown mechanism--it bursts forth to continue the species. This process is now endangered by the arrival of another species of ants from Argentina. They, too, like the seed coating, but they make no burrows and thus leave the seed exposed. The seed is then consumed by fire and the species may not survive.

So, we asked, if this is "fern"kloof, where are the ferns? Shortly therafter, Frank led us to the small water fall at the head of the stream cutting through the ravine. And there they were. Ferns. Indeed, this wet area was not fynbos at all. It was afro-montane forest and consisted of species found only hunndreds of miles away. The explanation seems to be that these speicies all have edible seed fruits. Birds eat the fruits elsewhere and excrete te seeds in  many places, including the small stream at Fernkloof.

Water is a problem in Fernkloof, as elsewhere in Africa. One problem is the non-indigenous eucalypt varieties. There systems are not adapted to dry areas and so they evaporate water profligately. A single eucalypt can evapaporate 200 gallons a day; this water could support dozens or hundreds of plants of other species. From time to time, the government employs otherwise-unemploed people to come through and remove some of the non-indigenous species. It may be futile in the long run, but may succeed for a few decades.

Older than any of us by ten years or more, Frank nonetheless stepped out lively and gave us a run for our money. He walks some of Fernkloof's 60 km of trails everyday. One of his previous tours, he said, had had a lady who worried about his hiking. "You don't go out alone?" Of course, says Frank. "So then if you've a problem, you can call on your cell phone?" Don't own one. "So what would you do if you broke your leg out there all alone?" Well, allows Frank, then I would seriously consider turning back.

Exhilarated and worn out, we went back into Hermanus for a visit to the fish museum before lunch. This museum was another item not mentioned in the tour description. Mercifully our visit was brief. We were hosted by the children's host and she worked us through the starfish demo where we held them in our hands and watched them crawl up the inside of cup cut from the botom of a two-liter coke bottle. Quite interesting.

Then the lunch; too much food, again. The kitchen was in a shoreside cave, with the eating area out in the open under awnings.

After lunch it was onward to Genadendal, also mercifully brief. Like Mamre, our guide was a second or third generation convert, with mixed native and European blood. Unlike Mamre he knew what was interesting and was able to present it in a lively manner in a walk through the museum. 

At last we were riding back along the eastern shore of False Bay.  Beautiful. Saw two groups of dolphins quite close to shore in tight swarms. Perhaps feeding from some sort of runoff.

Arrived five minutes early at the ship.

S arrived soon after I did, having taken the trip to Kagga Kamma. As usual she was chock full of chatter about what they had seen and done. She did take a few minutes to hear me give a rundown of the things I've said above. Then back to the chatter.

Rather than hang with my grumpy self, she went off shopping with E and got back too late to do any more than tumble into sleep. I went to the lounge and did a crossword puzzle rather than sleeplessly fret.
Friday, April 1

Very quiet here on the ship. I gave up my ticket to the Tortoise breeding grounds rather than subject myself once again to the tender minserrations of the Field Program.  ("Minserrations:" mincers, ministrations, miseries, serrations.")

I've read a few short stories and written some of these notes.

Three recent sources have pointed me in one direction: the short stories, the play Under the Syringa Tree, and a book at the store entitle Five Great Equations. In each case general issues are explored in individual personal stories. Yesterday when the guide read the history of South Africa, it ranged from tedious to soporific until she got to the vote of 1994. She then described her own memories of the day: a great national party with everyone waiting in line to vote. People shared laughter and food and a sense of doing something really significant, which they were. Again, a major event came alive through a personal perspective. Something from this needs to come into my planned book on physics equations. And yet I am loath to do it by either of the currently popular methods: telling the lives of the physicists or relating it to pop-pseudo-scientific-religiosity. Perfhaps I can combine this trip, the Church of the WHoly Quantum, and the physics. To avoid pseudo-science, it would be necessary to teach real science. Perhaps this can be the mystery at the heart of the beliefs of the CWHQ. Thoroughly initiated congregants would then be employable as both priests and particle physicists. Of course, I myself probably have not time to achieve such fully initiated status. And most particle physicists will have little patience for the personal counselling that is at the heart of any useful church.

I checked this afternoon at a travel agency. They had fares to Pittsburgh of only US$1100. Very tempting. But they had no seats available. To the extent I had been tempted, I was now disappointed. I shall continue the voyage.

This evening I converted our last R100 into chocolate.
Saturday, April 2

We have now sailed. Whoopie. My lack of exuberance is exacerbated by a lack of breakfast. Not eating is part of the "cure" for GI distress. I suspect that this time its just brought on by eating too many desserts.

Two students boarded the ship almost two hours late. And they were not under the influence of any substances. They just thought the on-board time was 11:00 PM when it was really 9:00 PM. This being the fifth port with an on-ship time, they really have no excuse. I am making one for them here only because it is another example of poor information presentation by Semester at Sea. As one leaves the ship the "on-ship time" is indeed posted. Two problems: one, the board lists both sailing time and in-shipe time. There is no need for the sailing time; it just presents an opportunity for an in-a-hurry passenger to get confused. And everybody leaving is in a hurry and frazzled by the hassle. Two, the time is listed in 24-hour format. For last night it would have said:
On-ship time: 2100
Sailing-time: 2300
Crew on-ship time: 2000
Next port: Salvador
The Sailing time is not only useless and confusing, it was also just plain wrong. Due to high winds, we did not sail until 8:00 AM. As their penalty for being confused by a confusing sign, the students will have to remain on board in Salvador for an entire day after everyone else has left. I suppose they can spend the time learning to subtract twelve to convert from European to American time.

At this point I need to review the entire field program. There is a possibility that my travel woes are particular to the sorts of tours I've taken and may not be representative of the entire program. The Cape Town offerings are, for instance, replete with many options for visiting townships and Robben Island, both of considerable educational value.

I'd start now, but the internet is--what else?-- down.

In the afternoon, Matt read to me a query received from Pittsburgh:
    Has there been any impact from the internet going down?
    Has it cost you any additional effort?
If these weren't so egregiously misinformed, they would be hilarious. For my part, lack of internet was a prime impetus in my wish to debark permanently. I suppose it is sad that I would rather work on a computer than yammer incessantly about nothing.

Exercise: 2 mi in 30 min elliptical

Spent most of the day reading Tony Hillerman, The Sinister Pig.

Naps: 11-12, 2-3

In th evening there was a faculty-staff reception to welcome Gustavo, the NOAA guy, and Barry Ames, interport lecturer for Brazil. Two students showed up outside the lounge and I met them on my way out. Such a problem: One was having his 21st birthday and was upset that the pub night had been cancelled. Oh dear, no way to get drunk on his birthday! Never mind that he was already muddy in the head from some mind altering substance. He had collected 70 signatures on a petition asking that the puib. night be reinstated. (An administrator assured me that no pub night had ever been scheduled for that night. I don't know and don't care.) The question I would like to have asked the bumbling idiot was what being 21 meant to him. Is he now an adult? Why then is he behaving like a child? I left. Eventually, I heard later, the student began yelling and screaming and a full-scale mental health intervention was required. Possibly the long voyage is getting to all of us. Possibly the student is just a member of that sub-population of students for whom no amount of seeing poverty will relieve them of being spoiled brats. Or possibly seeing so much poverty is crushingly awesome with the realization that despite our advantages there is little we can do to help.
Sunday, April 3

Exercise: 2.1 mi in 30 minutes

Arranged yesterday to do the taping of reading Hospoesy this morning after global studies. Now that the time has come, the event is deferred to tomorrow.

Nap: 2-3
Wine tasting 5-7
I signed up for two olympics events: synchronized swimming and global studies challenge.

This evening there is no place to work. I have finally settled into S office. 

I've written a review of the field program and moved it from here to a separate file.

It is now tomorrow. So I still have not finished Cape Town. Sigh. This day is sea olympics, so I still won't get much done. Maybe late in the day.
Monday, April 4

Sea olympics. Swell (he said with no great enthusiam).

I entered in the global studies and the synchronized swimming. In the latter we went for humor instead of style points and actually placed second. In the former, we might have done well, but I left my name off the paper. We placed last. It makes no difference to me. The competition determines who gets off the ship first in Fort Lauderdale. I already know I don't get off until the day after everybody else.

I've been writing in S office this afternoon and have finally gotten everything about Cape Town entered in these notes. That's enough for today. Tomorrow: Vietnam.

In evening S and I played bridge.

Exercise: elliptical 1.0 mi, 20 minutes
Tuesday, April 5

Exercise: elliptical 2.2 mi 32 min

Bill is continuing to work on figuring out how to distribute and charge for the global studies notes. (I proposed to him that we have a business with me as president and he as CEO/business manager. The product would be paper copies of the notes.) The present status is that Jill is opposed for several reasons. Apparently it is okay with her if students print the notes uncontrolledly, but not that we should manage.

This afternoon I wrote a review of internet access. It was not possible to be kind.

At 5 I attended the organization meeting for the oceanographer, Gustavo, and the last (and my first) choir rehearsal. 

At 6 I watched as Gustavo and a team launched the first of the ocean drifters. We will be able to track it on NOAA's website.

After dinner S and I went to the Vagina Monologues. The students did a good job. This is the second time I have seen it. Both productions could have improved in the area of transition; there was a tad too much wait between performers. The individual performances were of varied quality, but the important ones were exceeding wll cast and well performed.
Wednesday, April 6

Choior performance at the end of Global Studies. Vey simple Samba song. (Here "Samba" refers to a type of Brazilian religious ceremony where dancing takes place. Some of the dance being a little like what westerners know aas Samba.)

After Global Studies Susan and I finally got together with Sumner and I recorded the ten poems I've copied and annotated.

This afternoon I read a silly paperback from the libraries collection.

At the five o'clock happy hour S gave me two not-particularly appealing news items. First the executive board expressed a preference that we not sell copies of my global studies notes. So rather than manage their distribution, I'll just go ahead and make them available for printing. Second she said that I would indeed be invited to a captain's dinner. Whoopee. She went to one three months ago and was quite cheerful about not taking me. Now when it's my turn she has forgotten all that and is intending to come along with me. Well, I guess there's just no way to make me happy.

Exercise: elliptical 3.04 mi in 43 minutes
Well exercise does improve my mode.

The internet is inaccessible (9:48 PM).

Now to try to get some of the China log entries typed in.

I've just gotten stuck on the internet. It let me log in to netinary, but now it is down and I cannot get the status window to log out.  I had used five imnutes when I wanted to get off.

What I was doing was pricing flights to Pittsburgh. Manaus to Pittsburgh is $1031.

The next day it appeared that I had used eight minutes. No big deal.


Thursday, April 7
At  5 AM there was light enough to see the sea. Rolling, but glassy smooth. Kind of eerie.

At 7 I went to mmy appointment to help Gustavo from NOAA launch his oceanographic equipment. Twenty people showed up, so I didn't really do anything but coil up his rope at the end. I was supposed to join him again for a photograph at 5PM, but I got involved in the Hos-Poesy project.

After Global Studies I did a second runthrough of taping the first ten Hos-Poesy poems. The in the afternoon Susan came around with the typed in text for another seven poems. Fortunately, there are only two new patients, so I will have little work to get them done. One might have thoguht that in the whole afternoon I could have interviewd Susan about the two new patients, but--thanks to the wonders of MS Word--I spent the whole afternoon just getting the new texts integrated into the document. The tricky bit was to arrange that the general scheme of bio on the left and poem on the right could continue.

At 3 I taped a two-line bit for Jerry, the voyage video guy. Mostly nonsense; hard to see how it will be of use to the video. Anyway, I got to show off my go set.

Around 4:30 the voice aqnnounced that the vessel was speeding up because there was a medical emergency and it was deemed prudent to get the patient to shore soonest. Bill Platte's GPS showed us as going 31 knots; the twin rooster tails at our stern were impressive. Various rumors about the ship mention a drug overdose, a diabetic shock, and appendicitis. No rumors suggest whether it was a student or someone else. (Actually S knows, but I don't need to know.)

This evening we had a barbecue cookout instead of the regular evening meal. Best part was a great variety of desserts. I had to go for a walk afterward.

Exercise: walked all decks: 33 minutes.

The shipboard network and internet are worse than ever. Apparently one can get free internet beginning sometime after midnight and lasting into the morning. At the moment I've not really got anything I want to do there. My own nusage pattern is to be writing, to have a question, to answer the question, and then continue writing. This pattern is diametrically opposite to the usage pattern assumed by a charge-per-unit-time model.
Friday, April 8
Spent all afternoon and evening reading Twisted by Kemmelman. Should have exercised.

It was announced that the sick passenger has appendicitis. What is it that makes it possible to announce this today and not yesterday? Or is it that the (erased) in charge finally realized that some information was better than none. Especially useful is the reassurance that there is no communicable disease.