April Fools Day. Or as the Marines I worked with would say, Eddie Fools Day or April Schools Day. I turned 60 today. One of those big decadal birthdays. Funny how everyone congratulates me. My mom did all the work. I just had to show up.
We’re at sea, somewhere north of Columbia. Made it through the Bermuda Triangle. On the cruise that will put me around the world on water. Internet access is really limited so I can’t do many pictures.
This is sooooo different from the other cruises I made. No airplanes, no constant JP-5 (jet fuel) smell, drinking alcohol is allowed. Encouraged, more than allowed. Really good food too, although I haven’t found any scrapple yet.
Is this the flight deck?
We are on a high end hotel that floats.
I think the food and the booze is a means of crowd control. Between a lot of booze and the ship rocking the crew can keep the natives in line pretty easily. If we start getting restless the Captain just rocks the boat enough to have us all on our knees in the bathroom. Paying our tribute to the great white goddess of the porcelain fixture.
I do like being on the big water, staring at the blue horizon. Blue sky meeting blue water. Don’t get much better than that. The blue sky is a product of Rayleigh scattering and the blue water an indirect product of the same effect. Blue light wavelengths are preferentially scattered earthward out of the atmosphere and then reflected back by the water.
Science aside, I like staring at it. For starters, it’s vast. There’s a lot of blue out there. And, it’s still a little wild. We’ve pretty much altered every ecological system on earth. Mostly by getting rid of the large predators that viewed us as a protein source. There really isn’t too much that’s truly wild or unknown left in the terrestrial world. But here, we really aren’t in charge. We’re safe enough if we keep skipping over the surface in our boats. But fall out of the boat and you’re just another piece of protein in the food chain. Looking at the mass of protein our fellow travelers represent I’m sure the sharks are just hoping we go down.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 