June 3, 2012

Journal:

• Meals on the ship
• Clocks going back 1 hour tonight
• Safety overview
• Meeting the chief officer and 3rd officer

Pictures (taken from the bridge):

Chief Officer (Bogdan)

3rd Officer (John Raniel)

(the full journal entry follows.  If you don't see it on this page, click the "Read more »" link below)

I awake around 1000, having slept through breakfast (which is served at 0600) and taken a "navy shower" (which I had learned during the Nashville flood), not to conserve water, but instead to conserve the chemicals used to treat the wastewater before it is released into the ocean.  A navy shower consists of turning the water on to wet oneself, then turning it off to lather up and scrub off, then turning it back on for a final rinse.

At 1200, I make my way to the mess for lunch - chicken soup, salad, steak, corn, and potatoes.  I am on dessert (delicious vanilla ice cream) by the time my fellow passengers join me at the table.  Harvey is pleasantly surprised to see tomatoes in the salad - a rarity, he tells me.  When the captain sits down for his meal, Eric jokingly asks him to move the containers from in front of his window so he can see the ocean.  The captain seems a light-hearted, jovial fellow, and appears to be well-liked by both the passengers and crew.  The reeferman (another Romanian) enters, wearing a t-shirt which reads "FBI: Female Breast Inspector".  Harvey tells he explained to the guy what it meant, and now he wears it even more than before.

One of the passengers asks him if he's found a new laptop, and he answers that he got the cheapest one he could find, explaining that his more expensive one had fallen off the desk and broken, not long after he had bough it.  "Expensive is good at home, but at sea, cheapest is best.  Computers, clothes, many things are ruined on a ship, and must be replaced.  In port, we wear dress uniforms.  In ocean, cheap clothes."

During lunch, one of the officers announces over the intercom that we must "retard clocks one hour at midnight."  We are headed southwest, and will return to beloved GMT-0600 tonight.  I also learn that the Frenchman is on his way around the world, and wil spend a week in Noumea before boarding another vessel for Hong Kong.  The Englishman, Harvey, has a sister in Australia, who he visits regularly.  He originally hails from Essex, and has managed to keep his British accent despite having lived the last 40 years in Canada.

Eric asks the captain if he can fish off the deck.  The captain answers that he is welcome to try, but that we are moving too fast to be able to catch anything.  I learn that the deckhand who works nearest the gangway keeps a fishing pole and catches fish in port.  I respond to the captain's fish stories with one of my own - the Mako I caught in Destin in 2007, and invite him and my fellow passengers to come up to my cabin any time and I would show them pictures and a video. Returning to my cabin, the third officer stops by to ask for my immunization card, which I give to him.


At 1730, I meet with my neighbor, the chief officer, Bogdan, and the 3rd officer, John Raniel, on the bridge for a safety overview, where I am instructed in the different alarms as well as the warm water and cold water flotation devices (life jackets and immersion suits, respectively) and the life botas and rafts.  John Raniel is Filipino, 22 years old, and has been on the ship for 2 weeks.  He was a cadet previously, on the CMA CGM Florida, a container ship twice the size of the Matisse.  His previous contract was for one year, but he said that was too long; his current contract is for 6 months, and he says he might have a 4 month break before starting his next contract.  He has no wife or children, and describes people in the Philippines as poor, but happy.  He tells me the crew like to sing karaoke in the recreation room.


Dinner consists of salad, a fried chicken quarter, and a slice of pizza - ham, bacon, and (canned) mushrooms.  Eric (the Frenchman) is the quiet type, but Harvey is able to open anyone up.  Nearly two hours (and two bottles of wine) later, we part company.  I learn that the passenger who had my cabin before me, Marc, was a few months older than Harvey, French, and gave the crew little cheap plastic toys, which Harvey jokingly refers to as "Happy Meal toys".  I also learn that the crew don't make much money - maybe $900 per month - and therefore cannot afford to spend more than a few months between contracts, which usually last between 6 and 8 months.


After dinner, I change into my gym shorts and a dirty T-shirt, head down to the gym on B deck, and walk about 6 miles on the treadmill, listening to my iPod.  I've got a pretty good rhythm down - after each song, I raise the incline by 1, up to its maximum, then lower it by 1 after each song; once it's back to 0, I drop the speed by 1mph after every song.  The ship's engines, I believe, interfere with the pulse readings, which (except for 1 or 2 times) stay between 80-90 beats per minute, though I counted my pulse to be considerably higher using my wristwatch and a finger on my throat.  Once that is done, I take a shower and retire to bed.