So I jumped Overboard.

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Well I have been keeping a notepad to write interesting things in so I have something to talk about. Unfortunately, for the first week after my previous blog not a single interesting thing happened in my life. So I’ll fast forward to the 8th of June.

Think about this for a moment; when an anchor comes off the bottom it brings with stuff from the sea. This normally ends up being clay, mud, and of course; water. So to deal with this, the bottom of the chain locker is perforated to allow all these things to drop clear of the chain. From time to time this space needs to be cleaned. A small hatch is the only entry into this god forsaken space. 20 inches tall, full of girders and spaces hardly large enough to fit through. And then you have to sweep out the mud and grime, and then finally then wipe all the surfaces with a wet rag to allow for rust inspection.

Corsica is still the nicest looking place I’ve seen as of yet, and while we were here this time around we had a full boat drill. This involves lowering all the lifeboats on the sea side of the ship down to the water. And I have no idea why, but seeing a bunch of lifeboats just bobbing around for no particular reason is incredibly humorous. In doing this I got to learn how to drive a lifeboat, which was pretty good fun. Oh, and after we were done packing up all the boats I saw a shark over the side. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!

I had my first full day off the other day, and spent it checking out Barcelona. The day revolved around going to the Camp Nou, the home of FC Barcelona! It is the largest stadium in Europe with over 98000 seats. It also had a full FCB museum with lots of old and new memorabilia. Lots of trophies from over the years including some UEFA Champions League cups, and even Lionel Messi’s Golden Ball! While there we tried a local drink called Cava, it’s the regions form of Champagne. The first sip came off terrible, but as far as champagnes go it was surprisingly good. Last time I was in town I tried to find one of Gaudi’s buildings and failed, but this time became successful! Although much to our dismay it was closed for renovations. The day we were in Barcelona was the day of the Germany vs Uruguay match; Because of this I was wearing my jersey to support the team. During the day I had gotten a few dirty looks from people which I could deal with. But the worst thing was the 6 year old Spanish kid who yelled out while pointing at me “HAHAHAHA ALEMANIA HAHAHAH” (Alemania being the Spanish word for Germany)

Lots of people aboard are calling me Oscar now. Why would that be? Once every 2 weeks we have a man over board drill. The code word being Oscar repeated 3 times over the PA. Normally the Oscar drill starts by a dummy getting thrown overboard. But this time the Chief Safety Officer got me to don a survival suit, led me to an open door on deck 1 and asked me to jump. So there I am bobbing in the ocean waiting to be rescued. It took 10 minutes for the alarm to be sounded, and then another 5 minutes for the rescue boat to hit the water, but after the boat hit the water I was rescued in mere seconds. Although this was in port and everything was stationary, I couldn't imagine this being a real life situation, being overboard and seeing the ship carry on sailing away for a few miles as it turns around has got to be one of the worst feelings in the world. But was what I did fun? definitely.

Note: The day I was in Barcelona, Germany faced off in the 3rd place game of the world cup. Hence the fact i'm wearing totally inappropriate clothing for the time.

Comments and email appreciated as always. Mailing address available by request.
gbeier@gmail.com

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