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Blogs from Pacific, Oceans and Seas - page 8
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February 9th 2012
8th February: It's impossible to talk about today without talking about the weather. It is still seriously bumpy but the more you study the sea, the more you see in it. It is primarily a dark, cold midnight blue today but it gets broken into a vibrant spearmint green as the ship breaks it up and forces oxygen into it. The seas are huge today but the Captain reminded us that Hawaii is famed for its surfing beaches and out here is surely the birth place of those giant rollers. When two waves collide (which happens about once every few seconds), they explode into the finest mist which instantly transforms into an airborne rainbow. It's so easy to see how ancient civilisations saw gods in all this nature. Surely something cleverer than mankind paints a million ... read more
February 8th 2012
5th February: The effects of doing so much sight seeing yesterday kicked in first thing this morning with a serious sleep-in which meant having to dig extra deep to find the motivation to go to the gym. So imagine how noble we felt after doing a full work-out! But really, from that point on, any productive use of our time was nowhere to be found. We've looked back over some of the photos we've taken on this tr... read more
February 5th 2012
golfito.is nice coastal town, interesting woodn haousin architektur consytrukted by gringo banana plantations that left long ago. smoke 1000. minerva hotel is 2000.entered panama,camp policxe station.arrived panama city,stay miami,6 us. morn.smoke,beer,mp3. true: no feel much motivation, no stimulation. allmost daydream bout havin aids,doomsday. i waste time, i dont love god. went 2 marinas,pined notice bout sailboathitchhikin on blackboards, spoke 2 none. made new pipe.tagua.much i hang in hammock:mp3,beer,smoke.wastin away hours.much is walkin.allways walkin. went 2 colon.sailboatsearchin. nothion.still just hangin arround, still not dedicatin 2 searchin.wastin days.is: i block. dont wanna do public relation shit.i see sailors but cant ask em. yesterday i ask 1, he was hiperfriendly,stimulatin me 2 go on.thank him god.sometimes a little friendlyness can do as much as a little ... read more
February 4th 2012
Today was full of very simple pleasures like managing to increase our work rate in the gym this morning followed by a wonderful breakfast. At this meal, we met Ted and Alison who are both deaf and who communicate either via a note pad or by signing. Nearly a lifetime ago, when I was about 11, I was a cadet in the Junior Red Cross and one of the things we were taught was how to sign out the alphabet. I've only ever used this knowledge twice before and today gave me another chance. I must have been taught really well because I can still remember all 26 letters and Ted and Alison were kind enough to let me try it out with them. And it worked! I could make out what they signed to me ... read more
February 3rd 2012
10,320 is a pretty big number and it's the number of miles we've travelled so far since leaving Southampton. We've had all sorts of weather in that time: freezing cold, boiling hot, fog, rain, very lumpy seas, flat calm and now that we're heading north up the coast of Mexico towards San Francisco, we're getting cold again. It's not really cold because it's actually 66 degrees here right now and that's at 8.30 in the evening but it's cold compared to the weather we've enjoyed for the last 2 weeks. So we spent today indoors. We did 2 lectures today: one from a forensic scientist on forensics (no great surprise really!) and he's doing a series of 4 talks all about how people try to commit the perfect murder and how the men in white coats ... read more
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February 2nd 2012
The first of our February dawns rose over the Mexican coastal town of Cabo San Lucas today. The ship dropped its anchor in the bay so we had the extra fun of going ashore on one of the lifeboats and the trip was definitely worth it. We'd arranged to go on a sailing catamaran down the coast to a lovely cove called Santa Maria. Here is a coral reef so we donned snorkelling gear and were keen to get off the boat and into the water. But into the water was one of those moments that makes your hair curl and your mouth want to use up every expletive you've ever learnt ... and we've learnt quite a few! It was wonderfully warm and sunny on the boat but by golly was that water cold! But ... read more
February 1st 2012
The third of 3 sea days means today was another total doss. The gym felt good again - Richard can do his belt up on an earlier hole and says he can tie his gym shoe laces much more easily now. I know I can suck it in much easier than before so that has to be good progress. This morning's lecture on snorkelling off Cabo San Lucas has completely freaked me out in readiness for our trip to go sailing and snorkelling tomorrow morning. The photos of the coral reefs and the parrot fish and the sponges were all lovely. The photos of the Barracuda and the Hammer Head Shark were not so lovely. The detail of how the Barracuda shapes its body to make itself look small even though it might be 6 foot ... read more
January 31st 2012
Yet another lazy day at sea today so we went to 2 lectures this morning. The first was all about the whales and dolphins that inhabit these waters off the west coast of Mexico. And we were really glad we went because now we know that the two grey things that looked a bit like acrobatic turtles swimming the wrong way up were actually the flippers of grey whales. Apparently three quarters of the world's grey whales winter here as well as lots of hump back whales, the blue whale and the whale shark. We also learnt lots about bottle nosed dolphins who then played their part perfectly by turning up at least 3 times toay. The most spectacular sighting was another of those massive pods of hundreds of dolphins. You could see a patch of ... read more
January 30th 2012
What a delicious day today has been. After a great night's sleep, it was off to the gym for a good work out and an even better feeling of being virtuous! A healthy breakfast of V8 juice and kippers was then followed by a lecture on the subject of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Then we spent a couple of hours relaxing on the balcony which today was on the shady side of the ship. We then enjoyed a very healthy lunch which lasted for ages because we managed to be on a table of really lovely people with lots of interesting things to talk about. One of them is a lecturer on board this trip. He's a leading expert on canals so came in handy for talks on the Panama and today was delivering on a ... read more
January 29th 2012
Costa Rica was not one of the reasons we picked this voyage so it came as an extra delight to discover what a great country it is. There are hardly any high rise buildings so when you come up to dock at Puntarenas's single big ship mooring, you are able to look beyond the single street of buildings and straight into jungle. If you've ever thought - and you may well not have done! - that paint in the UK lacks a bit of oomph, I now know why. All the pigment went to Costa Rica! The buildings aren't just painted pink, yellow and green. They are painted PINK, YELLOW and GREEN! I also don't know how the driving system is meant to work out here either because you just appear to pick a lane you ... read more
