My room is cold in the morning.  My room is cold because there is no heat.  And there is no heat because my steam valves are closed.  On ships--on this ship at least--one needs to open steam valves in the ceiling to get heat.  I’ve avoided the task for ten days and I am not about to face it now.   This is what I am thinking as my alarm clock is buzzing.  It is a battery powered alarm clock, which everyone had recommended to me because, while it is a privilege to have 110 volt electricity on the ship, it cycles at just a hair below 60Hz.  Enough to slow down plug-in clocks.  Not that it matters right now: I’m used to a second alarm and, I am pathetic, I have missed breakfast again.  Might as well take it easy now.  No, wait, there was another time change last night! I’ll still make it! I am a productive member of this crew! 

After breakfast, it is clear that the day will be sedate.  The seas are calm, I don’t even notice the rolling anymore, much less the pitching, and it happens to be beautiful outside.  I exit on to the main weather deck from the aft, and there is a casual little crowd assembled on the fantail.  It’s like a cruise ship, but with a lingering smell of oil-based paint; cadets are lying in the sun, fishing, smoking.  Fishing seems to be little more than tying a line to the railing and then baking in the sun, but at least they are multitasking. It seems best not to take pictures of the people dozing off in their bathing suits.   

[Dave Ward, the captain of Pirate's Cove lounge]

[Fishing]

[Cadet Richards grinding the hull]

Even the cadets on day work don’t seem to mind being out here.  Over on the starboard side, an engineer, Bogdan Matuszynski, is fixing something called a sound powered phone, which looks absolutely decrepit.  But it really is powered only by sound, they say, like a tin can telephone.  I know I couldn’t fix it.  There are sparks flying on the tip of the bow.  Literally, the tip.  A cadet is power grinding the rail and it looks exciting.  For about twenty seconds, it is.  It’s long enough to take a picture.  I look over at the name patch.  It’s Cadet Richards.  Well done!  A little ways down: oh look, it’s Ashley Binder again (from 5/8 Follow The Voyage fame), and today they have her scraping metal again.  Poor Ashley.   

Up in the bridge, I say hi to Harvey Portz and his crew.  He is the watch officer and has handed me one of the most wonderfully entitled books I have ever seen.  “For the Safe Navigation in Japanese Coastal Waters.”  No pretense there.  There have been birds everywhere.  Dozens of them, gliding along the contours of the water, inches from the waves.  They are mostly Albatross, but I guess some gulls.  Amazing that they are out here, thousands of miles from anything birdlike.  Some of them follow us around all day, occasionally cutting above the ship letting the high wind dart them on a skewed course to the opposite side of the hull. 
                                                                 [ Bogdan Matuszynski contemplates the sound powered phone][

[An albatross, I think]

I look out of my window after lunch and there is a ship on the horizon.  I almost jump.  Four cranes!  A miscellaneous carrier, the bridge crew tells me later, non-homogenous cargo.  Who knew miscellany had its own type of freighter?  I put on my ear protection and descend to the engine room to hang out, which you might think is like looking for a party in hell, but it’s actually not that hot and pretty neat.  It is an endless maze of vats, ladders, pipes, tanks, and gauges and there are plenty of things to get your hands dirty on.  In the control room, Jessica White shows me hers.  They are pretty dirty.  I am impressed.  The Engineers at this school seem to love getting filthy.  They are charming in this way.

[A ship on the horizon, headed towards Panama]

[Jessica White shows off her black hands]

It’s after dinner and I am not quite feeling satisfied with my day, or at least my photos.  I feel like I need a happy go lucky picture.  Something playful but that says “I don’t just do this for everyone.”  Anneesheia Williams and Damaso Leal are lingering in the upper class mess deck with smiles on their faces.  Serendipity! We have a little photo shoot and it turns out well.   

[Cadets Williams and Leal]

Things are still looking clear outside.  There is going to be a nice sunset, right?  There is definitely going to be a nice sunset.  People start assembling on the deck, digital cameras on hand.  The sky starts to turn a very soft pink and I take a few shots. This sunset will be good, but not spectacular.  Good.  Better that way.  Whet our appetites.  Foreshadow the sublime.  Nice work, Pacific Ocean.   I decide it’s better to take a picture of a cadet, Charles Hendricks, taking a picture of the sunset.  This is supposed to be about the cadets.  I get behind him and the first shot works great.  I’m done.  This is good.  It’ll pull together.  This was a good day.  

[Charles Hendricks shoots the sun with a digital camera]

-JSF