Thursday, December 4, 2008

Namibia, maybe?

Somewhere off the coast of West Africa...the water is dark green during the day and at night, the wave tops and vessel wake are phosphorescent. I've spent the last week dealing with a myriad of small, very frustrating problems.  I have yet to tackle the big, frustrating ones, but soon...loosing my voice due to lecturing my trainees 12 hours/day.  I figure it will be totally gone by tomorrow.  Despite the slightly long hours this trip, I've managed to keep up a regular workout schedule.  Last night, we retarded the clocks one hour to make up for the new time zone we entered somewhere along the way...I mistakenly took this to be an extra hour I could work out.  So, today, I'm not feeling so chipper.  The second half of the workout was devoted to a total-body workout on the elliptical machine, some extra lifting and the heavy bag.  I curse all of it, today.

Angola, and a lot of unknowns, loom closer in the window.  Still, not totally sure how I'm getting home.  Sounds like I could visiting a lot of countries on the way home, depending on black-listed airlines, flight availability and a as yet to be determined method of physically getting from the ship to land.  I may go home via any combination of; Brussels, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Frankfort, Paris and London.  I'm sure there are one or two more I haven't thought of...leaving only what kind of scenario we'll be greeted with at customs and immigration. This region isn't exactly known for it's honest and friendly C&I agents and I've personally had things taken, right down to a pair of dirty socks...not the best scenario when traveling with a laptop, cell phone, external HD, Bose headphones, mp3 player, camera, etc., but crew on another ship say they are relieving us of mostly just American dollars..

Still, it's not just a job, it's an adventure and only about 10 more days till it ends for the year:)

No comments: