This past Sunday -- I hurled myself down the companionway ladder, and bracing myself against the lurching of the ship I leaned over the chart table looking for the radio receiver. I found it, waited until the bucking hull wasn't trying to throw me in the opposite direction and picked it up. Took a breath, and pressed transmit ( Read more... )

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   It wasn't until the howling sideways rain finished that the floods truly began. Sure, streets had flooded with the immense amounts of water that fell locally, but it wasn't until the immense amounts of water that fell inland got here that we learned what flooding truly was ( Read more... )

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   "How many cups of coffee have you had today???" my dear mother inquired of me earlier today as I bounced around the room rambling excitedly about random things ( Read more... )

Last night / this morning:

"Kris!" I'm jolted awake from a deep sleep by an urgent voice. In the red glow outside the curtain of my bunk a figure whispers "half an hour till your watch!   "A'ight, cool" I respond before even really fully awake. I lie there for just a few moments as the gears in my head get back up to speed. I'd been in the ( Read more... )

   There are eight bunks in the forecastle ("focs'l"), and the captain and bosun sleep in the aft cabin. Being as I came in as 11th, that means I get to sleep in the main hold ( Read more... )

   I wake up in my sleeping bag on my bunk. I can see my breath, and beyond that I can see the early morning light coming in through the hatch above me. Some people do everything they can to avoid morning light, but I actually selected this bunk specifically for its proximity to the hatch. I hate waking up in the dark -- when it's morning I want ( Read more... )

Hurghada, Egypt, last night, 2:25am - "Dude, that's a 200!" Mark informed me impatiently
"Yes, that is a 200," also sounding impatient, the taxi driver weighed in on the subject. I, however, hate to take anyone's word for anything, much less how much money I'm pulling out of my wallet, so I continued to hold the bill in the dim light of the window ( Read more... )