Still rolling...

January 21st
I am beginning to think that the Pacific should be renamed. Peaceful it is not. We have been rolling and rocking from side to side, the horizon rising to block the sky and then dipping so that all we see is sky… for three days now. Apparently this is not normal but is the result of a gigantic Pacific storm ….these huge swells are the remnants of that storm.



I have sailed on large ships since I was two years old …and that’s a very long time. I have no recollection of swollen seas like this lasting for more than 48 hours, if that. Also I have never ‘felt’ the motion as much even on the “banana boats” of the Elder Dempster line which ploughed the seas between West African ports (in our case Lagos, Tema, Accra and Takoradi) and Liverpool. Those were much smaller ships and we sailed through some fearsome storms in the Western Approaches with almost hurricane force gales…I don’t remember the movement being as great as this. However it's possible that time has diminished the memory!


All that said life goes on. We continued classes yesterday and today; I am doing Sino/American relations and Performance in Grass roots and Community theatre. It was our first theatre class yesterday and promises to be great fun with improvisation (street theatre on the ship!) and cooperatively produced performances. There is a huge amount of reading to do and I am loath to spend the money on books in either course so hope to be able to share or get a loan of the texts. There are only eight of us in the theatre class: the intimacy and therefore individual demands are somewhat intimidating!


I am very much enjoying the Sino/American relations class. Yesterday we listened to Jonathan Spence talking about China from 1700 – 1911. Google him for your interest, honours have been heaped upon him, even by the Queen. He is though a most delightful, humorous and un-assuming man. Ask him a simple question and his vast knowledge of China means you will receive an in depth and fascinating answer with lots of unexpected highlights. I noticed that no mention has yet been made of women’s role during this period in China and I know they held some power if only in the background as concubines and Empresses or consorts. I wonder how long it would take Jonathan to answer that one?! I look forward to it, perhaps this afternoon. We have that class every day and it’s every other day for theatre. I think that’s enough…I’m remembering Theresa….no commitments!!. This is supposed to be my theme for the voyage…right?
One of the remarkable differences between the academic side of this voyage and our last in the spring of 2009 is the interaction and participation of everyone in every public discussion. Global studies is alive with comments, questions and challenges, mostly from the students but from the rest of us too. It is expected, in fact demanded, and makes for a much more interesting and lively session. I would guess that one of the aims of these Global Study sessions is to make American students very aware of their good luck in being born American., which is the way it was suggested to them today so that it is in fact a “there but for the grace of God go you” situation. They have been given huge charts with statistics of every kind in almost every country in the world so comparisons are made easy. Today they were asked to find any one jaw dropping statistic. For instance the percentage of population in Swaziland infected with HIV/AIDS…largest percentage in the world. The lowest per capita income in the world Under $2.00 a day in Tanzania and Bangladesh.


This was followed by an talk on Hawaii given by a Hawaiian. A young man who has been a US marine and served in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, went to the University of Hawaii and I think graduated as a marine biologist. He spoke of the low approval rate from native Hawaiians when the population was asked to vote on Hawaii becoming an American state. There is still resentment in some pockets of the population today.


I am writing this blog in Word because today we seem to have no access to the Internet. I had forgotten that this tends to happen in certain areas where there is no satellite contact.
We are becoming much more conscious of which chairs are safe to sit in, in both the Union and lounge. Only the really heavy ones which are extremely hard to move. There have been quite a few falls out of chairs as they slide across the room….professors sprawling in all directions, George one of them. So undignified!! It happened to me as you know on our last voyage so I should be the last to comment!


As I write we are rolling badly however today the sea does look rough. The last few days it has looked deceptively calm, almost like glass, but hidden are the nasty swells waiting to rock the ship every few minutes, some between 15 and 20 feet high! Poor Mandy our barman lost a tray loaded with glasses last night: it simply slid across the counter and smashed to smithereens all over the floor. He was not a happy camper! It seems strange to say but I prefer the more obvious seas to those which are so very deceptive. At least today we can see ‘em coming! Lots of white caps in the big waves.


Here for Liam and Katie are our stats:
Latitude: 19 degrees 12.5 N
Longitude: 136 “ “ 36.1 W
Speed: 11.7 knots
Course: 270 degrees
Time: 11.24 am

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It is now 4.30 pm and the rolling of the Explorer is worse than ever! (Aren't you glad to be all warm, cozy and safe at home on terra firma?) It was comforting to see a couple of birds (we're not sure what they are, not albatrosses we don't think...boobies?) and know that there is land approaching even if it is still 3 days away. There is now a wind and the seas and sky are grey.



The Sino/American relations lecture was fun today. We watched a film shown just before Nixon stepped off his plane on that historic visit to China in the 60's. It showed what Americans knew or thought they knew about China. Alot of old movie clips were shown where the menacing pencil-moustached Chinese were always the villains but never played by Chinese actors, nearly always British but sometimes American! Realising that I had watched and probably enjoyed some of those early films was positively embarassing!