Week 3

This week’s writings will not be organized in order of days. Days are all running together; I only keep track of Sunday because that’s turnday, when all passengers get off and the new ones get on. Now I keep track of the days depending on where we are: Glacier Bay Nat’l Park (can’t use the garbage disposal), Petersburg/Wrangell (towns of 3,000 people), Juneau (laundry & groceries, internet!), Misty Fjords, Sitka, Ketchikan, Tracy Arms…

People
Elaine and Mario have this week off. No Philadelphia or New Yorker accents. We only have 14 pax (passengers) on board. Downright boring. I can do all the entrée plates in one load. Amazing. By the time the servers have cleared the tables, I’m done with all the dinner plates, glasses, and silverware and am finishing up the cookingware. Not so next week. We’re expecting 34. Becca and I have to move in with the server gals who have an extra fold down bunk in the room. It’s going to be tight. Literally.
New deckhand on board. His name is Kris and he’s the new baby: 18 years old. Apparently he’s a sound engineer, musician, and creates indie-rock-hiphop. Is constantly talking about his crew, his cats, the ‘hood he came from, who he’s smoked with, connections in the music industry… He’s also a cultural mess, of a different sort: white mother, black father and can speak both “languages”. It’s funny watching him speak and behave white around the pax and the cap’t, then revert to his more comfortable black around me and the other 2 deckhands. Finally got to talk a bit about art. That was cool.
“You should be a DJ!”, he said. “I know! It’s one of my buried, underground dreams.” He said he would think of a good dj name for me. I laughed.

Wildlife
More humpback whales! One can’t tire of watching them. Such big, beautiful creatures. Again a pod of them came near the boat. Could hear them breathing. This time got a video of them.
Today, Thursday 22nd, got to see dolphins right by the bow of the vessel. In comparison to the whales, they sure are small and fast. They were like the hummingbird of the ocean.
Almost got the opportunity to go kayaking at Old Sitka. Four of us got ready in a flash and joined the pax. But then 2 decided to join the activity last minute. Great. That left us with no chance to kayak for the 1st time ever. There better be more opportunities. Damn.
We got real close to a mama bear and her 2 cubs. Real close for a boat at least. They were light brown and the cubs were playing.

Other stuff
Andi starts working on the Empress of the North on Monday. I really hope both ships will dock in the same port a couple of times so I can see her.
Finally finished the book I brought along with me The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Excellent book that explores the psychology of human psyche in our decision making. We live only once; all our decisions bear with them a carefree lightness. We cannot practice. Ever. But it explores all this through the story of 2 couples. It makes Nietzsche, communism, nationalism, love, lust, choices, and the duality of divine and mortal a lot easier to understand. Thanx to Trott for posting its pic on her facebook profile.
Shannon asked me what I was going to do after the season was over. “Find a place to live,” was my response. Really? That’s it? what do I want after this? I’ve been plagued by these questions ever since and frustrated with myself for not having at least one undying passion for something. It seems to me that the answer to “What do I want?” will elude me continuously, for everything in my life, forever. I can never seem to answer that one goddamn question regardless of what it’s about.
I missed the Daft Punk concert in Seattle. I’ll miss the Smashing Pumpkins concert next month.
It’s becoming obvious to me that most people on the boat think my name is Carol. It almost sounds like Caro, but not quite. Those who do say my whole name say it the gringo way. I don’t know how to begin correcting without offending. The only person who can call me “Carrolayna” is my Texan roomie, Becca. That accent is killer and it’s cool. But only from her.


People Part II
Chef Kevin got a waaaay better job. Today, Sunday, August 05 he left the boat. His new job will be on a yacht that goes to the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and the Pacific Northwest. They contacted him 2 weeks ago and he’s already gone. geez. This means Becca will be taking over as Executive Chef, a friend of hers will become sous chef, and we’ll all be good.
Now we both live on the 1st deck. Our room is bigger, which is cool, but it’s a lot noisier. Everybody has to walk by our room in order to get anywhere. One of the generator’s exhaust pipe is beneath our room. Noisy. Apparently we should be using ear plugs at night because of the decibel levels that seem quiet but are actually kind of loud. Becca needs the space for the laptop and printer that her upgraded position requires. I just get the perks.
We’ll have 34 passengers on this week. That’s a lot compared to the 12 we had this week. It will be killer I think. Blegh.
I got a Fitness magazine from the grocery store the other day. I’ve been doing some of their workout ideas. Now I’m sore from lifting dishes all day, trying to do yoga mixed with what I remember from Pilates, lunges and god knows what else. It feels good.

Naps are a wonderful way to spend an hour or two of the day.