Page 89 - 2003 - Atlantic Islands

THREE DAYS AT SEA

DAY 1 (20 20 S & 07 05 W) air temp 70 and sea temp 68, Beaufort 5

Arrrrghh! We surely knew this morning that we had walked down Jacob’s Ladder

yesterday! Our legs were sore both to touch and to movement. My arms and

shoulders were also achy. Dan had calculated that we had descended the equivalent

of a 70 story building and this morning, before stretching, we wouldn’t have

quarreled with him!

However, we dragged ourselves to Gabor’s torture session and found that it actually

helped a bit to stretch those poor muscles. However, they shortened up every time

we sat down for even a few minutes.

John had warned us last night that at 10 AM we would hear alarm bells and orders

from the bridge about a fire on the ship and even an abandon ship order. It would be

a mandatory drill for the crew and we were to ignore it and just stay out of

everyone’s way while they went through their paces. Even with the warning, it is very

unnerving to hear all those sharp and persistent bells. I wrote yesterday’s diary

through the whole thing and tried to ignore it as much as possible.

Our 11 o’clock entertainment today was the long lost (since the first day at sea) video

of the National Geographic’s “Ocean Drifters” which was excellent but very gloomy at

the end as it outlined all the garbage and detritus from ships, shores, and humans, in

general, that ends up in the ocean waters and endangers the lives of all the creatures

of the deep. The film was made in 1993 and it is hard to believe that much progress

has been made in preventing all this mayhem. Now we know too that there is an

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