Bridge Tour

There are so many interesting things about this boat and the people I have met especially the crewmembers. I took a tour up to the bridge and it was so cool. They still have a look out that is constantly scanning the horizon in case he sees anything. They still have paper maps, which are used mostly, but they also have a gps obviously. The captain has a pretty sweet job. He works 1 semester on 1 semester off. So he sailed the spring voyage, had the summer off, sails the fall voyage, has the spring off etc. And he is allowed to bring his wife. The captain, even on a program like this, has ultimate say in any matter. He able to deny entrance anyone to the boat for any reason and still gets treated like the king with special captain´s dinners and other things. He can also leave the port any time after the on ship time has passed so it is so important not to be late even if scheduled sailing time isn´t until later.
H1N1 is also a huge topic. If anyone contracts H1N1 odds are we are going to have to come home. Since there are so few kids on this voyage they entire 2nd deck is empty. They are keeping it empty so it can be used as a quarantine area should an outbreak happen. It is very scary stuff and they actually have people standing throughout the ship forcing us to use Purell.
The MV Explorer is one of the fastest cruise ships in the world. Its maximum speed that can be reach is 33 knots. There is 1.51 mph to every 1 Knot, so the fastest it can go is about 45 mph. This did not seem very fast to me apparently when the government assessed this ship they said that anything that can go above 16 Knots will be able to escape pirates so that is good. On our voyage we have been averaging about 15 knots both to conserve fuel and so we can get all our classes in.
The boat has 4 engines, but at any given time there is only 1 running to conserve fuel. They do switch which one is running which explains the unsettling vibrating feeling that is sometimes felt in the dining room. She can hold up to about 1,000 tons of fuel; 1 ton of fuel costs $400 and the boat uses approximately 176 tons of fuel per day, so you do the math. It is a lot of money! The captain said it generally the single largest item in their yearly budget.
When we went on our tour it was the rockiest day we had experienced yet. Many items in the campus store were flying everywhere and several clothing racks even fell. The captain said on this day we were rocking at about a 5 degree angle. Even at this slight incline people were stumbling and stuff was everywhere. Apparently, during the bad storm of 2005 the boat was rocking at a mere 47 degree angle. He said at this angle there is no danger of capsizing, but it basically felt like the boat was on her side. At 67 degrees the decks start hitting the water. I couldn´t even imagine what it would be like if 5 degrees was that disruptive. Hopefully, I will never have to know!
Claudia is an employee on the staff that is training in the bookstore where I work. She just graduated from university in Holland. She decided to work on Semester at Sea for fun with her best friend. She signed a 4-month contract so she is done when we are. There are 233 men in the crew and just 15 women. They have their own crew quarters complete with gym. She was explaining to me how archaic their dining system is. Everyone is required to wear their uniform to eat and are segregated (for lack of a better word) into different dining rooms based on their position. For example, Claudia has one stripe on the shoulder adornment of her uniform and can only eat in the dining room for staff with one stripe. They all get the same food in each dining hall, but for some reason they are all separated. It is interesting how these customs continue from what must have been 100 years of seafaring traditions.
I also learned that the MV Explorer can never leave from an American port. I couldn´t figure out why, but I learned why today. Apparently, if a ship leaves an American port it needs to have enough money to insure every passenger if anything were to happen. Since Semester at Sea is a non-profit program they could not afford to cover all of us. So they have to leave from non-American ports. It is almost like a loophole.
In the last 8 days I have seen 2 ships, 3 birds and a ladybug. I am pretty ready for land!xoxo