Sunday, June 04, 2006

Seaman Randy Knight Checking In on 6/03/06 (#26)

"That's 'Saturday Night Live Astronomy Class with Professor Knight.' Just about the most exciting Saturday night entertainment on board. It's been cloudy since leaving Chile, so no star viewing. Tomorrow night is probably our last chance to see the Large Magellanic Cloud, since we're moving north quickly and it will be dropping below the southern horizon. It was cloudy the last few days heading into Chile, actually fairly clear a couple of nights in Valparaiso but too many city lights to see anything, and now cloudy again.

"It was partly sunny, partly cloudy most of the day today and absolutely gorgeous. A fairly strong south wind had the blue ocean just a-rolling, with lots of white caps as accent marks. But since we're going 'with the wind,' it was warm and hardly any 'apparent wind' on deck. We pretty much followed the coastline on our way south, and that's why we saw quite a bit of wildlife. For our return we're taking a straight line from Valparaiso to the 'left shoulder' of South America, so we're now about 400 miles from shore. As a result, the only wildlife I've seen is a couple of birds that zipped past the ship but didn't hang around to get IDed.

"I do think I may need to be helicoptered out so that I can catch an immediate flight home. Watching the Wal-Mart web site??? I didn't realize my absence would have such serious reprecusions. Having slid this far downhill, lord knows what you'll be watching by the end of June. Yikes. [Editor's note: Do you think he'll notice that I even blogged it here? My final word on the subject is this, "It's just a gig, man. It's just a gig." I hope Taylor was heard by many people, made a lot of money, and will sell a lot of CDs at Wal-Marts everywhere. I'll be buying mine elsewhere.]

"Tomorrow's the big one-day off for the week. I think I'll clean the toilet. I cleaned the sink and shower a couple of days ago, so the toilet will complete the trifecta. Do I know how to live it up on weekends, or what?

"Eat those veggies. Our ship salad bar is rather anemic, so I'll be looking forward to some good salads. There were some great looking fruits and veggies at the markets in Valpo, but apparently the cook didn't go shopping. The rather sad bananas we'd had up until Chile have disappeared entirely, so the only fruit options are apples and oranges, undoubtedly from CA. But we do have soy milk!"

No comments: