Atlantic Crossing Day Three
It seems the drip from the ceiling in the craft area took a turn for the worst and turned into quite a waterfall overnight. As a consequence, the art and craft sessions have been moved to the corresponding area on the opposite side of the ship, where the table tennis table and jigsaws normally live. The regular craft area has been cordoned off while the issue is dealt with; a huge industrial sized heater is currently drying out the carpet… I don’t know whether it’ll be right for tomorrow’s classes or whether we’ll have to paint in the our temporary accommodation another day or two… we’ll soon see (being moved has been no great hardship, though). Today, I had them painting a wild seascape, featuring seaspray created by using sandpaper. Interestingly enough, after a slight dip in attendance yesterday, the numbers were back up again today (maybe it’s getting too hot for them out there…).
We’ve been slightly fascinated by a long white wiggly mark on the live TV navigational map that stretches from way up in the north of the Atlantic, and curves right down to the south, like the seam on a tennis ball. It was only by keeping an eye on the sea depth that we were able to determine that the mark must be a subterranean mountain range (due to the fact that, as we passed over it, the sea depth below us decreased dramatically).
Once again, we were able to spend some of day three of our marathon Atlantic crossing out on deck. In particular, we spent quite a bit of time at the front of the ship, alongside the eternally optimistic, giant lens-wielding wave-watchers. One would think that in all that sea there would some signs of life, but all we’ve seen are lots of waves and flying fish, and not a great deal of anything else. The Atlantic Ocean is truly a desert.
I’ve had to spend some time on the onboard internet, retrieving emails and checking important stuff. When I go away, I always inform online students that I will be working on board a ship, where the wi-fi is stupidly expensive and flaky at the best of times. To say it’s slow would be a spectacular understatement (think dial-up with constipation). As such, it’s important that any work students wish to send me must be compressed to files as small as possible (preferably 500kb or less). While most students respect that state of affairs, sadly, for some, the message doesn’t seem to be getting through… one student actually sent me just over 17mb of attachments that totally crashed my system… the on-board wi-fi simply can’t handle that sort of traffic.
Tonight was our second formal night (I hate formal nights!). Whether or not we go for full-blown formal is something I’m happy to defer to Tracey. I’m pleased to say that she let me off with a smart jacket and tie on his occasion… Dressed up as we were, we went to the show, which was ‘From Russia With Love’, which is a spectacular celebration of the music and songs from Russia and the Ukraine, which we always enjoy.
Once again, the clocks go back an hour, putting us three hours behind UK time.
