Of Wales and Whales

It’s been a fairly uneventful weekend, but we’ve made some great headway through the Bay of Biscay and up into the St. George’s Channel between Ireland and England. We can see Wales off in the distance.

We’re making great time to pull into Liverpool pretty much on schedule Friday night. The Liverpool Philharmonic is scheduled to have an open-air concert at Pierhead (our dock!) that night – it would be nice to have a little music to add to the docking experience if we can make it in on time.

Around dinner time on Saturday, rumor began that because of a solar anomaly, we would be
able to see the Northern Lights around midnight! Of course, many stayed up well past their watch (including your librarian) to see if we could catch such a sight – very rare at this low latitude, I am told – but alas, there was too much cloud cover to see much of a show.   Of course, many stayed up well past their watch (including your librarian) to see if we could catch such a sight – very rare at this low latitude, I am told – but alas, there was too much cloud cover to see much of a show. 

The weather, for the most part, has been just as you would expect off of England: damp, cloudy, and hinting at fog. Just as we were starting to come up past Wales this afternoon (Sunday), there was an unverified whale sighting just off the starboard beam! I’m not sure if anyone was able to take a photo, but it would be nice to have some “charismatic megafauna” (as one of my old professors called whales) to join us on our cruise past England.

Sunday at sea was more or less as exciting as last time; we didn’t have the usual barbeque, which was a let down for a lot of people hungry for steak (including this librarian). Ice cream was still the highlight for most, however.

It’s amusing to see cadets coming down to the library all bundled up as if they were coming from an arctic expedition; I believe the thermometer is hovering around 65*F. The most popular wardrobe items this season? A black beanie cap and Maritime fleece jacket - quite a change from Gibraltar!

Instead of spending much time this weekend on deck, I decided to visit the opposite extreme of the ship: the engine room. Guided by Engineer Brian Dengel, I was shown all six (!) decks of the engine room full of valves, switches, converters, various turbines, and holding tanks. Perhaps the most amazing sight was the propeller shaft, which is the 200’+ piece connecting the propeller to the unit which controls its speed. Rotating at about 45 revolutions per minute (which was relatively smooth to the touch), Engineer Dengel said that it can reach up to 90 revs/min at the ship’s top speed. Not to mention, there are cadets there learning and controlling all of these units 24 hours a day – even in port!

Speaking of cadets, this weekend’s warm wishes come from two cadets: Devon Colbeck would like to say, “Yo dad, miss you mate!” as we cruise past your hometown in England, and Jordan McDonald says, “Hey mom, I’m ok, don’t worry – I’m not in jail!”

-- Liz --