In the Mediterranean Sea

(excerpts from Ship's Librarian, Rich Delbango)
Saturday, June 26
We left Dublin shortly after midnight this morning and we're now making headway south to the Mediterranean.

Tomorrow will be the first Sunday at Sea of the 2nd cruise. If the weather permits, they'll be a barbecue for all on the sun deck. Because it is the beginning of the 2nd part of the term and classes just began today, most cadets will have classes for at least part of the day. Next week there should be no classes for our second Sunday which also happens to be the 4th of July. Irregardless, I still have to work because thelibrary is open every day we are at sea, holiday or not.

Sunday, June 27
We hit some rough water, not the worst I've ever seen, but uncomfortable..The ship rolled all night. Anything not tied down rolled back and forthon the decks, including me in my bunk.

.....I was happy to see that things had calmed down enough for our Sunday at Sea barbecue which was already going on out on the sun deck. I wound up having burgers and hot dogs for breakfast. Yum! The day was gorgeous, sunny in the mid 70s.

Monday, June 28
It has been a real quiet day. The seas were calm and the sun was strong. Everyone is settling in to the 2nd half of the cruise. We're in the Atlantic, off the northern coast of Spain I think. It's hard to tell because the interactive map with the Seawave e-mail system dosn't seem to be working this year and my hand held GPS seems to be on the fritz too. I can always go up to the map room and ask where we are, but it's a long way up from where I'm stationed (8 decks).

We're cruising fairly slowly, below 10 knots. We'll probably make it to the mouth of the Mediterranean by Wednesday and anchor by Gibraltar to take on fuel on Thursday. Since we're not docking at Gibraltar, I'm going to have to see if I can use my binoculars to spot any of my little monkey friends on the top of the rock.