Ready.

After more than two years of training, meeting UN and USCG regulations, paying fees, filing papers, exploring leads and backtracking from them, making new acquaintances, following schedules, adhering to plans, practicing drills, and the enormous amount of chaff that accumulates through life being thrown vigorously to the wind, I am now holding ships papers directing me to New York City where I will board the 275 meter U.S. flagged container ship "M/V President Polk" bound for Shanghai via all ports in between.

The flight is early tomorrow morning and I have cleaned my list of the remaining to-do detritus- new electric toothbrush heads from Fred Meyer, healthcare directive paperwork notarized, insurance paid on the boat, etc..  I have also remained pinned here by the cat long after the need to use the bathroom has become critical. A general sense of anticipation has built slowly, steadily, into a raging head of steam... very much like my current need to go to the bathroom, actually.

The blog is the last item... something I can use to fill in the spaces between the 12 hour work days split into 2 shifts of 6 on, 6 off... and a way to keep up with my own version of "Where's Waldo?" using a little bit of mobile phone gps and google map technology... so the next few posts are mostly me trying to figure out how to make this work in the simplest way possible.