What I saw and what I didn't see

We passed the Rock today (Gibraltar) while I was chipping the port side
gangway area. I watched it pass from behind dirty goggles that kept
steaming up from the close proximity of my dust mask and amidst the ungodly
din of needleguns, chipping hammers, and 3-fingers on plate steel. It was
pure magic. Then the inevitable and much-feared event I have been dreading
since I first signed my articles came to pass: My C-3 went out while I'm
10,000 miles away from my chiropractor. Ouch.

I am going to call Dr. Wolf's office from Jebel Ali and ask them to find me
a referral in Singapore... they actually did a phone consultation with a
chiropractor in Statesboro, Georgia, and proscribed the manner of my
adjustment a couple of years ago, so why not Singapore? Meanwhile I'll be
popping anti-inflammatories and moving with the grace of a 1950's robot
super-villain. And cursing and gnashing my teeth.

I have been really enjoying the new watch time I'm on (the 4x8
sunrise/sunset watch) and I can't wait to upload some of the photos I've
taken of sunrises and sunsets! I have crepuscular rays, anti-crepuscular
rays, multi-storied cloud layers and colors galore...

And tonight I saw the fabled "green flash" of the setting sun; like St.
Elmo's Fire, the Green Flash is a real phenomenon that this guy has seen
with his own eyes. It is caused by the same bending of light that causes
stars to twinkle, and twinkle with greater intensity and color separation at
the horizon than at the zenith; or rainbows, fogbows, and moonbows to form
(yes, these do exist) with the added prismatic-effect of moisture in the
atmosphere. At the very last moment of the setting sun (1-2 seconds), the
sun turns green. It's said to be rare, but only the number of times people
actually look for it in their life is rare- so on the next cloudless day
(sorry Seattle), at sunset, as the setting sun falls off the edge of the
world keep some binoculars handy and you'll definitely see it... but you
have to be looking for it.

Courtesy: I have been told it is the single most important quality in a
blue water sailor, above even marlinspike and navigational seamanship. I
have also been told there is nothing that will piss a sailor off more than
unrequited courtesy- which is very, very true. If you relieve a guy at 15
minutes before the hour every change of the watch for 63 consecutive days
and the next trip your watches reverse and he relieves you at 10 minutes
before the hour... well, that guy becomes the object of your ire. You can't
help it. You're not above it. You will seek for ways to make him pay.
You're petty and you know it, but that bastard won't do it again, end of
story.

The engineers keep flooding the pool. Not a problem in theory- it just runs
off the deck, no biggie. Except the door seal at the end of my hallway
needs replacing and it keeps flooding my room and the room next to mine (the
Wrestler's). And each time I have to clean up my carpet it costs Bosun a
day of labor. And the Delegate is getting pissed. Last night the engineers
apparently cranked up the music in the gym above both Bosun's and the
Delegate's rooms, and below that of the Chief Mate, and woke them all up...
which, if there is any sin more reviled than unrequited courtesy, it is the
mortal sin of interrupting sleep. To top it off, this morning the Chief
Engineer basically told the Bosun to "piss off."

There is a saying out here that encapsulates the solidarity of the jilted...
a guy "falls" down and everyone says it when the "fall" is investigated: "I
didn't see shit." On these ships the crews are permitted to drink in their
off times- but should a crewmember "fall" or an argument ever come to blows
between crew, everyone involved gets the breathalyzer and those who register
anything at all are viewed, without exception, as the guilty party and they
inevitably take the walk. It is a zero-tolerance policy and no captain
would endanger the availability of grog to himself or the crew and then go
back to sea without a pair the size of (and armored like) coconuts.

So when someone- anyone, really- gets awakened or flooded next time by
drunken engineers raising hell in the pool area... well, you can imagine at
least one scenario of how it is going to go down: Confrontation,
altercation, investigation.

And I won't have seen shit.