A Simple Google Search for "Pectoral Fin Humpback"

We go through the Straits of Hormuz again tonight during my watch. I can
see the lights on the Oman shore in my mind, exactly as I saw them on my
first voyage through here in November, and it will be interesting to see how
accurately I recall that first nighttime transit through. Last time through
was in the early morning hours, dozens of smugglers' speed boats racing back
and forth between Oman and Iran, illegally trading in panty hose and opium
across the lightly misted and glassy water.

The seas since leaving the internationally recognized hazardous waters have
been powder gray, made up of obsidian water that is churning a dark smoke
and jade. There is a tropical haze which blurs the horizon and washes the
blue of the sky out with a white, high altostratus lid. Visibility is about
7 miles. Temperature about 75. Seas flat. A slight 20 knot following
wind.

I have seen large, long distance flying birds with great, v-shaped
black-tipped wings and short, neck-less bodies for the last three days.
Dolphin have been numerous, as have flying fish, but no whales, yet- I
expect we'll see the herds of humpback again south of India. Watching them
launch out of the waves and throw their huge pectoral (?) fin skyward is
pretty friggin' awesome. Somebody, please correct me in the comments if
that isn't their pectoral fin (Laura? Sara? Mom? Any Google-enhanced warm
blooded creature)....

And I watched an Asian bootlegged copy of "Life of Pi" and can recommend it
as both a fantastic movie and a weird parallel of my time at sea so far (he
was at sea for 227 days, I'll have been out here for 210 when I get off).
But I don't have a tiger to contend with- just insane sailors.

My position as delegate has been both frustrating and time consuming. I
have reached a point where I now just don't give a shit about what people
aboard say or think- which backs up the union rep's assertion that "the
delegate is the loneliest sailor on a ship" completely- because everyone has
an agenda and wants you to do something in order to stick it to someone
else- so, as delegate, you stop listening and avoid your shipmates as much
as possible. I probably haven't made very many friends in my role (I don't
play soft ball) and all conversations now are flavored with hints at
who-wants-what and you-should-think-this-because, so I have taken to reading
or watching movies in my room, alone, or hitting the gym.

But I am learning, and learning a lot, which makes it almost worth it. The
challenges of physically adjusting to standing watch from the first voyage
have been replaced with the psychological challenges of enforcing arcane
contractual agreements that date back to 1885 with disparate parties while
knowing that the neighborhood will look different when I return home because
I have been gone so long, but as Mark Twain said (and I can only paraphrase
here b/c I have no Mark Twain with me)- there are some things that a man can
learn in no other way but by carrying a cat by the tail.

And so here I am.