The Arctic Circle

There are Mariner Milestones - I’ve been lucky enough to hit a few of them in my career.

The Prime Meridian - 0 degrees Longitude

The International Dateline - 180 degrees Longitude

The Equator - 0 degrees Latitude

I’ve crossed these imaginary lines.  Most times I’ve crossed these imaginary lines in the middle of the ocean with nothing to mark the occasion other than a glance at the GPS to say, ‘yep, here I am’.

I crossed a new line this week.

The Arctic Circle - 66 degrees 33 minutes North Latitude

As per usual it was a quiet affair with no fanfare.  My shipmates had all crossed it before and were uniformly unimpressed.

Mother Nature however, felt that a proper welcome to the Arctic was necessary and graced me with a nearly white rainbow.

Here’s to Mariner Milestones and Rainbows.  May they never get old.

Sunset Off Monterey

I mentioned yesterday that we drifted off Monterey before getting into our berth in Oakland.  This sunset was the absolutely gorgeous.  It was definitely a perk in the delay.

There is a pretty large part of me that wants to rant nonsensically about the Longshoreman and the current situation but, instead I'm going to post photos of a sunset. 

But wait!  There are more!

Feel free to click through at your leisure!

HAPPY ALOHA FRIDAY!

A week into shipboard life.

I'm a week and a day (or so) into this current rotation at sea.  Hypothetically, if I complete all the time allotted to my contract I'll be aboard for 126 days.  My plan is to avoid taking a trip off (like I did last time - so that I could move out of my place in Houston) and just get all three West Coast - Asian trips done in one clean swoop.

Doing all three trips isn't necessarily the best option for my mental health but, it's definitely the best option for my bank account and annual timeline.  It's definitely a mindset and I'm working on attaining said mindset right off the bat.  I think it was one of the reasons I packed so many 'extras' this go around.  I mean honestly, I'm looking forward to my daily chocolate out of my advent calendar!  Looking forward to small things goes a really long way.  Hence the extras.

It's been radio silence around here.  I attribute that to a small dose of 'hibernation' (ie I've been taking more naps than required....maybe just a touch of 'joining the ship blues'), limited internet (can we all agree I should be grateful just to have a small amount of internet in the middle of the ocean?!) and, plain old laziness.

Here's what the past week looked like:

First things first - setting up my bed with comfy flannel comforter and bottom sheet.  Aaaaah.  Cozy.  I love cuddling up.

November 23rd.  

Next on the agenda was getting used to early morning wake ups once more.  Of all the watches, 04-08 / 16-20 is my favorite.  Most times you get the sunrise and sunset.  

November 24th.

Our first morning out of Oakland was foggy yet sunny.  I'll take it.

November 25th.

I tried to get back in the groove by documenting my coffee with a sunrise.  You know....my signature shot.  I got foam blown all over my fingers.  I had to laugh out loud.

November 27th.

Dutch Harbor on arrival = Gorgeous.  Dutch Harbor on departure = snow blowing sideways and an aborted undocking due to high winds - the ship couldn't breast off the dock.

November 29th.

The exciting thing about December First was being able to dig into my Advent Calendar!  Thanks Trader Joes.  Those little chocolates are scrumdiliumptious.

December 1st.

This morning was gloomy.  So, so gloomy.  It was also Thursday instead of Wednesday - after all this time I STILL find the International Date Line confusing!  It's official folks, I'm in East Longitude.

December 4th.

There you have it!  A week in a post!

I hope your Thanksgiving was lovely and that you're gearing up for the Holidays with style!

I got a ship!

I just absolutely scored at the Union Hall.  

It's a good ship for me because I was just on the sister ship so I'll know my way around a little bit and, I'll also know the run.

I'm not looking forward to freezing temperatures in China but, a couple pieces of good gear go a really long ways.

I ship out on Monday - which gives me ample time to finish packing my sea bags.

i love how this photo divides the room into color and black & white naturally

(and trust me I need time...as you can see my suitcase / sea bag situation is an explosion)

I'm just plain old tickled pink!!!!!!

Blue & White

My favorite color combination.  I've documented it several times here.  Like when I was in the Azores and found a beautiful blue and white church or, when I just posted a single photo of Mediterranean Blue.  Once, I even wrote about having the blues and then spotting some dolphins.

Sometimes (and maybe more times then I care to admit), I stand on the bridge wing and just take photo after photo of our bow wake crumbling into blue waters.  I literally have hundreds of archived photos of various bow wakes.  

There is something so soothing about an ever changing array of white against blue.

Crossing the Pacific (on September the 8th to be exact) - I did just that.  I stood on the bridge wing and let an endless array of blue and white soothe me as I snapped away.  They're not even all in focus and for some reason out of focus works for me.

It's criminal how many of my photos end up in a digital archive.

I hope these soothe you the way they soothe me.

An Early Morning Panorama

I was sitting on the bridge on the morning of September 5th and I was assaulted by a pastel sky.

It was the kind of morning you want to commit to memory.  It was the kind of morning your camera waits for.  It was the kind of morning that is so gorgeous it actually feels overwhelming.  It was the kind of morning that makes you want to call and wake up a friend so that you're not the only one to enjoy it.  

I did my ultimate best to get a panorama with my iPhone...and was glad I did.

This is a scheduled post to keep you company in case I'm incommunicado while I'm Going Nomad!  Thanks for your understanding!  xoxo