Ship Life 1: Everyday Rhythms

A Days and B Days and Study Days.  Breakfast and lunch and happy hour and dinner.  Class prep, Writing Center tutoring, teaching.  Home school, ship kids, babysitting, Explorer Seminars.  There were so many rhythms of life on board the MV Explorer.  Always the ship-life rhythms were punctuated, juxtaposed, or interrupted by the rhythms of the ever-moving sea: the rhythms of the waves or swells (they're not the same thing); the rhythms of changing light on the water and in the clouds.  And always the rhythms were set against the background thrrrummmm of the engines churning the sea behind us into white froth as we steamed west away from the sunrise.

(These rhythms really were, by the way, shipboard rhythms.  Time being so tight between ports and class meetings, Semester at Sea ignores the regular calendar.  I taught on A Day; Susan took her Spanish class on B Day; every now and then we got a "weekend" in the form of a Study Day.  By Week Two, none of us could remember what day of the week it was in the outside world.)

Lunch Dessert

The food on board the ship was really extraordinarily good--it was only in the last few weeks of the voyage that I, for one, had a little trouble setting foot inside the dining decks.  There were two main ones: the Deck 5 Main Dining Room and the Deck 6 Garden Lounge.  Each morning Noah and I would get up around 7, when serving began, and go up to the Garden Lounge, while Susan, normally, would catch a little down time, sometimes going to Zumba, more often eating oatmeal in the cabin.  The Garden Lounge had both inside and al fresco dining, and we usually ate inside next to a starboard window, where we could see what the sea was doing that morning.  Lunches we normally ate in the Main Dining Room.  Dinners we went where our whims took us.  Usually I had to work until 6:30 in the Writing Center, so I met Noah and Susan latish.  My shift in the Writing Center was from 5:15 (17:15) to 6:30 (18:30), so we followed the "it's five o'clock somewhere" philosophy and shifted Happy Hour to the middle of the afternoon: a perennially sweet spell of nice drinks and nice snacks and watching Harry Potter or Frozen while lounging on the bed of Cabin 4085.  

("Drinks" consisted usually, for me, of a mixed cocktail.  You could bring two liters per person of alcoholic beverages on board the ship at each port; thus I could replenish my bourbon and vodka supplies.)

Noah's tricky dining needs--he has food allergies--had us always making special requests to the jocular, happy dining staff: gluten-free bread, extra cheese, milk at lunches.

Noah with one of his best dining staff buddies, Darwin.

For all of us there were always pasta, potatoes, a fish dish, a chicken dish, salads, soups.  On special occasions there would be barbecue up on the Pool Deck, and you could always get burgers, fries, and hot dogs up there too.  Also popcorn, which we would buy and bring down to happy hour, and smoothies and soft ice cream and candy.

In the morning, Noah went to home school most days in the morning, even though he wasn't of school age (most of the kids being older and being required to dive recalcitrantly into Curriculum).  Often the two would read up on an upcoming country and do some artwork for their evolving scrapbook.  In the afternoon the day shifted to Ship Kids time, when all the kids on board--27 in all--would gather for artsy activities (from map-making to napkin-folding, the latter taught by the dining staff) or other fun stuff devised by parents or the two staff members hired to coordinate ship kids activities.  

Ship kids (and daddy) kickboxing with Jamie.

Noah visiting the Bridge with some Ship Kids.

At the end of the voyage: a display in the Main Dining Room.

There were of course a number of special ship-life occasions, some of which I'll report on in more detail in another post.  Herewith a few of the more mundane--but still marvelous--moments of life on the Explorer for Noah.

The flag-back photo was a Thing to Do; Noah did his own, with the help of his friend Emily Doney, representing Japan.

One day in the Indian Ocean the Captain gunned it, getting the MV Explorer up to 29 knots.  We all enjoyed the wind in our hair and the sight of the rooster tail exploding from the ship's stern.

Always there were fun play times with Mommy.

Noah cut his finger pretty badly in India; here he's in Mommy and Daddy's cabin getting his dressing changed.

There were many fitness and active fun choices.  Here Noah is doing acro-yoga with our dear friend Jessica Roberts.

A fitness run around the pool.

Noah and buddies playing in the designated Ship Kids cabin, no. 5025.

Hang-out time with Amare and Lucy on Deck 7.  Much Freeze Tag and Red Light / Green Light transpired here.

Noah and Jude learning a video game on Jude's iPad.

I carried my camera constantly.  Here are just some shipboard snaps:

Finally, and most importantly: friends.  Here's Noah with some buddies.

With Jude and Randi.

With Jessica.

With Robin Lockwood.

With Summer.

With "big sister" Rhianna Lawson.

With Emily Doney.

With Valerie Ong.

With Tom Robertshaw, Evan Booth, and Jared Thomson.

Farewell eyelash kisses with Jessie Hamilton.

More fun with Jessie.

What will Noah take from his Semester at Sea adventure?  We certainly hope that he will emerge with a profoundly rich sense of the world as a single diverse place, that he will have many specific memories of adventuring.  But certainly, as we expected, the experience of being a member of the shipboard community, of rolling through the rhythms of life on the MV Explorer, will, we're certain, always be the best memory: a golden age in his early life.  Onboard the Explorer, Noah was wrapped up in seaborne love.