On the Open Ocean

Noah is at sea!  We boarded around noon on Monday the 5th, amid a mess of drama I'll explain below, and then sailed away from San Diego on the evening of the 6th, after Noah had gone to bed.  In the middle of the night he awoke and came into our cabin, looked out the port, and said, “we’re moving!”  This morning he and I got up and watched the sun rise out of a red streaky sky astern and start chasing us toward Hawai’i.  Thus far the sea is glassy and blue; the ship rolls lightly, giving me at least, last night, the best night of sleep I’ve had all trip.  Tomorrow things are supposed to get rocking a little more.

Boarding was horribly stressful due to the fact that I (Scott) had—grrrr—left Noah’s passport back at Nannie’s house on the copy machine.  Thank God, thank Ganesha, thank my guardian angels (upon whom I’ve learned to trust), thank the wisdom of foresighted humanity, thank capitalism, thank everyone—for FedEx.  Noah was largely unfazed by the drama and instead was very excited to dance his way through the ship: Our Ship, as he calls her.  The wonderful and caring staff of Semester at Sea were so welcoming and understanding.

I, Daddy, have been in meetings, meetings, meetings.  My worry has decreased and my excitement has risen as I’ve gotten into the community here.  What an amazing and wonderful group of faculty and staff.  The core of this Semester at Sea thing—teaching relevant curriculum in the experiential learning opportunity afforded by a voyage around the world—is hardly to be believed in its wonderfulness.  Think of studying world literature country by country.  Think of studying the global economy from people who understand global culture in an intimate way.  I know that the students are going to have a life-changing experience; I know that Noah and his parents are in the midst of a highlight of all of our lives.

On Tuesday evening, Noah had his first lifeboat drill (he had another the very next day), which he was fascinated by, and then he went to bed.  In the morning, we were at the dock in Ensenada.  There, daddy was supposed to stay on the ship all day and greet students, but the buses trickled in, and it didn’t make a lot of sense to hang around, so we all got off the ship with some new friends to do a little shopping and find some lunch.  Yummy tacos were found.  All the while, Noah was seeming very tired, which was not any sort of surprise given how hard we’ve all been going, going, going, and at the restaurant, Noah put his head in my lap and fell asleep.  By the time lunch was over, he clearly was hot with fever.  I carried him back to the ship, and he slept the rest of the day away.  Mommy joined him for much of it.

Today Noah awoke much improved (too early for poor Susan, who has been carrying a heavy Noah-caring burden over the past few days).  As I said, he and I made our way up to the deck to watch the sun bleed its way up the sky.