casablanca and points beyond...

Starting this entry at 9:30pm ship time (6 hours ahead of Central time, 7 hours ahead of Mountain time, 8 hours ahead of Pacific), our position is:

Latitude: 27 degrees, 52.77 N

Longitude: 13 degrees 51.13 W

Course: 218 degrees

We passed the Canary Islands a couple of hours ago and got these photos. It was spectacular!

Our stay in Casablanca was very memorable. Many on the ship took trips to other places, including Marrakech, Berber villages in the High Atlas Mountains, Ourika Valley and Rabat, and hearing their stories when they returned was lots of fun. Since we had arrived a day late, our city orientation tour was moved to Wednesday, and many of those who had planned to participate had conflicts with overnight trips. Nonetheless, we went on a bus with a group of 24 and had a wonderful guide, a Muslim woman named Naima.

Naima explained there were four quarters in the city and proceeded to show us all of them. We drove around the French quarter first, where one can easily see in the buildings the influence of the days of French colonization. The administration quarter contains a beautiful city hall building that has tiles in the colors of Islam and beautiful stucco carving. The royal quarter has a palace for the use of current King Mohammed VI and his family when they are in Casablanca (the main palace is in nearby Rabat). And the old city is just that -- the original parts of the city that are close to the port. The port itself is huge -- John and I attempted to walk into the city from the ship when we first arrived, and it was an experience that we could have done without!

Naima talked about many Muslim traditions as the bus was taking us to see the grand Mosque Hassan II. The Mosque was magnificent and is able to accommodate 25,000 people on the inside and 80,000 on the plaza around the outside. It took only 6 years to build and was completed in 1993. (John and I were noting that it seems to have taken much longer than 6 years to extend the LRT in Calgary -- maybe we should suggest to the mayor where he might get some advice...) There is still work being done in the area on further buildings that will accommodate libraries. Two thirds of the Mosque has been built over the sea -- it is quite a sight!

And who could come to Casablanca and not see Rick's Cafe Americain? Of course, the scenes at Rick's in the movie were not filmed anywhere near Casablanca, but there is a restaurant here run by an American woman. (I understand there is one in Cape Town as well.) The website is http://www.rickscafe.ma/. Bob Balsley, one of our fellow travellers, is a jazz guitarist and had a gig there on Thursday afternoon. He said that in the evenings the owner will only allow a piano player, but she is a bit more flexible at lunchtime as long as the musician sticks to 40's music. So we enjoyed Bob's music and had a great chicken curry while sampling a local beer.

After our lunch at Rick's we had an unforgettable cab ride -- a really nice cab driver who asked if John was a teacher and asked him to "read my mind" when he learned John was a psychologist. We discussed the traffic, which is as bad as any I have ever seen in any European city. John commented that the lane markers seemed to be "suggestions" to the drivers. Our cab driver laughed and said that the reason it works is because everyone thinks alike. He pointed to the driver in front of us who had a right turn signal on. He said, "Look, he is signaling that he will go right, but he will go left." And sure enough...

We left Casablanca last night, and just as when we came into the port, we had to leave with the stabilizers up. This time the captain warned us twice that the ship would be rolling, that everything should be packed away, and that it was best to be seated during this time. We had been watching strong waves all afternoon. The rolling of the ship was frightening this time. I heard things falling and people shouting, but we fared pretty well -- our table fell over and we had a stack of books that fell (I really thought they were secure, but the table had been part of my plan). I heard an announcement "Code Blue in 5020" and recognized that as the room next to ours, so opened the door to learn that the fellow in the next room had hit his head and required stitches. We lost part of the power in our room for a time, and it was apparently related to the damage in his room. I learned this morning that a friend down the hall was thrown across her room with the chair in which she was sitting landing on top of her. Then the tv broke loose and flew over her and the chair and hit the door. Fortunately she escaped major injury. We heard other stories this morning of minor injuries and tv's and in some cases the small refrigerators breaking loose. The amazing thing -- John slept through the whole thing!

We did finally get through the worst of it, although it was rocky all night. We were all glad to see daylight today. Things are much calmer now. We are now headed for Dakar where we will refuel and not get off the ship, similar to our Gibraltar stop. Monday should be Neptune Day, when we cross the equator. We've heard there will be lots happening that day -- and no classes!

in casablanca!

When I got up this morning at 6:00 to go to the gym, I looked out and saw that we were bunkered -- the refueling ship had arrived and looked like it was successfully connecting to the ship. Waters were much calmer and by 10:00 we were on our way. Seas did not stay calm and we had a very rough ride. John and I spent most of the day in our cabin, resting and reading.

Arriving in Casablanca the captain announced that the stablizers would have to be raised in order to come into port, but that there were swells of 5 meters so we could expect some rocking. He advised us to tie down anything that wasn't already. He wasn't kidding. We did survive and are now docked in Casablanca, although no one will leave the ship now until morning.

One of the programs on the ship is "extended family". Some of the students like to have contact with the more adult travellers on a regular basis, and John and I volunteered to be part of this program. The idea is to be in contact during port activities, birthdays, occasional "family" dinners, and so on. We have now been notified that we have an extended family of four students, none of whom we have met. I will be contacting them by e-mail tonight to try to arrange our first meeting. Should be fun!

It is nice to hear from everyone who is responding. I haven't figured out how to respond to you -- maybe just by posting a comment myself, but we have been trying to keep up by e-mail. For those who post -- nothing gets posted until we moderate and post when we log on. So when you save your comment it might not be published for a couple of days, depending on our access to Internet. And for anyone wanting photos -- I will try to sort through and post a group in a day or two.

leaving spain and refueling in gibraltar

Latitude: 36 degrees 8.8 N; Longitude: 5 degrees 22.6 W

We had a great time during our last two days in Spain. I had been battling a bad cold for several days and finally felt some relief, so we were able to spend more time walking in the city. We
found a Burger King and a MacDonalds, and walked by them shaking our heads, but I must admit we gave in to the Ben and Jerry's! Other than that, we sampled the local cuisine and tried out our limited Spanish. People in Cadiz are friendly and tolerant.

The guide on John's trip the first day had shown his group the city market so John and I went back there. It was full of beautiful fresh seafood and fish, meat and poultry, breads, and very colorful fruits and vegetables. It was too bad we had been told not to bring anything but sealed packages back to the ship -- we had to leave those wonderful cherries behind!

One thing we had read about and decided we wanted to visit was the Torre Tavira (Tavira Tower). This is one of several towers in Cadiz attached to houses and used in the 18th century for business families in the city to look out to the harbor and see the merchant ships arriving. In this way they knew when the items they are expecting were arriving. The towers are often named for the people that owned or operated them. The Torre Tavira was part of the palace of the Marquis of Recano and was named after its first watchman, Antonio Tavira. In 1778 it was named the official watchtower for the town because it was the highest lookout point.

The Torre Tavira also contains a camera obscura and being at the top is a bit like being inside a camera. Through a system of magnifying lenses and a mirror projecting on a screen that is a large horizontal bowl, various parts of the city can be seen and focused by moving the bowl up and down. It was fascinating and I'm happy we were able to locate the tower and get in to see it.
Our last day in Cadiz we took a bus tour that allowed us to see some beautiful beaches and gardens. This is something that would have been better to do at the beginning and I think we would have if I had been feeling better. We learned there are some sections of the city that are quite new and that the gardens are very beautiful.

On-ship time was 1800 yesterday, meaning that everyone had to be on board by 6 pm. If any passenger is late, he or she receives "dock time" at the next stop. (My junior high teaching background brings to mind detentions!) This applies to every single person: students, faculty, staff, family members, deans, everyone. For every 15 minutes late, the violator receives 1 hour of dock time where he or she must remain on the ship, missing any activities or planned trips. It's quite an incentive! There were no latecomers yesterday.

We left Cadiz last night at 2000 (8 pm) and headed for Gibraltar for refueling. Weather was very rough and about an hour after departing some cups and water bottles we had on the shelf hit the floor with an enormous clatter when the ship rolled sharply starboard. John slept right through it, but I was up for a couple of hours after that happened. We have been warned to pack everything away tonight, and after having seen all the ships plants, trash bins, tables, chairs and assorted odds and ends tied to the walls during the day today, you can be sure we have followed our cabin steward's suggestions! The sea was too rough today for refueling. A ship was dispatched to us for that purpose, but after about three hours of attempting to assemble the necessary plumbing, everyone gave up and we are now anchored for the night off the coast of Gibraltar. Another attempt will be made tomorrow. Since we were to arrive tomorrow morning in Casablanca, we are now behind schedule. The Field Office staff are working overtime tonight to try to reschedule the trips that were to take place tomorrow. John and I had a city orientation tour planned, but that will probably be fairly easy to do on Tuesday. Others who were travelling longer distances will have more difficulty. More about Casablanca can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca for those interested in looking.

We had a presentation this morning on Morocco from an American who has been living there for the last 20 years and learned a lot about the country, its history, and its relationship with the US. I did not know that the Normandy invasion was planned in Casablanca.
Tonight we had our logistical pre-port to talk about getting on and off the ship, documents required, health and safety issues in Morocco and so on. Staff have worked hard to make these sessions appealing, humorous and interesting for the students, and I think everyone pays attention as a result.

If the weather calms down tonight we will be on our way and will probably get to Casablanca by tomorrow evening. Stay tuned -- I'll let you know!

enjoying cadiz...

Cadiz is a beautiful little town and we are enjoying walking around here. It is very clean and tidy and compact. We walk for a little while, then sit and have tea, then walk a little more. If you want to know more about the area, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A1diz.

Yesterday John did take his group on a little walking tour with a local guide. I took a photo of John with the prof who went with him and a couple of the students from our cabin. John took one of me in the cabin window too. I went with a couple of friends to visit the Cathedral. Many of the buildings here are constructed using coral from the sea.

In the afternoon when John and the students returned, there was a reporter here from the local paper who interviewed some faculty and students. John and I went hunting for the paper today and found a full page spread on Semester at Sea. His photo did not make the cut, and the article was in Spanish, but it was a thrill to find and see it anyway!

The energy around here yesterday was amazing as students got ready for their shore trips and it was fun to see. Many of them have now left for Barcelona and Madrid. The ship is nearly empty and I have to say the quiet is a nice change.

spain in the morning!

We had a lovely sunrise yesterday, and I managed to get some photos. Here is one I will share.

We are all very excited to be arriving in Cadiz, Spain in just a few hours. We have seen a couple of ships and a few birds in the last day or two, after days of nothing but ocean. I heard rumors that someone had seen a whale today too. Weather is cooler, but still quite nice in the sun.

John will be taking a group of students to observe non-verbal behaviors in some public places tomorrow. I will be walking to the townsite, which is only a couple of minutes from the port. We had a cultural pre-port meeting last night where we learned a lot about Spain and things we might see and do, then had a logistical pre-port meeting tonight to talk about disembarking, staying safe, emergency phone numbers, etc. This is all managed so well that it is no surprise that there are not a lot of things that go wrong in this program. The people in charge are doing a fabulous job, and this is a great group of students too!

location information...

We have one channel on the tv that gives us constant location and heading information, and every day at noon we get average speed, distance and weather information as well. At this minute, our latitude is 32 degrees, 29.42 N and our longitude is 33 degrees, 37.9 W. Our course is 78 degrees and the speed is 15 knots. On ship time is 21:25, 3 hours ahead of EST. We have been advised to advance our clocks one hour when we go to bed, the fourth time we have done this in the last 5 days.

Our average speed over the 24 hours from noon yesterday to noon today was 15.71 knots (down from around 21 knots for the first 3 days). And as of noon today we were 1545 nautical miles from our next port, Cadiz, Spain. We were told that one nautical mile is about 1.15 miles and a knot measures nautical miles per hour, for those interested. Since Miami, we have traveled 2200 nautical miles.

Thanks, Mike, for the weather web site. We'll check that out!

halfway across to Spain...

Water is much calmer today and everyone seems to be settling in. Staggering has turned to swaying as we all get our sea legs. The crew must find us awfully funny -- they all look so graceful when they walk.

There is a lot of excitement today as students pick their on shore trips for Africa, India and Thailand and the longer trips for the other countries. We are picking a few too. The ones for the earlier stops were chosen in December. I am sitting in an open area of the ship listening to all the activity as they line up at the Field Office desk or sit in groups making their plans.

Today I'm including a photo of students boarding in Nassau. Slow connection makes including photos difficult but I will continue to include a few.

1/3 the way across the atlantic...

We are slowly, but surely making our way across the ocean. We've had some rocky days, but it could be worse. John is finding the teaching interesting -- difficult to walk around the classroom and we hear most are either sitting or leaning to deliver lectures. I have struggled with nausea and things are marginally better today. It's always better on the deck with sunshine and fresh air. I'm very happy not to be teaching. We've heard that people tend to overdo when land finally arrives and I can certainly see why!

The students are getting the hang of getting around the ship. We are happy we had a head start! The little kids are doing the best -- reminds me of watching them ski. When they are so close to the ground they are the first to develop their sea legs!

The ship's crew have been fabulous and are always in a good humor. Our cabin steward is Linda and she is from Guyana in South America. She has been very helpful and always makes our cabin a great place to come home to. In the dining room we get lots of help carrying our meals to the tables. We've had two lifeboat drills so far -- the most fun was the one after the students got on board.

I still don't have photos ready to post, but have managed to get them off the camera and onto the computer, so maybe next time. Take care everybody! And happy birthday, Ron and Bill -- thinking of you both and wishing you were here!

don't give up on us!

Internet access on the ship has been a challenge, so hope people are still tuning in! Thanks for the comments -- if you leave a comment, we have to give permission before it is actually published, so there may be a lag. We are currently in the Bahamas, having arrived Sunday morning from Miami. We were anchored not far from Miami until finally leaving for Nassau late Saturday afternoon. We had reasonably calm seas, and although some people felt sick, John and I were fine. The weather is gorgeous today and I am sitting right now on a Starbucks patio having coffee and enjoying the terminal activity. Our students are boarding this morning, so there is a very different energy on the ship and around the terminal! The faculty have been in meetings since Friday and I think all of us are very excited to finally meet the students. Lifelong Learners boarded yesterday, so we met several of them at a reception last evening.

The ship is lovely and the food has been great. I have taken advantage of the gym several times now, and has been very nice to have lots of time for reading and getting to know fellow voyagers. Several of us have been wondering what it will be like with 730 additional participants boarding, so we will get a better idea of that at dinnertime tonight. There are lots of parents here in the coffee shop, with students running in and out occasionally -- parents are not allowed on the ship today, although there was a reception for parents (without the students) yesterday afternoon.

I will not post pictures this time since I am not organized to do so, but will get those ready for my next posting. I will also try my hand at posting some video of the ship. Thinking about all of you -- I will post as often as possible!

in Miami, waiting to board...

Well, all my good intentions have fallen by the wayside and it has been weeks since I have posted. In that time things have changed -- because of pirates in the Gulf of Aden, we are now skipping Italy, Turkey and Egypt, and will sail around Africa instead. We are happy to be visiting Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and Mauritius though we are mildly disappointed at missing the Mediterranean countries.

We are in Miami now and have had a very full couple of days. We flew out on Monday and had a very good trip here with only minor delays in Denver after a surprise snow storm. We have enjoyed our hotel and walking around downtown Miami to pick up things needed for the trip that we didn't manage to acquire before leaving. We have especially enjoyed the balmy temperatures after the severe winter we left! On Tuesday morning we were surprised and delighted to look out the window of our hotel and see the MV Explorer in view across the bay. I think it became real for us for the first time! So tomorrow we board the ship and we sail tomorrow evening for Nassau to go meet the students. We are really excited to finally be on our way -- especially John who has been preparing for so long. More to follow...

preparations...

We have been preparing for our trip for a long time now - courses are planned, responsibilities at work have been doled out, house arrangements have been made, everyone has been notified - and now the blog is ready too! We have just over six weeks before our departure and we are quickly reaching the point where we want to stop the preparations and be on our way. We will attempt to create a journal to keep everyone aware of where we are and what we are doing, and hope to hear from friends and family in the comments. We'll be mailing the link to the blog out shortly.