the Pacific

January 27th - at sea [it doesn't sound right to say "at ocean" although that is technically correct - this is the Pacific Ocean not the Pacific Sea]. Anyway, for those of you interested in details, we are now about 6150 nautical miles from NYC and over 250 from LA. We’re traveling at 21.5 knots and are at 31 degrees 59.97 N latitude and 122 degrees 30.51 W longitude. Our next port is Honolulu, which we will reach on 2/1. There’s a strong breeze across the deck and moderate waves of 8 ft.

There’s a book in the library here that I recommend to the curious. It’s called Do Dolphins ever sleep? by Pierre-Yves & Sally Bely. For example you can learn the difference between oceans and seas, why the sea is salty, why icebergs are white. In the category of what you don’t need to know are such details as - at what degree does a wave break (<120 degrees) and how big was the biggest wave ever recorded (110 feet). I learned that the tuna is practically the only warm-blood fish, and it is fast, crossing the Atlantic in 40 days and sprinting at 30 knots. You can also read about the difference between mahi-mahi and the dolphin.

On a more personal level it takes me about a half day to adjust to motion at sea every time we really move out but I’ve not ever been really uncomfortable. I usually walk around the ship with the walking group at 7:30 every morning we are at sea -we cover about a mile by going around the ship three times. Then, I am really awake - especially in the wind, like today. wrote the blog text, went to a healthy living lecture (really!), and walked on the treadmill looking out over the ocean - the same view you get from www.cunard.com clicking on the bridge web cam. Now I'm entering the blog and doing my laundry. Multitasking....

Last evening we saw the glittering lights of LA as our last sight of land for a while. There’s an awfully lot of water out here.

Hard to image the rough weather you are having back home - my sympathies to those of you dealing with ice. Time for me is going fast, even though we’re turning the clock back often. We’ve covered over 6000 miles and been underway now for 17 days. BTW, a nautical mile is 1852 meters, which slightly less than the American mile and the English mile but longer than the French mile. [You really needed to know that, didn’t you?]