DeBunkering in Las Palmas

Hi All,

I guess 1st off I should explain debunkering. It means getting a fill up . Since you don't just pull a 590' craft up to the pump they bring it to you. The term bunkering is mostly a maritime one meaning fuel or energy holding . the term debunkering simply mean the bunkering ship is off loading it's cargo. In our case the MV-Explorer holds 1190 metric tons of diesel , we took on 650 metric tons.

It was pretty wild to wake up a few miles off shore of Las Palmas. I was up before the sun so I just saw building lights and headlights from autos in what seemed like the sea.

Yesterday was a very good day and eventful . Any day the mini clan of three behave, do their work and are kind to each other make for a good day in my eye's. The days on ship are broken down into A days and B days because at sea there are always classes. Accordingly we have certain students tutoring on A days and another group on B days. Anna has finally started to get comfortable w/ the students that spend time w/ her on school work. Layne has as well in a kindergarten kind of way. Traci and I keep Layne w/ us more often so she get's the real creative play along w/ the ABC's and quantum physics. :)

In the afternoon Traci was asked to lecture in a class about her nursing experience and her matenity / health related work in the Peace Corp. The professor took me aside and said how impressed he was w/ her presentation. Many students became interested and they make build a panel including Traci just to answer questions and such.

I on the other hand gave a "lecture " to the kids, some staff and parents during "Enrichment Hour" . I made a drawing of a ship on huge piece of paper and wrote down and pointed out all the parts of a boat/ship I could think of. I also did the same w/ naming the different shapes of clouds and what they can mean related to weather. Then a little about the stars and how to find basic direction from them. I threw in fishing and broke out some of the tackle I brought along, shark hooks and wire leaders, huge squid for Tuna and the like. I also talked and gave survival stories which besides the nautical terms peaked their attention ... the story of a 25 yr old merchant mariner in 1942 named Poon Lim who survived 133 days at sea ALONE after the ship he was on was torpedoed between CapeTown and the South American coast.

Anyway today is another day at sea, it will take us about 4 more days to arrive in Ghana, looking forward to the pre-port discussion and speaker on that.

Latitude 28' .07N

Longitude 015' . 24W

Course - 182' almost due south

we have travelled 528 NM since Casablanca.

We are following sea as the wind is out of the NW at 13 knots smooth sailing.

Take care

Best

JD

T

Lines in and back to sea -waving goodbye to Casablanca

Hi all,
Its 2100 hrs or 9:00pm we just set out on the next leg of our voyage. Casablanca to Ghana it will take 7 days. Back to school for the kids and the student body.
Traci has had to work a bit of OT in Morocco. The food and water does funny things to the untrained stomach. Rockin' diarrhea as the kids and I call it. :)
We were able to chill out yesterday on the ship we all needed it. Young Declan the most . He was so hot and his tummy went haywire , he hurled all over our bed but like a kid rebounded and was smiling again in minutes.
We are looking forward to our next destination , almost Traci's old home turf. She met a Ghanaian man today while we were have coffee in an outdoor cafe in the old city (Medina) of Casablanca. We only talked to him for 10 minutes or so and he decided to take off his cool beaded necklace and put right on Anna neck. Just out of pure generosity. It was special.
Oh one last story, we were packed a few days ago to leave a place called Azamore - we were delayed and the girls unpacked there stuffed animals and special comfort blankets (taggies) to play w/ . We grabbed the bags when it was time to leave... at bed time that night no er ore , pickles or taggies.. the waterworks began in earnest! We got in touch w/ the nice man who owned the riad we stayed in. He drove an hour and a 1/2 back to the ship to deliver the precious cargo!! all is well in the world again. We hope a lesson in resonsibility has been learned. We know they are young but everyone has to carry some weight and help along the way . The forethought T and I put into every excursion is multiplied so we are expecting them to be able to handle certian things on their own.Life on a voyage in close quarters has some real moments.
Hope all is well w/ everyone
Current ship position:
Latitude - 33'35.9N
Longitude - 008' 2.4W

course 256'

I'm giving a talk to the kids in the dependent children program (home schooled kids) about ships , clouds and stars tomorrow.

Capt Ron signing off

Fez Marocco

Hi All,

Note to self , perpare yourself for an onslaught on the senses.The absolute crush of people hussling about in their maze of a world know as the medina (old city) where some of the streets are not as wide as my shoulders. Everywhere people are selling , selling selling. Some of the major items are ; leather, tile , rugs and all manner of food that tends to be a bit out of the ordinary . The sights of all of animals being displayed for consumption in the sun and heat w/ the inevitable flies, all parts of the goats, chickens, rabbits, camals, probably horse and of course cow.
Layne has earned the title of offical food taster for her Highness Miss Anna . It has been a bit rough on the tummies of young and old.
Did I mention it is about 100 degrees in the shade and its the end of Ramidan so people are out in droves, think pre Christmas for us back home.
Another sense that is a bit dicey is touch... basically if you touch something wash your hands right away says nurse Trixy. I'm going to agree w/ her on that one.
If our kids weren't in western wear by the end of the day they would look just like the street urchants of the Medinas. They touch everything!!!
The sights are brilliant. The artisan tile work and wood work has been done w/ such care and dedication it brings you to a differnt time hundreds of years ago. The doors that open to these new worlds are also built w/ great care and are spectacluar. Traci and I have taken many pictures of the doors to make a collage when we return.
Travelling w/ the three little one does create it's own experiance no matter where you go. Our attention has to be on them first, food , sun protection(Africa) secondly, we are able to check out our surroundings.
One great thing about travel is the ideas you get for your own surroundings at home. Think fabric , kitchen , bath etc. lots of cleaver things.

Enough for now . Travels to and from Fez we long .

best jd

Casablanca and Morocco

Hi , We set sail from Cadiz Espana last night at 8:00 . We will arrive in Casablanca Morrocco around 0100. We had a very nice time in Spain. it was a great amount of time (5 days) we spent our second to last day in Sevilla and the yesterday on a beach in Santa Maria we took a small boat to. Not many tourists at all. We watched a fotbal practice on our walk to the beach. They had a drill I'd never seen before. It looked like a good workout and allot of fun. Basically they spilt the team into two sides on of the sides 8 guys held hands in a row. The object was to then stay together and capture the other guys who's goal was to run past to temporary freedom and catch their wind. When a guy was caught he was added to the chain. It just looked like a great drill to me.
We are putting together plans for Morrocco now. We will be heading for an overnight to Fez (Harrision Ford says the most romantic city ) NYT say's is the religious and cultual capital of Morrocco.
We will post again soon, thanks for all the comments we love to get them. Feel free to ask any questions or give us ideas. This is truly a voyage of a lifetime.

JD

Latitude - 34' 18.7N
Longitude - 007' 20.3W

course 198'

Not far to go. Our next long sea trip will be Ghana to Capetown

Waiting for the train to Seville

Consumption

Last spring this ship took on sustainability and conservation as a goal. The ship now tracks a variety of energy related items. It is astounding when you are on a self contained vessel how much gets used and produced each and everyday. I do try to practice recycling but honestly not allot else. We as a people are beyond that.
I was talking to a professor "Rocky" about the wind farm for Nantucket sound. He said he thinks we need to go to the basics before putting windfarms in asteticlly prime areas. What he meant was that if people would buy energy efficent refridgerators , seal drafty spots around windows, buy longlife energy efficent lightbulbs and other simple things like that our need for the windfarms in Nantucket sound ' and areas like it would be less.
The US is way behind the rest of the world w/ regard to sustainable energy, wind, solar. We are making strides . The majority of the windfarms could be put in middle America in the farmland - steady wind. The farmers can grow around the turbines and reap the benefits of leasing land that would occupy the windmill.
All energy produced goes to the GRID for the most part. So if you have a windfarm in Kansas you might share the energy on Cape Cod and visa versa .
I just thought the train of thought was interesting.
One thing looked at closely on the EXplorer is water consumption:
On average we use about 59 gallons per person per day or 56,797 total gallons of water used per day on the ship . The EXPLORER can produce its own water (desalinisation) using reverse osmosos. This is expensive to do as it takes energy to produce and thus fuel. The ship has 4 engines all over 11,000 horsepower. 45,000 HORSEPOWER total. Of the fuel we use only 60% goes to propultion the rest to other tasks , like water generation.
We take short showers use little water for brushing shaving etc.

It kind of opens ons eyes. More on this later, think of the trash created by 1000+ people.

best from Cadiz
JD

"20 years from now..."

Ahh ... Espana , muy bien

"20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the ones you did do. So thow off the bowlines sail away from the safe harbor catch the tradewinds in your sails. EXPLORE DREAM DISCOVER. " Mark Twain