Today is Domingo in Spain

Hi ,
Last night we had tapas in a park where there were many children playing. The girls stay overnight w/ Lisa (au pair) in a room in Pension Espana in old Cadiz. Pretty bare bones but they were happy. As usual when we arrived at Lisas hotel she had them wearing dresses w/ hair styled and ready for the day. We had chocolate y Chirico or something like that. Basically thick chocolate that you dip sticks of hot doughnut type things in. I actually had cafe con leche.
Then we found a Korean mans shop who seemed to sell everything. We bought a beach umbrella because it is hot , hot ,hot and the sun feels close.
The beach is just a 10 min walk. It was beautiful and fun . Great waves, nice water temp. the kids and I had a blast. Traci was having fun but got called to duty on the ship so she had to go.
Speedos and bikinis galore, super model bodies and the opposite end of the spectram in the same suits. It"s all Euro.
Anyway enjoying this time in Spain .
Adios from Cadiz

latitude - 36' 32.0 N
Longitude- 006'.17.2 W

Cadiz , Spain

Hi all ,
We arrived in port at 7:00am. Its the oldest port in europe I believe. It kind of a small city both old and new from what we have seen and read. There is a nice beach a short 20 min. walk or a shorter ferry ride away. Lisa our Aupair for a yr from when Delan was 4 mo. has met us all the way from Hamburg Northern Germany. We will stay a few days in and around Cadiz "Traci is on call" she can't travel more than an hr away. We plan to go to Seville after that. Both Traci and I have been there before, seperately.
Shipboard life is very nice. The students on the voyage represent 240 different college's and universities. There are about 400 females and 200 males. Sunbathing is a big thing! We have some babysitters for the kids and what do you know they are all really cute :)

Off to check out more of this little town.

Later for now Capt Ron

Tour of the Bridge

I had an interesting tour of the bridge w/ the 3rd officer and one "look out" . The MV Explorer has all the same things we use except they have 3 or 4 of each. The Ships radar system is very sophisticated. If an object / vessel appears you can get the heading and speed as well as info on the vessel if it is registered.
They aslo have two different VHF radio's on that can transmit from 100-500 NM depending on the weather. The other is allot like ones we use. (Top of the line)
They still plot the course on a paper chart every 1/2 hr using the basic nav. skills. Of course they read the coordinates off a GPS but then have to plot them.
The MV Explorer can run at 30 knots !!
We will be going through the straights of Malacca when we head to Singapore. That can be a little dicey but nothing like the sea of Adan where the Somalis are taking ships.

Our present position

Latitude - 36' 25.5N

Longitude - 011' 6.2W

speed 13.5 knots

Course (COG) 93'

wind 21 knots

sea 4-6 feet

distance to port Cadiz 214 nm steady

depth 9501 feet

Best
JD

Taco Day..!

The seas are choppy today, but we must be acclimating because none of us are feeling it! Hopefully that holds true for the shipboard community! The days that it is very rough, we see quite a number of patients in the clinic with symptoms related to motion sickness. Many of them are appeased with a cyclamen patch or an oral tablet. Some require an injection which essentially knocks them out for the next 24 hours! So far so good with the clinic... I have mostly seen routine primary care complaints with the college students. Dr. Chris takes care of most of the older community on board. Our nurse Stephanie is great too - unbelievable sense of humor and excellent critical care skills.

Today was taco day...! I never knew a taco could taste so good! I thought Anna was going to lose her mind when she heard that was the lunch choice today! She ate two heaping full tacos, Layne even ate nearly two! Ah, the little things in life!

Things are really getting in full swing with the kids' school. As many of you know, we are responsible for homeschooling Anna and Layne while at sea. There are 23 children onboard (under age 18)which make up the Dependant Children's Program. Every day that we are at sea, the children are expected to attend. It is held in one of the dining halls on the ship. It's from essentially 9-11:30am with an hour break for lunch, then again from 1:30-5. Anna, for example has about 4 hours of study time. She does about 2 hours of math in the morning and 2 hours of language arts in the afternoon. We are so fortunate to have some great one on one tutors to work with them which is great for everyone! Anna is doing a great job staying pretty focused on what she needs to do to keep up. She is loving the individualized attention from the "teenagers!" Layne, naturally wants to play! We aim for about 1.5-2 hours of "schoolwork" per day. The other time she has a modified PE class a few times/week with the other 5-6 year olds, a dance class, a Spanish class, and art. Declan has two hours in the morning with two different students who come and play with him for an hour each. This morning he was particularly tired and not so thrilled. Most mornings he is happy to go for a walk with one of them or play in the basketball court. There is a pair of two year old twins that he plays with too! The older kids (8 and up) are loving him and he is getting lots of attention! He is missing his Annie though!

Johnnie had a tour of the "bridge" today. I'm sure he'll tell all about it in his next posting. I had clinic this morning and got to see Archbishop Tutu and his wife. I asked them if they had ever been to Guinea-Bissau before - no. They are such lovely people. I look forward to getting to know them better. We are so lucky to have them aboard!

Tomorrow we will arrive in Spain! It has been 18 years since I've been in Spain which makes me feel old! We will spend the first three days in Cadiz as I am on call and expected to stay within an hour of the ship in the event that anyone has a medical emergency. The other days we may venture to a small town called Puerta Santa Maria where we'll go to the beach, and perhaps Sevilla, and Ronda where I lived for 2 weeks as part of a training period when I studied abroad in Granada. Our former au pair Lisa will travel from Germany to spend a few days with us! We are very excited to see her!

We look forward to sharing our insights on Spain. The girls are going to have a reoccurring theme that they will compare / contrast in each port we go to. Anna is going to look at "how people carry their babies" in each country; Layne is going to look at "animals" in each country. Stay tuned...!

Traci

A posting from the Ships NP

Hi All – Johnnie has been doing such a great job tracking our voyage thus far that I haven’t felt the need to write! It has been more than we could have expected thus far and we haven’t even gotten to our first major port – Cadiz, Spain. We arrive there on Saturday morning at 8am. We got a glimpse of land today as we passed the Azores – it was nice to have a break in the monotony of endless seas…!
It’s hard to know where to even begin recounting our journey thus far. It is difficult to articulate how amazing the shipboard community is. I guess it starts with the staff of Institute of Shipboard Education / Semester at Sea (ISE/SAS). It is a tremendous group of people who are extremely enthusiastic (with good reason!) about this program and its mission. The faculty and staff which we also get to interact with on a daily basis are also quite amazing. Among us are a “Spanish Knight”, Delegate to VA Congress, two ordained Priests, a former career Secret Service Agent (who is incidentally a gorgeous blonde woman from So. Cal), a former career State Department employee, several returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and of course, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah. I am fortunate enough to see them periodically in the health clinic where they stop by every few days. The kids and John have been able to interact with them in the dining hall which has been beautiful to see. He truly embodies goodness. The students are also amazing – extremely enthusiastic, optimistic, open, motivated and fun! In many respects, they are the ships’ greatest resources. We have been so fortunate to have them interact with the kids in the Dependant Children program where we have volunteers daily to assist the 23 children in the program, with homework: reading, writing, math; they give gym, music, and art classes to the younger children (5 and 6 year olds), and they even babysit for the families – all on a volunteer basis! You can imagine how excited all of our children are! Even Declan gets some one on one time in the morning to give Johnnie and I a break, and to minimize the distraction he causes in the “school”.
Quotes from the Kids…
“Are we going home now…?” today is the first day that Declan didn’t ask this!
“I like everything about living on the boat. My favorite thing is the college students because I like when they tutor us and play with us! Desmond Tutu gave me a high five yesterday when I was leaving the cafeteria, and he gave Daddy a fist pump! My least favorite thing is the pool water, because it’s salty. Oh, and I also don’t like getting seasick…!” Anna
“I liked seeing land today! I’m getting excited to see the rhinos in South Africa. I liked when Desmond Tutu tickled my chin. “ Layne

Azores to Cadiz 862 NM

We woke to a view of such a remote Island. Part of the Azores called Santa Maria Island.

We passed w/ in 40 miles of this rocky mountain sticking out of the sea. Around the Island the ocean depth is 11,155 feet!

I don't know how many live on the Island but certainly some do it is a a Portuguese colony.

Our distance made good since Halifax has been 1875 Nautical miles.

Position :

Latitude : 37'4.2 minutes N



Longitude : 024' 11.1 min. W



wind speed 10 knots

sea swell - out of the ENE of 3 feet and sea cont ions out of the SW of 1 foot (kind of interesting) swell and "roughness" don't correspond



We now have almost one on one tutoring for the girls. I'm sure they will keep up w/ the basic curriculum set for us and a WHOLE LOT more!!!



We are picking a few categories to follow along w/ the girls from country to to country :

A Cultural Comparison if you will:



Shoes,



sports

The Azores

Hi All,
My life as a family counselor , psychologist, teacher, game inventor , children's artist, low level mathematician has begun in earnest. Now I know what its like to be a full time Mom to a degree.
Don't give me too much credit Traci is around alot and never too far away. She has her work responsibilities as well.
We are putting together some of the great resources (bright enthusiastic students) We have set up some great one on one classroom time and just play time . The kids love it and seem to listen .
The days are filled and everyone sleeps well at night. We are covering so much ocean we are losing an hour on the clock each day. Tomorrow am between 0500 -0700 am we will be passing the Azores. There are many Peace Corp Alumni on the ship , Traci is the youngest of them.
The pool has been open for the last three days so the kids have been happy about that. Its just pumped in from the ocean. But the temp is about 73' and super clear.

Our current position:
latitude - 37' 40.5
longitude - 027'55.1W

course has moved a notch from 102' to 107'

We have now met Archbishop Desmond TuTu and his wife Leah at a few meals in a row now he comes down and eats with everyone pretty often.
He gave high fives to the girls and a fist bump to Mr. D very cool

Anna is going to watch the young ones while we go top deck for a little gathering from 9:00
We brought walkie talkies

Trying something new....

Love us