Ahoy 5170 Century Builders,
After we entered yesterdays email into the computer, we asked when
might be a good time to visit the bridge. The captain suggested the
4PM to 8PM watch since the Chief Officer is on watch and his English
might be the best for explaining purposes as well as the fact that he
is a pretty jolly fellow.
We returned to our cabin where I worked on reading and reflecting on
Peregrinations II & III which are 2 books written by Paul Harris,
Rotary¹s Founder, about the 2 ocean voyages that he made in the
1930¹s as the Ambassador of Rotary. Peregrinations Volume II is
about his voyage to Hawaii, Japan, China, The Philippines, Australia,
New Zealand, and Canada. Peregrinations III is about his voyage to Columbia,
Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil.
The Rotary Global History Fellowship thought that I might be qualified
to reflect on such a journey in our Centennial year because of the fact
that in this Centennial Year I might be the only one who travels the
way Paul and Jean Harris traveled. The main difference is that he and
Jean traveled on an ocean liner and we are traveling on a working ship,
a container vessel. Another reason that we might be somewhat qualified
is that this is our second ocean voyage where we have used a ship as
our mode of transportation. Cindy and I went to see my Uncle in Lima,
Peru in the Fall of 2000 and we went by freighter or container vessel.
And now we are going to Japan by a similar type of ship, except it is
much larger. Paul and Jean went to South America and the Far East by
ship and by the time this trip is over so did Cindy and I.
At 3PM we got coffee and cookies brought to our cabin and we enjoyed
getting completely surprised since they brought different cookies this
time.
At 4:30 we went up to the bridge and we saw the captain who told us
that our earlier email had been finally sent. Sometimes the Satellite
signal is not as strong as necessary and therefore the emails do not
get sent right away. The same problem exists with telephone calls and
faxes. Currently the ship can not receive emails from others since they
have not worked out the logistics. The emails that are going to Tom
Stoiber, our website advocate, are actually going from the ship, to
the shipping company in Germany, and then to Tom¹s computer. We
bid adieu to the captain and went over to the Chief Officer.
The Chief Officer is my age and has spent 40 years at sea. He is married
and has one son who is at the University studying. He explained why
so many of the German Officers come from Rostock, Germany which was
formerly in East Germany. The shipping line prior to the unification
of Germany was owned by the East German Government. He hopes to retire
soon but since the shift from a Communist state, where everything was
paid for, to a state where you have to pay for certain things that used
to be free; he feels the need to keep working. One of the things he
got for free before would have been a university education for his son,
which, he reminded me is not cheap.
All I could think of is how inexpensive my UCLA education was. How
easy it was to pay for, as long as one worked at part time jobs, and
saved the money. How easy it used to be to get a student loan of $800,
which pretty much paid for a whole year of education and a year in the
dorm. Now it seems to be true that education is expensive everywhere.
Our tour of the bridge was fascinating. I mentioned yesterday how
many people it used to take to run a ship in the days when I was in
the Navy. With the computers and equipment that are on board nowadays,
one person on the bridge is all you need.
In fact the Engineering spaces are without anyone there after 5PM
and before 8AM daily. The engineering issues are dealt with by a computerized
alarm system. If there is an engine problem the computerized alarm will
notify the bridge and the engineering officer on call of the problem.
He immediately deals with it without having to be in the engineering
spaces all night.
We were looking out at the ocean as we were on the bridge and all of
a sudden Cindy saw a school of porpoises jumping out of the water near
the starboard (right) side of the ship.
The Chief Officer then showed us the electronic chart which can be
changed to whatever scale you want to see. He got the scale to such
a size that he said "see that is Hamburg and I will be in Merry
Old Germany on June 19, 2004". Like all seafaring people there
is always the excitement of a new voyage and there is always the desire
to return to your home and be around your family, your friends, and
your culture.
Seafaring persons are some of the most cosmopolitan people of the
world since they know about ³bridge building². They get exposed
to so many different cultures and have to understand them as they navigate
through them that one might think of them as the First Applied Anthropologists.
We as Rotarians also build goodwill and understanding in other words,
Century Builders Building Bridges is Celebrating Rotary.
Saying goodbye from 500 miles to the West of Vancouver, British Columbia
on the Great Circle Route to Tokyo, Japan until we see you on the website
tomorrow
Ron and Cindy
