Day 5: Bridge Tour

On the first day we were told that dates and days of the week don't really matter since we'll completely forget them by the third or fourth day at sea.  While I didn't think this would be the case at the time, it's true.  Even though it's Saturday (I had to look it up), we had class because every day at sea is a class day.  For that reason, days at sea are numbered C1, C2, C3, etc.  It's a little weird having class on weekends but since there's no real week-like structure I guess it really doesn't matter that much.  All the classes went well today, I'm still enjoying the unique yet really informative professors.

A few of us sighed up for a tour of the bridge this afternoon, it was quite cool.  The 2nd Officer showed us around and pointed out what all the equipment does.  All of the navigation stuff (GPS and paper) is really interesting.  I got a picture in the captain's seat, it was rather entertaining.  We're told that the most important item on the bridge was not the compass, radar, radios, etc but the pot of coffee brewing toward the back.  Nice to know the folks at the controls require caffeine to keep us on course.

The Academic Dean for the voyage is a circus historian/scholar and brought one of his friends, a world renown professional clown, on the voyage to preform.  He did a show tonight with a Q&A afterward.  It was a good show (his specialty is shooting water from his mouth) and I never knew you could actually make a successful living as a clown, but apparently it's possible.  That's all for now, tonight is one of the few without a time change so I think I'll take advantage of all the sleep I can get.