WHY? Panama Canal 2

I wonder if “Red-Eye” isn’t a code word for “Nightmare”.

Nightmare #1 – Passing through Security at the Las Vegas Airport, they informed me that my driver’s license expired over a year ago.  NO!  They still let me through without showing my Passport.  Surprise.  Surprise.  I wasn’t worried because I did have my passport with me but I’m confounded.  How could I let this happen?

Nightmare #2 – Ed told us first but no one believed him.  “Didn’t you hear?  The airport is closed.”  We heard the next announcement.  Lightning and thunder showers.  How often does the Las Vegas airport close?  Jerry and Lana’s flight was delayed 1½ hours.  Will they make their connecting flight in Atlantic City?  Just barely, as it turned out.  They had to go up, down, and around; take the train to the other side of the airport.  As slow as DeRay and Ed are, we would have never made it.  It is a mighty good thing we didn’t get on their flight like we tried to do.  We boarded late, of course, I don’t know why we had to wait for them to board after the airport opened.  When we got settled long after midnight, the pilot promised he would make up the time.  Pretty much he did.  Still, we barely made our connecting flight in Detroit, even though we only had 15 gates to go.  The passengers were loaded when I got there ahead of DeRay and Ed.  She said we had two minutes but it was more like ten because a few others passengers got on after us.  They used to hold up the plane for connecting flights that were late, especially if there were quite a few passengers, but not any more.  Ratings are important to them and they are ranked by departure and arrival times.

Nightmare #3 - When we finally got on the ship, DeRay’s blood sugar was down to 60.  He wasn’t going anywhere or doing anything. At least we weren’t throwing up, like Gary and Joyce, Lana’s brother and wife.  They were quarantined for three days.

 In contrast to the Carnival Splendor we were on with Brent last January (which we anchored next to in San Lucas Bay) that had 3,500 passengers and 1200 crew, Holland America’s Statendam has room for 1,258 guests with a crew of 560.  It wasn’t filled to capacity.  They were really offering bargain prices just before we sailed.  Third one in the room free and all.  IF we had only known.

Jerry took this picture of me in Huatulco, Mexico, in front of our ship The Statendam.

 On this cruise there are no children on board.  Not one person under the age of 21.

Jonathan wouldn’t have had a bit of fun.

According to the Ship Log, we traveled a total of 4,819 miles in 14 days.

There are 5 diesel generators on board that consume 72 tons of fuel per day; two propulsion motors.  They are able to produce 400-500 tons of potable water per day while using 300-400 tons per day.

And here’s a fact you don’t want to miss:  To help save water and power, the vacuum toilets use only 0.4 gallons of water per flush.  75% less than the 1.6 gallons used by most residential toilets.

There you go. 

Jerry told us the day after we were in Costa Rica, that they had an earthquake.

6.5 earthquake shakes Costa Rica

By CESAR BARRANTES

Associated Press /  October 23, 2012

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — A powerful earthquake struck Costa Rica’s Pacific coast on Tuesday, swaying buildings and sending people running into the streets in the nation’s capital of San Jose.

Then Jerry told us about Hurricane Rafael striking the Bahamas.  They announced that we were skirting a Hurricane but it seemed rather calm to us most of the time.

Does it look fun?

 According to the news services, Rafael first became a tropical storm on October 12, just as its predecessor, Tropical Storm Patty, was waning. The storm strengthened as expected and was declared a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) as of 5:45 p.m. EDT, making it the ninth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season.

So why do people put their lives in danger for no good reason?

We are not military personnel going to war.

We are not defending our property, our lives, or our freedoms.

We are not conquering new lands.

We are not going for a job opportunity, or to see relatives or friends.

We are not sightseeing.  The ocean looks the same everywhere.  A few swells here and there.

We are not exploring or gathering scientific data. We are not discovering.

We are exposing ourselves to danger on this mighty ocean for no good reason. 
     Besides earthquakes, hurricanes and other weather related concerns, we could experience mechanical failure, human error, sabotage, terrorist attack.  No?  OK, so why do they station armed guards at every port?  

     The ocean is enormous; the ocean can be vicious.  On a raft, the ocean could be a very lonely place.  (We’re reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.)

WHY?