More About Ships

As I was just saying, I like ships. I happened to have another opportunity the other day to be on a ship and see a documentary about a ship at the same time. PBS has a new documentary starting tonight called Carrier and they hosted a preview of the first hour on the Battleship New Jersey (US Navy - Retired) over in Camden. The New Jersey has been sitting over there for over ten years now, but I never really thought of going. But since Mom had free tickets and I wanted to see the doc it was a perfect opportunity.

The first thing that you notice about the ship is its' huge guns- they dominate almost everything else on board. They are kind of intimidating all by themselves, but imagine them firing shells up to 23 miles away every thirty seconds. We just had a few minutes to check out the ship - going below deck we got to check out the crew's quarters- basically a big room filled with very small bunks (or racks) stacked on top of each other. The bed part lifts up and there is storage underneath- but not much storage- good thing everyone on board wears the same thing everyday. Another thing that struck me right away was that a good portion of the deck was made of wood. Just long wooden planks not even painted at present. The New Jersey was built back in the 1930's, but it was in use up through the 1990's you'd have thought they would have changed that over the years.

We got to watch the film in a big tent they had erected on the fan tail of the ship- that's near the "stern" or the "back" of the ship for you non nautical types. I love shows about ships like this- I've seen several about building different ships and subs and some about the behind the scenes life on an aircraft carrier. But this one is different- firstly its about ten hours long (they shot 1600 hours of footage over six months on the USS Nimitz) and they concentrate more on personalities than on the equipment and the mission. There are over 5000 people on an aircraft carrier- some cruise ships actually carry this many now too. The filmmakers have done a great job of picking some very interesting and honest people to follow. This is a very behind the scenes look at things- you'll be surprised what the Navy allowed them to shoot. Most of the people they follow are enlisted men, from what I saw there isn't too much Navy PR talk from officers. They also let the crew's natural humor come out- I guess living in cramped quarters doing the same thing every day for 6 months makes you funny.

Check it out over the next week on your local PBS stations- my TIVO will be busy making sure I don't miss it.

On Vacation

Yes, I've been away, literally and figuratively, both from Philadelphia and the Blog world. I haven't had a vacation in quite a long time- several years by one count. Now I can hear you say hey Greg what about the many trips you have chronicled even in this blog - camping and Cape Cod and up-state New York. Well those were all short excursions or family vacations and as much as I like my parents, my brother and sister and their spouses, my nieces, my aunts and uncles and cousins, my cousins kids and my cousins kids friends, I wanted to take a different kind of vacation.

I decided about two months ago that I wanted to take some sort of trip and much of my time since then has been taken up by planning and going on said trip. Now do you wonder why I don't go on vacation much? It involves so many choices and factors. I was going to go alone- which is quite all right with me as I usually agree with myself about what I would like to do. But, I guess I am not very spontaneous, so every little detail of the planning phase becomes a big thing. Let's skip over most of all that, lets just say I spent a lot of time on the internet and quizzing friends and family about good trips and then I decided to do something that I had done before and most of them haven't. I went on a cruise.

Yes, yes, cruises are very stereotyped as being for "the newlywed, overfed or almost dead" and some of these things are true of course (but only one of them for me) The bottom line is I wanted a relaxing trip to a beach somewhere and I love ships. I decided to go to some new places most of which I had no huge desire to see- figuring that I would spend all my time relaxing on a nice beach. I should have followed my instincts because in both of the major ports I visited - Nassau in the Bahamas and Key West, Florida I spent way too much time walking around getting the feel of the place. Often on a cruise you will only have about 6-8 hours in port so if you want to to nothing you better get to it quickly.

I love just exploring the ships too. They are basically Las Vegas style resort hotels (with a casino) fit into a ship. Much of the time on board there is no indication you are on a boat or that you are moving. I like to watch the water roll by and see the land disappear over the horizon, but if you didn't care about that stuff the operation of the ship can be almost invisible. There are always a few swimming pools and many bars and restaurants from fancy to buffet style.

Of course there are also entertainments and activities much of it aimed squarely at the wholesome middle American family types that cruises seem to bring out. Probably the most annoying thing about planned activities on cruises is that they are too planned and intense. If there is a party on deck with a cool reggae band or maybe a DJ (and of course a buffet) then there has to also be an ice carving demonstration and an assistant cruise director type yelling into a microphone almost constantly MAKING DAMN SURE that you are having a great time. They don't let the parties go with the flow- even if they are going well- they will be the life of the party or else.

Probably the best part of each day was dinner in the dining room. Not just because the food was surprisingly good and the wine was good and reasonable. The cruise line usually sets you up with people to eat with and if you like them its great and if you don't like them you try to change tables. I have always been lucky. Last time I was on a cruise I met two women from small town Indiana, who I found out quickly had both been married to the same man. One presently and one formerly. They were friends and they left hubby at home and went away together. One of them was a cattle rancher. This time I met a young couple from Minnesota and another solo traveler - a guy from Atlanta taking a break from school. They were all very friendly and we stayed at dinner at least two hours each night talking about the days activities, wine, school, crime in our cities and why our assistant waiter didn't smile much.

The portions of food weren't overwhelming as you might think. It was closer to what you would get in a fancier restaurant or a catered party. I remember the scallop risotto was especially good- I could have eaten a bigger plate of that. Most of the food was good and some ambitious, but they obviously cared about what they were doing. There were always many choices if you just wanted regular food too. It was all very civilized. Rest up and clean up from the days' activities, maybe have a before dinner drink then go to the late seating at 8:30 pm. After dinner there were always many things to do into the wee hours- especially if you wanted to hear an assistant cruise director yell at you.

PS- Glad to be back. I'm sure I'll have some more cruise stories soon- G.