M.L.I.S.W. 12-18-10

in

Sailing With A Host Of Nations Filipino AB:  I don't think the new Sri Lanken AB speaks good english.

Me:  Oh?  Why's that?

Filipino AB:  He's hard to understand.

Me:  Is he worse than our Polish AB?

Filipino AB:  Yah!  He asked me if we had calling cards.

Me:  mmmhmmm

Filipino AB:  I said, 'Calling card?  What do you mean a calling card?  What is this word?!'

Me:  uhhh...

Filipino AB:  He wanted to call home.  So I said, 'No, no, no.  You mean a PHONE card!!!'

Me: ooooh...mmmhmmm.

Filipino AB:  I think his english might be worse than mine!!!

#Reverb10 Love

in

I've been thinking about the prompts more than I've been writing about the prompts.  Here are the past few days worth of prompts - you'd really only need the prompts if you've become addicted to gut wrenching introspection and self reflection like I have! 12-15-10

Prompt:  5 minutes.  Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes.  Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010

12-16-10

Prompt:  Friendship.  How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year?  Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

12-17-10

Prompt:  Lesson learned.  What was the best thing you learned about yourself this past year?  And how will you apply that lesson going forward?

Guess what yesterday was?!

in

Ballast water exchange day (also known as PLAY IN WATER DAY)!

The line you see in the photo is called a sea painter.  It is attached to our rescue boat and run forward to a bit.  It stays permanently attached to the bit so that if you launched the boat you'd have a means of staying alongside the vessel - as well as something to grab onto when you return to the vessel.  It doesn't get any more nautical than that - ballast water and a sea painter!

The difference between these photos and the photos I posted last time is that I'm taking them from the bridge - So I'm about 100 feet above the action.  The second big difference is that it was really, really windy!  This leads to my favorite photo of the day!

If you want to view older photos or get a brief description about why we exchange ballast water you can read my previous post at http://nautiemermate.com/?p=39  -  someday I'll learn how to make links look prettier.

The days have gotten away from me!

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I haven't posted nearly as many photos as I'd have liked to so I'm going to try to get caught up!  That never really works out as planned but at least you guys will feel like I made an effort :) When we were in Djibouti I waited, and waited and waited for my favorite dolphin family.  They finally showed up the morning we were left.  They were as precocious as ever!  I tried and tried to take photos but it was that grey area between night and day...where you don't have any twilighty colors yet.  I kind of wrote the photos off as a loss and posted my osprey photos.  I was reviewing them yesterday and I saw that one of the dolphins has a fish in its mouth!  I'm not sure if you'll be able to see it on the posted version but I'm going to post it anyways.

My Life Is So Weird - warning: this post is politically incorrect and contains foul language

in

I was a pretty bratty kid - some of it stems from being an only child - but some if it stemmed from just being a brat.  I was the kind of kid who was always really embarrassed by their parents.....I don't remember when but one day I said 'my life is so weird' with a snotty little valley girl voice.  It kind of turned into a family joke because it was preposterous - we still say it to this day when something is just so out there that you have to take a step back and evaluate where you are and what you're doing.  I have M.L.I.S.W moments all the time out here!  I'm going to start a new series of posts.  They are going to be titled My Life Is So Weird (M.L.I.S.W) and they may be politically incorrect - so if you are easily offended or are opposed to foul language you should read these posts with caution (that is also code for I'm a sailor - I hear some crazy stuff!) For the most part I'm going to try to capture some of the absurd conversations that occur on a daily basis.  These off the wall conversations are mostly fueled by the characters we see out here - normal people don't work at sea - they just don't. Here is today's M.L.I.S.W. moment:

Bridge conversation I overheard at approximately 1930 while posting my Osprey photos.

AB:  How much it costs?

Third Mate:  What?

AB:  How much it cooossstts?

Third Mate:  What?!

AB:  Costs!  Costs!

Third Mate:  Ooohh, COSTS!  Man - speak english!

AB:  I do!  It's the braces!  They hold me teeth together and I can't talk.

Third Mate:   I didn't need braces...I have naturally perfect teeth.

AB:  What?!  No you don't!  You got little baby shark teeth!

Stone cold silence....

AB:  What is that little red plastic thing on an Indians head?

Third Mate:  Megan!  Google that red dot shit! 

AB:  What you people be doing?  Just googling words and shit?

Me:  It's a bindi to mark the sixth chakra....

Third Mate:  Hey Humpty Hump it's to keep the devil out.

AB:  Ooooh....

Third Mate:  All you people from Norfolk need to get an education!

MY LIFE IS SO WEIRD!!!!