Folks: Santa Maria is the most Southern and the most Eastern of the Azorean Archipelago. The Island’s Volcanic history is readily apparent as one approaches. The cone is visible, although the top of the cone has been blown away by millennia of winds. Looking due South from The Azores you have a clear field of view- all the way to Antarctica. We are Parallel Sailing. From our Noon Position 6 miles S of Santa Maria Light in the Azores we are proceeding due West (270′), for a position N 36-50.0 and West 050-00.0 From there, weather permitting we will come right steering 285′ for a position N 40-36 and West 68- 30 (Georges Bank) from which point we will make our approach to NY. Speed remains good 7-11-06 12-1600 avg 17.12. I was happy to see the abundant sea life present around the Azores today on my afternoon watch. There were schools of bait fish, with diving birds as the bigger fish “worked” the school from below. There were also pods of whales and Porpoise. C U Soon> RW

Hi Folks: It looks like we are back on schedule. We will be paying off on the evening of July 17th. I have Union Business to conduct on the 18th but I could/should make it back to the ‘burgh late 7-18. Lets cook a steak! Ciao> Ron/Dad

Folks: Happy Saturday. We are now -1 from Grenwich Mean Time or a mere 6 hours from home. US East Coast is ZD +5 with daylight savings. It looks like we will be passing thru Straits of Gibraltar tommorrow morning Sunday 9 July around 0800. I look forward to the joys of home. Especially cooking out on the deck and catching up on the world of business/stocks etc. Ciao! RW

Greetings: My Cabin here does NOT have a balcony. It’s outlook is directly forward and the view is of a container that says MAERSK/SEALAND. The container Does provide shade. We are loaded High and Wide. For deck Cargo we have 12 Boxes across and 4 high. All bays forward of the house are full. There is a little space in the racks near the poop deck but thats it! Its a hazy day in the Med. More to follow. Your Eastern (although less every day) Correspondent, RW

PCS (’s): I will try to find an “economical” rug for the deck foyer. That was a good idea on your part. Best shopping should be in Izmir. Have you let GDW guide you to the blog yet? I am sure he would be happy to do so. Also, have your folks gotten any e-mails this trip? I am glad you are so busy- that way you will have no reason to feel guilty when we play hookey upon my return. Probably now due NWK on July 18th. We are not to ALEX dock yet! L ACiao & RWC Skee

This is the warmest day of the Med cruise to date. High temp was 84 degrees. Of course we are anchored offshore of Al Iksandria (Egyptian spelling) Egypt where there is a nice light NNW breeze.I am sure it is over 90 ashore this afternoon. A/C is working well on the bridge. I hope to call from the Dock. Last word was berthing 6-28 @ 2200. Now it is 1600 6-27. We’ll see. Warmly> Your Eastern Correspondent> RW

Hi Fellas: There are times when I include several friends in an e-mail address. They are done intentionally. They are not “just for Johanna”. My access to e-mail computer is limited. Therefore, I choose to at least stay in touch by including several people in e-mail address box. ALL my e-mails will be strictly vanilla. There is a ship full of people with access, then it goes thru server, then NY office etc. You will never see anything other than vanilla- rest assured. We are experiencing a delay here. We are anchored off Alexandria, Egypt.
It is now 1100 on 6/27. We are told berthing will be 2200 6/28 quite a delay! You never know in this part of the world. Last time on the Argonaut we anchored twice off Kuwait expecting a long delay and BOTH times we were sailing toward the dock in 2 hours- go figure. Your Eastern Correspondent> Ron

There are pluses and minuses to the digital and DVD revolution. Now we have this fantastic DVD library that is building every trip. This encourages all crewmembers to get their laptops up and running and check out movies at theirleisure - in their rooms. I haven’t sat with an engineer or brother deck officer and watched a movie all trip! There is a lounge with 8 beautiful lounge chairs that get almost no use- that I can see so far. Its good- and its bad. My “reading” this trip has been Crabwalk by Gunter Grass. Also J sent me the World is Flat on CD. I am at CD #5. I want to travel to India with J and see if she can use the accounting revolution there to lighten her load. She SHOULD be overseeing a staff of well trained Indian Accountants rather than doing all the “heavy lifting” herself.

Here are the distances involved on this trip and the times between ports:

Charleston - Algeciras, Spain 3712 NM 9 D 9 Hrs
Algeciras - Alexandria, Egypt 1809 NM 4 D 14 Hrs
Alex - Haifa, Israel 298 NM 18 Hrs
Haifa - Izmir, Turkey 648 NM 1 D 15 Hrs
Izmir - Gioia Tauro, Italy 665 NM 1D 16 Hrs
Gioaa Tauro - NY/NJ 4372 NM 11D 11 Hrs

We are currently about 8 hrs behind schedule but C/M advises we could be right back on schedule if they deploy two cranes to our ship in Alex.

Hi Folks: We had a cook out tonight. There were steaks, chicken, great salads etc etc. I ate too much but everything was great. Imagine a professionally prepared cook out. It was a misty evening in the Med. Ships, fast and slow, very large and small fishing vessels slid past as we ate great. I Love this country! I guess we will do it again for the 4th of July. That will be between Izmir and Gio Tauro, Italy.

Love to all,

Dad/Ron/Skee