So, to set the scene, this is the window in my cabin.
Not the best view on the ship
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You might say this is a rubbish window. No view of the sea or sky, just an orange lifeboat to look at. However, this is not a rubbish window, and the reason for this is the little green sign above it.
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Now, just say you were on a ship for a month with fairly limited options for entertainment. It is possible that you might decide one day that you wanted to pretend you were a ninja for an evening, and wander stealth-like around the ship in the dark without anyone knowing what you were doing. If you wanted to do this, you would need a method for getting outside without passing through one of the doors that are all either near people's bedrooms or a bar. What you would need is a window in your cabin that is big enough to climb through. Not such a rubbish window now eh? Since you only want to do the stealth-like wandering bit of being a ninja and not the killing people bit, you would need slightly different kit (I would suggest forgoing the G&T in favour of Black Sheep which is considerably more portable but also quite delicious). Tempting as it is to dress completely in black, I would recommend not doing this if you are passing through the tropics. Should you meet anyone whilst wearing a black polo neck they will probably be a bit concerned about your mental health - not ideal when you have to spend several more weeks stuck on a ship with them.
Supplies for evening excursions
Anyway, if you were to wander up to the Monkey Island and open the Black Sheep and look up at the sky with clouds whizzing past and occasionally opening up enough to allow the moon to shine through and maybe a few stars to twinkle, I suspect you would agree that there are few better ways to spend an evening. I would also suggest that if you were to put a bit of Elton John, Tiny Dancer on the i-pod it is VERY important to remember that there may well be cameras on the Monkey Island BEFORE you start any twirling around.
Task for today: check camera situation to ensure no one thinks I'm a crazy person.
I am going to have to work on my night time photography skills
The monkey island during the day (as in the grey bit at the bottom of the photo not the white masts sitting on the monkey island which I am not allowed to go near)
In non-ninja related news, there have been many, many flying fish leaping out of the water and flying really quite considerable distances before diving back in with a splash. I would like to put up a picture but I had to google them to see what they look like close up as they are tricky little fellows and not easy to catch on camera. We also had another drill today which means I got to put on a hard hat, orange boiler suit and steel toe-capped boots before heading out to my muster point. Since today was a fire drill, a smoke machine had been set off in one of the front holds and a crew member was reported missing. The remaining crew then had to head in wearing breathing apparatus to drag the 'body' out while others sorted out fire hoses, closed vents, isolated stuff etc. Luckily I don't have to get involved with the rescue side of things (wearing fire-fighting kit in the tropics looks very, very hot). I just have to wait outside with my medical bag and assistants, who have brought the stretcher, until the casualty is brought to me. There is then a bit of time to discuss how we would manage the casualty if this happened in real life before heading up to The Bridge for a debrief. From my very inexperienced point of view it all looked most impressive and seemed to be managed extremely efficiently by the officers and crew - I guess that is the point of twice weekly drills though!
