January 12, 2010 - Day Seven on Ka'imimoana Camping on the Equator

Day seven on the Ka’imimoana and camping on the equator at 155 west longitude with windy weather but the seas are not as bad as they were last week. You could see our location and vital statistics on the NOAA Shiptracker link. This is the first time I camped on the equator in several years. No bonfires, no marshmallow roasts or any of the amenities of a campground by the lake in the mountains. I did take a photo of the equator to show you that there is no thick black or dotted line on the surface of the earth’s waist. Of course that is common sense as there is no red dotted line at the International Date Line. When I first worked on the International Date Line, I tried without success to tell people that we do not age for the six to seven days while we sailed there. In addition, they were the only people who can live and in the future and the past simultaneously. No one bought it so the fib was not good enough. A fact is that after tomorrow’s buoy deployment is complete, I will be official in the summer zone. As if you could tell the difference.

The Internet satellite system hiccupped a few times this evening. The only thing I can think of is solar storms. Try to load another page and it would spin in circles and timeout. It is aggravating when transferring e-mail. Signals cycled up and down and then would be steady for a while and go into the same sequence. I have read reports from other ETs of strange phenomenon on the equator. Overall it was a very productive day. The weather outside was hot and temps were in the low 80’s. Humidity was about the same as the temperature.  The exercise workout is making my laundry basket fill up quicker than usual. While majority of the deck crew is on ops deploying a buoy tomorrow, I will compete with the engineers for laundry space.

I read a blog in the Seattle PI about the governor of Washington confronting Dr. Lubchenco, NOAA Administrator, about the idea of NOAA ships based in Newport. This is getting juicy. The article is written by Joel Connelly but the scary part is reading the posts written by readers. What a bunch of IDIOTS! These must be the type of people comedian Bill Maher talks about when he comments about living in a country full of stupid people.

Well it is time to hit the rack. I have several more e-mails to answer and talked to my father for a long time tonight. My mother has been admitted to a home for people with dementia. It is a complicated disease and difficult for loved ones to provide comfort, support, and most of all safety. It appears that I am the only live person that exists in my mother’s mind but I am no older than 13. I saw my parents last August and “L” and I enjoyed our brief time with them.

Good night from the equator.