Greetings from the Far North + Obstacles to the Pursuit of Sanity Aboard the Sapphire Princess

Hey... whoever still reads this.

So I am now in beautiful ALASKA!

I have been here nearly a month now, and it has been crazy hectic, but still damn enjoyable so far.

For those who don't know (presuming anyone even reads this), I am working aboard the cruise ship Sapphire Princess as a Videographer.

When I left, I was a mixed bag of emotions. It hadn't struck me until just a few hours before my flight out what it all really means. 6 months, away from home, away from those I know, and those I (for the most part) love.

And now?

I reckon my mind is too overloaded at the moment to process everything. They said the first month would be a total mind fuck, and it has been. But I don't think most first contracts have that much drama packed into the first month alone. I don't feel like unloading all the details of the drama at the present moment (partially due to some perhaps misguided concerns of mine regarding the discussion of work issues and trade secrets in a public forum...), so I guess I may save that for another time, whenever that may be.

So what shall I talk about? My first impressions of Ship Life I guess.

The pursuit of sanity seems to be a strong force amongst the staff aboard this vessel, and I dare to say aboard any seafaring vessel. But one is faced by numerous obstacles in this pursuit, obstacles that seem trifling to most land lubbers and sea babies at first glace, but will soon grow, over time, into towering cliffs.

I have just decided that my blogging topics for the next month shall be on these obstacles. I know I should focus on the excitement and all, but at the moment, this is the best my cluttered mind can come up with, and it shall be my set writing tasks for this blog. I will intersperse all the gloom with some bright splashes of excitement every now and then of course, but then, that is presuming the discussion of these 'Obstacles to the Pursuit of Sanity Aboard the Sapphire Princess' will all be gloom and doom. We have yet to see, so we shall now delve into any assumptions right now.

Obstacle One: The Sense of Time prt 1
The first thing that struck me after a few days/nights on board, is that your surroundings in the crew area look exactly the same, no matter the time of day. Just outside the heavy wooden aqua coloured door of your cabin (the appropriate abbreviation of cabinet), is a network of musty corridors with green patterned carpets, cheap wood paneled walls, and muted fluorescent lights. Leading out from the cabin areas is the two toned sterility of the crew stairwell - solid blue floors countered by overpowering white washed walls, bulkheads and hand rails. And it all that stays like that, 24 / 7.

They only hint you may get is that faint hum of human activity, that ethereal pulse of life which one can only accurately detect through the development of an extra sense - a sense that one hopes will develop over time into an accurate gauge of the time aboard a ship without the aid of a watch or the need to look out a port hole. It is a gift I have not yet attained.

I am not sure how much this will affect me, but it was the first thing I noticed that I thought might affect me. Not sure how much, or if, but what I look forward to is being able to channel that feeling of being detached from 'natural' time into any stories regarding traveling in confined spaces, particularly deep space.

Well, thats all from me for now - I must get back to the ship if I am to maintain the schedule I have developed for myself. You may notice this is only part 1 of time - I put that in there in the chance that the extra, but currently undeveloped, things I want to say about the Sense of Time may grow into some worthy parcels of words to publish.

Bye for now,
wkw