Voyage: On Adaptation

As the first few days went by, I began to notice many little things around me that were not the same as on land. Many little nuances are taken for granted and when they are missing from the environment, it can take quite awhile to adapt.

For instance, during the first day on board, I got thirsty, and realized that I had no idea where to get water. Yes, I could have gone to the pantry and purchased soda, mineral water or beer, but I wanted plain and tap water. At that point, I remembered the jug of water at breakfast and regretted not drinking more. For the next few meals, I adapted myself by drinking like a camel, stocking up on it and trying not to expend much energy during the day. At our first stop in Miami, I made it a point to go and purchase a gallon of drinking water. Even then, I rationed it strictly, for it had to last my whole two weeks at sea. Then, two days into the voyage, I found the water fountain. It tasted delicious. That was the happiest day of my life, even though I still felt like a camel. Stupid as one, that is.

Given now, that I had a steady supply of water, I no longer prevented myself from activities that caused sweating. I started looking for places to do simple exercises. There was a pool, but it was small and looked like it could last for 1½ strokes, so did not look like a feasible place to get any real exercising done. There are three staircases that go the tower structure. Two of them are outside with a sheer drop to the ocean waters below. One is indoors, but the landings are so close to one another that you would get dizzy just turning around so many corners.

Then I found it. It was a hatch at the bow that led into one of the store rooms. It was just the right height to be able to step up and down. And so, every afternoon, I would go to the bow and do a few minutes of step aerobics. It turned out to be a satisfactory workout, although I would constantly glance over my shoulders for fear of being spotted. As I went up and down, the ship would rock to and fro and I found myself wishing for a DVD series on step aerobics. It was the only time in my life to have that wish. Really.

A couple of days later, as I was talking to the 2nd mate about my “discovery”, he said, “why don’t you use the weight room?” I was surprised, for I thought I did a thorough tour of the ship when I came on board. I did not see a weight room. He led me to a door labeled “Void Space” and inside was a large assortment of free weights and a bench press. Of course, I thought to myself. I should have guessed that “Void Space” meant “Weight Room”.

But this posed a new problem. The water on board is distilled seawater, with no minerals or electrolytes. As I sweated, salt was flushed out of my system and not being replenished. Thus I began generously sprinkling salt over my meals. It is ironic that I was essentially adding salt to a meal cooked with distilled salt water. Such is the paradox of life.

So there you have it. It took several days to go from rationing water to eating salt. This adaptation took several days to mature but was kept up for the entire journey. Not all adaptations take that long, however. An adaptation which took less than a minute was learning how to shower. Very quickly, I learned that I had to wedge myself firmly in the corner of the shower stall to prevent from falling over!