La Vie Soleil is back! In memoriam of our SF Apartment #
My parents took off from work on Monday to drive us to San Antonio so we could catch our train to New Orleans. On the way we stopped at my brother’s high school. He’s a history teacher (and the department…
The train ride was uneventful. The sleeping compartment was small, which freaked Stephanie out at first, but she adjusted. We did our best at getting some sleep, which was interesting given the frequent sounding of the horn at crossings and…
We planned these stops in New Orleans and DC on the way to Philadelphia in order to break up an otherwise intolerably long rail trip. They also happen to be cities I quite like and that Stephanie has never visited.…
The overnight slow-train from Nice to Paris was 10 hours. San Antonio to New Orleans: 16. New Orleans to Washington, DC? 26 hours straight! We woke up at 6 on Thursday morning, got to the train station by 6:30, and…
Consider the blog up-to-date (for now). It’s still Saturday, and I’m going to write about Saturday. But first, Friday. We arrived at my second-cousin’s apartment in Adams Morgan, and caught up on our blogs. The end. Ok, not exactly. First…
In New Jersey (or at least in Collingswood), they have a local specialty called “water ice”. I’m not exactly sure what constitutes water ice, but I would say that sherbet is a close approximation. We had some with Emma on…
Since Monday was a holiday, we called our Philadelphia boat contact on Friday from DC. Was the Cap Cleveland still leaving on September 7th? Yes, he said, the boat was slated to arrive that morning and would depart that night.…
After three weeks of living itinerantly as we traveled across the country, our 28-day stay on the Cap Cleveland was going to be the longest we’d be “in one place”, so we were anxious to see what the “owner’s cabin”…
We are currently at 28° 57′ 2.16″ N 78° 1′ 6.09″ W, somewhere off the coast of Florida, en route to Cartagena, Colombia. We’ve been on the ship for five days already, so I’ve got a little catching up to do. On Tuesday we boarded the…
We are currently at 23° 18′ 3.45″ N 74° 36′ 56.55″ W, somewhere east of the Bahamas, en route to Cartagena, Colombia. We gained an hour tonight. Something to add to Stephanie’s container ship FAQ: Can you fish off a container ship? My immediate response was:…
We are currently at 19° 7′ 9.87″ N 74° 25′ 2.45″ W somewhere west of Haiti, en route to Cartagena, Colombia. We passed within 6 miles of the eastern tip of Cuba this morning (20° 3.020′ N 74° 1.863′ W at 10am), close enough to see it looming off the…
We are currently at 15° 14′ 54.77″ N 75° 15′ 12.63″ W, somewhere between Jamaica and Colombia, en route to Cartagena, Colombia. We should be arriving there tomorrow afternoon. I am posting this (and anything else that begins with GPS coordinates) using a Wideye Sabre 1…
We are currently at 10° 20′ 2.39″ N 75° 50′ 4.84″ W, about 15 miles from Cartagena, Colombia. Part of the fun of being on a working container ship is that you really have no guarantee regarding the port stops. We knew we’d get to Cartagena…
We are currently at 9° 22′ 51.45″ N 79° 55′ 28.73″ W, anchored just outside the entrance to the Panama Canal. I got up at 6 this morning, hoping that cargo operations in Cartagena would give us an opportunity to get off the ship. No such…
We are currently at 9° 0′ 11.15″ N 79° 35′ 52.54″ W approaching the Miraflores Locks in the Panama Canal. As promised, we set the alarm for 4am, which was a little rough for me, since I’d been up past midnight—until the ship was anchored inside…
We are currently at 6° 40′ 51.77″ N 81° 10′ 45.33″ W, about 150 nautical miles west of Panama, en route to Auckland, New Zealand. After getting through the Gatun Locks very early on Friday morning, and then anchoring just beyond them, we resumed the transit…
We are currently at 4° 42′ 35.31″ N 87° 9′ 47.01″ W, en route to Auckland, New Zealand. We gained an hour tonight. We didn’t know what time we’d be leaving Balboa on Saturday. It all depended on the cargo operations, which apparently were taking longer…
We are currently at 2° 6′ 6.4″ N 94° 37′ 30.46″ W, northwest of the Archipiélago de Colón (popularly known as the Galapagos Islands), en route to Auckland, New Zealand. This is roughly the halfway point in our container ship journey. We’ve been on the Cap…
We are currently at 0° N/S 99° 57.094′ W. Hello southern hemisphere! Is 0° latitude north or south?
We are currently at 3° 23′ 59.81″ S 108° 35′ 50.74″ W, en route to Auckland, New Zealand. Last night we gained an hour, making the ship’s time UTC -7, equivalent to US Pacific Time. I’ve taken a lot of photos from the bridge looking forward,…
We are currently at 5° 58′ 47.56″ S 115° 19′ 27.33″ W, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, en route to Auckland, New Zealand. When we first boarded the Cap Cleveland in Philadelphia, we climbed up a gangway to the main deck. The deck wraps…
We are currently at 8° 42′ 11.7″ S 122° 45′ 42.58″ W, en route to Auckland, New Zealand. Last night we gained another hour, making the ship’s time UTC -8. Of all the fears one might have in advance of boarding a container ship for 28…
We are currently at 10° 54′ 37″ S 129° 9′ 5.57″ W, still en route to Auckland, New Zealand. We enjoyed calm seas consistently for the first half of the trip and all the way to the Equator, but on Thursday the rocking started picking up.…
We are currently at 13° 26′ 31.66″ S 137° 12′ 21.05″ W. Last night we gained an hour, making the ship’s time UTC -9. With clear skies at night, the moon casts an eerie glow on the ship. I took this photo a few days ago—before…
We are currently at 15° 11′ 42.28″ S 143° 24′ 50.25″ W. A few months ago Jonathan and Stacey gave us a jar of orange marmalade—homemade with oranges from a tree in their backyard—to ward off the scurvy we’d risk by traveling the seven seas on…
We are currently at 17° 38.277′ S 149° 42.769′ W, passing between the islands of Moorea and Tahiti. Last night we gained an hour, making the ship’s time UTC -10. We last saw land on September 19th as we departed from Balboa after transiting…
We are currently at 22° 33′ 59.5″ S 156° 31′ 10.38″ W. Nothing but water
We are currently at 26° 49′ 19.66″ S 163° 13′ 22.29″ W. When I mentioned that rougher seas were ahead last weekend, I illustrated it with a pretty panorama, but it didn’t convey what it looks like when a container ship heels over the swells—back and…
La Vie Soleil is back! In memoriam of our SF Apartment #
I’d recognize that orange plane anywhere: Replica Bell X-1 spotted in Los Angeles (more info here: Full Moon at the Proud Bird) #
Thanks for the love MetaFilter: 28 Days Later (linked to a bunch of our container ship posts) #