Happy to be back home in New York after a fantastic week (all-in-all) "abroad". Bermuda surprised me. I didn't really know what to expect, but I had no idea that the little island 500 miles off the coast of the Carolinas had such a rich, colorful, and relatively brief history. There were no indigenous peoples living on the island when it was unexpectedly discovered in the early 1500's. I'll pick this up when I read more of the history book that I bought in Hamilton on rainy Wednesday last.

Early yesterday morning - about 2:00am, effectively the end of my Saturday night, my last night on the Majesty and one which had seen the downing of about 5 beers with the fellas in crew bar - I happened to go up on deck for one last look, listen and smell of the ocean going monstrosity and of the sea herself.

And lo and behold - as a result of Charley moving up the eastern seaboard, and the captain wanting to get us in to Boston early, there was the dark coast of America, the small islands of Boston Harbour, and the green and red buoys which would guide us in to our dockage, all a full 5 hours early. Transfixed, I stood on deck 7 forward for the hour it took (from 2-3am) to come into the pier area, turn around, and back up to our berth at the Black Falcon terminal. It was amazing.

This country is amazing. It gave me chills to see the city-scene of many of the events that led to the formation of the United States. A group of about 10 youngish (early 30's) Bostonian couples came out, dregs of drinks and cigs in hand, to watch the docking as well. They had me cracking up. That kind of sarcastic humor and wise cracks - there's something about it that I really like. And of course, within the hour, and what seemed to be incredibly out of context, I heard a "Yankees Suck!". There you go. A Red Sox fan, pulling into his home port at 2:30 in the morning on a random Sunday morning has to let fly a "Yankees Suck".

But then to round it out, after I heard some tepid Red Sox support from one of his mates (they are now 10 games behind the Yankees), and also some praise for the football Patriots amongst the crowd, I heard an ironic "Red Sox suck", followed by more laughter.

The weather was very cloudy, but little wind and only a little rain at the end.

So I made it to bed and after 3 hours sleep had to get up and go up to deck 5 to meet with immigration, get my passport and pay, sign off and go to Logan to fly home. I had a 12:30pm flight, but the shuttle van the ship provided left at 8:30. Happily that meant I was able to get the 10:30am Delta Shuttle flight instead. I gotta say, the Delta Shuttle is a breeze. Only about a 45 minute flight to NY.

Great to be home.

I took the M60 bus from LGA to 125th St and got a cab from there, saving about $20. This was a first: the cab driver who picked me up was on his FIRST DAY ON THE JOB! He was from Bangladesh and mentioned something about the horrible death from flooding over there now when I asked about him coming here. That was the first cab ride I've had where I literally had to tell him every single left and right all the way home. God Bless.

I got ahold of Dad and got an email from Clyde and they are both ok. It sounds like they were very lucky. I was a little worried there for a while but the storm did it's worst work elsewhere. Alot of people weren't so fortunate. I'm glad we're going down next week, it'll be nice to see them.

Monika and I went down to Lincoln Center and met with sensei Jim nyoraku.com and my 4 fellow students and we all played Kumoijishi as we slowly strolled and winded our way to the stage that Jim would take to play the rest of the show.

I was supposed to have that piece memorized and I did better than I expected. I worked on it and pretty much had it. Couple of times I had to listen and follow, but then the melody would re-assert itself in my ears. It was a great experience and it made me want to work harder to have pieces committed to memory.

Dateline:

NCL Majesty 200 miles off the coast of the continental US, at the latitude of New York, returning to Boston, having spent the last week sailing to Bermuda and now back to Beantown.

I am currently pretty astonished that I am able to log this entry right now, right here, on a cruise ship computer (the 4 computers which go online, plus the other 3 which do in-house stuff, are all in a small, stuffy room on deck 2, right next to international mess. You pay $20 for a card which has user numbers on it alllowing you to log on, and the rate is 10cents per/min).

I'm sailing for just one week - down to Bermuda and back. A nice getaway/working vacation. I've been really feeling the need to get out of New York and enjoy a change of pace.

I have not done a cruise ship in 5 years (I'm playing bass in the Majesty showband) and communication was always limited to long awaited letters or expensive phone calls in port.

Consider that I am on a vessel which is currently slicing northwesterly through the Atlantic at 20 knots and am able to post this blog in real time on the web. My how things have changed!

One timely benefit of this technology today was the ability to check the blog of my brother Clyde who lives not far outside of Ft Myers, Fl which is today beginning the cleanup after Hurricane Charley just blew through there last night. They're saying it's the worst storm to hit there in 40 years.

I was watching the footage and updates on CNN here on board (we get CNN, ESPN, TNT, and some movies), and it seemed bad. It was a helpless feeling of not being able to contact them until I searched out this internet option.

(Its especially ironic that such a rare storm would hit now because Monika and I are going down to Ft Myers in a week to visit Dad and Clyde and take some vacation.)

Clyde had indeed been writing about it on his blog up to about 3:00pm yesterday - just before it hit. Concerned, I emailed Monika and had her call Dad and Clyde and confirm that they are ok.

I just heard back from her and evidently they are alright.

Many things to touch on. A great week (well, ok, 3 days) in Bermuda. Its an amazing island with an equally amazing history. More later.