Ed's Interesting Story

Most everyday I skim my list of links on the left side of this page.
( <--- Over there, near the bottom.)


Marco Polo, Orient Lines Antarctic Cruise Ship. Built in 1965, 22,080 tons, 826 passengers.

The last few days I’ve been following Ed And Mary Alice Densen’s trip to the Antarctica. I figured that they are mighty brave to be taking a trip down there after all the cruise ship disasters and illness’. So I found with some humor that they couldn’t get into port in Montevideo, Uruguay, because a Cruise Ship collided with a Cargo Container ship in the channel. A few cargo containers were knocked loose and fell into the pathway, and divers had to go down and rig them for removal, so Ed and Mary Alice were stuck at sea. Their ship was anchored beside the cruise ship that had been in the collision, it had a big hole knocked in the bow, and Ed said that he thought that they were nearby in case there was an evacuation, but apparently the damage was not that bad.

I wondered if it was the same Chinese cargo container ship that ran into the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. Then I thought about the fact that they are trying to get cargo ships and cruise ships into Humboldt Bay, in the winter. Sorry, but if they can't put a ship into San Francisco bay without running into things, how are they going to navigate Humboldt bay!

Pardon my Language, but how in the hell can ships these days run into anything. They have GPS, Radar, Sonar, Fog Horns, Harbor pilots, Captains, men on the bridge, and I could go on. And they still run into things!

I thought about Ed and Mary Alice taking a cruise right after the Ice-Breaking Cruise Ship hit an iceberg and sank in the Antarctic last month. That alone would have scared me off. That, and I have a morbid fear of freezing to death. Plus don't they have that Norovirus that Baywood County Club has? That dosn't sound like fun. They tell me that it's worse than drinking the water in Mexico. I don’t relish the thought of be stranded or drowning in Antarctica either. I firmly believe that the Antarctic should to be left for Penguins and Ozone Holes, and leave me here, where the sun shines!

Ed must have that lawyer thing, where he thinks that he can talk himself through any natural disasters, and give good enough "reasoning" to talk himself out of drowning or freezing to death. I don’t have that much faith in myself. I never go out in a boat where I can’t swim to shore.

Anyway, Ed got some good Photo’s and you can link to his site here.

P.S. My wife just informed me that we won a cruise ship trip to the Caribbean. Don't they have Hurricanes there?