Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day and over 200 pumpkin pies and 1,400 pounds of meat were prepped this year. That’s 50 turkeys, 800 cans of gravy, an endless supply of cranberries sauce and a buffet line that wouldn’t let up. The M/V Explorer’s tireless kitchen crew cooked through Kobe while we were out sightseeing and shopping. 90% of the crew here are from the Philappines area and work straight through a 3-month contract, not one day off, in the morning by 0600, to bed by 2100. My cabin steward James can’t help but make you smile with his doe-like eyes and meek voice and then there’s Clive, Mez and Shorty offering up a joke, a little ditty or a miscarried tune with a cup of coffee. These 4 represent the entire shipboard “behind-the-scenes” mess and crew quarters. I can’t imagine leaving them behind in less than 12 days with Hawaii still pending. The trip’s nearly over and I’m still discovering passengers to connect and learn from. This journey wasn’t supposed to end this quickly and I’m not ready to pound the ‘snow-covered-pavement’ quite yet. There’re 20 staff members to commiserate with on my return to the unemployment line (a.ka. reality) before December 7. Most of them sold off our life’s work and put the rest in storage; fortunate for me, family came to my rescue. We’re alumni without immediate job placement but fluent in the cultures of 5 continents – a qualification that rivals a Harvard degree any day. What will become of us? It’s really too soon to say especially since the allure of surfboarding and snorkeling Maui still suspend time a little longer. I think my board needs waxing today…