[PUP] A Day in the Life of a cruise

[Randal Johnson]

Hi All

      Reporting from Subic Bay, Philippines.
     The other day I was on the flybridge with Gilbert, our $5.97 per day 
Filipino helper, and I saw a garbage bag of garbage being blown off the dock 
into the water. It was black and rounded with garbage but lightly packed so 
it just rolled and floated like tumbleweed. It looked like the ones we use 
and I assumed Ruth had set it out there. I made a run for it as it was 
floating toward an adjacent fingerpier's most extreme point and I might be 
able to retrieve it from the water if I hurried.
      Down the flybridge ladder, around the boat, and down the ladder to the 
dock I went.  As I was running along the main dock I could see the bag 
gently floating along and nearing the end of the finger pier. It appeared by 
the track the bag was following that it would cross within reach. I 
increased my speed and turned out the pier toward the end. It crossed my 
mind that my momentum would carry me right off the end and into the water if 
I couldn't slow down in time.
      Just as I got there it did pass and I knelt down just in time to grasp 
the very bottom of the bag as it passed and bring it back to safety. The 
problem was I was still moving when at least one knee hit the concrete and 
scrubbed off some skin. I stood up and looked around but there were 
absolutely no witnesses to my heroic efforts.
      I proudly carried the bag back to and stuffed it into the trash can 
from which it came and went to tell Ruth how I had saved her much 
embarrassment from having someone somewhere find her bag and report her/us 
to the authorities for littering. She didn't know what I was talking about 
but did put a bandage on my bleeding knee. So it goes, a day in the life of 
a cruise.

Randal Johnson M/V Dora Mac