The Captain's Log

Cruise ships can be compared to small floating cities, and unlike their counterparts ashore, they actually move around. This moving around makes them unique, as one day a ship can be found moored in Manhattan, while the a few weeks later it could be in the South China Sea. The general public is not exposed to the inner workings of a ship. They come on board as a passenger, stay a week or two and leave again. These short relationships do not allow for much ‘insider’ knowledge to pass on. Officers and crew often are regarded as specimens from another world, and those who have chosen to spend a big part of their lives at sea, to a certain extend are a bit different. But, behind all the glitz and glamour of the cruise ships, they are just normal human beings.

This book is about these ‘normal’ everyday people, who just like their counterparts ashore do have their faults, their hopes and at times achieve their share of greatness.
Numerous things do happen on board ships, and this book is just a sampling of stories which caught my attention. Most of them are funny, as it is totally unnecessary to write too much about sad things, in an environment which is geared to bring happiness and relaxation to their guests.

The captain sits at the top of the ships pyramid and if he listens well, hears most of what happens on board his ship. This book is about the day to day workings, and I do think similar books could be written about other industries as well, as long as one is willing look around and smile. The problem of the stories was not how to make them better than reality. The real effort was in the fact that for almost every chapter, I had to be very creative to reduce them to the desired length.

Every story you will read, truly happened. The characters, truly existed, although I did change names and ships around a bit. This book is a picture of my life and undoubtedly that of many others who have spend a considerable time at sea.