This is the weblog for Webb Pinner. A wondering soul and perpetual student who has self-knowingly fallen into one after another amazing situations and has now decided to start documenting it.
Few things in the world are as mind numbing as standing watch during a side-scan sonar survey. All you do is watch a computer screen that displays a never-ending waterfall plot. After a few days of this you start to look for any kind of entertainment you can find. For example...
Read MoreLittle funny story happened on the bridge the other night. Remember that bit by Abbott & Costello, Who's on First? Here's our version.
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Ah Poncho, my drinking alter ego who comes out to play from time to time, decided to make his first appearance during this cruise in Yalta, Ukraine, just a few hours East of Stavastopol.
Since we got such a cold reception in Stavastopol I was surprised how different things were two towns over in Yalta. Ninety years ago, the last Czar of Russia built a palace in the cliffs above the Black Sea. To support this palace a small town was founded at the base of the cliffs. This town became known as "Yalta", the local term for warehouse. Over the years the town has grown into a medium-size resort community that caters to the regions upper-middle class.
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After leaving Istanbul the R/V Endeavor passed uneventfully through the Bosporus and into the Black Sea. Once in the Black Sea, the ship turned north and headed for Stavastopol, Ukraine. During the Cold War, this port was the home to the Soviet Mediterranean fleet. The day we arrived it was dark and stormy outside. This made the already dismal, post-communist, apocalyptic landscape that much more depressing. It looked like no one in this town had enjoyed a day of fun since the Nixon administration.
Ok, so by this point I've seen the spice bazaar, the mosque, the cistern, on to the next sight, the grand bizarre. In what I now see as a quite fortunate event, life threw me bone in the form of a friendly rug merchant.
After two days of 30+ knot winds and 10 foot seas, we finally made it to Istanbul. This was not a planned stop but the R/V Endeavor needed fuel and to have one of it's radars repaired so we stopped... adventure followed.
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The day after arriving in Crete, I awoke to the same foreign landscape with one exception, a small white ship... the R/V Endeavor. The R/V Endeavor is a research vessel that is owned by UNOLS and operated by the University of Rhode Island. Weeks earlier my coworkers and I loaded all of our gear aboard and wished her well as she left the URI dock and made her way East across the Atlantic. So now, thousands of miles away, in Iraklion, she is the only familiar thing I see.
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They say that's it's not about the desination but about the journey. 17 hours and 7 time zones later, yeah, remind me to punch that guy. Read on to hear about my last night in America, old friends, some of my traveling companions and my travels to the city of Iraklion on the island of Crete. Also don't forget to check out the new Mediteranean 2006 photo album.
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