The Journal

Throughout the voyage
To the South Pacific
I maintained a journal
Detailing my thoughts,
Observations and impressions.
I painted vivid
Character sketches
Of each of
The people on board
Noting their quirks
And peculiarities
Using words
As my paint
And a notebook
As my canvas.
That became
A sensitive issue
As tempers frayed
And frazzled
From the stress
Of being cooped up
On the boat together
Combined with the suffering
Brought on by
Forced nicotine withdrawal
By those who smoked
When their cigarettes ran out.
A lot of people
Get stressed out
Being stuck out
In the middle of the ocean
For long periods of time.
At one point
The cook jumped overboard
Screaming that she
Couldn’t take it any more.
We managed to fish her back
And the circus continued.
There were a number
Of threats made
To throw various
People overboard
And at one point
Doug Diamond brought out
An ancient musket
And threatened
To shoot a couple people.
In spite of all that
We made it to American Samoa
In one piece
And this is the story of that trip
As recorded in my journal.