Well, that didn’t take long. The groove is back.

Up the gangplank, through the main hatch and down the steps. Familiar faces everywhere: Jullie, Tom, Mackenzie and Ken are hanging out in the MPC office and it’s like old times. I take two wrong turns making my way to the IT shed (I always try to go right at the Engine Room hatch), and Scott’s there, cycling through the turnover checklist. Sit down, log in, and try to swap in everything I’ve forgotten since I last sailed. Which is pretty much everything.

Fortunately, I’d left my brain in the warehouse. My Green Brain, that is. Little green notebook that everyone on the ship carries around to remember everything. I now have my brain. And my big flannel pillow, silly hats and month’s supply of coffee cubes, all of which I left in the USAP warehouse on the dock. I hope, by the time we sail tomorrow at dawn, to also have my clothes.

One bag made it, and in the grander scheme of things, it was probably the more important of the two, as it contained the ship’s ration of maple syrup and Palo Alto Firefighter hot sauce. I’ve taken to bringing down four jugs of maple syrup for the ship because 1) you can’t get maple syrup in Punta Arenas, and 2) the shipboard alternatives are too ghastly to even contemplate (see pic below).

What hasn’t made it yet is the bag with my clothes. But 1) I can buy clothes in town, and 2) I’ve got plenty of company. As far as I can tell, American Airlines has taken great pains to only lose bags belonging to the ET/IT team – Scott’s been washing his socks daily for a week, and Adina has been without replacements since Tuesday. So if it becomes clear that the American Airlines clothing fairy is not going to give us our Christmas wishes, we’ll all wander into town this evening and get ourselves outfitted.

As ever, I’ll keep you posted.