Dave, thanks for putting the MER press releases in perspective and Ron for the
confirmation. The fishing expedition you described has me wondering if the author of
the releases used to be an NASCAR Indy or Datona announcer. Even though this is only
"Day 30", a day better known for problems in Poland, I found Columbus' diary in the
surviving version edited by the Nacional Agua & Surfeo Administracion in Spain.
Day 71-72 Santa Mar�a
The 90 men on the Ni�a, Pinta and Sta. Mar�a were restless and were planning to reboot
Christopher Columbus off the Santa Mar�a. They confirmed that there was a lot of
water in the ocean again on this "Day". ("Day" is the official unit of time adopted
by the Spanish Columbus team committee to mark their journey as it coincides with the
appearance of the Sun, but was not corrected several minutes for transatlantic
boatlag, hence the 71-72 designation).
Day 71-72 Pinta
The bright moon, six nights after a full moon, was by now high in the Earthly sky in
Orion. Meanwhile on Santa Mar�a's not quite twin swifter vehicle, the Pinta, Juan
Rodriguez Bermejo woke up to the sound of "Cielito Lindo" and was stretching his legs
in the Real Alta Torre (the "RAT", or royal high chair lookout tower for its acronym
in Spanish).
Like the Santa Mar�a, the Pinta had just seen interesting objects floating in the
ocean earlier that Day. Juan made some observations and the three twin vehicles were
parked for further investigation. There was an interesting light also that
Christopher saw. It was a calm night. The next "Day", odd objects resembling fruits,
and named "blueberries" by the team to commemorate the crews thought's that they'd be
berried in the ocean blue in 1492 were observed. The crew took a few bites. Taste
analysis and berry locomotion studies to be published in The Queen's Science Journal
after royal approval. Then the crew lowered its landing boats in calm waters to
investigate closer the observations of what they observed the prior DayNight in a
region later ironically named Vespucci Hills honoring the official international
astronomical nomenclature committee chief mapmaker. More samples were taken, and they
sailed on to there next destination which was to be determined over the next few
months.
Day 71-72 Ni�a
The Ni�a was fast asleep after drinking some spirits, letting the crews of the almost
twin Pinta and Santa Mar�a have the opportunity firsts. She was the younger than the
twins and needed more sleep in the harsh aqueous environment.
General Mission Status
The food barely covered operating necessities, and was getting old as they headed
further into mid-Autumn. The mission had been extended much longer than expected by
the crew, and the Nacional Agua & Surfeo Administracion budgetary considerations will
soon have to move the crews into new quarters.
The men were is better spirits after finally a big Day of work. Thus, rebooting
Columbus was avoided no thanks to the incredible technical prowess of the crew and
Colombus'estimated parameters for the diameter of the world, which again seemed to be
confirming the spherical shape of the Earth, that had been suspected since Ptolemy's
time or earlier.
Saludos, Doug
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