[meteorite-list] Day 71-72

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

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 María
The 90 men on the Niña, Pinta and Sta. María were restless and were planning to reboot Christopher Columbus off the Santa María.  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 María'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 María, 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 Niña
The Niña was fast asleep after drinking some spirits, letting the crews of the almost twin Pinta and Santa María 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