What is this, exactly?

This is a blog, kept by Ian, currently making use of a sudden abundance of free time, the origins of which he is contractually not naming. Rather than learn Italian, buy a road bike, or get used to the sight of himself in lycra in public, he did briefly consider a sports car, which he is prepared to admit was a midlife moment, Ian has elected to circumnavigate the world by container ship, filing regular dispatches from the weather deck.

The route

Overland from Atlanta to Savannah, then aboard one of the largest container vessels afloat, an ultra large container ship (ULCS) of some 400 metres and roughly 24,000 TEU, via Rotterdam, the Suez Canal, Singapore, Shanghai, Busan, Long Beach, and the Panama Canal, arriving back in Savannah some time later. See the itinerary for the full route.

The ship

She is, to put it mildly, enormous. Longer than the Empire State Building is tall. Twenty two decks of accommodation stacked over an engine the size of a small cathedral. The bridge is a fifteen minute walk from the bow, and only if you know the shortcut. It takes eight minutes to get from the passenger cabin to breakfast, which is by design.

The crew

Ian shares the vessel with a working crew of twenty two, a resident cat, and one Chief Officer whom everyone in Savannah appears to know. Profiles are on the crew page.

Ground rules

• Dispatches are filed whenever the ship's satellite feed permits.
• No photograph is retouched beyond what a person on a rolling deck can manage.
• No opinion expressed here is that of the master, the operator, or Elena.
• Elena is, of course, always right.

If anyone asks what Ian is up to, point them to this website

Really. That is the whole answer. If someone asks you where Ian is, please feel free to say he is at sea, and to send them here. He is, in a manner of speaking, at sea.

For correspondence, please write a letter and post it care of the next port of call. It will not reach me, but the exercise is said to be good for the soul.