21 May 2009

In a few hours this sunny stay in New York City will draw to a close, and I will be boarding a flight for Greece.  In Heraklion on the ancient island of Crete I’ll be joining the rest of the DANAOS research team, for another field season in the eastern Mediterranean in search of shipwrecks in deep water.  Our home during the expedition with be the Greek research vessel AEGAEO.  And I am bracing myself for the inevitable bout of sea-sickness as the AEGAEO hits the first choppy waves on cruising out of Heraklion harbor.

It’s a little known fact that the English word “NAUSEA” is really a Greek word derived from the all-important term NAUS for “ship” or “longship”.  And what does it really mean?  “To feel as if one is on board a ship”!