Author: Robert Kimberly

I returned on Friday from a week-long stint aboard the Rhapsody of the Sea in Mobile, Alabama. We were working on the theater while the ship was in drydock. Which sucked a bit. Imagine a casino, hotel, theater, restaurants and conference center jammed into a boat and all being renovated at once. Also imagine during the week planned outages of water, heat and power, and no internet. Plus my crappy phone worked for only short periods of time. I bitch about the boat but the work while completely ass-kicking was a great opportunity.

Now I’m back home, loading pictures into Flickr, sending back a few emails, making some calls, and finding that the internet is still here in all its glory. How did I survive?

At the end of this week I got a sweet work gig. I’ll be installing a theater’s lighting/power rig on a cruiseship. In Mobile, AL… drydock. I hope to be able to visit Henry Stuart’s hurricane-proof hut (see A Hermit’s Refuge Is Now a Writer’s Muse – New York Times). But with 10-hour days and no great transportation options from the harbor, I may not be able to leave the ship. But while onboard I get a cabin to myself and paid meals. So, being locked up on ship may mean saving all my dough.

I’m intrigued and pleased that my first time on a cruiseship will be work related. Time spent there will mean money earned, not spent. This will be an interesting view behind the scenes, and a chance to see the ship and crew free of tourists and all that they would demand. Almost every job I’ve had has an element of public display: museum installations, theatrical performances and corporate events. What takes place in order to get these events ready for public consumption is usually a whirlwind of activity, often unseen nor even suspected.

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Coincidentally, while surfing the interwebs, I found out about one man’s attempt to build a cruiseship of his very own. Francois Zanella’s boat

This man’s ship is great and so is his story.