Off the Southwest Coast of Africa, 250 NM North of Cape Town

17 October 2012

Although we have been in the tropics—meaning between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn—since shortly after we left the Canary Islands more than 2 weeks ago, the weather has been decidedly untropical. The day after we crossed the equator, becoming “emerald shellbacks,” the southerly winds picked up, turning the sky gray, the temperature chilly, and the seas as angry as we’ve seen since the first week out of Halifax.

A large high-pressure area is parked over the South Atlantic, pumping air from the Antarctic up the West African coast. In the southern hemisphere, air circulates counter-clockwise around a high and clockwise around a low, just the opposite from what we experience in the northern hemisphere. And, of course, while a “southern breeze” in the north means warmth, a southerly breeze in the south means chill. The net effect has been 4 straight days of sea swells exceeding 10 feet, temperatures that haven’t moved above 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and intermittent, very chilly showers. The tans of Ghana have definitely started to fade.

The forecast for Cape Town is similar: chilly, cloudy, some showers. Our planned golf outings in Stellenbosch may feel more like Ireland than Portugal.

I had lunch yesterday with Jay Orris, lifelong learner and sometime golf partner, who had just looked ahead to the scheduled Fall ’13 voyage of the MV Explorer. I had known that the ship will depart next fall from Southampton and sail initially to St. Petersburg, Russia. From there, I suspected that the itinerary would include a couple more stops in Europe before heading south along the African coast, just as we’re doing now.

Most of the faculty and many students on board today would argue that the number of stops in Europe should be reduced and the number of days at sea increased to better establish the academic rhythm of the voyage and to build a stronger sense of community. We’re into that rhythm now, but it didn’t start until we crossed the Tropic of Cancer. I’ve bemoaned that loss in earlier blogs.

In Fall ’13, the rhythm may be even harder to come by. From St. Petersburg, the ship will travel to Hamburg, Antwerp, LeHavre, Galway, Dublin, Lisbon, and Cadiz. That’s 3 ports more than our itinerary included this year. In the first 35 days of that itinerary, the students, faculty, and staff will spend only 12 onboard. “Community” will be nonexistent, and any sense of academic continuity will be impossible to achieve.

Anne Lloyd likes to say that long-term success for any organization is tied to its ability to establish and sustain an identifiable brand. If that brand appeals to the organization’s public, the organization is successful. The SAS brand, particularly since it partnered with the University of Virginia, has been academic respectability wrapped in a multicultural experience. It has also meant the opportunity to travel around the world. In Fall ’09, when anyone—faculty, staff, student—would complain about food, rough seas, . . ., anything—our deans, Bob and Nick, would put their arms over their heads, link their hands to encircle their faces, and say, “Hey! We’re going around the world!” That gesture was the “cool it” symbol of those 4 months. And it captured what the experience was all about.

Now SAS is facing belt tightening. The economy has slowed, student enrollment is down, and bunker fuel, the lifeblood of the ship, has doubled in price over the past 4 years. So the Institute for Shipboard Education, parent of Semester at Sea and owners of the ship, is trying variations to the itinerary as a way to bring more students to the ship. (They’re also moving the bar a little on admission standards, now allowing high-school grads who have been accepted at university but not yet begun their college careers to board as “gap-year students.”) But these variations are moving SAS farther and farther way from their brand: an academically respectable, multicultural, around-the-world adventure. The Fall’13 itinerary will move it even farther.

I hope feedback from the faculty and staff—and, perhaps, from students—will veer SAS away from the direction in which they’re steering. The spring itineraries will remain around-the-world experiences, at least into the next few years. They need to return to their brand in the fall as well.

We dock in Cape Town tomorrow morning at 07:30. The skies cleared this evening, which I hope is a good omen for our 4 days in South Africa. And tonight, after logistical pre-port, when we learn the Cape Town location and schedule, I’ll watch the 2^nd Presidential debate in the Cooper-Sasson cabin. Word on the street is that Obama staged a comeback. Judgment withheld.