This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The question in this blog headline crossed my mind as I sat on our cruise ship and, in the harbor in Corfu, Greece, saw two more cruise ships that, by size, dwarfed our own, the Viking Neptune.

The question illustrates a reality for me:  I like words better than numbers, so, when it comes to numbers, I tend to be at sea.  And, in military service, I was in the Army, not the Navy, so never was on a huge Navy ship (except one time when a friend of mine when I was in college, invited me on a short ride on a major U.S. military ice-breaker).

Consider these statistics for our Viking ship:

• Capacity:  930 passengers
• Decks:  14
• Gross tonnage:  47,800
• Length:  745 feet
• Beam: 94.5 feet

Consider the gross tonnage number for just a moment – 47,800.  I ask again, how does that float?

The two other larger cruise ships here in Corfu – a Norwegian brand ship and one from Celebrity Cruises. — are about three times as large as our Viking ship.

So, more tonnage – in the range of 120,000-125,000.

Plus, both carry 3,200 passengers.  Our?  Only 930.

Again, I ask – remember I am a “words guy,” not “numbers guy” – how do they float?

But, I add, I am just glad they do because I am on board for a few more days and I’d rather float than sink.