Is the sun over the yardarm?

On quiet days aboard the ship, usually when everyone was ashore, my favourite time was when our captain used to come down to the office for a visit. He always referred to us as "my lovelies" and truth be told, there were at least a couple of us who had a crush on him.

We referred to these times as his "fireside chats" and apart from great stories, he would often throw in an explanation of a nautical term or two. In honour of this wonderful man I've attached a link under "Useful Cruise Links" to a site with the origin of many nautical terms and phrases.

It's not really modern-day cruise related but at some level it kind of is. I've always found word origins fascinating and I'm sure there are others who will find some of these interesting, too.