Classics Challenge: Mid-Month Update

Let me just say that I now understand what early critics of Moby Dick meant when they stated, "The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition."
Furthermore, Melville goes off on these random tangents. The plot creeps forward at a painful (and downright boring) pace. I'm on page 56. And when I say page 56, trust me that I mean this is an accomplishment. The book I got is thick, the pages are long, and the text is tiny.
Anyway, page 56 and the characters haven't even gotten to the ocean yet.
Is this book about a whale, or what?

Not to mention Ishmael is a strange sort of character. He spends this half of the book making friends with a cannibal and then sharing a bed with him at a inn-ish place.
Whatever I expected from Moby Dick, it was nothing like this!