Category Archives: writing

FYL Finished

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The Fund Your Life (FYL) conference finished up this evening. Spent 2 1/2 days soaking up all kinds of information and ideas about how to make a move overseas and actually pay for it (without having to be retired with some sort of pension).

I met all kinds of interesting people. Lots of people from the US and Canada, one lady came all the way from Hong Kong. We all seemed to be in pretty much the same frame of mind. All looking for lower cost of living, less stress, more freedom, more options. Ideas flowing, but not really sure what to do with them.

There are so many options. So many different countries to chose from. And then all the different locations within those countries. Farm and country or city? Cool mountains or warm beaches? English speaking or other?

Things to do to earn income ranged from the traditional idea to buy rental property to working online with elance or publishing ebooks. Lots of ideas to start a business, like open a bar or restaurant, bakery, book store, import-export, leading tours, helping other people make the move, organizing peoples closets, etc.

I’m still not really sure what to do. I’m still not sure where I want to go. I have so many places I’d like to go, things I’d like to do. I hate to even consider the idea of losing my ability to work at sea. I do NOT want to lose my license I worked SO hard to get.

As long as the price of oil stays as low as it is, I don’t know if there’s much I  really can do about that. There really is not much work offshore right now, and I don’t see the job market improving til the oil price does.

I want to stay connected to the maritime world, I want whatever I wind up doing to be in some way related to sailing. I could teach sailing or navigation, I could deliver peoples boats, I could work in a marina. A few people I met told me I should write a book. I’m open to that idea. I have been trying to transition into writing and photography anyway. I just wonder what, specifically, would I write about?

Would you all give me some ideas? Feedback? Would you be interested in a book from me? About my life? About my career? About what it’s like working at sea? About conditions out there? About how YOU could do it?

I’d love to hear any feedback from you. Especially people who are not in the USA. Any ideas for me? I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with. 🙂

Lucinda Williams: Essence

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Something a little different. It’s not a ‘Song of the Sea”, but just plain, good music. I love all different kinds of music: blues, bluegrass, reggae, old rock and roll, classical, alternative country, pretty much everything except rap, heavy metal and opera.

I especially like music that tells a story with the lyrics. I love singers who can write a good song that means something.

Lucinda Williams is one of my favorite singer/songwriters. This whole album is great. I love this song!

Sleepless Since Skink

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I tried to make an early night of it last night, so I could be awake and alert all day today at the conference. I had dinner at the hotel and was in bed by 1030.

My problem started when I decided to do a little reading before turning out the light. I was reading Carl Hiaasens “Skink No Surrender“. I really like his style, he’s got a great sense of humor and his books are always quick reads. I’m not sure how to classify this one; young adult? mystery? comedy? adventure? It had all that and more. Like all his writing, this book kept me interested til the end.

I also like his books because they remind me so much of where I grew up in Florida. His cast of characters and the adventures they get involved in are such pure Florida, it’s almost like going home again. 🙂

Johns Pass Florida

Johns Pass Florida

This book features Skink, a character familiar from previous stories. He’s always been one of my favorites and reminds me of some of the guys I grew up with on the beach over there (Johns Pass). My dad used to rent apartments to a lot of the people who came to the beach. We had some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met come through there.

My grandmother used to wonder why I always enjoyed hanging out with all those strange characters, but they were just so interesting. Travelers from all over, musicians, fishermen, artists, bartenders, etc. I heard some fantastic stories!

Skink No Surrender tells the story of a teenage boy (Richard) who’s worried about his cousin Malley who’s disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Skink helps Richard track her down and their adventures across Florida are pretty entertaining. 🙂

I tried a few times to stop reading and turn out the lights, but then I had to continue again and again. I finally finished the book and tried to go to sleep around 0230. Last time I looked at the clock, it was almost 0400.

I had the alarm set for 0730, conference starts at 0900. I’m probably going to have a hell of a time staying awake and paying attention. 🙁

FYL 2015 Day 1

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I’m here in Phoenix, Arizona (Mesa) for the Fund Your Life Overseas Conference (put on by International Living). The subtitle to the conference is: How to Create the Kind of Life You Don’t Need a Vacation From.

YEAH! I am ready for THAT!

I flew in early yesterday, I had hoped to spend some time exploring the area, but I was just too beat from lack of sleep. I didn’t do much exploring. I managed to take a walk around the area near the hotel, check out the hotel pool and that was about it.

Today was the first day of the conference. We had 2 solid hours of speakers: Dan Prescher and Suzan Haskins, Barbara Winter, Valery Young, Winton Churchill. All telling us about some of the options out there for making a life overseas, and getting us excited to hear more in depth from them over the next couple of days.

We even had an hour long cocktail party with free drinks and snacks. I’ve already met at least a dozen very interesting fellow attendees. 🙂

My mind has been churning, thinking up all kinds of ideas. I’m still trying hard to figure out how to move and looking forward to hearing more ideas tomorrow.

A Walk In The Desert

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I got here yesterday and after a nice long nap I decided to take a walk around and see what there was to see.

There’s a nice big green park across the street. I was surprised to see a lake, people fishing, and even a lady out feeding the ducks.

I’ve never seen ducks like these! One looked like it had a little feathery clown wig on it’s head. I don’t know what kind of duck it was, but we need some of those around Houston, just for the laugh factor. 🙂

I walked through the park and finally saw the cactus I was expecting to see here in the desert. They’re getting ready to bloom! I’ll go back tonight to see if they’re flowering yet. Cactus are SO beautiful when they bloom. I was happy to see them even tho it was only a planting along the edge of the park along the roadside, at least it did let you in on the reality that we are here in the middle of the desert- no matter that there’s a lake right there!

Of course, there was a shopping center right across the way. Typical.

Veterans Day

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Today is Veterans Day, at least in the USA. I think in lots of other countries, they celebrate Armistice Day instead. It seems to be basically the same holiday.

To remember those who served in the armed services.

I noticed quite a few special things going on today for military people. Lots of restaurants giving out free meals to veterans, free drinks in the bars, special sales in stores, even parades in some places.

That’s nice, I thought. I also thought it would be nice if the Merchant Marines were included in these things. I know in the USA we also have to swear an oath before we get our documents.

We don’t usually sign on for only 4 years either. I’ve had my ticket since I got my AB limited in 1979 or so. If I was in the Navy or US Coast Guard, I would be retired by now with some nice benefits and of course, have a special day (today).

I wonder why we’re never remembered for OUR services?

One reason is probably because we’re never mentioned in school or media. Most people have no idea about the Merchant Marine. Who we are, what we do, what are we there for?

I know we have Maritime Day in May, but it’s not like it’s a holiday or anything and almost nobody even knows about it.

Things have changed a lot in the last 50 years. People have forgotten how much the Merchant Marine has always been important to their lives (and still is- check out the book Ninety Percent of Everything).

It would be nice if people would have at least a thought for us today. Maybe remember we had more casualties than any of the other services. We lost so many ships (and men), something like 1500 American ships! That is not even taking into account all those lost from other countries!

Maybe think about all the hell mariners went through to deliver the arms, men, materials, to the fighting forces overseas. Some of them had their ships shot out from under them 2, 3 times and they still returned to sail again. One guy (Harold Harper) had his ship torpedoed 6 times! Another lost his ship 10 times! And they still came back for more. Yet, the Merchant Marine still gets almost no recognition. 🙁

The Maritime Executive Magazine has a nice article today. They’re one of the few places I’ve seen any mention of the Merchant Marines role and relationship to Veterans Day. I thank them for it and will hope they get a widespread readership. I hope you’ll check out their link (and the other ones I’ve made today).

Hope you all had a good holiday. I appreciate all the people who tried so hard to do what they thought was right.

US Merchant Marine flag

US Merchant Marine flag

Made It To Mesa

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I made it! Shouldn’t seem like such a big deal, but it sure seems like it.

I don’t know what happened to my timing this morning. I got up at 0230 to leave the house by 0400. I still had some packing and a few other things to do.

I was rushing around and didn’t leave the house til 0445.

My flight left at 0555!

It normally takes me about an hour to drive to that airport (1.5 hours to the other).

Yes, I admit it, I WAS speeding like a bat out of hell all the way to the airport.

I thought I might just make it with minutes to spare if I parked right at the airport itself. I had no idea they were working on the parking lots and I couldn’t find a way in. 🙁

I frantically turned around and sped back to the offsite parking and nervously waited while they loaded up the bus.

Luckily, the security (FARCE) line was short and I somehow even got a pre-check or I never would have made it. My attempts to run to the gate were not helping me much. I never could run very fast or very far. Plus, I was wearing flip-flops to help with getting through security.

I made it to my flight with 3 minutes to spare. Big sigh.  🙂

What’s Up?

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People have been asking ‘what’s up?”, yep, it surprised me. Some people have actually sent me messages asking where I’ve been. Neat. 🙂 I’m sorry I haven’t been around here much lately. I’ve just been worn out. Too tired to spend the time and effort to even write a post. 🙁

Maybe you wonder what has been keeping me so busy? Nothing really. I think I’ve just been so frustrated with this thing lately, and maybe even a little depressed. I can’t seem to make any progress in getting my blog back to where I am interacting with people like I was before I moved. I don’t know what went wrong or how to fix it and it’s been bothering me. A LOT! And then there’s been the other issue with my photos. 🙁

I even consulted a couple of computer ‘geeks’ to see if they could help me. So far no luck. I have’nt had much time since I asked them either, so part of that may be my fault.

Since my last posts here on Sunday, I’ve been fairly busy. I spent the first part of last week in my new job in the mornings. Monday night my DPO friend was in town so she drove down from Houston to visit me and we went out to Red Lobster for dinner. Tuesday night was my usual Campaign for Liberty meeting. Wednesday I met my DPO friend again and we had a good time shopping at the Galleria with a late dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!).

I took the day off Thursday, just went to visit my friend J and brought over a big pot of my favorite beef stew. She doesn’t get out much and I felt like she could use some homemade cooking. 🙂 We had a nice talk about all kinds of things. I really wish she was still up for going out together.

Friday I went to a lunch meeting in Houston where they had an interesting presentation about FPSO’s (yeah, I know, most people probably wouldn’t think that was very interesting, but I really do still like to learn about all that stuff!). I was going to the zoo afterwards, but they closed it early for a ‘Feast With the Beasts’ and I didn’t want to pay (a LOT) extra to enter since I’m a member and should get free entry.

I went to the Museum of Natural Science instead. I always really like their ‘bug house’ (exhibits on insects, etc) and butterfly center. It’s really fascinating to watch the butterflies come out of their chrysalis and pump themselves up to fly away. I like to take lots of pictures of all the butterflies and flowers. It’s a really relaxing experience, sitting around listening to the waterfalls while the butterflies land on you. I only wish it wasn’t always so HOT and HUMID in there!

I got a membership there too, so I could see all the exhibits. They had Faberge‘ there again which I really enjoyed. I always did love beautiful things and there were a lot of them in there, much more than just the famous eggs. Everything they made was just exquisite! So finely made, so delicate, so intricate, so gorgeous, so expensive!

They also had an exhibit on spies. It was called “Spies, Traitors and Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America”. That was really interesting and I wish I had a lot more time to spend there to really take it all in.

One thing I liked was that they had little interactive quizzes set up at some of the exhibits. For instance, they had one that asked if the US government should be able to spy on their own citizens (like they ARE doing). Of course I answered no (HELL NO!).

I was absolutely stunned to see how many of my ‘fellow Americans’ answered differently. Amazing! Hard to believe so many are willing to give up their rights. Sad to see how many just don’t get Ben Franklins warning about those who would trade freedom for security.

Amazing how many have learned nothing from history and I guess that means that we will be repeating it all again. VERY VERY sad.

I was running out of time, they were closing the museum so I had to leave. It’s probably a good thing, since I was getting a little pissed off. Yes, it really does upset me whenever I’m reminded of how MUCH of my freedom has been stolen from me! I still find it hard to understand how anyone, much less any American, can stand it. Yet I see more and more of them willing to accept more and more of this theft every day.

So, the weekend came around and MORE rain! I spent the entire weekend being super lazy! I was just tired. Really worn out. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday lying around reading (Michael Chrichtons book “Travels”, Kim Harrisons “Witch With No Name”), watching TV (Saturday Night Live, Texas Music Scene, Househunters) and cooking up a storm. 🙂

Yesterday I eased back into things by catching up on phone calls, emails, etc and today I’m back in the flow of things. Went back to my new job this morning and political meeting again tonight. 🙂

Tomorrow I’m getting up REAL early to go to a conference I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It’s called Fund Your Life Overseas. I’m still hoping to find SOME way to support myself without being tied down here in the states. I have been trying to move overseas for YEARS now. Decades actually.

The ONLY thing keeping me here is my finances. I hope I will be able to learn something new at this conference that will finally allow me to earn an INDEPENDENT living. Something not tied to any specific location would be best, but if its located outside of the US, that would probably be OK too.

So, if you don’t hear from me again for the next few days, don’t worry. I’ll be soaking up the info at the conference and hopefully the weather will be decent when I return. Since I already missed the Pirates, I’d really like to see the Barbarians at the RenFest! 🙂

Rainy Days

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It’s been raining here non-stop for the last 2 days! I’ve been stuck in the house, can’t even take my daily walk. Planned to go to the Renaissance Festival for the Pirates, but that is NOT somewhere I want to be in the rain!

So….

It’s still going on every weekend til Nov 29th, so I’ll try to go another weekend when hopefully it’s not raining. The Barbarians will be there Nov 14-15, they should be almost as good as the Pirates. 😉

Since I’m just hanging around the house listening to the rain, I’ve been trying to fix my blog. So far I am making zero progress and getting nothing but frustration out of the project!

I did get my computer back from the shop, but they couldn’t fix the issue (virus that encrypts all my photos) and I am VERY upset over losing all that stuff! I had hundreds of photos on my thumb drive (put them there since computer was full up).

I can just be thankful it didn’t get into the computer too.

I met a guy on linkedin the other day who I HOPE can help me with some of this stuff. Otherwise, it’s getting to the point where I’m wondering if it’s going to be worth all the stress and aggravation. 🙁

I hope we can get together tomorrow to go over everything and he can start working on it soon. I’ll be busy most of the week with other things and won’t have another ‘free’ day til Friday.

Songs of the Sea: If I Had a Boat

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Here’s a good one by Lyle Lovett. I hope you like it. 🙂

Yuk!

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I got home late from Houston tonight and I was taking my daily walk. I was searching the sky for Orion, to see if I could spot any meteors (the Orionid metor shower is still going on).

All the sudden- ICK! YUK! UGH!

I walked under a tree and it was like I got attacked by a giant spider! For a minute I felt like Frodo when he got tangled up in Shelobs lair in the Lord of the Rings. 😉

I’m still not sure if it was a real spider web I somehow ran into, or if it was a Halloween decoration gone wild, but it got me good!

At least I didn’t ever see the spider who might have made that giant web!!

Sad to say, I didn’t see any meteors tonight either, it was just too cloudy and the moon was still too bright to see many stars. I need to get to sleep soon, so won’t be staying up to try again when the moon sets. I’ll be up and out early in the morning, so maybe I’ll have better luck then. 🙂

TravMedia

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Someone turned me on to a new website for travel writers yesterday. It’s called www.TravMedia.com. I signed up and found out they actually vet you. They want you to prove you’re a travel writer.

They sent me an email and asked me to send them links to my published travel writing. I was a little worried since I haven’t actually had any articles published (yet) that I would really consider ‘travel’ articles.

I’ve been trying to get started writing, and would LOVE to get into travel writing, but between working my regular job offshore (with pretty limited internet access) and all the things I need to catch up on when I finally get home, I never seem to find the time to write. Even when I do manage to write something, then I have a really hard time writing off to editors to see if they might be interested in what I’ve written.

I have had a couple of things published that I’ve written (and they’ve used my photos too). Things more to do with a maritime theme. Some of them came about because of this blog!

Politics Tonight.

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It’s Tuesday. That means its time for the weekly meeting of my favorite local political group, the Texas Liberty Campaign of Brazoria County We meet every week at a local restaurant for good food and interesting discussions.

We’ve been meeting at the Mediterranean Gardens for a while now (since we moved from China Town). Plenty of good Greek (and Cajun) food.  I’m looking forward to it tonight since I haven’t been in so long.

I miss being able to talk about all this ‘crazy’ stuff, politics outside of the 2 party system, REAL freedom and liberty for America, things not really covered in the mainstream media.  Yeah, most people think we’re a bunch of tin hat conspiracy theorists. 😉

Sometimes I do too. But sometimes I think there really might be something to it (like all the completely unconstitutional spying on everything and everybody the US government does for just 1 example). And sometimes I even think it’s worth doing something about.

I only wish I knew just exactly WHAT to do about it all (other than speak out).

If anybody is interested, come on out and join us! We’re there from 7:00 til closing. 🙂

Screwed Up Again!

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More shit to deal with! My computer is screwed up again!!

Not JUST my blog now, but the computer. I’ll have to take it to the shop AGAIN and hope they can fix this one. 🙁

I hope I can get the old one to work, at least for the next few days.

 

Book: The Gathering Wind

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It’s been a quiet couple of days around here. I’ve been reveling in the fact that I finally found some time to just CHILL!

I wrote yesterday that I didn’t do anything except take my daily walk and cook dinner. Today I got a little bit more done. I did the laundry. 😉

I’ve been reading a good book and thought some of you might like it too. It’s called The Gathering Wind, by Gregory A. Freeman.

It’s all about the tall ship Bounty, (the replica of the one they had the mutiny on). 😉

The Gathering Storm tells the story of the ship, her captain (Robin Walbridge) and crew and how they wound up sinking in the middle of ‘Superstorm Sandy’.

It’s a pretty wild story, especially the heroic attempts by the crew to save their ship and the amazing efforts of the US Coast Guard to save the crew.

It’s a great read, a real page turner. Even tho I knew how it would turn out, it still kept me interested til the end. As a sailor, I kept wondering WHY would they do that? Head out to sea with a hurricane approaching?

The book doesn’t really give a clear answer to that question. It did have a section on the investigation of the sinking, but I would have liked more. I have my own opinion and it mostly has to do with money.

So many of these disasters at sea probably never would have happened if there was a REAL concern for safety, but ‘time is money’ and it gets harder and harder for a seafarer to find employment where the idea of safety is more than just a façade for the insurance companies!

Just a couple of weeks ago, the El Faro went down with all hands, another 33 lives. Lost in another hurricane.

Will the investigation for the El Faro come to the same conclusion? That it was all the captains fault? That only his ‘reckless decision’ was to blame?

Do you really think the captain of the El Faro (or the Bounty) would have taken the risks he did if there were no pressure from the office to ‘make the schedule’? I sure as hell don’t!

With all the new rules and regulations coming out of the IMO and various governmental bodies, I keep wondering when will they get down to the root cause of all this? The people in the OFFICE who run these ships! THEY are the ones who really make the decisions these days, the poor old captain is nothing but a scapegoat for when things go wrong!

There is only so much a captain and crew can do out there! Without the help and support of our employers, we can only do so much! Sailing around a hurricane (or through pirates, or any other extraordinarily dangerous place), is NOT something we should be doing just to save the company a few bucks!

I’m still waiting to see the day when the IMO does something that actually helps the MARINER! Putting at least SOME of the responsibility on those who really make the decisions, and off of the captain who is now only a figurehead would go a long way in fixing a lot of issues out here!

For further discussions of these incidents among the mariners who hang out on Gcaptain, (professional and otherwise), check out these links:

http://www.gcaptain.com/forum/professional-mariner-forum/10134-hms-bounty-hurricane-sandy.html

http://www.gcaptain.com/forum/maritime-news/17656-sea-star-el-faro.html

Quick and Easy

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Today was such a lazy day. I didn’t do anything much. I did manage to take my daily walk around the neighborhood, but that’s about it.

I finally got hungry enough to cook some dinner. I had some pork loin (center cut chops) I got on sale the other day that I never put in the freezer. I figured I had better cook it up before it went bad.

I cut it up into thin strips, sauteed it with some onions til it was pretty much done. Then I added a can of pineapple chunks, some frozen green beans and peas. I had one of those single serving rice cups I threw in the microwave and a few ‘cheese rangoons’ to heat in the oven.

Made a nice (so-called) Chinese dinner without having to go out. I would have called for delivery, but pizza is the only thing they’ll deliver around here.

For dessert I made some Waldorf salad. Apples, celery, raisins, cherries and mayonnaise. Just sweet enough and the apples went nice with the pork.

I like to cook. I don’t usually do any ‘fancy’ cooking (follow a recipe) anymore. Mostly since it’s just me and I don’t like to waste it. I learned to cook on the ship, so it’s still hard to cook for just 1. If I cook from a recipe I wind up eating the same thing for a week and still throwing half of it out! 🙁

Lazy

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Have you ever had a day you just didn’t feel like doing anything?

That’s what I’ve been feeling like today. Everything has finally caught up to me and I just didn’t feel like doing anything.

And I didn’t. 🙂

 

Taxman

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Gotta go see the accountant and pay the taxman today (again). Ugh!!!

I got an extension again, so now have until October 15 to deal with the mess instead of getting it all over with in April like most people do.

One more reason to get off my ass and figure out HOW to move out of here! If I can move, the first $100,000 or so of earned income will be tax free. Of course, I have no idea how I would ever earn anywhere close to that amount outside of the Gulf of Mexico, but that’s beside the point!

If I don’t have to give up close to 50% of my income in taxes, that means I can easily afford to live on 50% less income. And, I can probably avoid getting ripped off for another $10-15,000 in the obamascam!  I’m SURE there are many places around the world where I could manage to live nicely on 50% of my income.

Now, the issue is: how do I come up with ANY income if I’m not working in the Gulf of Mexico?

Great song by the Beatles! Who would’ve thought anyone could make a great song about taxes? Now, just think about the lyrics for a minute. 🙁

Taxman
The Beatles

Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet
Taxman!
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman
Don’t ask me what I want it for (Aahh Mr. Wilson)
If you don’t want to pay some more (Aahh Mr. Heath)
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman
And you’re working for no one but me
Taxman!
And just in case that’s not enough to get you going, here’s an even better one from Stefan Molyneux on Freedomain Radio! Warning: some ‘bad’ language, if that kind of thing bothers you, try your best to ignore it, this guy is worth listening to!!
For some reason, I can’t get the video to open up here (and the editor won’t let me fix the spacing anymore either!!). But please take a look at it through the link. I know a lot of you don’t like my politics, but I really do think if more people took the time to really think through what we’re dealing with, things would change for the better. Yes, better for ALL of us!

Chuck It?

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I just mentioned I’ve been thinking how much I’d just LOVE to be able to just chuck it all and go sail around the world. Seriously.

Yeah, I’ve spent about the last 40 years TRYING to do just exactly that. I’ve spent almost my entire life at sea, hoping to see the world, have some adventures, and earn a living at the same time.

I keep TRYING to get the hell out of the Gulf of Mexico, go somewhere interesting and get a job where I really love what I’m doing, like I used to love what I do now. It seems no matter what I do, even if I manage to find a job overseas somewhere, I keep getting stuck right back in the Gulf of Mexico again. Right back to the same old, same old. Right back to the place where they suck all the excitement and enjoyment right out of being a mariner.

I’m up here at the DP Conference in Houston this week. I’m here hoping to learn something useful, meet some interesting people, get a feel for what’s happening in the DP world, and maybe even get a clue about who might be hiring DPOs.

Well, I have met some interesting people, and I have learned a little bit, but it sure doesn’t look good for anybody hiring any DPOs anytime soon. The more I think about it, the more I think it might just be time to say the hell with it.

I still have no idea how I could possibly make it work, but the more I think about it, the more I want to just GO! The only thing holding me back is the fear of wondering how in the heck will I be able to support myself?

I’ve been trying for years now to figure out SOME way to pay my bills without having to be out on a ship somewhere. I’ve tried vending machines. I’ve bought rental property. I’ve been working on writing, photography, etc.

That’s even one of the main reasons I started this blog, hoping to find a way to get around the editors, to get my photography out to the world (and hoping someone would like it enough to buy it). I still haven’t figured out what the hell happened to the blog when I moved it from wordpress, but it seems I’ve lost most of my readers since then. 🙁

I have actually sold 2 photos online so far. I’ve earned 50 cents for the 2 of them. 🙁 I have had a couple of my articles published, and once I even got paid. I wonder if I stayed home and was able to spend more time on it, if I could somehow earn enough to survive?

I wonder if I just did take off to travel for a while how long I would be able to last? It must be possible somehow, I just don’t know how I can do it!

I need to spend some time seriously figuring out my finances and looking at ALL options. I need to get over being so spoiled and afraid!!!

Songs of the Sea: Southern Cross

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I’ve been in Houston the last couple of days at the DP Conference. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because I might not have a boat to go back to for a while, but I was really thinking about sailing tonight. Jimmy Buffett was always one of my favorite songwriters and this is a good song (Crosby, Stills & Nash did it first).

I really wish I could just chuck it all and go sail around the world!!!!!

DP Quiz

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I’m in Houston for the DP Conference. I was looking up the website for my previous post and found this quiz.

http://dynamic-positioning.com/dp/

I should have aced it (but I didn’t). 🙁

DP Workshop

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I got home late Thursday last week. I haven’t had time to do much but catch up on mail (and a little bit of sleep). I signed up for the DP conference in Houston a few weeks ago and luckily I was able to get off the ship on time to make it this year.

Today I spent all day in a ‘workshop’. About 100 people (mostly from shoreside) were in attendance. We were given the task of reviewing how to do an incident investigation and brainstorming suggestions to improve on DP incident reporting.

It was interesting to hear all the different suggestions, and also how many items were repeated by all the groups in the room. One that stood out to me was the fact that there are so many incidents that never get reported as they should be. So we all lose the chance for the ‘lessons learned’.

I’m convinced that the reason for that is simply fear. Everyone (including even the company you’re working for) is so afraid for their jobs that they just don’t want to do anything that might reflect badly on them. Yes, these reports are supposed to be ‘anonymous’, but I think there’s still the fear that your vessel might lose work if it somehow gets out that there was an ‘incident’ onboard.

That seems to be the norm even when things are booming, when work is as slow as it has been lately, nobody wants to take the chance that an incident report might lose them the contract.

Somehow, the hiring companies (usually the oil majors) have to get across the message that they will not ‘punish’ in the future for an incident reported today. I don’t know how that will ever be accomplished in reality. No one else at my table did either.

Sad to say, I was one of very few DPOs still sailing at todays event. There were lots of people who have moved into auditing and compliance. Lots of people who represent the different DP equipment vendors. Lots of people from the operations side of the offshore industry, but not enough active DPOs.

It’s always great to see old friends and make new ones. So many interesting people to talk to there. I have 2 more days to hang out up here in Houston and see what’s new in the DP world. (Yeah, I can be a geek sometimes). 😉

First Glowing Turtle Discovered!

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This glowing green hawksbill turtle was discovered by a National Geographic ‘Emerging Explorer’ while filming coral off the Solomon Islands.

I worked out of Honiara on a tuna boat for a while. I always wanted to stay over for a while and do some SCUBA diving. It’s supposed to be fantastic. I did have some other adventures there, but never did get to go diving. 🙁

Honiaria, Solomon Islands

Honiaria, Solomon Islands

This turtle is the first (naturally occurring) biofluorescent reptile ever discovered. They have found plenty of bioluminescent creatures before. Mostly corals, fish, jellyfish. They’ve even found some biofluorescent ones before (mostly fish).

The scientists are excited to find a bioluminescent reptile and so am I! I always thought turtles were cool. 🙂

Free Form Harvest Apple Tart

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This popped up in my email this morning. Yes, my email finally started working again here this morning after 3-4 days of having absolutely no luck with that! No reason why it didn’t work, or why it did this morning. I just hope it continues!

Anyway, this recipe looked so good, and so simple, I thought I’d share it with you. Just follow this link. I think I’ll skip making the home made crust and just use a frozen crust to save time and effort.

I can’t complain about the food on here, the cooks are doing a great job with what they have to work with. Still, I like to cook my own food sometimes. I can’t wait to get home and try out some of these great recipes I’ve been seeing lately.

I’m due off this ship tomorrow. Of course, the crewboat won’t get us off here til 10-12 at night and we won’t hit the dock in Grand Isle til Thursday morning. I probably won’t actually make it home til around 9 pm Thursday night. Great to get off here, but sucks to be SO totally exhausted by the time I get home that I’ll have to waste 2 days catching up on sleep before I can really do anything. 🙁

Share Your World- Week 40

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Here’s another challenge from Cee. I really like her blog. She always has something interesting going on over there (and she takes some gorgeous pictures!). One of the things she does is run a “Share Your World” challenge. Check out the link to see others answers to her questions or to join in yourself. Here’s my answering post for this weeks challenge…

If you have been to a foreign country name those you have been too? I’ve been to a lot of foreign countries (check out my previous port calls). There are still plenty I haven’t been to yet and would love to go visit at the first opportunity. I’m still looking forward to seeing India, Egypt, Chile, Vietnam, Uruguay and Antarctica (even tho it’s not a country).  I travel every chance I get!

I started out young, I went to Canada and Mexico with my grandmother. Then I got to go to school on a sailing ship. We left Athens, Greece on the ship and sailed to ports in Italy, Spain, hit the Canary Islands and crossed the Atlantic to Martinique. We left the ship and flew to Caracas, Venezuela. We traveled overland to Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. I joined the same ship again in Martinique. We sailed to the Azores, then France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the USSR and back to Copenhagen (Denmark).

After that trip I was hooked on traveling. I’ve since been to the UK (England, Ireland, Scotland). I’ve been to Turkey, the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Mauritius, Angola, Congo, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica.

Is the glass half empty or half full? What type of glass is it and what is in the glass? I have to admit, I am a natural pessimist. I almost always see the glass as half empty. I will say, I’ve never really thought about what kind of glass it is. I would say it’s probably a beer glass. One of those hour glass shaped ones they give you at the beer joint. And of course, BEER would be in the glass!

If you could have an endless supply of any food, what would you get? I would get a burger. I LOVE a good burger and there are so many ways to make them!

List:  List at least five places worth shopping. I’m not much of a shopper, I usually only really enjoy shopping for books and food. 🙂 I like shopping at AmazonSmile, a (small) percentage of everything I spend there goes to a charity I choose. I also liked to shop at Powells Books in Oregon (tho I haven’t been able to get there for ages). I like Half Price Books on the way to Houston. I like to ‘shop at the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores. They have lots of interesting things and decent prices. I go there when I’m looking for furniture or appliances for my properties, or for work clothes. I also like to shop at museum stores, I almost never buy anything, but they always have beautiful and interesting items for sale.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up. I am grateful to have a job, but I am SO looking forward to getting off this ship and going home!!

Songs of the Sea: Shark in the Water

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I’ve really been falling behind with posts in my ‘Songs of the Sea’ series. Sorry to have left you all hanging, but on this vessel I just haven’t had the internet access I need to keep up with my blog or anything else.

I found this video in my drafts tonight, just trying to see if I could find something quick to post. I hope you like it. 🙂

10 Maritime Blogs- Plus 1 For Good Luck!

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Just so you know, I haven’t been purposely neglecting my blog and my faithful followers. 😉

I’ve been hard at work on the DSV Mystic Viking and my access to the internet has been extremely limited.

After my experience on the tuna boats, I promised myself I would never take another job offshore where I didn’t have internet access. Even the IMO recently came out with the ‘news’ that internet access offshore is “important for attracting and retaining crew”!

I meant to write this post a few days ago, to get into the spirit of ‘Maritime Awareness Week’. I’ve been working in the maritime industry almost my entire life; in commercial fishing, party boats, yachts, oil & gas, tankers, research. I still haven’t even really broken the surface of all the different aspects. I think most people are pretty unaware of how important the maritime industry is.

Yeah, I guess most people know about the oil and gas sector. That is where I’ve been most involved in the last few years. The transport sector is one part I’ve never really been involved in, other than tankers. There’s a good book about that part of the field. It’s called Ninety Percent of Everything. Check it out if you can, it’s really pretty interesting and I bet you’ll learn something!

In an effort to promote Maritime Awareness Week here on Captain Jills Journeys, I want to share a few of my favorite maritime related blogs. I want to try and show the huge variety of what goes on out here at sea where most people today never venture. I hope you’ll take a look and enjoy these blogs too.

Here’s one that’s just about everyday life on the water. The writer lives on a longboat along the canals of Great Britain. She writes about living aboard with her husband and their cute little dog.

Here’s one from Lisa, she sails around the world and has the most amazing adventures. All on OPB’s (other peoples boats). 🙂

Here’s one from Paul B. A guy who’s basically just starting out on the journey I started more than 30 years ago. Yes, I am also a hawsepiper. 😉

Another hawsepiper at Blue Ocean Mariner has a different perspective on the journey.

Here’s one from Augustin, another mariner. He’s sailed some really cool ships, including a couple of tall ships (which is how I got sucked into this too!). He writes mostly in Portuguese, so I can’t really understand all of it, just enough to get the general idea.

Here’s the Captains Log from the barque Picton Castle. Another tall ship (where I actually sailed with their captain back when I was a cadet and he was a mate). 🙂

Here’s an interesting blog if you like the scientific side of things. Southern Fried Science always has something new to see.

Here’s one from Ben at New England Waterman. He writes about working various vessels working around the harbors in the Northeast of the US among other things.

Here’s a link to Barista Uno’s Maritime Café Blog. He always comes up with some good stuff. Lots of art lately. 🙂

Here’s another all around interesting blog with lots of good art. Bowsprite is one of the first blogs I found when I started my own blog here.

Don’t think those are a complete roundup of good maritime blogs online. The few I posted are just a few I could come up with and link to from here. There are SO many more of them out there and (I think) they’re all pretty interesting. The world is covered in water and there are people all over the world who spend their lives working out there.

Not to forget, here’s one for the families we leave behind when we go to work. Thanks Callie!

Explosive!

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How many days do you get to go to work looking forward to blowing something up?

I’m looking forward to blowing up something today!

Really.

Yeah, really. I’m still here on the Mystic Viking. We finally got all our certs so we could leave port, so we loaded up on fuel and got the hell out of town.

We did one quick test job and then moved over here (SP) to do another quick job using explosives. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of old platforms out here in the Gulf that have become obsolete and now need to be removed.

Instead of leaving them alone to continue serving as artificial reefs, the powers that be have decided they must be completely removed, the legs must be cut below the ‘mud line’. Thankfully, that gives us a lot of work, cutting them all up and then putting them on barges to bring them in for scrapping somewhere.

We’ll eventually be working with the Versabar 10,000. They’ll do the heavy lifting after we do the cutting.

For this job we set up a ‘bomb’ in order to blow up the leg of an old oil platform off the coast of Louisiana. The top has already been removed, so we are using the ROV to run the ‘bomb’ down the leg and run the detonation cord up to the ship.

Once we get the thing set up, we have to wait til the turtle watchers can come out and ensure that no turtles are harmed in the explosion. (Yeah, seriously).

I want to see something blow up!

Arrrgh- I Missed It!

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Aye, I’ve been so busy here on this old ship, I totally forgot that yesterday (Sept 19th) was International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Yaaar, I be stuck here on this old ship, but I still could have had some fun with the whole pirate thing. Yeah, even here.

Of course, it would have been a hell of a lot more fun to be off. There are parties all over the world to celebrate and for sure I would have been in attendance!

Next year, I’ll be sure to remember next year.

 

Still Busy

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We’re still at the dock and still busy as hell. I’m hoping we might actually get the hell out of here some time tomorrow.

It’s been a rough week. I haven’t really stopped since I got here. Not much time to relax or do anything other than work. Trying to get this old boat through all the inspections, audits and etc so we can go offshore and actually start the job the boat was hired to do.

We’ve been having drills for the last couple of days. Trying to get everyone used to their emergency muster stations and duties. It’s a little more difficult than usual since we’re pretty much all new to this vessel.

Hopefully, we’ll pass our Coast Guard inspection tomorrow and then we’ll be free to depart for sea trials. 🙂

DSV Mystic Viking

DSV Mystic Viking

PS- I noticed someone had been searching online about who bought the Mystic Viking and that’s how they found my blog. If you’re still around, all I can say is that I’m not quite sure. Crowley or Deepcor. We’re working for both on here, so I’m not real sure who actually owns the vessel now. Deepcor did buy a few of the other old Caldive boats.