I might be a little late for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week, but I’m jumping in anyway. I just got in from work (offshore) where I have minimal internet access and I’m ready to catch up. Here are a few photos of ‘things people drive” on the water…
PS- there’s one of me ‘driving’ in there. I don’t get to do as much of it as I used to since I’ve been working more as a DPO than anything else. Dynamic positioning takes all the fun out of ‘driving’ a boat. 😉
Today’s post for the A to Z challenge is: water.
It seems an appropriate subject. I’ve spent almost my entire life in, on and around the water.
Of course I understand (in a back of the mind sort of way) how vitally important water is in so many ways. All life on earth (and maybe space too) depends on water. Without it nothing living can survive for long. But I don’t think of it that way most of the time.
I usually think of it as a necessary ingredient for me to work (and sometimes play). As a merchant marine, I spend my life at sea. I started out working on local fishing boats when I was very young, moved up to the party boats, back to commercial fishing. I moved to Texas to go to school and earn my AB and QMED certificates from the USCG since it was so hard for women to find work offshore back then.
Since then, I’ve worked my way up over the years on crew boats, production boats, standby boats, supply boats, tankers, trawlers, ROV support vessels, dive boats, construction boats, pipe layers, semi submersibles and drillships. Whew!
Thats a lot of years at sea! I only count the 39 years since starting as a cadet in 1977. I still love it and can’t wait for a chance to get back out there. 🙂
How do you think of water? Do you work on/with it? Play on/with it?
I found a new challenge in my reader today. It’s Ed’s Sunday Stills. There are some really nice photos by people participating. Here’s my entry. 🙂 I actually posted this picture before, I took it when I was sailing as captain of a tuna boat out in the South Pacific. 
Year in Maritime Photos – 2013 | gCaptain
Here’s a link to a cool post on gCaptain. It has photos and stories from all the headline news from the maritime industry over the past year. I thought it would be interesting for a New Years type post.
Here they have everything from the fire on the cruise ship Carnival Triumph and her subsequent adventures as a “floating toilet” to the Costa Concordia disaster.
The grounding/salvage of the navy minesweeper USS Guardian and the delivery of the USS Freedom and the very first Mobile Landing Platform (MLP1) USNS Montford Point.
The break up of the MOL Comfort containership and the sinking of the MV Albedo after she was hijacked by pirates.
The slow speed chase of the smoke ship MV Gold Star in the Mediterranean and the antics of the Sea Shepard ships in the Southern Ocean.
The sinking of the in/famous sailing ship Bounty as she tried to outsail a major hurricane in the Atlantic ocean.
My favorite was the story of the rescue of the cook from the tug Jascon 4 after she sank. The man survived for over 2 days under the sea!!
Check it out, there’re lots of interesting stories. I’ve written about a couple of them here already,
captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/video-prelude-flng-float-out
http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/scary-moment-b…n-lashes-coast
http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/video-animatio…kwise-vanguard
http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/mlc-2006-will-…on-board-comms
http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/light-it-up-an…es-up-in-smoke/
but there are more in the link. It was a very interesting year for fans of maritime news! I hope you’ll enjoy it. 🙂