Category Archives: maritime

Maintaining the Ship of Mercy

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Maintaining the Ship of Mercy.

The Mercy ships are really doing such wonderful work around the world. I wish I could afford to work on one of them for a while. I haven’t been able to manage that (so far).

If anyone is interested in a fantastic experience and has some sort of sponsorship or can live without an income for a few months, this would be a great place to do something useful.

They don’t just need ships crew, they need all kinds of health care workers too. Maybe some other kinds of things would get you a spot on board. Worth checking them out if you’re at all interested. 🙂

www.mercyships.org

Maritime Monday for September 16th, 2013: Movies About Sailors, Part III

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Maritime Monday for September 16th, 2013: Movies About Sailors, Part III; Man the Laff Boats! | gCaptain

Here’s part III in Monkey Fists’ series for gcaptain on movies about sailors. This one looks especially good cause there are so many comedies. I LOVE comedies! Especially ‘stupid’ funny, like the Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers, “I Love Lucy”, etc.

There are a couple of movies by Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy, and even a little history on Popeye at the end. Its not all about the comedy tho, there are some pretty interesting other films in this one too. Try “John Paul Jones” starring Robert Stack, “The Lady from Shanghai” starring Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, “The Last Detail” with Jack Nicholson.

It looks like a lot of really good choices this week. Good way to spend a rainy day, Maritime Monday Movies. 😉

Costa Concordia Parbuckling – Live Updates Plus How to WATCH

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Costa Concordia Parbuckling – Live Updates Plus How to WATCH | gCaptain

Here’s the latest on the salvage of the Costa Concordia. They did manage to get the ship upright with no major problems. Now they still need to stabilize it and refloat it so they can tow it off to dismantle it. I thought at first they were going to try to fix the ship but now it looks like they’re just going to scrap it. Such a sad story…

You can watch the videos in the link.

NOAA Identifies Lurking Environmental Threats

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NOAA Identifies Lurking Environmental.

This is from Marine Link. I’m hoping this means more work for us out here in the Gulf of Mexico (and around the country). Salvage operations are always interesting. 🙂

Man and the Sea: A Longreads Digest

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Man and the Sea: A Longreads Digest | Mother Jones.

Here’s a nice little listing of interesting ‘sea stories’ from Mother Jones. The link is to a page with blurbs from a few (5) different articles. All previously published in places as diverse as the New York Times (A Son of the Bayou, Torn Over the Shrimping Life) to Popular Science (The Quest to Uncover the Secret Life of Sharks).

I think my favorite would have to be “A Sea Story” by William Langewiesche (The Atlantic). Its the story of the sinking of the ferry Estonia where over 850 people died in one of the deadliest maritime disasters of the century. I remember watching a movie, something in a safety class I think. This one would really be worth reading, lessons learned and all that…

Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013

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Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013.

Read it and do your own thinking.

I said a long time ago,  scientists can’t prove (yet) that we are in the midst of “man-made” global warming. They tricked me once when I was a kid when they were all in agreement that we would all be frozen into ice cubes by now.

At this point in time, I want proof that…

1. People are the cause of global warming.

2. There is something effective that people can do to stop it.

So far, I have not seen enough evidence of either one of those propositions to make me want to do anything about the issue. I’m still waiting…

Maybe if I wait long enough, they’ll decide we’ll be freezing again. I only wish the governments of the world would stop trying to use this issue to force us into their ridiculous ideas of how we need to live.

Yeah, riiiighht, like any of them really know anything about MY life. Or yours (assuming you’re not at least a millionaire). Or even how to really LIVE life. You don’t learn about that when your life’s ambition is to control other people!

Costa Concordia Salvage: Parbuckling Could Kick Off Monday

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Costa Concordia Salvage: Parbuckling Could Kick Off Monday | gCaptain

Here’s the latest news on the Costa Concordia salvage operations. It looks like the parbuckling could be starting as early as tomorrow. That should be an interesting operation to watch. I expect it might go veeerry sloooowly til all the sudden the ship flips!

Maybe not, maybe they will have it all totally under control the whole time. I wish I was home so I could watch it in real time. 😉

Lecture Series | Mariners’ Museum

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Lecture Series | Mariners’ Museum.

I only just found out about this lecture series when I read the link on my earlier post on The Project. It will be part of this Lecture Series. It sounds like a pretty cool thing to do if you’re in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.

Each lecture has a presentation by the author and a Q & A session afterwards. They have them almost monthly and they pick some good ones. The Project about pirates sounds great. They have one on sea monsters coming up Oct 10 that sounds good too.  🙂

Check the link for more information. The website for the museum is www.marinersmuseum.org . Its FREE! 🙂

The Project: Award Winning Documentary on Somali Pirates

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http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Emmywinning-Filmmaker-Screens-Documentary-on-Somalian-Pirate-Hunters-2013-09-11/

Here’s a new movie coming out that looks pretty interesting. Called ‘The Project’, and directed by Emmy-award winners Shawn Efran and Adam Ciralsky. Hopefully it will bring some attention to a serious issue the worlds seafarers have to deal with.

If you happen to live in the Hampton Roads area (VA), it’s going to be shown for FREE. At the Mariners Museum (www.marinersmuseum.org). Thursday, Sept 19, 7:00 pm, followed by a Q & A session.

If I was home, I would definitely like to go see this. Pirates are a serious issue to all mariners. We may or may not know where we’re going. We’re not allowed to have any sort of protection against these thugs. Our companies expect us to run and hide in a ‘citadel’ onboard til the pirates decide to just leave. Yeah, riiiight, that works SO well…

There are thousands of seafarers injured and traumatized for life because of this. It seems it’s only when an American vessel gets attacked that there is even any publicity.

Pirate attacks happen almost daily on both the East and West Coasts of Africa. There are also attacks in the Malacca Straits, in the South China Sea, all over India and Pakistan, and yes, they still have pirates in the Caribbean  🙁

Too bad they’re not really at all like Johnny Depp.

Light it Up: Another Weed Ship Goes Up in Smoke

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Light it Up: Another Weed Ship Goes Up in Smoke | gCaptain

Wow! What’s going on in Tanzania lately?? Have they taken over from Columbia or Hawaii as the worlds leading pot producer or something?

For the 2nd time in a week, a Tanzanian flag ship has been lit on fire to avoid being caught and charged with smuggling marijuana. This time, the French are the ones chasing them down.

But again it looks like its the house burning instead of the cargo holds.

I wonder how many fishermen are hanging out in the smoke trail along with the French Navy?  😉

Daily Prompt: Toy Story- Sea Snark

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Daily Prompt:Toy Story- What was your favorite plaything as a child? Do you see any connection between your life now, and your favorite childhood toy?

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/daily-prompt-memento/

I’m not sure if my sea snark qualifies as a toy but playing with it (sailing) was my favorite thing to do while I was growing up (other than reading).

I used to take my little sailboat our almost every day, usually after school. Sometimes, I would even sail it TO school 🙂

Made out of Styrofoam, it was indestructible. Unlike the Titanic, it was actually unsinkable 🙂 We DID test that quite regularly 😉

I had SO much fun with that little boat. 🙂 I would go by myself. I would take out my friends. My brother would run circles around me with his outboard powered dingy, but I didn’t care. I always loved just sailing. Letting the wind drive me where I wanted to go. It was so engaging, so peaceful, so enjoyable. I STILL love sailing and go out every chance I can.

As a kid, I never would have imagined that I would wind up ‘sailing’ for a living (that’s what we call shipping out- ‘sailing’). I was on track to be a doctor back then. My grandparents were both pharmacists. My fathers mother was one of the first female pharmacists in the state of NY 🙂 (I definitely take after her) 😉 I made straight A’s in school and I did love studying all my subjects in class, especially math and science.

What happened was: I got sick and tired of taking the same classes over and over again in school. For example, I had been taking algebra since at least 5th grade. I always made straight A’s. I just couldn’t see the point of taking it AGAIN in 9th grade.

So, I started skipping those classes that I’d already taken. I was still making good grades. I could still keep up with the work. After all, I HAD already taken those classes (more than once). I’ll never understand why parents put up with the school systems dumbing down their kids so much!

Eventually, my family got tired of hearing about my transgressions from the school district. My grandmother decided I needed to go to a boarding school, to keep me from skipping 😉 Well, I give her credit. She tried. She really did.

Along with my Aunt Helen, my grandmother and I went on a road trip from Freeport NY, up through Niagara Falls (loved the Maid of the Mist) into Canada. We came back down through the Detroit area (went to a concert there- grandma wore earplugs 🙂 ). Visited family friends near Chicago. Stopped at a dozen fancy schools before we made it back to NY.

I have to admit, I was a total BITCH the entire trip. I didn’t want to go to any fancy-schmantzy rich kid boarding school! I would never fit in. I liked my life the way it was. I loved my town where I grew up and I could spend my days hanging out with my friends on the beach. Sailing, swimming, fishing, even sometimes jumping off the bridge to let the current carry me out to the Gulf so I could swim back in 😉

Yeah, I was also hanging out at the amusement parlor and the pool halls, sometimes the bars 😉 I was drinking and other things I wasn’t supposed to be doing.

It was really a lucky stroke of fate what happened when my grandmother got me back to her place in Freeport. She was so fed up with me after that search for an acceptable school for both me and her, she took me to the library and threw the book at me. Literally! She told me that it was a book listing ALL the accredited schools in the country and if I could find one in there that I liked, I could go there.

The book landed on a table in front of me. Opened to a page with a picture of a square-rigged ship in full sail. I was hooked! I grabbed that book and started reading that thing like my life depended on it (turned out it really did in a way).

The book gave details: the Oceanics School (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19720827&id=nN1VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5eADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6581,6541976). Based in New York City, the school would charter these large traditional sailing ships for months long cruises with their students aboard. The ship sailed around the world and the students learned to operate the ship. They held classes on navigation, seamanship, oceanography, cultural studies and languages of all the countries the ship visited.

I was so excited. I told my grandmother “that’s it!”. That’s the one I want to go to!! She was aghast!! She told me “no way”. “No way are you going to ruin your life with those damn boats like your father did!!” Up til he bought his dream boat, the “Island Girl”, my father was an engineer. A ‘respectable’ professional career man. My grandmother would never forgive the Island Girl for my fathers decision to quit the corporate world.

When I got home and told my dad about the Oceanics school, he was almost as happy about it as I was. He said “you’re going”, and “while we’re at it, we’ll send your brother too”! “You can’t skip school when you’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean” 😉 So, soon enough my brother and I were off to sail around the world. We had some absolutely fantastic adventures sailing the 3- masted schooner Ariadne from Athens to Martinique!

That trip changed my life. I returned without my brother to sail the Ariadne again from Martinique back across the Atlantic. I had some incredible experiences with some wonderful people. It DID change my life.

I will be forever grateful to the Gallaghers (especially Stephanie) who took a chance on me and then helped me SO much. Even after I graduated from the Oceanics, Stephanie was instrumental in getting me set up in the Ocean Marine Technology program in Texas that got me started on the way to earning my license.

Because of the chance to go to the Oceanics, I am STILL sailing. Almost 35 years later.  🙂 I recently upgraded to Master Any Gross Tons and can sail pretty much any ship on the ocean. I still love the traditional sailing ships best but there just aren’t enough of them around to make a living on. Too bad 🙁

So, yeah, you could say my favorite plaything when I was young is still my favorite plaything now. 🙂

Here are a couple of great links. The first one is by Tim Harris of the ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl which he sailed on as a cadet with the Oceanics in the early 70s. The next one is of the same ship in a storm. The last is a link to the ship itself, in case you’re interested in sailing her 😉

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iokDVlHybtE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_YWgRBmVtY

www.lehmkuhl.no

Is it Safer to Work Offshore in 2013?

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Is it Safer to Work Offshore in 2013?.

Well, I don’t really know. I would like to see some statistics on how it compares to back in say the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s. Personally, I think its probably a LITTLE better. The companies I’ve been working with are constantly harping on safety. They go on and on til its coming out our ears. But I still hear of people doing really stupid things. Like that fire on the platform back in November last year , due to improper welding operations (http://www.blackelkenergy.com/news/67-explosion-and-fire-on-gulf-platform-occurred-during-welding-contractors-failed-to-follow-standard-safety-practices.html) . I mean, jeeze…

What the hell is it going to take?? I get sick and tired of being treated like a moron when I go to work. The company has to tell me how to get dressed in the morning? REALLY???

I’ve only been working offshore (professionally) since 1977! Having to re-take classes like BST (Basic Safety Training) or Rigpass really gets old. I mean, who forgets how to put on a life jacket??? What’s new in shipboard fire fighting? We have the same classes of fires we’ve always had (except they now label a galley grease fire as “K” for kitchen I guess- trying to make it SEEM like there’s actually something new). We fight them the same way.

I think the way to make things safer offshore is to concentrate on creating a culture of personal responsibility!!! Get people to understand that they can do what they’re going to do but THEY are responsible for their actions. They’ll pay attention if they know THEY are going to pay the price if anything goes wrong.

The fact is that we have all sorts of programs out here that SEEM to encourage safety. Instead, they take the ability to THINK about and then CHOOSE their actions away from people. Take away options from people and you take with it their responsibility. You can only BLAME them then, since you’ve taken away any REAL choices.

It seems to me these companies love to send people to these classes so they can tell the world, “it’s not OUR fault those people got hurt. After all, we sent them to training. They should have known how to do the job properly without getting hurt.” Yeah, like a day long class is really going to teach someone ALL they need to know to work safely out here. I don’t think so!

I’m NOT saying we need to go to any more classes!!! What I AM saying is that once a person goes through those very basic classes, they have only the bare minimum of knowledge. We can and should use the time spent in our weekly drills and safety meetings to train people PAST that bare minimum!

Those of us out here with some experience need to take into consideration that SOME of the people we’re working with are almost totally ignorant! From my perspective, it seems like a lot of the incidents are happening with relatively new people. We need to concentrate our efforts on training THOSE people! We need to keep a good eye on them. We need to take the time to really MENTOR them. We need to be generous with our time and our knowledge and not keep it to ourselves in fear of losing our jobs to the newbies…

It would help a LOT if we were not constantly having the crew size cut and cut and cut some more! OK, this below is referring to shipping and not so much drilling since I don’t know too much about drilling yet (but its probably still relevant)…

A typical ship used to carry a crew of 45-50 men. Now they sail with half that (and LOTS more work to do)! Some COIs (Certificate Of Inspection) will allow only 17 man crew (or less). This is for a 1000 ft long tanker!!! ATBs (tug/barge combination) which can run up to 600-700+ feet long, can be run with less than 10!!!

Check out the REAL results of the investigation into the Exxon Valdez incident. You’ll find that it was actually caused by the fact that the entire crew was exhausted and had NOTHING to do with the Captain at all. He could have been totally sober or drunk as a skunk and it wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference.

They passed the 12 hour rule after the Valdez spill to remedy that. There are work hour restrictions in US law and in the STCW. So it applies to pretty much ALL shipping worldwide. That does include all the larger oilfield support vessels. I don’t know how the drilling industry has escaped notice on this but I don’t know of anything similar that they have to abide by (I might just be uninformed on this point- any drillers to comment?).

Ask any sailor around the world how well they follow that rule. I can almost guarantee you they’re being ‘forced’ by their company policies to break it constantly. Of course, company will never admit it, will blame it on the crew if it ever comes up, and will deny they ever had any idea it was happening 🙁

Being tired is one of the leading causes of accidents. I would think that would be one very easy solution to vastly improve safety. But of course, it would cost some extra money to hire a few extra hands. Is that gonna happen any time soon???

Safety first??? I don’t think so 🙁

Book Review: A Captains Duty

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http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Book-Review-A-Captains-Duty-by-Captain-Richard-Phillips-2013-09-09/

OK, I haven’t read this book yet, but it looks like a good one and I’ll be looking for it when I get home. Sailors, merchant ships, pirate attacks, Navy SEAL teams to the rescue, WOW! It should be pretty intense 😉

This is the true story of the attack of the container ship Maersk Alabama by Somali pirates and the response of the crew.

I remember when it happened and I felt like, oh, so NOW people care. Its only because its an American ship. The pirates had been attacking ships for years and holding hundreds of sailors hostage and nobody did diddly til a US ship got attacked. It still pisses me off.

It’s something I never want to be involved in but can relate to for sure. So far, I’ve been lucky. I’ve never been attacked (yet) I’ve gone through the Suez Canal and the Malacca Straits a few times which are both areas with plenty of real life pirates. They’re NOT like Johnny Depp!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the movie with Tom Hanks starring as Captain Phillips of the Maersk Alabama is due out next month. I’ll try to catch it, but the book is always better than the movie IMHO 😉

Let me know how you liked it.

Update on M/V Gold Star

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Here’s an update on the Gold Star. The ship with the cargo of $80 million or so in hash/marijuana/weed. This one has a video to watch.

It looks like an ‘exciting’ chase. At least for the authorities. I can’t see how anybody could still be on the ship. Maybe there’s still someone in the engine room? The entire house is in flames! Looks a little strange to me. I have no idea what hash is worth these days but the cargo holds look empty…

.http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Video-Smugglers-Set-Ship-on-Fire-in-Mediterranean-2013-09-09/

Freeport LNG Signs 20-Year Supply Agreement with Toshiba

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Freeport LNG Signs 20-Year Supply Agreement with Toshiba | gCaptain

Good news for us 🙂 I live nearby and this should help our local economy out quite a bit. We’ve already had a few LNG ships in the port since they’ve opened this up.

Too bad they make it so hard for the sailors to get ashore. Our local Seamans Center will go to any ship in port and bring the crew to the center, to town, Walmart, the mall, wherever. They have a very nice facility and even offer free lunch on Mondays to all the port workers, truck drivers, seafarers, etc.

The companies need to stop being so obstructive. They’re just using 9-11 for a bad EXCUSE.  It IS the law, both in the USA and international that they MUST provide safe access to the shore! Why are they still allowed to prevent it instead??? 🙁

U.S. EPA Fines Shell for Arctic Air Pollution Violations

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U.S. EPA Fines Shell for Arctic Air Pollution Violations | gCaptain

OK, they got fined $1 million, I don’t think that’s really all that big a deal to them. I am SO glad I didn’t stick with that job!

That was going to be my perfect job. I left Oceaneering after they brought my ship to the Gulf of Mexico. What a HUGE culture shock! I’ve done everything I could do to get the hell back overseas ever since (STILL trying). When I got the offer from Frontier Drilling to go as 2nd mate on the Frontier Discoverer (now Noble Discoverer), I was on that like white on rice 🙂

It was out of the GOM, the pay and benefits were better, the schedule was better and best of all, it was drilling but NOT going to be stuck sitting in one spot for months on end not doing anything. This one was supposed to work in Alaska in the summers and Australia in the winters. I figured, great, I would still get to do some actual navigation. Finally get to go somewhere interesting again!

So, I flew over to meet the ship in Singapore. Whoa, what a surprise I got. I had the idea the ship was ”new”. The ship itself was built in 1966 (but NOT well taken care of- parts of it below decks looked like Swiss cheese- NOT good!). They stuck a new drill rig on it midships. They stuck a new house on it aft. It still had the original engine (that wouldn’t start) and bridge. Not much in the way of modern electronics, no DP systems- it was “turret moored”. They only had a captain, chief mate and 2 second mates for bridge team. I guess we were going to stand watch like a regular ship (12-4, 4-8, 8-12) instead of the usual 12 hour watch like the oilfield. I never did find out since I quit before we left Singapore. They did have a bunch of good ABs at least.

I really wanted to keep that job. It offered everything I wanted. Actual sailing around to interesting places around the world, good crew (international), good schedule, good pay, good insurance, decent quarters.

I hated to leave! But things were getting pretty scary to me. More and more every day. For instance, I would make my way up forward to the bridge for my watch and someone would casually mention to me that the “swimming pool” was full again. WHAT???? Swimming pool??

Yes, some ships do actually have swimming pools but this one was NOT supposed to. So, what were they talking about. Turns out, the swimming pool was a void space, starboard side midships. It went all the way down from the main deck to the bilge. Every other day it would fill up to the top. Then it would drain down. What was going on? No one knew. No one really seemed to care…

I was there only about 3 weeks. We would have fire drills every couple of days. Mostly because we could not conduct a ‘proper’ fire drill to satisfy the authorities. We would start the fire pump, but where was the water??? We could never get any water to the forward part of the ship. Why not??? Yeah, pretty important question…

Turns out that about 50 feet of the fire line had been cut out previously. No one had put a blank on the line. No one had ‘remembered’ about it. So, when we started the fire pump, the water from the fire line would fill up the swimming pool instead of going down the fire line to the forward part of the ship. WOW!

So, OK, that problem solved. Only took 3 weeks I was there and who knows how long before that they had been without any fire fighting capability. Again, no one seemed to care.

They did finally manage to get the main engine started too. I’m not sure why they bothered. The company man assured me they would TOW the ship to Alaska if they couldn’t get it started. They were bound and determined to get it there on schedule!

I almost fell out of my (top) bunk when they finally lit it off! It sounded like a bomb went off the first time it rolled over. Of course, the engine being so old, they don’t service that type anymore, or make parts, so the engineers were having a hell of a time. A great bunch of guys. They all walked off the ship a week before I left. The chief mate left a couple of days before I had enough. The QMEDs left when I did. All that were left was the Captain, the other 2nd mate (who was used to getting shot at while working in Africa) and the (foreign) ABs who were staying til the end since they wouldn’t be allowed to stay once the ship got to the states.

I felt bad leaving like that before my scheduled hitch was over. That was one of only a couple of times in all these years I’ve quit like that. It just wasn’t worth either my license or my life for that job no matter how badly I wanted it. Every time I see this ship in the news I’m reminded of that time in Singapore and glad I made the decision I did. I feel sorry for the people who had to deal with all that crap in Alaska. 🙁

Here’s a link to the ships details so you can see what I’m talking about 🙂http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=636014934

Nautical Institute- The Navigator

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A ‘real’ way of life: enjoying the rewards and challenges of a career at sea

In this series, The Navigator speaks to current navigational personnel about their motivations, careers to date and thoughts for the future. Under the spotlight this issue is Officer Cadet Thomas Chitseko, who is currently undergoing final preparations for his orals examinations.

What interested you in a career at sea?

Seafaring is a way of life: a vocation rather than a job. This appealed to me as, having tried a couple of 9-5 jobs, I realized that I wanted my work to be an integral part of my life, not something that I did in order to pay for my ‘real’ life at the weekends.The opportunities to travel and to spend my youth doing something other than looking at a computer screen were also strong motivators.

What career path has led to your current position?

I studied International Relations at the London School of Economics in the UK and worked in e-commerce and for a corporate communications consultancy for a while before coming to sea.

Where do you see your career going from here?

I hope to complete my training and take up an appointment as a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) deck officer over the next twelve months. The unique role of the RFA provides developmental opportunities that tally closely with what I want to get out of my career at this stage.

What’s the most important aspect of being a watch-keeping officer?

It’s crucial that watch-keeping officers are instilled with a sense of professionalism corresponding with the responsibilities that they hold. The mission of The Navigator to develop and promote the professional identity of the modern OOW, is a vital one.

What are the greatest rewards of your life at sea?

I have enjoyed the opportunity to get ashore in some exotic places and to develop my understanding of the world. I’ve also met some interesting and entertaining old (and younger) salts at college and aboard the ships on which I have sailed. This said, it is the expectation of taking responsibility for driving ships, and the motivation that this provides to become a capable OOW, with all that this entails which, has been the greatest reward of my time at sea so far.

What do you think are the greatest challenges for future navigators?

Getting heard ashore. We are living at a time where technological advancement should be making navigation more safe and effective than it has ever been. However, partly due to the fragmentation of the maritime sector and substantially due to the distance imposed by working at sea itself, the feedback mechanisms for getting lessons from the coal-face of seafaring integrated into the regulations, training and technology that will shape the future of the industry are not, in my opinion, all that they could be.

PS-I didn’t write this post (above). I tried to link this to the website since they say feel free to share and I thought this was a good article in their publication “The Navigator”. I couldn’t get it to work or the photo to transfer. Sorry. The link to the Nautical Institute is www.nautinst.org you can find the Navigator there along with lots of other great information for seafarers and all the latest DP news

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Here Comes the Story of No Hurricanes

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Here Comes the Story of No Hurricanes | Mother Jones.

Here we go again with the global warming… Am I the only one who remembers back in the 70s when we were all supposed to be frozen into ice cubes by now. According to the almost unanimous scientific consensus, we should start shopping for parkas and load up on the firewood! Next it was global warming and now it’s ‘climate change’. Can’t these guys make up their minds?

I actually met one of these so-called experts a couple of years ago. I got off my tuna boat in Kiribati. They were having a meeting where I was staying. Here’s a link to an article written at the time- (http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2010/nov/09/kiribati-climate-change-conference-intro). The reporter even asked me what I thought about it for a man in the street’s opinion piece.

I asked a delegate why should I (or anyone else) believe him when the scientists were more in agreement about global freezing back in the 70s than they are about global warming now. I think I pissed him off. I mean,  disrespecting his so superior scientific knowledge and all that. REALLY??!! He had NO idea what I was talking about! OK, he was a few years younger than me so he probably doesn’t remember all the hysteria personally like I do, but he’s supposed to be an expert. Can’t we expect the experts to know more than just the ordinary guy in the street???

Back 'yard' of the best hotel on Tarawa 2010

Back ‘yard’ of the best hotel on Tarawa 2010

Don’t Lather, Don’t Rinse, Don’t Repeat

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Don’t Lather, Don’t Rinse, Don’t Repeat | Mother Jones.

Another instance of the law of unintended consequences… here we go with the use of (usually) expensive face cleansers causing environmental damage due to the inclusion of ‘microbeads’ in the formulas. What’s the matter with just using plain old soap and water to wash with? I almost never use anything else and most people say my skin is still in pretty good shape. Even after a lifetime of working on the water. Most of it outside in the sunshine (and I DO get sunburned easily). I have to admit, I do use some lotions sometimes. Usually just the ones I’ll pick up from the hotel rooms when I go to work, they smell real nice 🙂

MV Gold Star Becomes Epic Cannabis Campfire Off Malta

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MV Gold Star Becomes Epic Cannabis Campfire Off Malta | gCaptain

Interesting story. Wondering just how they got their estimate? Before or after they hung out downwind for a while??

Maritime Monday for September 9th, 2013

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Maritime Monday for September 9th, 2013: Movies About Sailors Part II; Shape Ahoy! | gCaptain

Maritime Monday- movies about sailors part II. Thanks to gCaptain and MonkeyFist for putting all this together every week. There are lots of good old movies in the mix here. Pretty entertaining…

Corals

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Corals

Corals

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Sea Urchin

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sea urchin

Monterey Bay Megapod – Humpbacks, Dolphins, & Sea Lions, Oh My!

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Monterey Bay Megapod – Humpbacks, Dolphins, & Sea Lions, Oh My! | Old Salt Blog – a virtual port of call for all those who love the sea.

I just got this in this morning from the old salts blog. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves ships and the sea. It’s at www.oldsaltblog.com. I subscribe to it and they send me emails with what they’ve recently published, (just like if you sign up to follow ME 🙂  –  hint, hint). There’s a link in the article to the Monterey Bay Whale Watch website. There are lots of interesting photos and videos there. I’d love to take a trip out there and go see all those whales and dolphins. I love to see all those beautiful sea creatures :-).

I’ve seen plenty of dolphins up close and I always love it when I do get to see them. They always seem so happy and carefree. They love to play in the bow wave of the ships. But I’ve only seen whales a few times in all my years at sea and never up close while I’ve been working.

The only time I’ve been on a trip specifically to see whales/dolphins was down in Argentina a couple of years ago. My gravatar is a picture of some dolphins I took on that trip. We (me and my friend B. who is also a chief mate- probably master by now) went out in those little zodiacs to hunt down some dolphins, locally they call them toninas or “pandas of the sea”. Commerson’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) is the more common name for them. It was really great! Hard as heck to get any decent pictures cause those dolphins were fast as all hell! Plus the boat was very crowded. Here’s a closer look at some…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ja8ZSY-_n4E

We also took a trip out to the Valdes Peninsula to watch the whales. Humpback whales. They gather there to give birth and fatten up before heading off for distant waters. That was a great trip too. You walk down the broad, brown beach to climb aboard the boats they have pulled up in trailers for the night. They push you down the beach into the water and you’re off. Here’s a picture of us getting ready to go.

On the beach getting ready for a wild whale watching ride

On the beach getting ready for a wild whale watching ride

There were a lot of whales around so we found a few different ones to get up close to. A couple of them had babies with them. It was really wonderful to watch the babies. They were so cute 🙂 Even tho they were just about as big as the boat we were on. Here’s a picture of the mother and baby…

mother whale with baby

Italy Approves Costa Concordia Parbuckling

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Italy Approves Costa Concordia Parbuckling | gCaptain

Here’s the latest update from gCaptain on the progress of the Costa Concordia salvage operations.

BEIL FYI: Mysterious Dolphin Deaths on the Rise

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BEIL FYI: Mysterious Dolphin Deaths on the Rise : Bryan Ellis Investing Letter.

Could it be measles??? It sure seems like its taking them a long time to figure that out if it was something that simple. I just hate to see this happening to those beautiful playful dolphins 🙁 I hope they can figure out what’s killing them soon and find some way to help them survive whatever it is.

Underwater Volcano Dubbed World’s Largest

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Underwater Volcano Dubbed World’s Largest.

More discoveries under the ocean! We really need to learn more about the earth, we keep finding all kinds of stuff we never knew about. This volcano, the Tamu Massif, is 120,000 square miles! Its worth reading the article 😉

Coast Guard Recognizes WW II Veteran

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Coast Guard Recognizes WW II Veteran.

Sure took ’em long enough! I guess they had to wait til almost all of these poor guys died??! They should have been eligible from the very beginning for all the honors and perks the military got.

I might piss off some military people by saying that, but they probably don’t know the history of the Merchant Marine. They should! The US Merchant Marine has served in every war since before this country was even formed, in fact, without their service in the time of the Revolution, we never would have been able to do squat against Britain!

The Merchant Marine has lost more men in these wars then every other branch of the military. Easy to figure out why when you realize that we were not ever allowed to defend ourselves. Oh yeah, occasionally they would stick a few marines on board with some guns as a half- assed measure of protection, but only during the major wars- WWI and WWII pretty much.

To this day, the Merchant Marine is out there supplying the troops overseas while trying to get around the pirates and they STILL get no recognition from anyone. I hope the new movie with Tom Hanks playing Captain Phillips on the Maersk Alabama gets some attention. Maybe people will appreciate what the sailors go through to get them the everyday things they need.

Here’s a link to the story of the Maersk Alabama…

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maersk_Alabama_hijacking

Here’s a link to the movie trailer, it looks pretty good…

Call the Midwife… Coast Guard Delivers Baby at Sea | gCaptain

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Call the Midwife… Coast Guard Delivers Baby at Sea | gCaptain

OK, here’s a good one… I want to give a HUGE thanks to the USCG for this one and also give appreciation to all the rescue workers. They do a fantastic job and they are very welcomed by all of us seafarers for the help they give us when we need them.

In all my years out here I’ve very rarely seen any pregnant women out here. I think I’ve seen 1 recently (that I know was pregnant). In fact, its still pretty rare to even see ANY women out here. I’m on a rig right now for instance, and out of about 135 people aboard, there’s only 1 other woman. Most of the time, I see between 2-5 women on the ships I sail on now. That’s a HUGE increase from when I started sailing ‘professionally’ back in 1978, when I was almost always the only one aboard.

I wonder how long that ships hitch is? Why was she still working on the ship if she was so close to delivery?? I do think women should be able to work offshore (obviously). Even pregnant women. But I do have to say I have serious issues with women who are close to delivery time being on a vessel that they might not be able to get off of for weeks or even months at a time. My tuna boat crew had a minimum hitch of 18 months for the officers! The unlicensed crew stayed 2 years!! I don’t think its fair to either the ship, the rest of the crew, the owners, or even the woman herself to take a job offshore that could endanger everyone involved like that. Women DO need to take into consideration the risks involved to themselves, their fetus, and the ship and other crew as well.

Any other seafarers on here? Comments???