Category Archives: maritime

Nicaragua Here I Come!

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I finally got my vacation! I’ve been asking about it since April. I had to work 2 months straight to ensure I had the dates I needed off so I could attend a blogging workshop in Costa Rico. It was really just pure luck that it worked out that I could do that.  My boss told me a while ago that I could have that week off, but who wants to travel so far just to spend a week in class? Not me!

So, I got home from the ship late Friday night after 2+ days of traveling from Luanda, Angola. I spent all weekend trying to catch up on rest and mail. Monday was spent running errands and returning phone calls. Tuesday morning, I set the alarm for 0300 so I could make the 0845 flight to Managua. Even then, I almost didn’t make it!

Arrival in Managua was a nice change. Quiet and simple. No long lines or huge hassles. Ricardo, my driver, was waiting for me right outside. I had arranged this through my chosen school, Nicaragua Mia.

Nicaragua has dozens of Spanish language schools. They’re all very affordable and they all seemed to offer pretty much the same deal. I wanted to get out of Managua right away and thought Granada sounded good, so I picked a school there. Nicaragua Mia got the nod since they answered my email immediately and I was setting all this up last minute.

Ricardo took me directly to the school where I could finalize my choices for the week (how many hours of classes, any afternoon activities, etc). Then he took me to the home of my local host, Maria Elena. She was very nice and welcoming. She showed me my room and asked me what I wanted for dinner (in Spanish).

view from my balcony

view from my balcony

I decided to take a walk after getting settled in. Lake Nicaragua is just a few blocks down the street, so I walked over there. There’s a nice park and malecon along the lakeshore. People were hanging out over refrescos and helados (ice creams). I wandered around til it started getting dark and then headed back to my room.

Lake Nicaragua

Lake Nicaragua

When I managed to find my way back to the house, it was already dark and Maria Elena had dinner waiting for me. We had dinner together of pollo, pinto gallo, and verdes (chicken, rice & beans, and vegetables).

I was still dead tired from the last few hectic days, so I hit the sack by 10:00. School starts at 08:00 and breakfast here is at 07:30. I hope I can catch up on some sleep soon! I really hate to be falling asleep when there are so many interesting adventures awaiting. 🙂

my room en la casa de Maria Elena

my room en la casa de Maria Elena

 

Been Busy!

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I’ve been so busy! I left the ship (LATE). I finally got off on Thursday, got to Luanda around noon. Had just enough time for lunch at the hotel and a beer out by the pool with a few of my shipmates. YES! First beer after 2+ months tastes soooo good! 🙂

Headed to the airport at 1500. Got on the plane at around 1800. Had about a 10 hour flight to Dubai, a 4 hour layover there, and a 16 hour flight to Houston. Instead of my previous flight with KLM through Amsterdam which was much shorter AND I paid for an upgrade to business so I would have been able to sleep, I was stuck flying coach in a packed full plane for 2 days. Talk about tired!!

I got home about 9 PM Friday night. Fell asleep immediately.

This crew change was SO screwed up! Because I got home so late on Friday, I couldn’t make any of the phone calls I needed to. Like try to set up appointments for Monday, etc. I was WAY too tired to wake up Saturday morning to go sailing that afternoon, so those plans were ruined.

All I managed to do was to catch up on sleep a little bit and get through the humongous piles of mail!

I had a bunch of errands to run today, phone calls to make and get ready for my vacation tomorrow. I sure hope it goes better than the last few days have been going.

I tried to get a rental car today to take to the airport so I wouldn’t spend so much money on parking. Even with the huge rip-off charges for ‘drop fees’ (when I bring the same car back and forth every month), it’s still cheaper to rent a car to and from the airport than to park my car there for 3-4 weeks. So, I tried to get a car this morning.

They called me back around noon (when I was supposed to get the car) to tell me they didn’t have any cars yet. They expected them by closing. I had so much to do and couldn’t wait around til closing, so I figured I’d go ahead and use my truck (even tho it needs some work right now). Couldn’t get it started. 🙁

I had to rummage around for the battery charger, clean up the battery and let it charge for a couple of hours. I finally got it started and was able to run some errands.

Good thing too, since they never did come up with a car they could give me today. Maybe tomorrow they said. Lot of good that’ll do when my flight leaves at 0800!

I should be somewhere in Nicaragua by this time tomorrow. 🙂

This is Messed Up!

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Here I was this morning, feeling good and all ready to go home. I even managed to get an upgrade to business class for the 10+ hour flight from Amsterdam. It was expensive but I thought it was worth it for a 10+ hour long flight. I just HOPE they’ll give me a refund! Continue reading →

8 Weeks!

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It’s crew change tomorrow! I will finally be able to leave this ship and head home (that’s if there is no problem with the helicopter).

I left home on May 27th (after spending 2+ days on call). I will have spent over 8 weeks away from home this time. All ‘in the service of the ship’, so technically work time, even tho this company won’t figure it that way.

I’m tired of the way things are going out here, but that would take a whole ‘nother post to go into…. It’ll be so good to get off!

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Green

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Cee always has such fun photo challenges on her blog. I always like to try to participate when I can. It’s hard to do when I’m out here. I don’t have a lot of free time and the internet is not always available when I do have a little time to get online.

This week, her Fun Foto Challenge subject is: ‘lime or bright green’. I found a few decent photos with nice, bright greens in them. These were all from a trip I took to Indonesia a couple of years ago.

Check out those green, green rice fields!

I spent some time in Bali and then went over to Sulawesi in search of a sailing ship. That didn’t quite work out, but it was a fantastic trip. I loved every minute of it. I’m not sure why, but the local people loved having their picture taken with me. 😉

Half And Half No. 3

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The challenge from the Daily Post was Half and Half. I didn’t know what to post for that subject. Here’s a classic…

Glass half full, or half empty? 😉

Half And Half No. 2

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The challenge from the Daily Post was Half and Half. I didn’t know what to post for that subject. I took a look at a few of the other entries and saw a lot of sunsets. That is usually one thing we get a lot of out here! Half sky- half water. 🙂

Sad to say, offshore Angola is sadly lacking in this area. I don’t know why, but it’s almost always grey, gloomy and overcast skies. It’s very rare to see a nice sunset here. It’s kindof depressing. Day after day seeing nothing but grey skies. I’ve been here almost 8 weeks now this hitch and so far, I’ve seen the sun only 2-3 times. 🙁

Songs of the Sea: Pirate Chantey

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Here’s another little sea chantey to add to your musical collection. It’s done by Key & Peele, 2 funny guys who used to be on MADtv (which I loved). I really used to love MAD magazine when I was a kid, but the ones they’re coming out with now are nowhere near as funny as they used to be (and no, it’s not just because I’m getting older!).

This sketch somehow manages to be both a little risque’ and PC at the same time. 😉

Pirate Chantey– Key & Peele

“Thar once was a lass so fine,
She was drunk on Barleywine,
I’d been (out) to sea for a month or three,
I knew I could make her mine.
But the lass was past consent,
So it was off with her we went,
And we threw her in bed and we rested her head,
And we left cuz that’s what Gentlemen do…

A woman has a right to a drink or two,
Without worryin’ about what you will do!
We say Yo-HO but we don’t say ‘ho,’
Cuz ‘ho’ is disrespectful, yo.

Thar once was a girl from Leeds,
Who I heard was good on her knees,
So I docked my ship for an overnight trip,
To take care of all of my needs.
She was fine as the tales did tell,
And my mast began to swell,
So I laid her down and I raised her gown,
And performed cunnilingus for an hour or so.

Always take care of yer lady fair,
Cuz they deserve as much attention down there!
We say Yo-HO but we don’t say ‘ho,’
Cuz ‘ho’ is disrespectful, yo.

I once had a woman so fair,
Whose whom contained my heir,
With a son by my side, the seas we’d ride,
The child she would bear.
But my woman she was no fool,
She was working her way through school,
So I did support when she chose to abort,
Because it’s her body and therefor her choice.

No we don’t say ‘booty’ ‘less we talkin’ ’bout gold,
and we don’t look at chests ‘less they’s treasure-holds!
With a hat and a feather and a cutlass on our hip,
We don’t say ‘she’ when we’re talking ’bout a ship!
We don’t say ‘bitch’ and we don’t say ‘whore,’
Cuz that language leads to things like body dysmorphia.

Thar was a lady with a golden eye,
And the doctor said she would die,
So she emptied her purse to lift the curse,
And prayed to stay alive.
She awoke the very next day,
And in her grave she lay,
But the scariest part of the story from the start,
Is I bet you assumed the doctor was a man.

Women are doctors too,
And for a fraction of the doubloons!
We say Yo-HO but we don’t say ‘ho,’
Cuz ‘ho’ is disrespectful, yo.

Thar was a slut with tits to here, and an ass that- (gunshot. he is dead and that is good.)

Cuz it’s Yo-HO but we don’t say ‘ho,’
Cuz ‘ho’ is disrespectful, yo.”

Symbol: Plimsoll Line

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I decided to join in on the Daily Posts challenge: Symbol. I thought about the waterline one immediately. I think if you haven’t spent a lot of time around ships, you might not know what this one means, even if you see it around you all the time.

This symbol for the ships waterline is called the Plimsoll line, after Samuel Plimsoll. It’s also called the international load line since its function is to inform as to the maximum level a ship can be loaded safely. To put it simply, if it’s underwater, the ship is overloaded and therefore unsafe to sail!

If you look at a ship, you should see this symbol midships (about halfway between the bow and stern). All commercial ships should have this prominently marked on their hull. The ‘deck line’ marks where the main deck level is located. The ‘A’ and ‘B’ on either side of the circle refers to the ‘class society’. In this case the American Bureau of Shipping. It could say LR (Lloyds Register) or BV (Bureau Veritas) or otherwise classed. These are the people who actually figure out exactly where the marks should be placed.

The markings to the right of the circle refer to the type (fresh, brackish or salt) and temperature of the water the ship is floating in. The density of the water changes according to these variables and so the ship will float higher or lower in the water when she sails in different conditions. And so the ship can be loaded with more or less cargo.

The Plimsoll line has saved thousands of lives since Mr Plimsoll first started working to stop overloaded vessels from heading to sea (with subsequent losses of ships and sailors). Plimsoll fought hard to stop the ‘coffin ships’ from sailing and spent years trying to enact legislation to protect the people who worked at sea. Here’s a bit from A Cheer For Plimsoll written and sung by Fred Albert in 1876

So a cheer for Samuel Plimsoll and let your voices blend
In praise of one who surely has proved the sailors’ friend
Our tars upon the ocean he struggles to defend
Success to Samuel Plimsoll for he’s the sailors’ friend.

 

There was a time when greed and crime did cruelly prevail
and rotten ships were sent on trips to founder in the gale
When worthless cargoes well-insured would to the bottom go.
And sailors’ lives were sacrificed that men might wealthy grow.

 

For many a boat that scarce could float was sent to dar the wave
’til Plimsoll wrote his book of notes our seamen’s lives to save
His enemies then tried to prove that pictures false he drew
but with English pluck to his task he stuck, a task he deemed so true.

It wasn’t until the loss of the SS London in 1866, with the loss of over 200 lives, that Parliament started paying attention to Plimsolls’ simple solution. In 1876, the UK made the load line marking mandatory, but it took until 1930 for any international agreement to come about.

The Plimsoll line has made shipping much safer, at least for the ships that follow its direction. It’s a simple enough thing that anyone can take a look and see if the ship is overloaded or safe to sail. But it looks to me like greed (on the part of shippers) and fear for their jobs (on the part of the mariners) keeps overloaded and unsafe ships sailing the worlds oceans. I think from plenty of news items, (like this, this, and this, etc), that people around the world are still not taking advantage of this hard earned knowledge.

Morning Drills

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We had morning drills (fire & abandon ship) today and the computer has been waaaayyy toooo sloooow all day. I’m too tired to post anything interesting.

More coming tomorrow! 😉

Songs of the Sea: Fins

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In honor of Shark Week, Jimmy Buffett puts on a great show with ‘Fins’. Just check out those big screens in the background. 🙂

LOVE IT

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I get so discouraged working out here sometimes. I used to love coming to work offshore. I actually looked forward to it and was eager and excited to come back to work. I wanted to go places, to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.

I loved working outside on deck, where I could enjoy the weather. I loved the feeling of the wind in my hair and the sun on my skin (even tho I sunburn easily). I loved looking out and seeing nothing but the blue, blue water all the way to the horizon.

I loved to see the beautiful constantly changing seascape. I loved to watch the waves and clouds. I looked for signs of life around me. Birds: pelicans, sea gulls, terns, herons. Fish: mahi-mahi, ling cod, tuna, sharks, and dolphins (mammals, not fish). Even things like seaweed and jellyfish were of interest. I loved to watch the intense colors of the sky when the sun rose or set.

I loved the fact that my job depended only how well I did my job. It didn’t matter what I looked like, how I talked, my level of formal education, how much money I had in the bank, what kind of car I drove, how I dressed. I loved being able to work dressed in an old pair of shorts, t-shirt and a pair of flip-flops.

I loved slow days offshore when we would throw a line over and catch a few fish. We always caught something. Mahi-mahi, ling cod, rainbow runners, sharks, kingfish, snapper, grouper, catfish, etc. Sometimes we kept them to eat, sometimes we threw them back.

I loved standing lookout at night and seeing the stars so blazingly bright at sea when there was nothing around for hundreds of miles to blot out their light. I loved watching the dolphins play in the bow wake when we were underway and seeing them pass by at the rig. Continue reading →

Share Your World

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I always like to see Cee’s interesting questions and answers for her Share Your World Challenges. She also has some really great photography challenges going on every week. Here’s my response to the challenge for week 27.

What is your favorite month of the year? I really had to think about this one for a while. It depends on my location. Here’s my perspective from living in SE Texas. I really don’t like the summer months. From May until at least September, it’s just too damn hot, muggy and buggy (pesky mosquitos!) to enjoy being outside at all. The winter months from November- February are’nt usually too cold, but then we have a lot of really dull, dreary, rainy, and still muggy weather. The days when the Northers have blown through and the skies are clear and bright blue and the air is fresh and crisp are beautiful, but there aren’t enough of them.

I do like the fall, the weather is starting to cool off again where it’s nice to spend time outside and there’s Halloween to look forward to. I also love March-April. The weather is still cool, the air is fresh and clean, the plants are all starting to grow again and I look forward to checking my ‘garden’ every morning. I look forward to seeing the flowers start blooming. Lots of my neighbors let the bluebonnets take over their yards.Texas wildflowers are just stunningly beautiful in the Spring! I guess my favorite month would have to be March. For all the reasons I mentioned for spring, AND we have St Patricks Day to celebrate in Surfside! 🙂

Irish pirates

Irish pirates

Do you drink coffee at all? I’m not a big fan of coffee. I don’t really see what the big deal is all about. I can’t understand the admiration for all the expensive, fancy drinks at places like Starbucks. I almost never drink coffee at home, I usually wake up and have a cup of hot tea and then drink iced tea all day long. When I’m on the ship, I’ll drink coffee. Just because it’s there.

What was one of your first moneymaking jobs (other than babysitting or newspaper delivery)? I worked for my father around his rental properties and on the boat. He paid me $3 per hour. He’d have me clean up between tenants, paint, plumbing (unclogging sinks and toilets), pulling weeds and taking care of the plants, etc. During school breaks, he would take me out fishing with him and I would cut bait, bait the hooks and help gut and ice down the fish. I got out of that as soon as I could!

My first ‘real’ job was down the street on the party boats. I got hired on as a ‘galley girl’. I could only go out on the weekends. We made 2 trips a day. I would tend the galley selling drinks and microwave sandwiches. When nobody was interested in food, I would help the deckhands baiting hooks, cutting bait, untangling lines, getting fish off hooks and putting them up on the ice for the passengers til we got to the dock. Then we would filet the fish for tips and clean up the boat at the end of the day and get it ready to go out again in the morning. I had another job washing dishes at a little Greek restaurant down the street after school too. I kept busy. 😉

We lived across from Dons Dock on the finger bay.

We lived across from Dons Dock on the finger bay.

List:  If you play video/computer games list 5 games you like? I don’t play many games on the computer. I’m not very good at games where you have to be quick. 😉 I do like a couple of them. One of my all time favorites is a game I used to play with the crew on one of my old ships ‘the Performer’. If I remember right, it was called VGA Planets. It was cool. The goal was to ‘take over the universe’. You chose which alien race you wanted to play as. Each one had its own special abilities. You started out from your home world with certain assets. So many spaceships, so much population, so many cities, etc. You chose a strategy to carry out your goal of conquering the universe. Trade or war, shifting alliances with the other players, etc. It would take us a day or so between moves when the controller would roll over the computer so we could make our next move. A game would usually last an entire hitch (maybe more). We worked 5 weeks on, 5 weeks off there. 😉

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? I’ve been on the ship at work since the end of May, so not a lot happening with my life here. I am grateful to still have a job since so many in this industry have been laid off already with the plunge in the price of oil. I’m grateful that this type of work allows me more time off than most so I can spend time doing the things I really enjoy. I’m looking forward to getting off here soon (tho not as soon as next week) and attending a blogging workshop in Costa Rica. I’ll spend a couple of weeks exploring down that way after the class.

Songs of the Sea: Ode to a Sailor

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I haven’t been posting this series for the last couple of weeks. It’s hard to find time to look around for the music videos while I’m offshore. The internet is usually not the best, we don’t have enough bandwidth and they don’t want us looking at videos. I found this one in my stored posts. It’s a bit different from the kind of stuff I usually listen to. Let me know how you like it. 🙂

Ode to a Sailor- Rachel Sage

I’ve been sitting on the ground
Much to everyone’s surprise
People say I’m getting dirty
But I would rather kiss the soil
Than be crippled by disguise
Better down to earth than pretty

In the ash I see passion
In the dust I see trust
I will turn this ship around
And if everything crashes
I will burn if I must
I will turn this ship around

I’ve been swimming in your sky
Waiting for the tide to turn
To something beautiful and true
And you’ve been swallowing my life
From a distance you have earned
Every right to know I feel you.

In the ash I see passion
In the dust I see trust
I will turn this ship around
Do you think I’m old fashioned
‘Cause I miss you this much
I will turn this ship around

I’ve been buried in the sand
Waiting for the sun to beat
Down upon my back like lava
And I’ve been hoping for your hands
To caress my soul to sleep
Fill me up with your kabbalah

In the ash I see passion
In the dust I see trust
I will turn this ship around
And if everything crashes
I will burn if I must
I will turn this ship around

 

 

Sunday Stills: White

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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.

Remembering the Importance of Seafarers

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Remembering the Importance of Seafarers.

June 25th has been declared by the IMO (International Maritime Organization) as the International Day of the Seafarer. Yes, I’m a little late with this post, but I hope you’ll read it and think about it anyway. I’m at sea at the moment. All of the people who work as seafarers spend most of their lives at sea and aren’t always able to keep up with the rest of the world.

I’m very fortunate that I’ve worked my way up to a position where I have some options. I refuse to work on any vessel any more that doesn’t allow me internet access (it works here at least sometimes). You’d be surprised how many companies don’t think that’s important!

I’m one of the few lucky ones. I work in a very competitive area and my wages are much higher than most. I remember my deck crew on the tuna boat asking my why they didn’t earn American wages since they were working on an American boat. The only (true) answer I could give them was Continue reading →

Make the Ultimate Apple Pie

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Everything You Need to Know to Make the Ultimate Apple Pie | Epicurious.com.

I’m out here on the ship and REALLY starting to miss my sweets!

They try, but somehow they just don’t ever seem to get it right. I’ve very rarely been aboard a ship without great cooks. Most companies understand that a good, hot meal is the only thing the crew has to look forward to during the day and it helps morale enormously to have good food to eat.

I’ve been on this ship a few times now and I have to give them credit. They have improved a lot since I was first here. I just wish they would get the snacks and sweets down!

They have a BBQ on Saturdays here, and they make a very nice apple crumble. I had it yesterday. It was really good. The only problem with it was the “crumble”. It didn’t. I know a couple of easy recipes to fix that part. Or maybe this lesson on apple pies in the link above at Epicurious.com would help?

Time Off?

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I’m still on the rig. Everyone I came out with has already gone home. The hitch here is 4 weeks on, 4 weeks off. I’m still in the pool so I don’t really have a relief, but the guy who was supposed to be coming back to relieve me just ‘resigned’. He just had enough of all the BS we have to deal with out here. I can’t blame him at all. I’m just about in the same frame of mind at this point.

People are a little surprised I’m not upset about staying out here longer. I am upset about a lot of other things going on around here, but staying over isn’t too high on the list right now. Actually, this works out well for me. I’ve been trying to get time off to take a trip down to Costa Rica for another writing/blogging/photography course. I’ve been asking for months and never getting any reply. This is the same course I signed up for last year and had to cancel when they messed up my schedule last year.

When I signed up for it this year, it was in the middle of my scheduled time off. They changed around my schedule a couple of times and all the sudden it was in the middle of my time on! So, now if I work over a couple of weeks, it will be back in the middle of my time off again.

It sucks to have to struggle so hard to get the time off I need to do anything. I can’t plan for anything. I ‘d really like to start booking flights, hotel rooms, etc but I can’t since I still don’t know when I’m getting off here.

I’m hoping to spend at least 3 weeks down there. Costa Rica, maybe rent a car and check out some of the other countries nearby? Anybody have any suggestions?

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?

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

PS- the featured photo is one I took at the Maritime Day celebration in Galveston last month. The ship in the background is one of the ones I sailed as captain on (Ensco 8500 series). I started with the sea snarks and worked my way up to those!

PPS- I forgot to add that I posted this to Terri Webster Schrandt’s Leisure Link the other day. She has a cool blog, this is the first time I’ve seen the leisure link. I’ve seen these blog ‘parties’ before but still not sure I’ve got the hang of it. Check it out over there and join in. 🙂

All About Me

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Todays prompt from the Daily Post is to write a post explaining “why you chose your blog’s title and what it means to you”.

I chose to call my blog “Captain Jills Journeys” for a couple of reasons.

I wanted to write a travel blog, since I love to travel and I’ve gone to a lot of interesting places (and hope to go to a lot more). So I tried to come up with words relating to that. I picked the work ‘journey’ because it sounded good with my name (Jill). I was also remembering how I used to write in my journal every day for years as I sailed around on the school ships. Journey- journal… which one? I wanted it to be about more than writing, so- ‘journey’ it is! 😉

So why call it Captain Jills Journeys (rather than just Jills Journeys)? I’ve spent most of my life on the water and worked my way up the hawsepipe to earn a captains license (finally managed an unlimited masters license a few years ago). I figured I would wind up blogging about boats and working on the water along with the travel. After all, one of the main reasons I started working at sea was the opportunity to see the world (and get paid for it!).

I also liked the alliteration and the sounds of the J’s together. It makes a short sentence and sounds cool. 🙂

I added on the tag line “she sails the seven seas in search of FREEDOM” to explain more fully what my blog (and me) are all about. My passions flow together in that sentence. I love to sail. I love to travel. And I am very intensely concerned with the issue of freedom.

Liberty and justice for all. Human rights. Individual liberty. However you want to say it. I very fervently believe that every person deserves to live the best life possible, that they should be able to chose to live the way they think is best for themselves. I do not think people should have to bow down to ANYONE.

We should all be equal under the law and any and all governments should obey the principles the US government was founded on (and no longer has any respect for). To PROTECT the “god-given” (or NATURAL) rights of the people. I just do not understand why so many people seem to feel that others have some sort of right to rule over them. I just don’t get it.

I am looking for some place in this world I can live free. I hope one day to find a place to settle down with other like minded people. A place where everyone is content to just “live and let live”. Most people think that’s some kind of fantasy, that it could never happen. So they won’t even TRY. I will at least keep on trying.

ROY G BIV

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Here is my entry for the Daily Posts challenge on ROY G BIV. The colors of the rainbow. I thought I’d try to post all maritime images in this post. Maybe I’ll do another one later with other types of things. I do have a lot of colorful photos. I like strong, vivid colors, they always catch my eye, so I take a lot of pictures when I see them. 🙂

Red. I took this one while passing through the jetties in Fouchon, LA.

Orange. This is actually a photo of a pastel drawing of a junk I did years ago.

Yellow. A cute, curious little fish. I got this shot at Moody Gardens in Galveston.

Green. A couple of derelict schooners laid up in Makassar, Indonesia.

Blue. Jellyfish at the Houston Zoo.

 

Indigo. I took this while at work on the DB-50. We were in and out of Singapore doing sea trials.

Violet. I’m not really sure of the difference between violet and indigo, but here’s my best interpretation. 😉 I took this one in Honiara, Solomon Islands while working on the tuna boat.

Sunday Stills: Multiple Flowers

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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 took it in Korea when I was there for a weeklong class in travel writing and photography. I stayed over on my own for a couple of extra weeks and spent the time exploring from Incheon down to Geoji. It was a very interesting and friendly place. Sorry it was also a very sad time (ferry sank the day before I left home). I’d like to go back again when people are back to normal and not in mourning.

Ships Rigs: Schooner

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I wrote an earlier post about how sailing ships are rigged. I figured I would start with the biggest and most unusual to see today, and work my way down to the more common types you’ll see around you every day.

So the first post was about a ‘ship’ rig. Today’s post will be about a ‘schooner’ rig. I mentioned before that sailing ships rigs are first classified by how the sails are set. Either fore-and-aft or square rigged. A ‘ship’ is set with square rigged sails, a ‘schooner’ is set with fore-and-aft rigged sails.

I saw a nice one in the news the other day. The Juan Sebastian de Elcano was in Pensacola a couple of weeks ago and was open for tours by the locals. She’s in Charleston now. Check it out if you can. Here’s a picture of her. She’s a real beauty!

 

She’s got 4 masts, all rigged fore-and-aft and also square rigged on the foremast. So technically, she’s a brig-schooner. Or she could be called a topsail schooner. Whatever you call her, she’s a beautiful ship and I imagine must be a dream to sail on. 🙂

She’s very similar to the Ariadne. The ship I was privileged to sail on during my younger days. The difference is that the Ariadne was a little smaller, only had 3 masts and didn’t have the square sails. I actually got to go to high school aboard the Ariadne and the brigantine Phoenix! I was SO lucky! That experience definitely changed my life for the better. Here’s a picture of her.

The Ariadne was a true schooner. She had 3 masts, all fore-and-aft rigged. The Juan Sebastian de Elcano is a brig-schooner which means she has square sails on her fore mast. There are all kinds of variations to the main 2 types of sail plans (fore-and-aft or square rigged). There are ships, schooner, brigs, brigantines, barques, barquentines, in the larger class of vessels and then a few more in the smaller class. I’ll write more about them later. 🙂

Too Busy

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I’ve been pretty busy out here the last few days. Too busy to spend much time online, so haven’t been able to post.

I was busy with work.The big project was to move the rig. We finished up one well and moved the rig over to start another one. You wouldn’t believe the amount of paperwork we have to complete in order to move this ship a couple of miles!

Checklists, checklists and more checklists! It really gets crazy.

Once we get the paperwork done so we can depart, we immediately start on the paperwork so we can arrive. We didn’t actually finish the arrival paperwork until halfway through the next day.

I still haven’t caught up with everything and probably won’t any time soon. We’re only drilling a ‘tophole’ at this location. A tophole is where the drillers just start the process of drilling a well, they won’t try to drill all the way down to the oil, they only drill down a short distance. They ‘spud in’.

I still don’t know much about what they do on the drilling side here, but here’s a simple explanation of what I think is going on. They basically just stab a big pipe (casing) down into the mud, jet it down to a certain depth, run some more pipe down inside that and then cement it up. They’ll set a well head on it that sticks up from the sea floor a few meters when they’re finished. Then somebody can come back later, stick a BOP (blow out preventer) on the well head, drill through all the cement, and actually drill down through the rocks to the target reservoir (and hopefully find some oil).

We’ll be going through the whole process again in just a couple more days when we’re due to move on to the next one. Oh joy. 🙁

Surprise!

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I was online last night trying to remember what kind of beer they had in Kiribati for an article I’ve been working on. I wanted to write a little bit about when I was working on the tuna boat out there. I googled Kiribati beer and up popped this blog post https://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Kiribati/Tarawa/blog-429394.html

I was reading the post, checking out the pictures and what a surprise, I realized she was writing about me!

I should probably write more about my time on the tuna boat. I did really enjoy it and especially loved visiting all those out of the way islands. I do hope I can go back to doing that kind of sailing again. Where it’s an adventure, not just a paycheck.

World Oceans Day

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World Oceans Day is coming up on Monday (June 8). This years theme is ‘healthy oceans, healthy planet’. It really is just common sense. The oceans cover over 70% of the earth. We all ultimately rely on the ocean for our own health and well being. It’s important to take care of it, if only for our own good. Monday will be a day to remember all the reasons we should respect and care for the oceans, it’s a day to celebrate and get involved too.

The oceans are a major source of food for people (and animals): fish, shellfish, seaweed, plankton, krill, etc. They also help to regulate the climate and keep some of the Northern areas warm in the winter and Southern places cooler in the summer (N hemisphere). The oceans are also extremely important for connecting people around the world. In the USA, 90% of our trade is by sea.

A lot of people make their living directly from the sea like I do. I’ve worked on the water from the time I was a kid. Fishing, recreation (cruising), and transporting cargo from one place to another (a ship is much more efficient than any other form of transport). Now, I work in the offshore oil fields, exploring for and extracting resources from the sea bottom.

If you live near the ocean, like I do, you already know how important it is for your ‘soul’, your mental health, your attitude. I can sit by the sea, listen and watch the waves roll in and it immediately calms me. I like to swim, snorkel, sail, SCUBA dive, surf (not very well), fish, and any other activity that gets me out on the water. 😉

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to think about how you benefit from it and what life would be like without a healthy ocean. Check out a few of the links. Get involved in some of the events if you can. If you can’t get out to any of the events on Monday, remember it doesn’t have to stop on Monday!

There are plenty of things you can do every day to help make things better. Even simple things like talking to people about World Oceans Day, disposing of your trash properly, using as little plastic as possible, not letting balloons fly away loose, etc. It all helps. 🙂 PS- none of the pictures in this post are mine, I got them all of the internet.

Songs of the Sea: Fishing With Seminole Winds

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I found this video the other day when I was fiddling around looking for something else by this band. I really love Donna the Buffalo. I have a couple of their albums at home. I just got a new ipod (since I lost my old one somewhere) and I don’t have any music or anything on it yet. I was trying to find some good stuff to play.

I love this song. The words, the music, the story, and the video too. I saw that video and it reminded me so much of home. Not where I live now, but where I grew up in Florida. It was filmed in Marathon, down in the keys. My dad took the Island Girl down that way for a few years and I stayed there one summer with him.

I had a blast! The video brought back a lot of good memories. Fishing, diving, hanging out at the Dockside bar, sailing, hanging out watching the sunset with so many interesting fun characters.

It’s a sad song too, and all too true. Florida is not much like it was when I grew up there. “Progress came”…

Seminole Winds 
by John Anderson
Ever since the days of old men would search for wealth untold
They dig for silver and for gold and leave the empty holes
And way down south in the Everglades
Where the black water rolls and the Saw grass waves
The eagles fly and the otters play in the land of the Seminole

 
So blow blow Seminole wind blow like your never gonna blow again
I’m calling to you like a long lost friend but I know who you are
And blow blow from the Okeechobee  all the way up to Micanopy
Blow cross the home of the Seminole the alligators and the gar

 
Progress came and took its toll and in the name of flood control
They make their plans and they drained the land
Now the glades are going dry
And the last time I walked in the swamp I sat upon a cypress stump
I listened close and I heard the ghost of Osceola cry

Repeat #2

Ed’s Sunday Stills: Circles

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Here’s an entry I made for Cee’s Sunday Stills: Circles. I just found out I should have made it for Ed’s Sunday Stills. I took these photos at the Maritime Museum in Houston. A couple of old time navigational instruments. Thank goodness we don’t have to fiddle around with this kind of stuff anymore. 😉

 

Sunday Stills: Circles

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Here’s an entry for Cee’s Sunday Stills: Circles. I took these photos at the Maritime Museum in Houston. A couple of old time navigational instruments. Thank goodness we don’t have to fiddle around with this kind of stuff anymore. 😉

 

Ships Rigs

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I got some feedback that my recent posts on square riggers have been appreciated. 🙂 I think some people would like to learn more about the different types of sailing ships, so I’ll go ahead and try to explain at least a few of the more common types around. I’ll start out with the ‘ship’ rig and if you like it I’ll continue on with some of the others. 🙂

There aren’t many of ANY type of sailing ships any more. It’s hard for them to compete when everyone wants immediate gratification now a days. There are still a few around, they’re mostly being used for educational purposes (which they are fantastic for), or for cruise vacations. I do know of a couple that are trying to make a go of sail cargo operations again, but they’re in a tough spot and trying to find a niche market. Here’s a link to a post I wrote a while ago, and here’s another link to a more recent list by Sailing Dog.

The main way to categorize sailing vessels is whether they’re rigged fore-and-aft (the sail is rigged along the centerline of the vessel) or square rigged (the sail is rigged to lie across the centerline of the vessel). A sailing “ship” is one with at least 3 masts, and all masts are rigged with square sails. They will probably also have fore-and-aft sails set between the masts and on the bow.

A full rigged ship is a beautiful sight to see. They were the largest and some of the fastest ships around during the age of sail. Check out this video for a little history of some of the ships of the Flying P Line. The Peking is still afloat and is lying at the South Street Seaport in New York City. I spent a few hours exploring there a while back. Too bad she’s no longer sailing. 🙁

The Sorlandet is an example of one of these ships that is still sailing about. She’s used as a sail training vessel and it’s possible to get aboard if you want to spend the time (and money) to learn. 🙂

The Royal Clipper is one of a few newbuilt vessels. She was built in modern times as a cruise vessel for Star Clippers. You can sign on and take a cruise any time you want. I’m planning to do it myself soon.

So, that should give you a pretty good idea of what a sailing “ship” is. If you like this kind of thing, please check out the links and some of the other websites they lead to. Let me know what you think. 🙂