[SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
So what's the weirdest thing you've ever been involved in transporting?
Also if I wanna build a ship what do you think of this one.
Also if I wanna build a ship what do you think of this one.
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
Demeh already (sort of ) answered it.
It is a phonetic-ish version of "koekwaus", which is a word mostly used in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. There's not really a direct translation for it but I've always understood it to mean something like "a crazy idiot who talks a lot of nonsense".
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
Depends on what you define as "weird". I always find it funny if we have to transport other ships that are perfectly capable of sailing themselves, but I guess it's not much weirder than a truck carrying cars.Smoke wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2019 6:16 amSo what's the weirdest thing you've ever been involved in transporting?
Also if I wanna build a ship what do you think of this one.
Weirdest cargo as in, why would you have an expensive ship do this for tens of thousands euros a day, would be the time we had to bring three 55 ton shackles to Australia, combined weight about 200 kg. That was the whole cargo, for the rest we were in ballast. Granted, we were in time charter for that client anyway, but still...
That's a nice looking kit btw, I'd say go for it! I'm not a huge fan of container ships but that's neither here nor there.
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
En iedereen die het wel kan lezen weet ook al wel wat het is hopelijk.
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
ja godverdomme jongens ze moeten de taal maar leren en anders schoppen we ze maar het land uit hoor!!
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
ik begrijp niet
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
My poor thread got turned into a Dutch circle jerk
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
Skipper I'll ask a question to save your thread from the dutch bullying.
How do you guys celebrate holidays on board the ship? I assume often you're on shore leave for it, but I'm sure sometimes schedules end up funky and you're on the seas during halloween or something, what do you guys do? And If I'm just wrong in general, lemme know too
How do you guys celebrate holidays on board the ship? I assume often you're on shore leave for it, but I'm sure sometimes schedules end up funky and you're on the seas during halloween or something, what do you guys do? And If I'm just wrong in general, lemme know too
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
Well your assumption would be wrongGloomy Rube wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2019 2:38 amSkipper I'll ask a question to save your thread from the dutch bullying.
How do you guys celebrate holidays on board the ship? I assume often you're on shore leave for it, but I'm sure sometimes schedules end up funky and you're on the seas during halloween or something, what do you guys do? And If I'm just wrong in general, lemme know too
I haven't had the holidays at home for years now. Actually it was my turn this year, but there's no possibility for a crew change until January so it's Christmas at sea for me. Again.
Normally we try to do something special for the holidays but since we're currently in charter for an offshore company the ship's been made "dry" so it looks like we'll be celebrating Christmas and New Year's with a soda instead of champagne. We'll be somewhere around Brazil by that time, so hopefully we'll at least have a barbecue.
We've had big parties on board in the past, though.
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
Yeah, pretty often. When we sailed from the US to Norway we went from -6 to +2. Currently we're in +1 and we're underway to Brazil where it's -3. Generally we try to keep up with astronomical time, since the earth spins around 360 degrees in (roughly) 24 hours that means we'll have to adjust time with every 15 degrees of in- or decreasing longitude; this is called "longitude-in-time" or LIT.DaikatunaRevengeance wrote: ↑Mon Nov 11, 2019 7:32 amHow do you handle timezones? Do you cross them often?
The actual clock adjustment is done during dog watch, at midnight, and the third and second mate each have either half an hour watch shorter or longer. My watch stays at 4 hours so when we go west I get an extra hour of sleep with every zone we cross; otherwise my work day starts an hour earlier.
The whole trip to Brazil is planned to take about 3 weeks at 10 knots, so there's plenty time between adjustments. In the past I've had voyages where we sailed with to engines full ahead ("poke on deck", the "poke" being the pitch control lever in maximum position, all the way down) and we had to change clock every two days for two weeks in a row.
I've crossed the 180 meridian on a voyage going from Italy to Australia, eastbound around the globe, and that was an interesting experience: one day it was Tuesday and then the next day it was Thursday. It felt weird, like, we skipped a day but caught up with the rest of the world in our destination port and they were just going on like nothing had happened. Nothing had happened of course, our time management was purely administrative, but still.
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
I know you gotta be on your toes and do your job properly at all times, but what is the most innocent/basic seeming thing you have to do that is also super crucial for the ship?
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
FAVORITE SEA SHANTY???
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
Stupid fucking on board internet. More like interNOT!!
Sorry for the delay, y'all. I finally have a steady connection, but now I have to work. I'll be answering your questions shortly.
Sorry for the delay, y'all. I finally have a steady connection, but now I have to work. I'll be answering your questions shortly.
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
I really had to think super hard about this, and at first nothing came to mind until we had a situation on board pretty recently. One of my functions is actually that I'm the confidential person on board, together with the chief engineer, so when anyone has a problem --either personal or work related-- they come to one of us for advice or general guidance, or just some words of encouragement.Perrydotto wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2019 4:03 pmI know you gotta be on your toes and do your job properly at all times, but what is the most innocent/basic seeming thing you have to do that is also super crucial for the ship?
For example, a couple of voyages ago I've had a cadet whose grandfather fell ill and eventually came to pass, and I've been giving her support and together with the captain arranged that she could disembark on short notice. But I also keep my eyes open to any situation that's developing, and recently (like, in the last couple of days) we had our third mate who was already a bit of a loner starting to isolate himself from the rest of the group so I made some effort to get him to socialize more with the others. So far it seems to work out well.
As you can imagine, since we're so far away from everything and everyone it's pretty crucial for the safety of the ship we maintain a good working atmosphere with good group cohesion. It's so basic that I didn't even think about it, but pretty important so I guess that's the answer to your question.
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
No fixed ship birb, unfortunately. It's not like the old days where you could have a parrot for on your shoulder, getting port clearance for animals on board is pretty much a nightmare anywhere nowadays. But we're close to the African coast now so we get some birds visiting the ship now and then. And pooping on our deck, which is... less nice.
We do have a couple of "digital canaries" on board, which is how we affectionately call our multi-gas meters that we use to check the atmosphere before tank entry. Speaking of tank entry, I inspected a couple of ballast tanks recently and came across a little crab friend chilling inside CT7 PS:
I tried to catch him so I could set him free, but he was much too fast for me. He kept his back towards the small flush holes in the tank frames and scurried away every time I came too close. Those frames are 1.5 m high so I have to climb over them to get to the other side, no way I could grab him.
Too bad. He'll survive for now, he must have been in there for a while because he had to have been pretty small to get sucked in through the pump and he obviously grew as big as he is now afterwards, but as soon as we're going to use that tank for ballast and turn on our treatment system, he'll die. Such a shame...
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Re: I made a bandwagon thread, AMA
Not a real shanty in the traditional sense of the word, but when it comes to Dutch sailor songs I kinda like this one:
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
Since this thread is 99.9% about me working on floaty-steelies anyway I figured I'd update the title and start posting random nonsense stories about life at sea in here.
Stay tuned!
Stay tuned!
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
I love your insight about the sea so yes please!!
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
Near miss
Our ship had already passed Svenska Björn and was well underway to the Gulf of Bothnia when I opened the doors to the bridge and stumbled into the darkness. It was quarter to twelve, the Dog Watch was about to begin and since I was still a Second Mate back then, the bridge would be mine for the coming four hours.
Shuffling through the pitch black, only faintly illuminated by the glow of the radar screens and the diffuse reflection from the board lights that were fixed to the bridge wings I was greeted by the captain. Eager to end his watch and retire to his cabin for the night he rattled off his handover.
“3-4-9, engine 70 percent, I already called Ice Info on 84, no other reporting points. Standby 16, 13. No traffic. Next waypoint in 37 miles, new course 0-1-5. Oh yeah, Chief requests you don’t make the coffee so strong for 4 o’clock. Good watch!”
Hardly one minute past midnight and he was already down the stairs, his hand on the door handle ready to slip through when I shouted down: “Hey, but what did Ice Info say??”
“There’s reports of ice 50 miles past Nordvalen, so you won’t encounter any. Probably. Keep an eye out anyway.”
The door slammed shut. Silence fell over the bridge. I poured a cup of coffee and, after confirming our position in the chart, settled in the chair behind the starboard radar. Slowly but surely my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could clearly see the ship stretched out in front of me, rolling lazily on the low swell, the quiet of the night only occasionally punctuated by the soft click! of the gyro compass repeater signifying a one-degree sway in heading.
We were doing a good 15 knots, almost 16 at times, and around quarter past two I reached the narrow passage of Marketskallen where I altered course and sailed into the Gulf. I gave the small wheel on the Pilotstar a spin to starboard. 0-1-5. Click-click-click did the repeater. The vessel settled into her new heading and I took a stroll outside on the bridge wing. It was really quiet outside. And look at all the stars! Wonderful! I enjoyed the cool breeze blowing through my hair and spent a few moments in silent contemplation.
It was then that I suddenly noticed a small sliver of white in the water straight ahead, at the horizon. ‘Weird,’ I thought. ‘That looks like ice. We shouldn’t be seeing any yet.’ I wasn’t worried. Even though I was still a reasonably inexperienced mate —this was just my second contract— I had been in ice before, and knew our ship could handle it without any trouble.
But when we came closer the ice seemed to grow. At first it had seemed like the usual pancake ice one would normally encounter here, flat and soft and not difficult to get through at all; but now it looked like… ‘Is that an iceberg??’ I thought. I looked through the binoculars again. They hadn’t left my hands since I first spotted the object, now almost half an hour ago. Yeah. It definitely looked like an iceberg. Problem was, you aren’t supposed to get any icebergs in the Baltic, they simply don’t occur there. What the hell??
Nervously, I went inside and checked the radar. X-band, nothing. S-band, also nothing. I increased the range: 12 miles, 24 miles, 48—nothing. ‘Okay, okay,’ I reasoned, ‘Probably can’t see it because the ice doesn’t reflect… no wait, that doesn’t make sense, I’ve been in ice before and it was definitely visible on radar then, and that was much smaller ice than this… wait, maybe the clutter…?’ I checked the clutter setting. It was full open. I looked outside. The iceberg had grown bigger still. It was straight ahead, brightly lit, white as snow.
I spun the little wheel 30 degrees over to starboard. Click-click-click! Better get out of the way. Finnish Ice-class 1A or not, smashing into that thing would probably be really, really bad. I calmed down a bit when the iceberg shifted over to our port bow due to my course change. Then, to my horror, the already large iceberg began to grow even bigger, and change shape at that.
What I had seen so far turned out to only be the top of a much larger object. An enormous shape rose out of the water, curved like an elephant’s tusk and hanging ominously over the water. ‘What the hell…??!’ Its base grew ever wider, and I estimated it to be at least 40 meters high at this point.
Still nothing on the radar. It seemed awfully close now. ‘What kind of thing is this??’ It had now reached gigantic proportions, almost completely filling one of the forward facing windows. My hand reached to the telephone, thoughts racing through my head. ‘I need to call the captain,’ I thought, ‘This is all kinds of wrong!’ I didn’t dare take my eyes off the obstruction close over port, so it took me a few moments to find the phone by touch but finally I got it.
Just as I was about to dial the number, the horrifying object rose all the way out of the water and finally I could see it for what it was.
It seems thanks to my quick action I narrowly managed to avoid a collision with the moon.
Now thanks to its glow I could see the horizon; it was a lot lower than I had thought it was, and immediately the optical illusion went away. Instead of a giant object really close by in the water, it now just looked like it should: a big waning crescent moon up in the sky. I could now even see its craters in what first appeared like a solid white surface.
I put the telephone back down, feeling really glad I hadn’t succeeded in calling the captain just yet. No-one on board would’ve let me live this down had I rushed him to the bridge for this.
Sheepishly I turned the ship back to her original heading.
Click-click-click!, the repeater mocked me.
Our ship had already passed Svenska Björn and was well underway to the Gulf of Bothnia when I opened the doors to the bridge and stumbled into the darkness. It was quarter to twelve, the Dog Watch was about to begin and since I was still a Second Mate back then, the bridge would be mine for the coming four hours.
Shuffling through the pitch black, only faintly illuminated by the glow of the radar screens and the diffuse reflection from the board lights that were fixed to the bridge wings I was greeted by the captain. Eager to end his watch and retire to his cabin for the night he rattled off his handover.
“3-4-9, engine 70 percent, I already called Ice Info on 84, no other reporting points. Standby 16, 13. No traffic. Next waypoint in 37 miles, new course 0-1-5. Oh yeah, Chief requests you don’t make the coffee so strong for 4 o’clock. Good watch!”
Hardly one minute past midnight and he was already down the stairs, his hand on the door handle ready to slip through when I shouted down: “Hey, but what did Ice Info say??”
“There’s reports of ice 50 miles past Nordvalen, so you won’t encounter any. Probably. Keep an eye out anyway.”
The door slammed shut. Silence fell over the bridge. I poured a cup of coffee and, after confirming our position in the chart, settled in the chair behind the starboard radar. Slowly but surely my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could clearly see the ship stretched out in front of me, rolling lazily on the low swell, the quiet of the night only occasionally punctuated by the soft click! of the gyro compass repeater signifying a one-degree sway in heading.
We were doing a good 15 knots, almost 16 at times, and around quarter past two I reached the narrow passage of Marketskallen where I altered course and sailed into the Gulf. I gave the small wheel on the Pilotstar a spin to starboard. 0-1-5. Click-click-click did the repeater. The vessel settled into her new heading and I took a stroll outside on the bridge wing. It was really quiet outside. And look at all the stars! Wonderful! I enjoyed the cool breeze blowing through my hair and spent a few moments in silent contemplation.
It was then that I suddenly noticed a small sliver of white in the water straight ahead, at the horizon. ‘Weird,’ I thought. ‘That looks like ice. We shouldn’t be seeing any yet.’ I wasn’t worried. Even though I was still a reasonably inexperienced mate —this was just my second contract— I had been in ice before, and knew our ship could handle it without any trouble.
But when we came closer the ice seemed to grow. At first it had seemed like the usual pancake ice one would normally encounter here, flat and soft and not difficult to get through at all; but now it looked like… ‘Is that an iceberg??’ I thought. I looked through the binoculars again. They hadn’t left my hands since I first spotted the object, now almost half an hour ago. Yeah. It definitely looked like an iceberg. Problem was, you aren’t supposed to get any icebergs in the Baltic, they simply don’t occur there. What the hell??
Nervously, I went inside and checked the radar. X-band, nothing. S-band, also nothing. I increased the range: 12 miles, 24 miles, 48—nothing. ‘Okay, okay,’ I reasoned, ‘Probably can’t see it because the ice doesn’t reflect… no wait, that doesn’t make sense, I’ve been in ice before and it was definitely visible on radar then, and that was much smaller ice than this… wait, maybe the clutter…?’ I checked the clutter setting. It was full open. I looked outside. The iceberg had grown bigger still. It was straight ahead, brightly lit, white as snow.
I spun the little wheel 30 degrees over to starboard. Click-click-click! Better get out of the way. Finnish Ice-class 1A or not, smashing into that thing would probably be really, really bad. I calmed down a bit when the iceberg shifted over to our port bow due to my course change. Then, to my horror, the already large iceberg began to grow even bigger, and change shape at that.
What I had seen so far turned out to only be the top of a much larger object. An enormous shape rose out of the water, curved like an elephant’s tusk and hanging ominously over the water. ‘What the hell…??!’ Its base grew ever wider, and I estimated it to be at least 40 meters high at this point.
Still nothing on the radar. It seemed awfully close now. ‘What kind of thing is this??’ It had now reached gigantic proportions, almost completely filling one of the forward facing windows. My hand reached to the telephone, thoughts racing through my head. ‘I need to call the captain,’ I thought, ‘This is all kinds of wrong!’ I didn’t dare take my eyes off the obstruction close over port, so it took me a few moments to find the phone by touch but finally I got it.
Just as I was about to dial the number, the horrifying object rose all the way out of the water and finally I could see it for what it was.
It seems thanks to my quick action I narrowly managed to avoid a collision with the moon.
Now thanks to its glow I could see the horizon; it was a lot lower than I had thought it was, and immediately the optical illusion went away. Instead of a giant object really close by in the water, it now just looked like it should: a big waning crescent moon up in the sky. I could now even see its craters in what first appeared like a solid white surface.
I put the telephone back down, feeling really glad I hadn’t succeeded in calling the captain just yet. No-one on board would’ve let me live this down had I rushed him to the bridge for this.
Sheepishly I turned the ship back to her original heading.
Click-click-click!, the repeater mocked me.
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
To be fair, slamming a boat into the moon would do a lot of damage
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
makes me feel better about me and my crew freaking out that we were about to have a midair collision with an unusually bright star.
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
Met up with Isaac in Gibraltar today!
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
So I take it you're not being quarantined?
I shall sing you the song of my people
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
We are, actually! Can't leave the ship to go ashore (except for taking drafts), shore personnel can't come into the accommodation and I probably won't be able to go home when my contract is done in two months time either.
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Re: [SHIPPING (the boring kind)] Nautical Nonsense; Or: Skipper Blabs Bullshit 'Bout Boats
Fun fact I read on the internet: Quarantine comes from quarantena which means 40 days. That was the period in which crew members and passenger had to remain isolated before they could come ashore during the Black Plague. I find that neat. Imagine being sick aboard a ship during that time though. Would be harrowing for literally everybody on board.