Have a Nautie Presidents' Day!

in ,

I'm technically writing this a day late....the good news is that due to me being on the other side of the world it's still Presidents' Day for some of you! I'm not sure if I've ever celebrated Presidents' Day before - and we most assuredly do not celebrate it aboard, either.  We do however get holiday pay.  (Holiday pay means I get paid twice for the same day.)  That's certainly cause for celebration! 

I've been meaning to share a link with you Nautie Folk for quite some time - I read The Old Salt Blog almost everyday.  Love it.  It has a very wide maritime focus - meaning I read about sailing ships as well as motor vessels trading commercially - and sometimes I even read about sailing ships trading commercially.  It keeps me current and gives me some insight.

Yesterday (or Today) there was a post about George Washington and his fleet of armed schooners that kicked some major ass.  It's a perfect nautie Presidents' Day post.  Enjoy!

*Also, I totally had to google 'Presidents' Day' to punctuate correctly!

I see a white light and I want to paint it red.

in

Do you ever look at people who 'Do It Themselves' and think, 'what the hell?!  How do these people have the time for Do It Yourself (DIY) projects?!'.  I think that.  I do.  I mean, I really do. Yesterday, I painted nav lights red.  With nail polish.  Why?  So that our bridge can stay light sensitive friendly!  As I was painting the bulbs I thought to myself, 'How is this not diy?!  This is totally diy!  Look at me rocking this diy project.....what a nautie badass!'.

A little background....at night on the bridge we use red lights. This helps preserve our night vision.  I need to be able to go into the chart room - see the chart - fix my position - and returned to the darkened bridge and be able to spot other vessels.  Your pupils need to get big and stay big.  Red lights make this happen.  I only had white lights. 

I tried to paint my white lights red.  I used spray paint - but it didn't hold up to the heat and when the bulb got hot it would peel and flake all over my chart table.  I tried a sharpie - it just wasn't dark enough - even with lots of coats.  Then I thought:  Nail Polish!

I went ashore in Spain (more to come on that...) and bought three nail polishes.  Only one of them worked. 

For the record:  Revlon polishes cannot sustain exposure to heat.  Who would have thought that?! 

I poked a hole in the bottom of a Styrofoam cup to hold my bulb upright and applied polish to the clear bulb - when it dried I screwed it in - and Voila!  A red light!

Consider this a Shipping Girls Guide to Nautie Projects.....that you can do yourself.....or assign to the cadet.....your call.

 

 

 

 

Back At Sea

in

It seems like forever since we were at sea for a few days.  It's glorious.  Sometimes there is nothing more relaxing than a nice long sea watch (I did say sometimes). For me personally, being at sea is the only time where I can really get ahead and get some real work done.  Just about all of my jobies are located on the bridge - so it works out quite nicely when I have a quiet watch.

Yesterday morning I enjoyed a lovely sunrise - and then the fishing boats showed up - of course.  You all know how much I love little boats!  (Strangely enough, these little fishing boats were exactly where these ones were!  I have yet to pass this spot without some sort of 'encounter' - the good news is....now I KNOW they're there!)  Hence the 'sometimes' relaxing!

 

 

 

 

 

Archived Sunrise

in

I've been sitting on these photos of a killer sunrise for days now.  I knew that if they didn't go up today they probably wouldn't get posted ever....and I certainly didn't want you all to miss out! To get from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean you pass through two Straits.  The first strait is the Bosphorus.  This will take you past Istanbul and into the Sea of Marmara.  The second is the Dardanelle.  This will spit you out into the Mediterranean.  It's tricky trying to 'get in line' for a strait transit.  There is lots of 'hurry up and wait'.  We had to kill time before entering both Straits (on the way there and on the way back). 

On our return to the Mediterranean we waited off the entrance to the Bosphorus for a little over a day - and we were gifted with an amazing sunrise.  Lucky us!

Here it is....the sun rising over Turkey.