Post Thanksgiving Musings

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We are still at anchor!  We got a little closer today...we shifted from the outer anchorage to the inner anchorage.  I am definitely getting stir crazy.  It's kind of funny when you feel stir crazy on a ship....if we got underway today I'd still be here tomorrow!  What is the difference really?! My garden isn't doing so hot (not that it has ever really thrived).  For awhile I thought my sweet potato was going to go Jumanji on me....but now it has brown spots.  I try to talk to the plants when I water them (today is day 108 but I swear I'm not really crazy) today I said, 'if you don't start to grow I'm going to chop your heads off'!  One of the little old Japanese ladies at my church attributes her gardening success to this method.

Super Dhow

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When we departed Kuwait we saw what we refer to as a 'super dhow'.  In reality, this is the traditional dhow.  Since they were historically used for longer sea passages where they transported true cargoes they needed to be much more seaworthy than the coastal fishing vessels.  It is rare to see large dhow's (since most of the commercial cargoes can be transported on modern vessels) - and since we've started referring to the fishing boats as dhows - we call this a super dhow.  This is by far the best example I've ever seen.  It was beautifully maintained.  I just wish I could have seen it with it's sails up! 

Anchor the tanker

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I was one of the more naive cadets at Maine Maritime Academy.  It wasn't that I was less interested or less gung-ho than my classmates it was just that for some reason I was always on the tail end of the learning curve.  I think it was a classic case of not knowing what I needed to know.  It seemed like my classmates could slice through the masses of information and then ask the right questions.  I just never seemed to be asking the right questions....I would listen to my professors tell sea stories and impart sea going wisdom with a somewhat detached interest.  I was excited about the opportunity for adventure and I think more than anything else this ensured my success in school.  I remember very little of what my professors taught.  For some reason I remember this with clarity....my favorite Captain told me that going to sea was basically 'hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror'.  After five years sailing I wish I could call him and say, 'Man - you weren't kidding'! I've been at anchor for two days which, could potentially turn into two to three more.  'Anchor the Tanker' is a phrase that can set the whole ship talking....Does this mean we're not getting the next contract?  I wonder if they'll reduce the crew size?  Are they going to get repair work done?  Are we going to break watches?  It leads to uncertainty.  Ships and their crews love routine.  Anchoring the tanker for me as Second Mate is awesome.  It means I get caught up on chart and publication corrections.  I can clean out drawers and get computer work done.  However, for other crew members it can mean breaking sea watches and switching to day work...and then re-setting watches at a moments notice.  It can mean a critical component is disassembled thinking time was available for a repair...and then scrambling to piece it back together when word comes that we can proceed to our berth.  The real reason that crew members don't like anchor time is that it invariably leads to hours and hours of boredom.  The days seem to melt together.  There are no close encounters with fishing boats....funny radio chit chat.....or brightly lit rigs to punctuate your day.

I thought about walking about the deck on a photo safari but instead, I decided that I would pretend that I saw some dolphins (that seems to boost my spirits like nothing else).  My Mom says that bored people are boring people.....as an only child I can self entertain like very few others.  So today I looked at all my old dolphin photos and exercised my imagination.  I thought that since nautiemermate is officially a dot com it deserved a dolphin photo - I was upset that I had to leave the other ones behind at blogspot.

Kuwait

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[gallery] We just left Kuwait after a brief port stay.  We docked at the Sea Island which is a little out of our norm.  It was an interesting docking with a brisk wind coming from dead astern and a gorgeous sunset.  The Pilot was a very friendly fellow.  This morning we left much earlier than expected.  I threw on my boiler suit (which is what I wear when I'm too tired to figure out how to match my clothes) and dragged myself up to the bridge.  We had the same friendly fellow who was bright eyed and bushy tailed.....AND HE HAD BROUGHT ME A PRESENT!  It was in a beautiful handmade paper bag.  It was a little acrylic diamond that had Kuwaiti crude oil in the center.  The diamond has a stand so that you can prop it up and admire it more easily.  The Pilot also brought the Captain some traditional sweets which we got to munch on.  Normally I leave Kuwait thinking 'whew!  We're outta here!' but today I left thinking 'wow!  I got a present!'.....it was great.

Halo

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A couple of nights ago I stepped out onto the bridge wing and there was a large halo around the moon.  It was by far the most spectacular halo I've ever seen.  Halo's are caused by moonlight refracting off ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.  I grabbed my camera thinking it would be futile but boy was I wrong! 

After I realized I was actually going to be able to get some photos I went crazy. 

With so much moonlight I was even able to snap a photo of Orion!  

 I ran up to the flying bridge and layed on the deck to get our mast in a shot.  Because the camera was on such a slow shutter speed you can see the arc our radar left next to the mast.

The clouds combined with moonlight and stars made it look shimmery and kind of nebulous like the milky way.

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What a night!