A Nautie Excuse

Nautie Friends, I miss you - I do!  I want to post - really!

I'm suffering from what can best be described as 'end of rotation apathy'.

I'm tying up loose ends at work, I'm planning my next two port stays, I'm organizing my drill and inspection matrix, I'm double checking that all my log entries are made....and then I sleep.

If I'm not working I'm sleeping because sometimes just looking at my shipmates irritates me.

This is what I call, 'squirelly season'.  Everyone onboard is a little squirelly....and it's best to keep my distance.  Everyone feels excatly the same way I do....just looking at me irritates them!  People start picking petty little fights, people start complaining, essentially...people start loosing it.

There you have it - my nautie excuse - it's squirelly season!

I'm arriving on the East Coast tomorrow morning first thing.  I'm excited because today is my 29th straight day at sea and even one day in port sounds freakin' awesome.  I'm super bummed because I don't have my iPhone so I can't call home.....or take photos....or post on the blog on the fly....

Mostly I'm excited because a US port means I'm that much closer to getting off!

Love you guys!

Nautie Books :: April 2013 - The Fault In Our Stars

Is this the month we get back on track?

Yes, yes it is.

Please join me in reading April's selection The Fault In Our Stars By John Green.

I've wanted to read this book for a really long time and just never made time.

We're making it now!

Here's what Amazon has to say:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.

Alright Nautie Book Readers - we have till the end of April.

*Also to the Nautie Family, I realize this book might hit a little close to home at times but, I think we can handle it...*

p.s. Historiauntie, I totally got your book suggestion.  Next month sound good?

Clouds. We're making it an adventure!

This morning on watch we spotted a little sail boat.  In.the.middle.of.the.Atlantic. I looked at that boat and thought, 'there would have been a time if someone asked me to sail across the Atlantic where I would have felt like the Gods were smiling down upon me...now? meh.  not so much.'.  It was a strange feeling.  Knowing that my lust for adventure has shifted.

Go to Bali?  Yes please!  Stay in a hostel in Bali?  Mmmm...is there a private cottage available?  Anyone up for New Zealand?  Of course!  We're gonna rent a car right?  I mean, I don't really want to rely on the bus.  Sail across the Atlantic?  Ummm...have we subscribed to a weather routing service?  Do we have an EPIRB and SART?

These days taking photos of clouds with my camera set to aperature priority feels like an adventure.  Sunrise with no flash?  No way man, I'm gonna be daring and go with aperature priority!

I love how aperature priority darkens my shots.  As in looove how it darkens my shots.

Please excuse my crooked horizon.  You should try taking a photo of the horizon on a rolling ship.

I have millions of cloud photos.  That means that this post could be considered lacking with only four photos.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

M.L.I.S.W :: The Dongbang Giant

I came up for my morning watch and start checking out the ships in  our vicinity.  I click on the AIS icon for a ship that we're slowly overtaking.  AIS provides all the information that you see in the photo.  Anyways, I immediately start giggling because I have the sense of humor of a three year old.  The ships name was The Dongbang Giant No.1.  Now if that doesn't either sound like the name of a super famous porn star or the name of a dildo in a sex toy shop then I just don't know what does....

ME:  The Dongbang Giant No. 1?!

Second Mate:  The Dongbang Giant has been such a pain in my ass...

ME:  The Dongbang Giant has been a pain in your ass.....*giggles*

Second Mate:  Oh.my.god.  They wouldn't get out of my way - they've been in front of me alll night long....

ME:  *uncontrollable giggling*

The Second Mate had had a very long watch and did not see the humor in all of this. 

Things In Mason Jars :: Semi-Homemade Ginger Fizz

Pops.  This one is dedicated to you.

My Dad emailed me and said, 'I've been looking at weather in the Atlantic....you should look at the weather....and eat saltines...'.  Ok fine, that wasn't exactly what he said.  I emailed him back and said, 'Pops, I'm all over that shit'.  I know.  What kind of daughter emails her Dad that she's 'all over that shit' with reference to eating saltines?!

Listen, I know it is slightly bizarre for a so-called professional mariner to complain about being sea sick all the time but, honestly, I've never been on a ship that rolled like this one!

In fact, I've written about it in great length.

When the icki-ness set into my tummy yesterday I got creative.  I had my trusty ginger drink mix and a sprite.  Boom!  Semi-Homemade Ginger Fizz!  Of course I also took two homeopathic sea sickness pills.  Just in case.

Now, I know what you're thinking....you're looking out at that beautiful blue ocean and wondering why we're rolling.  This can be attributed to a ground swell.  It's a long and rolling swell caused by wind that is a substantial distance away (i.e. The North Atlantic).  We're feeling the effects of a North Atlantic storm all the way south at 27 degrees North!  This type of swell is much, much different than a locally genereated wind driven swell.  This is like a gentle roll back and forth every 12 seconds.  It's just big enough that you have to brace your body and every now and then a draw will open on its own.  It's not big enough that you have to hold on.  For whatever reason, it's just enough to make my stomach flip over.

There you have it: a ground swell, a ginger fizz and, no ability to sit in front of the computer without feeling like I'm gonna hurl.

Love you guys.

(also you can read a really good explanation of a ground swell here.)

More Like Two Degrees Of Separation

I wrote this blog post eons ago.  Then I had technical difficulties...and then I didn't post it.  The thing is, I thought I better post it because this is super duper important!  When I reference 'yesterday' it was actually weeks ago....just to help clarify things around here.... Yesterday, I cried on the blog....about how I didn't have internet friends.  You heard me, I cried on the blog because I didn't have internet friends!

Immediately afterwards....and I'm talking immediately afterwards....I start up a little twitter conversation with this chick named @calliesmariner.  I had literally just written:  Twitter kills me.  Now, here I was having a mini conversation.  Wow.

This chick has a blog geared torwards Merchant Marine families - and it's cool you should totally check it out.

We start throwing some tweets back and forth (yep, you guessed it...at this moment I'm feeling totally cool...).

*Please note:  Between the paragraph above and the paragraph below I tried really, really, really hard to embed some tweets.  Clearly, I did not succeed.  I just don't know.  My excuse is that I'm not at home and there is something wrong with the computer on the ship.  The thing is, if you want to read the tweets you could just follow @calliesmariner and @nautiemermate on twitter....just sayin'...*

Anyways, I noticed from her blog that she's living somewhere in New England so of course I decide that I MUST e-mail one of my Besties and tell her that I have a new friend for her.  Some of my girlfriends stared a group called The Seacoast Wives - they're Husbands ship out and they themselves are pretty salty.  I'm not technically in the group....cause clearly I'm not a wive but, I knew this Chick needed to be invited to the get togethers.

During this whole exchange @Calliesmariner and my Bestie are at a Maine Maritime Academy Seacoast Alumni Event - and they freakin' meet eachother!!!!!!!

I mean, during this whole exchange as in while we're tweeting.  Too freakin' weird right?!

You know how the world is supposedly connected by six degrees of separation?  Well, clearly the maritime industry is a measly two degrees of separation.

There you have it.  Amazing, right?!

Here's to new blog friends!