Can you guess what it is yet?

So here are the answers to my previous blog!
The first is a pair of binoculars! Very useful bit of kit for a navigator, help see those dangers for miles!!
Second is a SART (Search And Rescue Transponder). It shows up as a series of dots on a radar screen if any ship nearby once it is activated. Used for emergencies it is triggered by the radar of other ships to help locate a distressed ship/lifeboat/life raft.
Lastly was the ships wheel. Yes it really is that small, no more big wooden wheels! Used to steer the ship when in hand steering.

Hope you enjoyed the quiz!! Perhaps I'll do another one in a week or so.

Been a busy few days work wise. We docked yesterday at A&PTees repair yard for a scheduled repair stop. Within minutes of tying up the ship is swarming with people from ashore, all here to do jobs onboard. As the Chief Officer(mate) you find yourself stretched in different directions. One person will want to be shown where something is, another wants to ask a question and so it goes on plus as the Ship Safety Officer you find yourself writing permits. Today I've been measuring steel thicknesses of various bits around the ship, climbing up into pipes etc. What fun!

SART

Steering Wheel

binoculars

Laughter is a good tonic

I've been feeling reflective today. It's been great this last couple of weeks on board. It's been unusual too as we would not normally have spent so much time alongside as we have. Add to that the repair stop and all the hassle that can come with that.
I've realised that it hasn't all been bad though and I've spent lots of time catching up with people, making new acquaintances and laughing. I've laughed a lot actually, in fact in the last week, I've laughed til I cried more than once! I nearly choked on my steak one time.
Of course when at sea, a lot of the crew are on watches so you don't always get to see everyone. In a repair stop we all work day work 8am -5pm so there is almost always a full table of 6 of us in the officers mess for lunch and evening meal.
Seafarers are always good at telling a good yarn and my shipmates are no different. A lot of the time it tends to be stories about people we know, who we've sailed with. We exchange funny stories about our experiences and encounters. It's made me think a lot about all the people I've met over the years. Here's a story which I have told a few times over the years.
When I was a trainee, I would do 4-6 months seatime usually assigned to one ship and then either move to another ship or go to college. On one occasion I was going to join a new ship in Great Yarmouth. We joined by boat transfer at Great Yarmouth so we all met at the Seamens Mission. Also I should explain that the whole crew would change at the same time so 10 people joined as 10 people left.
When I arrived at The Mission I realised there was only one other person there. So after putting down my rucksack I went over to the bloke. He was quite old, with greying hair and glasses and nursing a pint of beer and a roll up cigarette. This is how the conversation went:
Me: Hello are you here to join the Arco?
Him: Yes
Me: oh hi, I'm Sharla the new trainee
Him: You won't last
Me: oh right...um.... Why not?
Him: oh this is a very very big ship! Lots of heavy things to lift, you won't handle it!
Me: oh well I'll give everything a try and then if I can't do it I'll ask for help
Him: Mmmmm

And so ended our conversation!
As you can imagine I did wonder what on earth I was doing, how was I going to cope? Noone had said this was going to be easy but hey, give me a chance!

It turned out that this Seaman (I'll call him 'Bert') was a real old salty seadog type and had never sailed with women before. Add to this he had not long become divorced and was still having to live in the same house as his ex who made his life very difficult. She had decided to split the house in two even to the point of there being a dividing line down the centre of his kitchen table!
So as you can imagine Bert wasn't too happy to have a female on board. I remember during Smoko ( morning and afternoon tea breaks) he would sometimes start moaning about women, how evil they were and how they should be kept in cages and just let out to breed. Of course I knew very well he didn't mean it and me and
the rest of the crew just humoured him and over time he did soften just a little bit.
I'd like to think that over time I proved that women at sea weren't a burden and that we did pull our weight.
I will never forget his face about a year later. I had done my seatime, been to college and passed my exams. That was the first ship I was sent to as a newly qualified 2nd mate. I walked past the crew mess towards my new hangout- the officers mess. But as I put my head round the crew mess door to say hello, there was Bert, his face fell when he saw me. I could almost read his thoughts, 'Oh my god, she's back!'
In the end I spent almost 2 years on that ship and we got on very well. He even showed me around Hull on one occasion and bought me a pint.

What is it??

I decided to have a bit of fun and I'm setting a challenge to you. I've been round taking close up photos of things on the ship, all you've got to is guess what on earth they are!
Answers in my next post!

First Navigational watch.

It seems odd to name this post my first navigational watch because strictly speaking that happened back in 1999.
But as I haven't been to sea in 3.5 years it does feel like I'm starting again.
Luckily I've had an easy re start to life at sea, with almost a week on board before actually sailing.
My watch started at 2000(8pm) and the first hour we were finishing off loading our sand cargo. We loaded it on an area just outside the Humber Estuary. I should perhaps explain here that the Arco Humber is an aggregate dredger. We load aggregate( sand & gravel) in specific licensed areas off the UK coast.
Once the Captain was happy we had loaded enough, we stowed our gear, switched off the deck lights and set our course north towards Teesport.
I spent quite a while re acquainting my self with all the various controls, lights, buttons and more importantly alarms and most annoyingly rattles!! I found that the starboard bridge door rattles if you close it firmly to, leave it slightly ajar and .....aaah....silence!
I did feel a little flutter of excitement when I saw a few ships on the radar. To me this has always been the most enjoyable part of the job, you can forget paperwork. Plotting a ship, seeing where it is going, how fast, is it on a collision with us? Do I need to do anything? Just like when driving a car you need to follow the Highway Code, when navigating a ship there is a similar set of rules to follow.
I knew that going from the dredging area to the Tees I wouldn't encounter too many ships and any I should encounter would be on a similar north/ south route like me.
I saw a few gas platforms in the distance, their bright lights highlighting their presence from miles away with their familiar light flashing Morse U (••-) meaning 'You are running into danger'. Their guard vessels, float around between a few platforms, like a guard dog making sure you don't get too close.
The navigation bridge is dark except for the glow of radar screens. My only companion is a Polish Seaman watch keeper who sits on the other side of the wheelhouse, keeping a look out. It's strange to think that only us two and the duty engineer in the Engine room are awake. Eight others are fast asleep down in their cabins as I navigate us safely through the night. What a responsibility!
At 0048hrs came the soft lilting tones of 'Sailing By' on 198LW, Radio 4. It is such a soothing tune which lulls you into a false sense of security in a way. As soon as it finishes, there you are all chilled out and then Wham! the weather shipping forecast is coming at you, you have to listen as well as scribble down really quickly what the man is saying about your shipping areas. Tyne,Dogger,Fisher, German Bight, Humber......... Not good news weather wise SW or W 8-10 occ violent storm 11! Expected soon. Luckily as we are creeping up the East coast, only 5-6 miles from the coast we are still fairly sheltered. The friendly lights of Flamborough Head and Whitby are on the port side. It's comforting to know we are not too far away from land!
So after a quiet watch, I hand over to the Second Mate (2/O) at 0400 and go down and curl up asleep for a few hours. The first watch over.

Watch snacks were 2 oranges, a banana and 4 cups of green tea!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   



Arco Humber - Sand cargo

Night time on the bridge





New Year celebrations

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a great evening welcoming in 2012.
Although I did have a bit of a hangover this morning, our shipboard celebrations were good fun!
As is traditional we stood on the bridge at midnight, listening to the radio and waiting for the chimes of Big Ben to start.
Once they did, the Captain started to sound the ships whistle. A loud, throaty whistle which seems to go straight through you.
Standing out on the bridge wing I could hear all the other ships in the docks, replying with their ships whistles. All wishing each other Happy New Year and safe sailing!
We also had a spectacular view of all the firework displays across the city of Hull. It was brilliant.
So although I would have preferred to have been celebrating with my nearest and dearest, this wasn't too bad!

Tomorrow we are sailing mid morning so keep an eye on where we go by clicking the link to Marine Traffic on the right side of this blog. My vessels name is Arco Humber.