Long time apart
Off seeing another place
Joy at her return
Monday, 31 October 2011
Admiral, There Be Whales Here!
Basic Recruit Training - Done
QL 3 Naval Signalman Training - Done
Basic Seaman Training - Done
Posted to a ship - Done
And now I am ready to sit on some exotic beach somewhere, beer in hand, a palm leaf fanned over my head
Life as sailor is about to get good
Away we go off to.... Ketchikan Alaska???
That does not have the ring of sandy beaches, warm breeze and bikini babes.
Ketchikan? Why the #$%( are we going there?
I am sure anywhere will be better, hell I would even vote for Seattle - nice place to visit I later found out.
Yes Sir, we go to Alaska.
What I didn't know at the time was that to go to Alaska, we frequently take the Inside Passage - some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. Okay, so this trip will not be a total waste of time. grumble grumble...
When one first steps on board on of Her Majestys Canadian Ships as an ordinary seaman, one gets to learn about the more mundane tasks of running a ship. One such task is lookout. Yes, even in this day and age a real live pair of eyes is employed to look forward and tell the Officer of the Watch that there is a ship, log, rock, oil slick, boat full of bikini babes ect ect ect just over there, and by the way, can we move in a bit closer to that boat?
It was a lovely day, sun was shining, no wind, nicely warm and there I was, on the port wing, being look out. Oh look, another beautiful waterfall - yes, how lovely (ho hum, the other 50 were much nicer). Oh look OOW, a log in the water, perhaps you wish to steer around it? Oh Sir, btw, did you see the.....
HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THAT?
Two gray whales start broaching in front of the ship.
OMFG!!!!
I haven't seen anything like that before in my life.
DID YOU SEE THAT? RIGHT THERE!! LIKE A HALF MILE AWAY!!!
"Yes Ordinary Seaman, I saw it. And I am sure the entire ships company heard you tell me."
Opps, I was a bit on the exuberant side in my report.
Well, that changes everything, no one told me I would see whales and stuff. Now its worth being out here.
By the end of that trip I was a confirmed whale watcher. I got lucky and saw a couple of orcas, a few dolphins and a humpback. Way cool.
From there, the next 24 years would bring other sea critters into my view, and a few of them right at my feet, but that is another story
QL 3 Naval Signalman Training - Done
Basic Seaman Training - Done
Posted to a ship - Done
And now I am ready to sit on some exotic beach somewhere, beer in hand, a palm leaf fanned over my head
Life as sailor is about to get good
Away we go off to.... Ketchikan Alaska???
That does not have the ring of sandy beaches, warm breeze and bikini babes.
Ketchikan? Why the #$%( are we going there?
I am sure anywhere will be better, hell I would even vote for Seattle - nice place to visit I later found out.
Yes Sir, we go to Alaska.
What I didn't know at the time was that to go to Alaska, we frequently take the Inside Passage - some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. Okay, so this trip will not be a total waste of time. grumble grumble...
When one first steps on board on of Her Majestys Canadian Ships as an ordinary seaman, one gets to learn about the more mundane tasks of running a ship. One such task is lookout. Yes, even in this day and age a real live pair of eyes is employed to look forward and tell the Officer of the Watch that there is a ship, log, rock, oil slick, boat full of bikini babes ect ect ect just over there, and by the way, can we move in a bit closer to that boat?
It was a lovely day, sun was shining, no wind, nicely warm and there I was, on the port wing, being look out. Oh look, another beautiful waterfall - yes, how lovely (ho hum, the other 50 were much nicer). Oh look OOW, a log in the water, perhaps you wish to steer around it? Oh Sir, btw, did you see the.....
HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THAT?
Two gray whales start broaching in front of the ship.
OMFG!!!!
I haven't seen anything like that before in my life.
DID YOU SEE THAT? RIGHT THERE!! LIKE A HALF MILE AWAY!!!
"Yes Ordinary Seaman, I saw it. And I am sure the entire ships company heard you tell me."
Opps, I was a bit on the exuberant side in my report.
Well, that changes everything, no one told me I would see whales and stuff. Now its worth being out here.
By the end of that trip I was a confirmed whale watcher. I got lucky and saw a couple of orcas, a few dolphins and a humpback. Way cool.
From there, the next 24 years would bring other sea critters into my view, and a few of them right at my feet, but that is another story
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Decimate
Back in the good old days of the Roman empire, when a unit had displeased the general it would be decimated. The General would walk the ranks and count each man, when he reached 10 - that man was killed. The count would begin again until each man was counted. "Pour encourage les autre" as the french would say. Talk about a waste of talent.
One of my last voyages as a sailor was to Hawaii. A lovely spot, one that I have had enough of seeing (at least Pearl Harbour). We left port to find 3 meter seas on Constance Banks. Now 3 meters isn't much of a swell for a 100 meter ship, but when that swell is at the harbour entrance, what the hell is it going to look like on the open ocean? Word was passed down to secure for heavy seas and we all took it to heart. If it wasn't tied down or put in a tight spot, a roll of duct tape was employed. Bouy J was 4 hours away. We secured the ship and waited.
We hit Bouy J and the 3 meters jumped to 11 meters. Man what a ride. The moment we hit that swell the CO declared the upper decks out of bounds. The ship was sealed and we turned toward Hawaii.
6 Days of up and down. The ship handled it reasonably well but below decks things were a bit harried. If you weren't on watch you were asleep. If you weren't asleep and we able bodied, you cleaned as best you could or helped care for those who were incapacitated by the sea. At one point we had 5 guys in the Junior Ranks mess who were on IV fluids because they were so dehydrated. Every day there were two or more pipes of
CASUALTY. The cooks could not cook, we all ate a lot of sandwiches - those that could eat.
Life on the bridge was pretty wicked. While the ship rode reasonably well, we were shipping green frequently - for those who don't know the term, when a wave breaks over the bridge and all you can see is green.
Life was like this for 6 days. For those of you who believe us sailors are all godless heathens, let me tell you - there was not a single atheist aboard.
And on the 7th day the Gods looked down on us and said "ENOUGH"
The sea flattened
The wind calmed
The clouds parted
And we all breathed a sigh of relief
The hatches were opened
Clean air scrubbed through the ship (the air below was getting a bit crunchy)
and we had a day of rest - the following day was lent over to a good scrubbing of the ship.
We got to Hawaii 3 days later and when we got there, we landed 26 men who had been damaged by
the trip so far.
26 men out of 210.
Who says times haven't changed?
Later on I found out the the CO had been ordered to go around that storm. Apparently he
decided that we wasn't subject to the desires of the Admiral.
One of my last voyages as a sailor was to Hawaii. A lovely spot, one that I have had enough of seeing (at least Pearl Harbour). We left port to find 3 meter seas on Constance Banks. Now 3 meters isn't much of a swell for a 100 meter ship, but when that swell is at the harbour entrance, what the hell is it going to look like on the open ocean? Word was passed down to secure for heavy seas and we all took it to heart. If it wasn't tied down or put in a tight spot, a roll of duct tape was employed. Bouy J was 4 hours away. We secured the ship and waited.
We hit Bouy J and the 3 meters jumped to 11 meters. Man what a ride. The moment we hit that swell the CO declared the upper decks out of bounds. The ship was sealed and we turned toward Hawaii.
6 Days of up and down. The ship handled it reasonably well but below decks things were a bit harried. If you weren't on watch you were asleep. If you weren't asleep and we able bodied, you cleaned as best you could or helped care for those who were incapacitated by the sea. At one point we had 5 guys in the Junior Ranks mess who were on IV fluids because they were so dehydrated. Every day there were two or more pipes of
CASUALTY. The cooks could not cook, we all ate a lot of sandwiches - those that could eat.
Life on the bridge was pretty wicked. While the ship rode reasonably well, we were shipping green frequently - for those who don't know the term, when a wave breaks over the bridge and all you can see is green.
Life was like this for 6 days. For those of you who believe us sailors are all godless heathens, let me tell you - there was not a single atheist aboard.
And on the 7th day the Gods looked down on us and said "ENOUGH"
The sea flattened
The wind calmed
The clouds parted
And we all breathed a sigh of relief
The hatches were opened
Clean air scrubbed through the ship (the air below was getting a bit crunchy)
and we had a day of rest - the following day was lent over to a good scrubbing of the ship.
We got to Hawaii 3 days later and when we got there, we landed 26 men who had been damaged by
the trip so far.
26 men out of 210.
Who says times haven't changed?
Later on I found out the the CO had been ordered to go around that storm. Apparently he
decided that we wasn't subject to the desires of the Admiral.
Friday, 28 October 2011
Bay of Fundy - a new wonder of the world
At the beginning of my naval career, when I was a reservist, I was posted to a the Rapid - an ex RCMP vessel.
This was a great little ship, about 80' long with a crew of 15.
We were tasked to escort a bunch of whalers (15' boats pulled by oars) as they did a race across the Bay of Fundy. It was a beautiful day - light breeze, calm sea, sunny and clear. Away we went across the bay watching the teams of rowers pull their boats with all their might. As it turned out, the team from CFB Cornwallis won that race.
Now we had the somewhat lessor task of towing these whalers back to the other side of the bay. We tied 3 of them astern of us and our sister ship, the Rally, took the other three. It this point it was about 3pm, still a beautiful day, calm sea, light breeze, clear and sunny (cue the theme song for Gilligan's Island)
We were about 1/3 the way across when the weather started turning rough - wind picked up, waves picked up, it got dark and the fog settled over us. The ropes that were used to tie the whalers astern of us decided to snap so we had to stop and retie them. This twice more and the Skipper said enough, secure them with a berthing howser. We had an extra one and there was very little chance that this would break - 3/8 braided nylon is pretty tough stuff. It took an hour to get the whalers re secured. By this point the wind and waves had really picked up and we were being really heavily tossed about, not a lot of fun at all. I was told to go below and put my head down so I could catch a few winks of sleep before I was to take a spell at the helm. Sleep, oh bliss, just what the Dr ordered!
I laid my weary head down and immediatly was out. I was happy, warm and deep in la la land when there was this loud banging against the hull. I stumble out of bed, into my wet weather gear and lifebelt, up to the upper deck just in time to hear the skipper yell "CUT THE ROPE"
Oh shit, as the banging continues I see the three whalers right along side the ship. This is bad, they should be 100' behind us, not right alongside where the towing hawser can get tangled around the .......
A high pitch whine finishes that thought as the starboard engine shuts down. Yes, the towing hawser is now firmly wrapped around the starboard shaft, effectively cutting our available power in half. At that moment we were about 2 hours away from the safety of our harbour. That 2 hours jumped to 6 right there and then. The skipper decided that these whalers were now a serious threat to the safety of his ship and crew so he cut them free and headed for harbour on 1 engine.
It was very miserable weather wise. 15 foot seas, 40kt winds, rain and fog. It was a very long and cold trip from there. Because of the fog, we needed to have a fog dodger rigged - that means a man right at the front of the ship, looking for things for the ship not to run into. When my turn for the duty came I was really looking forward to seeing the buoy that marked the entrance to Digby harbour. Let me tell you I was looking really intently, whipping the rain off my glasses every second or so.
Looking
Looking
Looking.....
Oh thank you God, there it is, we are not going to die. We sailed into harbour and pulled up alongside our sister ship. The skipper said "Well done lads, off to bed with you". Really? It was 1am, we had been up and running full bore for the past 16 hours and he thinks we needed to be told to put our heads down?
I was asleep in moments.
The next morning I woke, got myself moving and saw the beautiful sunshine streaming down through the port hole. I dragged myself to the upper deck and then noticed that the tide had gone out, way out, out so far that the jetty was 30' above us. In the Bay of Fundy, when the tide goes out, it does not mess about
The Bay of Fundy, it is a wonder. Have a look see if you have oppertunity, just don't do it for a 3 hours tour
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Monday, 24 October 2011
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Wax Off Wax On
Every once in while I would become obsessed with one small thing while on board - that set of files needs to be sorted, that book needs to be repaired or some such. On this particular day I decided that the flats in front of the CCR needed to be re waxed.
The procedure that most people used to re wax a deck was to dump some wax stripper on the deck, count to 20 and then remove the sludge with a mop. I decided to go old school on this particular chunk of deck. Hands and knees with a green scrubby and water. It took me close to an hour, doing 1 tile at a time but it was beautiful. Every last bit of wax was removed. People were afraid to step on it and leave boot prints but I didn't care, I was going to rewash it before the new wax went down.
My next watch - being the long mids, was between midnight and 7am. The ship was relatively quiet, anyone not on watch was in bed. The CCR flats is about 10' long by 8'wide, there is a hatch going down to the next deck, three doors going to offices (two of which were unoccupied at the time) and a door leading the next compartment. I strung a lenght of tape about chest high and put a sign on it saying WET WAX. Remember that sign.
I wash the deck, and get started. I get a cloth to spread the wax and lay down the first coat. I make each coat very thin so that it dries almost instantly. Putting down each successive layer takes about 5 minutes and I let it sit for another 5 minutes before starting the next one. As I am working people having to go through this area go slowely and ensure they don't step on the deck as one would expect a decent person to do.
Some where about coat 15, this junior officer comes to where the tape and the sign are hanging, ducks under it and steps on my deck, looks at me and says "Oh, are you waxing the deck?"
What was your first clue you fuck tard? Was it the smell of wax wafting in the air? Was it the sight of the wax container you stepped around? WAS IT THE SIGN SAYING WET WAX THAT YOU DUCKED UNDER? I am so glad that some of our leaders can pick up on these clues so readily. As it was, I was just beginning a new coat so he stepped on a dry spot and didn't damage the work I has been doing. The fuck tard left the area without another word.
An hour and 10 coats later I decided it was enough. Man that deck gleamed. I got everything put away and was just getting ready to wander away when the XO approached the door where the fuck tard was, put his foot down and yanked it away - thinking the deck was still wet. His reaction to my deck made the whole exercise worth it. Over the next few weeks I got several requests to do the same to other chunks of deck but none of them came with the appropriate enticement attached
And that is Wax Off Wax On
The procedure that most people used to re wax a deck was to dump some wax stripper on the deck, count to 20 and then remove the sludge with a mop. I decided to go old school on this particular chunk of deck. Hands and knees with a green scrubby and water. It took me close to an hour, doing 1 tile at a time but it was beautiful. Every last bit of wax was removed. People were afraid to step on it and leave boot prints but I didn't care, I was going to rewash it before the new wax went down.
My next watch - being the long mids, was between midnight and 7am. The ship was relatively quiet, anyone not on watch was in bed. The CCR flats is about 10' long by 8'wide, there is a hatch going down to the next deck, three doors going to offices (two of which were unoccupied at the time) and a door leading the next compartment. I strung a lenght of tape about chest high and put a sign on it saying WET WAX. Remember that sign.
I wash the deck, and get started. I get a cloth to spread the wax and lay down the first coat. I make each coat very thin so that it dries almost instantly. Putting down each successive layer takes about 5 minutes and I let it sit for another 5 minutes before starting the next one. As I am working people having to go through this area go slowely and ensure they don't step on the deck as one would expect a decent person to do.
Some where about coat 15, this junior officer comes to where the tape and the sign are hanging, ducks under it and steps on my deck, looks at me and says "Oh, are you waxing the deck?"
What was your first clue you fuck tard? Was it the smell of wax wafting in the air? Was it the sight of the wax container you stepped around? WAS IT THE SIGN SAYING WET WAX THAT YOU DUCKED UNDER? I am so glad that some of our leaders can pick up on these clues so readily. As it was, I was just beginning a new coat so he stepped on a dry spot and didn't damage the work I has been doing. The fuck tard left the area without another word.
An hour and 10 coats later I decided it was enough. Man that deck gleamed. I got everything put away and was just getting ready to wander away when the XO approached the door where the fuck tard was, put his foot down and yanked it away - thinking the deck was still wet. His reaction to my deck made the whole exercise worth it. Over the next few weeks I got several requests to do the same to other chunks of deck but none of them came with the appropriate enticement attached
And that is Wax Off Wax On
Saturday, 22 October 2011
The Magic Words
A la peanut butter sandwiches....nope, not that one
Hocus pocus.....nope, not that one either
Please.... ah, there it is
Please, smile and thank you will get you a long way along the great road of life.
"Hi, can you please help me?" will probably go a lot further in getting your issue dealt with than "Hey, get off your ass and fix this"
The smile is the second part of the magic. Walk up to that harried clerk, the person who has dealt with 20 cranky angery people and smile. The first reaction you will get is "oh, a nice person, someone who isn't going to yell at me because of some elses mistake. I will do my best for this person."
"Thank you" is the final element of the magic. That gives the over worked, under appriciated clerk a feeling of peace and happyiness and the thought that the job is worth doing and maybe, just maybe they can make a differance in someone elses life.
Go on, give it a try. You just might be surprised at how well it works
Hocus pocus.....nope, not that one either
Please.... ah, there it is
Please, smile and thank you will get you a long way along the great road of life.
"Hi, can you please help me?" will probably go a lot further in getting your issue dealt with than "Hey, get off your ass and fix this"
The smile is the second part of the magic. Walk up to that harried clerk, the person who has dealt with 20 cranky angery people and smile. The first reaction you will get is "oh, a nice person, someone who isn't going to yell at me because of some elses mistake. I will do my best for this person."
"Thank you" is the final element of the magic. That gives the over worked, under appriciated clerk a feeling of peace and happyiness and the thought that the job is worth doing and maybe, just maybe they can make a differance in someone elses life.
Go on, give it a try. You just might be surprised at how well it works
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