new year’s log

“Tradition states that the first entry of the new year in the official log in CG and Navy must be in verse and rhyme.”

So, here’s to tradition…

Zero one January two thousand one two.
Eight glasses for the old year and eight for the new.

Clear, windless day; low tide at o8h14,
The river has that beautiful blue-brown, cold sheen.

Hair making good knots, rolled out of my berth,
Dismayed by the thickening of the girth

After bubbly and beer and something chateau,
Feeling like sierra hotel india tango

It’s already into the forenoon watch
When I go to the galley to assess the debauch

Staring at all of the bottles in front of me
Feeling a bit post-frontal lobotomy

Semper ready for the challenge!
It’s not too bad, rank it code orange.

Monitoring 13 while the kettle does boil…
So, where are my friends moving cargo, people and oil?

Clearing the nav station of sketches and cat,
I scan AIS to see where everyone’s at.

There’s xx at the anchorage and xx on the KV
And look at the ships coming in from sea!

Can’t wait to tell Tuggie who’s going by now!
Containerships, tankers, tugs and their scows,

Ferries and fishingboats and tour boats galore,
A honeyboat, and the boats of the Army Corps

Icebreakers and buoy tenders, and medium response
A sailboat, some kayaks, and hopefully, clearance.

A cruiseship.  No ro-ro’s. The dredgers are at bay.
Do harbor charlie and fireboat get overtime pay?

Are the survey boats working? are the line boats out?
They’re not on AIS so I can’t see their routes.

I could do this all day, but muster midmess
To wish all of you for 2012: the best!

Thank you, CaptJJ for telling me about this tradition!

And thank you Ed, whose ship’s log is featured here in the official CG blog, Compass,
Look here for  more new year’s logs of the CG ashore! Both afloat & ashore: fascinating reads.

what is your log entry for today?

¡wow! thank you, west38! it looks so beautifully zen! click on her lovely blog to see the art of needle and thread in perfection: that corner is art.

vhf prose

These lines were heard on various channels of  VHF (very high frequency) marine radio. Vessel names (where possible) and times were jotted in sketchbook margins or envelopes. All tugs have been changed to protect the innocent. or guilty.

“Coming to you as quick as my little propellers will take me.”

“We’re standing by, and we’ll keep knocking the fish outta the water until you get by.”

vessel 1: “Cap—you hanging out here?”
vessel 2: “No, this is my warp speed, believe it or not. You go ahead, I’ll take your stern.”

vessel X: “Oh, Yooooohoooo!”
vessel Y:  “Yeeeeeep?”
vessel X: “I gotta go move the buddha, so I’ll be right back.”
vessel Y: “Ok.”
vessel X: “And he’s gonna move it boat style, not boom style.”
vessel Y: “As long as he don’t get used to it.”

Ah! translation in the comments section! thank you, Yooohoooo!

vessel A (very cheerfully): “That you, Stupid?”
vessel B (equally cheerfully): “Cheeeeck!”
vessel A (in cartoon voice): “I’ll gitchoo…!”

middle of the night, buddy 1: “Look at at that moon!”
buddy 2: “Ah! I forgot what it’s like to do oil.”
buddy 1: “You still smoking?”
buddy 2: “Ha ha…well…I quit today. But I think I’ll go back now that you mention it.”

 

My absolute favorite VHF moment is here, “Are you angry?”

crude post

I’m so sorry: we are up to our gills in this, yes? but offshore oil drilling is pertinent to NYHarbor, for its yield is what makes us run. Tugster caught Guardian, whose last position ±10° is recorded here, in the 6th boro a year and a half ago. (Boat doodle above is not of Guardian.)

While looking at photos of offshore supply vessels (OSV) of the Gulf, I noticed: they do get amazing weather.

“It is beautiful there,” said the mariner who worked in the Gulf. He mentioned each rig he worked with pride.

“Drilling is high tech. It’s hard. And they are good at it—very good. But they don’t always know what will happen when they hit that reservoir. I’ve seen so much burned off in a control flare, and if you’re anywhere around it, it’s HOT. I would feel my skin crackle as it dried from the heat. I’d have to go inside the boat, and the flare’s heat would blister the paint off the boat. Then you’d hear on the radio: “Mud! more mud!” and they’d pump drilling fluid through the rod string inside the drill pipe, out through the bit, and some guy would be there, taking measurements of the mud and mixture until they got it just right…When you see a photo like that, with those flames all over, ohhh, it just makes you sick to your heart…”

The fondness for the Gulf and the work is also evident in this wonderful voice.

I know nothing about oil rigs. How many oil rigs are in operation? a peek at this one directory will dizzy you with the numbers of projects and companies at it. (But I couldn’t find the answer.)

The Energy Information Agency is a great resource. But still, no one quite knows the best thing to do to check the gushing:

• at the U.S. Minerals Management Service, MMS: “To submit alternative response technology, services or products please call (281) 366-5511.”

• at the EPA: fill out this form if you have an idea to try. A question: “Have you field-tested your proposed solution?”
I suppose they have to ask, but I would have to check off “No. I did not test my idea in 5,000′ depth of water in heavy seas. And neither did you. Y’all.”

• at the source: this pdf form to fill out with your suggestions.

THIS is an impressive website for the Offshore Oil and Gas industry: offshore-technology.com!

top row: 1. Brutus in a water ballet, 2. Blindfaith being pushed by Tern, 3. Genesis on Transshelf cutting through the ice of Finland, reaching the Gulf in 24 days;
bottom row: 4. Mars eases on down the road, 5. Genesis floats through the Corpus Christi shipping channel, 6. Baldpate’s base skates into place.

I could spend hours (er, I have spent hours) gawking at the photos (credit, please? who took them?)

The names of the rigs, fields and ships are poetic, the images are striking, the feats–and implications–are awe-full. (I didn’t say awful.)

Heartfelt support to the crews working there, the crews stranded and waiting.
And heart-full apologies for the loss of life: human, plant and animal. We are all complicit.

Tugster weighs in in “Deepwater Miracles”, and wonders what you think…