Ok, so daily updates aren’t going to happen. No more promises of them.
Yesterday, i got promoted from cadet to cook/deckhand. I am being sent to Adak in the Alutian Islands for 2 months(~ 51°45′ - 176°45′). This is great, as it solves many problems of money and seatime. It will also give me a chance to visit Alaska in the summer. We will be traveling up the in inland passage and then cutting across the Gulf of Alaska. To the tail bone of no where.
Most of my audio books have had a technical problem. I have read most of my books (although I haven’t cracked Histories) and listened to all the audio books I can. I have done all of my sea phase 1 tasks, 50% of sea phase 2, 25% or sea phase 3&4. They said I wouldn’t have much time to actually work, but I have been cleaning and did some painting. The deck is awash because of the trade winds we are heading into, so little outside work can be done.
Today, I have been working on menus for the Adak trip. Unfortunately, I can only get food from Safeway, from an approved list. It’s funny, because this is supposed to be for cost control, but I don’t get to actually go - it’s all ordered, and my order sheet doesn’t have a price list. So…I am ordering blind.
I am hoping that we can get fish while we are there. What do the Eskimos eat? Remember this is not the tundra - this is a an isolated 25 mile wide island a thousand miles from the continent. I will be frantically doing research when I get back.
I have been reading two books now… Collapse and Mayflower. I am at the point in Collapse which discusses the collapse of the Nordic settlement in Greenland and the Norse relationship with the inuit. who survived in the same environment. Similarly, Mayflower is about European settlers dealing with the Massachussets, who never would have let them settle if they hadn’t been wiped out by the plague. It seems so odd how they dealt with the native population, as if those people where without motives and beyond too much curiosity. However, when I mentioned that I was interested in how the Eskimos survived, i got exactly the same attitude from my co-workers. “huh, - how is that relevant? probably handouts.”
Night security watch. It’s nice to sit in the wheelhouse with the engines off, just watching and listening at the dock. Got to watch the tractor tugs bring in some barges. Not really anything to do, but it’s policy that someone is awake 24/7 on the boat. I feel good that I can contribute by reducing the crews watch by a couple of hours.
Landfall. A stunning morning revealing a tropical island. Yes, you can smell the flowers in the moist warming air.
It’s been many years since I have been here, and I am excited to get back on land.
Landfall tomorrow. To tell the truth, I am a little unnerved to be returning to Honolulu. It’s been nearly 20 years, and the memories….well a lot of things I haven’t thought about in a long time. A lot of people I haven’t thought about in a long time.
Hawaii was where I met my first love and learned a little about what love is, and what it isn’t.
I learned much about people, first at Island Instant Printing - Jamie, Heau, Kim, Cheri, and….was it Karen? And Wendy. I wonder what Wendy is up to. Jamie is probably dead from a failed liver. Heau is probably in New York and going by something like Harry.
It was the first time I really lived on my own. it was terribly lonely. I made 800 bucks a month, and my rent was 600. I ate mostly rice for 6 months or so. But, I was strangly content.
Then the Goodwill Saga….Well, I was a rehab counselor at Goodwill. Wow, too much went on there. Seemed like a full life of someone else. Sorry, not going to go into it here. But if you buy my a drink, I tell you some tales.
The AB taught me a new knot. It’s great because it can be made super quick - like 2 seconds- it’s very secure, but has a quick release. [ed. note. working on getting a flash image of this working with word press. 11/16/06]
This morning there was a dead flying fish on the deck. I thought about eating it, but the AB threw it over board - “Too ahh small” drawing out his “l” s with his thick Polish accent.
So, this is the first timely log entry. Meaning, i am actually typing this at 1630 (4:30 PM) on June 18th in the Pacific Ocean at Latitude 26 degrees zero minutes and Longitude 152 degrees and 34 minutes. We are some 350 miles from Honolulu.
Woke up for my watch at 0330 as usual. It’s dark. Getting darker every morning as we move south and west. Saw a squall on the radar. Very cool to watch that blip that looks like a ship, and see the dark splotch on the horizon that it really is.
I can smell the tropics. It is warm and muggy. Today i am promising myself to keep a log, and to go back and catch up on the old entries. I don’t expect much readership, but I hope this will help keep my head in order. if you find my ramblings of interest let me know, and i’ll put you on the list when i update it - which, when i am at sea, will be every couple of weeks.
Finished part one of the History of Greece.
madness at sea. i think often of how life on the Phyllis Dunlap is like living in a monastary. As I watched the captain pace laps around the boat, I am reminded of “Midnight Express” where the American goes around the wrong way - just for varieties sake. Everyone is looking for something to amuse themselves.
I have been studying, and the Mate has been signing off on my assessments. I am 1/4 through sea phase one and have signed off on all of sea phase 1 and have begun the next phase’s assignments.
I have also been listening to books on tape. So far i have listened to “The Apprentice - Autobiography of Jaques Pepin. I just got to the final chapter of “Chatter” by Patrick Raden Keefe. It’s about the NSA’s eavedropping program. If your not paranoid, your not paying attention. Good read. I start the history of Greece tomorrow.
Yesterday the captain caught a Mahi Mahi, which we will eat tomorrow. You can see the rig for the line in the picture to the left. We have been trailing it for a week now, and this our first fish, after catching a small line and a fishing net. Didn’t have my camera ready - will get a shot of the next one.
“This sea phase is used to introduce the trainee to sea going life and provide an opportunity to learn and perform duties associated with RFPNW and other practical seaman tasks related to AB and Lifeboatman. Students will complete all the required RFPNW assessments during this phase and will have the necessary documentation for Ratings.”
I would need to get 60 days of seatime on vessels greater that 200 tons going “beyond the boundry” - meaning that we would need to be ocean going, not inland. The 200 ton requirement is virtually impossible to achieve, so the Coast Guard allowed that vessels below 200 tons could be accepted on a case by case basis.
PMI set me up with Dunlap Towing. When I interviewed with their training director and the port captain it was pretty clear that we were all making this up as we went along. What was my role to be, did I stand watches? How was this supposed to work? None of us knew. But I am pretty happy setting a trail. I was pretty confident that whatever happened, I would make the best out of the experience.
I left right away on the PHYLLIS DUNLAP to Hawaii with a container barge.
After I got back, I spent a week on land, then I got on the TAURUS to San Francisco with a dredge barge.
A couple of weeks on land and then, right when I was thinking I wasn’t going to get my 60 days, I got on the SNOHOMISH to Alaska. We were gone 34 days, bringing my professional seatime to 69 days.
