13 Dec 2003 - Seventh day at sea - now in the Southern Hemisphere
0558
- we set the clock back another hour last night so now we're two hours different
from PST. Did I mention that I'm awake early today?
0710 - We're at 2.20S, 150.19W.
1230 - working steadily on programming. Took a walk up to the bow and back but I'm being cautious today. I got a mild sunburn on my bare white legs yesterday sitting up at the bow for 30-40 minutes. Today, it is long pants for me. It is hotter outside today as well. The sky is almost cloudless. The sea is as it has been for almost the entire trip. It is stirred up just enough to cause a few whitecaps.
We've got a lifeboat / fire drill this afternoon at 1520. I've tried on my life jacket so I know how to put it on. And I know where the assembly station is so I think I'm ready.
1630 - An interesting last hour. The ships' crew held a lifeboat and a fire drill. The first was mandatory for us while the second was optional. I stayed, as did John, for both features.
First,
we donned our orange flotation vests and then we went down onto the main deck
aft where there's a big sign painted on the wall; "Muster Station".
Then the crew split into two groups and about a third went to the port lifeboat
and the rest of us to deck immediately below the starboard lifeboat. Emil,
the first officer was in charge of our group. We assembled under the
lifeboat, which is up on big davits (the structures used to swing the boats off
the side and lower them to the water.
After
a few minutes of folks chattering (which was lost on John and I), Emil came and
explained that because the deck above us used to access the lifeboat had just
been painted a few hours ago, we weren't actually going to board it. Then
he quizzed John and I about our previous experiences. John had done
all this a number of times. I'd done it once with a similar setup on
the Russian ship.
We discussed boarding the lifeboat. You get in and take off your life vest and stow it (he said it is obvious where) and then take a seat and fasten the seatbelt. The boats can each carry 30 people and we have 24 on the ship so in a real emergency, we'd probably just launch one.
Then he took us over to the inflatable life rafts.
These are different. They can be launched manually (he told us how)
or, in the event that the ship sinks very suddenly, these are also designed to
launch themselves automatically.
When
the ship goes under the water, at about four meters down, a mechanism releases
the life rafts. They float up but they are attached still to the
launching racks by a strong rope. When the raft hits the end of the
rope, the pull of the raft to rise away from the ship pulls a pin which inflates
the raft.
There
are five rafts on board - two on the port side of the superstructure and two on
the starboard and then one more forward by the bow. Each can hold 20
people.
Both the life boats and the life rafts have emergency signal beacons on them. There's another big one atop the bridge which, if no one can get to it to take it because the ship sinks too quickly, will float off of its own accord and self-activate. The small rings which can be thrown overboard also have signal buoys attached to them.
The other thing Emil told us is that if we have time, we should bring warm clothes. Especially if the ship is in northern or southern waters. And, identity papers.
Then
Emil gathered everyone and moved off to test the fire fighting procedures.
Today's exercise was to pretend that there was a fire on both hold #3 and #1.
The holds are set up with sprinkler systems at each level so basically they just
have to turn on the sea water pumps and open the right valves to drive the water
into the sprinkler systems.
Today,
however, they wanted to test the pumps without flooding the holds and wetting
down everyone's valuable cargo containers so they unhooked the hoses that send
the water into the holds and pointed them out the other way and fired up the
pumps.
Impressive, the amount of water the pumps deliver. Emil ran each one
for about 10 minutes to give the pumps a good checkout. That's Emil in the
white hard hat and blue shirt.
That was it. They finished up and John and I took off. It was hot out there on the starboard side where the sun is shining.
I'd dressed in a dark blue long-sleeve tee-shirt and levis so if I got dirty, it wouldn't be so bad. Now that I'm back, I've opened the cabin's port hole and stripped down to swimming trunks.
John told me more about himself today. He's always lived in Santa
Barbara except for his service years ('57 to '60) in the Navy. He went to
college and ended up teaching High School.
Tried
that three times but he just didn't like it. Being single, however,
he put his disposable income into two rental units (one with five units and the
other with four). I gathered he lives in one of the units.
This was back in '73. When teaching didn't work out, he was able to
make it off of the rental income and I guess that's pretty much what he's done
since. He's traveled extensively and has visited many remote places in the
South Pacific.
When he taught school, it was mostly English so that helps explain why he's so widely read. He never married, never had any kids. He likes to go up to Idaho in the summer and he's apparently got one or two properties up there as well.
He's a quiet kind of a guy. Always takes a good long moment to chew over anything you say to him and is thoughtful with his response. He seems ready and able to discuss just about any topic so we've had some good talks. I have the feeling, though, that he can probably overdose on people pretty quickly. He looks like he's pretty comfortable spending time with himself.
1700 - well after a burst of web site writing, I'm ready to continue programming. Just as it was coffee time, I created a "first-chance exception" error in GENA. That's usually a pretty good indicator that I've hosed something up badly with my last set of changes. Ah well, that's what they pay me nothing for.
1900 Just back from dinner. It is getting more interesting each evening to talk with Anatoly. Tonight we talked about mutual funds and retirement and stuff like that. It sounds pretty pedestrian but it gains a lot when you are seeing it all from the point of view of a Polish sailor who's now a member of the European Union. He said, for instance, that as a single man, he can live for $400 dollars a month in a village. But, I think he'll do quite well. he's been saving and investing for years and he's a smart guy.
We made an appointment to see the engine room. Anatoly's going to show us around after afternoon coffee on Monday.
Took a GPS fix a few minutes ago. The late remains of a sunset were still in evidence and Venus was burning like a diamond in the western sky. I've missed a lot of sunsets on this trip because dinner always falls around sunset.
At 1848 we're at 5.12S, 158.29W. We're in among the islands of the nation of Kiribati. The closest of which is over 100 miles away.
2340 - Time for bed. I just went up on top over the bridge. Beautiful and all of it is mine to look at. 24 people on board and no one else for many many miles and I think I was the only one to see the beauty that existed just then.
At 2335, we were at 6.19S, 153.20W.