Tims Times

Don’t fence me in!

Published on June 26, 2011 in From the ship, On the ship, seafarers and Shipping. Closed Tags: fenced, in, security.

Looking for reasons why the general public knows nothing about shipping, ships & seafaring?

Look no further than the big fence around every port and harbour. We have been fenced off, turned into prisoners in a lot of cases. We have to pass heavy security before leaving any port or harbour area, which makes it less attractive to go ashore…. easier to stay on the ship and skip all the hassle of security.

Fences for security is a joke, fences don’t stop criminals and terrorists, they don’t go through the front gate and identify themselves with colour ID. But they do stop Joe Public from looking at ships and seeing what happens down in the harbour. Most ports are so removed from their respective cities that it’s like a sub-culture that the majority don’t understand- or care about.

Out of sight, out of mind.
The longer ports and harbours are fenced off the less people know about seafarers or their significance to toady’s world.

Happy Seafarers Day, and thanks Ship Mates!

Support Seafarers Day

Published on June 23, 2011 in seafarers, Shipping and UK. Closed Tags: Calais, Cardiff, Dover, Glasgow, Leith, Liverpool, London, seafarers, shipping, Sunderland, Swansea, Teesport, UK, video.

Video above and text below from From Seafarers UK

Paying Tribute to Seafarers
What would happen if every ship on our seas suddenly vanished?

It’s International Day of the Seafarer this week (Saturday 25 June) which aims to pay tribute to the world’s 1.5 million seafarers.

A survey carried out by Seafarers UK, the charity that supports seafarers and their families, today shows just how little we as a nation know about this industry.

The majority of respondents weren’t aware that Sunderland (80%), Glasgow (75%) or Belfast (50%) were even seaports. And yet one in five incorrectly named Calais as a British seaport.

Furthermore, when asked how far they live from the coast, a fifth of adults estimated they were 76 miles or more away from the sea, even though there is no part of Britain that is further than 70 miles from the coast. That’s possibly the reason why 80% of people have not been on the sea as a passenger on a ship or boat for over a year, with over a quarter saying they haven’t set sail for more than 10 years.

We also massively underestimated the dangers that fishermen face at work, with less than one in 10 adults correctly identifying it as the most dangerous career in the UK.

And we clearly aren’t passing on our maritime history to our children either with a quarter of children in the survey naming Captain Jack Sparrow as Britain’s most famous seaman.

To mark the campaign, a thought-provoking video has been commissioned by Seafarers UK. It paints the nightmare scenario of what would happen if every ship suddenly disappeared and highlights just how important seafarers are.

For more information visit www.noships.com

technophobia

Published on June 22, 2011 in From the ship, On the ship, photos, seafarers and Shipping. Closed Tags: computer, sailors, sea, seafarers, technophobia.

Seafarers have had to adapt to changing technology as the world has become more modern, some of it for the good, mobile phones and internet have helped make the contact with home easier, but a lot of the time you’d want to be a hacker to understand the equipment we have to use. Everything has a computer undermeath it now purring away, except for the most basic things like the magnetic compass binoculars and sextant, and of course the old mark one eye ball technique.

I sailed with an old man once who had been in the Dead Sea when it was only sick, and had sailed with Noah as a cadet, it was safe to say he had seen a few green flashes in his day, but he was the Captain and his word was the law. He was a great navigator and ship handling was second nature, computers on the other hand were alien and a general hazard to mental health.

We had been experiencing a bit of bother with the ships server, a misnomer if ever there was it was more enslaver than server, he couldn’t get it to play so he decided for the classic technical solution of a “cold re-boot” or pull the plug wait 10 minutes until all the electrical ghosts and gremlins had died away and then back in with the power again but to no avail, so it was down to the last resort of calling the support guy on the phone.

No man to shirk off his resposibilities despite offers of assistance, he was ‘pon my soul going to speak to that support chappie and sort things out. Myself and the chief engineer were present for the call but made to stand a respectful 10 yards away on the other side of the bridge. So we only heard one side of the conversation, it was enough.

“Yes captain here, having a spot of bother with the server, what?”
“do you hear me, yes”
“Windows server 2003″
“yes,yes, turned off and on, yes”
“wait,wait now, something has happened it says windows server and nothing else now”
“hang on a tick, it’s moving, the text, it’s moving and changing colour”
“it goes away if I move the mouse thingy”
“What do you mean screen saver?”

The germans have a great word for the mirth we expressed “Schadenfreude”, sometimes you just have to laugh at others misfortune. We got plenty laughs in the retelling too, a problem shared and all!

Leaving port

Published on June 18, 2011 in Navigation, North Sea, On the ship, Pilot, seafarers, stations, Tankers and VHF. Closed

Time for departure from port.
Engines rumble to life, test the gear, helm, telegraph, radars, navigation lights, bow thruster, ECDIS, AIS, VHF, UHF charts, binoculars and last but not least the coffee percolator.
Pilot arrives on the bridge, morning, how are you, fine and yourself, can’t complain, grand bit of weather we are having all the same, I hear it might be fine at the weekend too, lovely.
STANDBY fore and aft.
Will you have a cup of coffee? Oh yes please 2 sugars.
Well we are all ready to go, the lads are all standing by, we’ll keep the forward springs until last, fine. Let’s start singling her up
then. Mooring gang arrive on the jetty, LET GO headines, LET GO sternlines.
10% pitch on the engine to stretch out the forward spring.
Headlines onboard, sternlines onboard, let go your breastlines fore and aft, bit of thrust from the jetty, bit of helm, breastlines onboard. Let go your aft spring, more thrust, more helm, bit more pitch, aft spring onboard.
Standby the forward spring, moving nicely away from the jetty, PORT control called, let go the forward spring, all gone forward. All lines on deck. More power on the engine and away we go, what side for the pilot ladder, wind is from the
North, we’ll take the port side 1½ metres above the water, very good pilot.
Clear of the berth. Speed increases, steady as she goes. Inbound traffic behaving itself, no other outbound, a few WAFI’s in the channel, blast on the whistle.
They get the message. Pass the pilot station, all the best now pilot, thanks for today, see you next time, good luck now.
Pilot’s on his way down. Pilot boat appears on the port side, pilot climbs off. Commence sea passage, up to sea speed.
All going fine, sea mode.
Mr. mate, you have the conn.

Sunsets & dolphins

Published on June 17, 2011 in dolphins, From the ship, On the ship, photos, seafarers and Shipping. 2 Comments

We get to see the most spectacular views out through the office window, and the scene is forever changing from one hour to the next. From port to river to sea. Of course it rains at times too but it’s the amazing sights you remember, a glorious sunset painting the sky burnt yellow or dolphins playing in the bow wave.

Dolphin

On our way down through the Irish Sea we were met by a pod of dolphins charging through the waves to play with the ship, they swam as fast as us for a few minutes and then went off again. To see them swimming and jumping is just spectacular, dozens of dolphins fully grown and young leaping and splashing. I think of all the seafarers down through the years and ages who have experienced these sights and witnessed the magic of the cetaceans in the wild. I try to take a few photos but realize that it’s better to be in the moment and enjoy. (I did get one or two!) And when I look down at the bow and see them jumping it is well words can’t describe the excitement, surprise, awe, joy. It’s pure magic.

Dolphin jumping ahead