Still enroute to Los Angeles. We crossed the date line yesterday and retarded a day. I am the master of time! Right now I'm on watch: 12 to 4. No traffic. Bored out of my skull. Got some songs playing on the bridge computer and a talkative filipino lookout man for company. He's also the one who will take the helm in case of any emergency.
Mid ocean watches are invariably boring because there's not a soul aorund for hundreds of miles. In the daytime I catch up on paperwork and do chart corrections during the watch. At night its not possible to work because the bridge is pitch dark, interspersed with the dim glow of the various instruments and the lamp over the chart table. During these four hours of watch I'll be plotting the ship's position hourly, ensuring that she maintains course, observe the radar for any targets and maintain a GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety Systems) watch, among other things. It may sound likea lot but its really not that much of work. Of course when there's traffic, its a totally different ball game and you're going crazy trying to manage all these different aspects of a navigational watch and trying to avoid hitting a stupid fishing trawler that is hell bent on kissing your bow.
We've got an annual survey coming up in LA so everyone's very busy preparing for it. I finished taking a complete inventory of the medical locker and got the hospital cleaned (took me three bloody days). Tomorrow (no Sundays for sailors), I plan on carrying out a safety area inspection of the engine room and start an invenotry of the stationery locker. I've also got monthly maintenance work on the radar and GMDSS batteries looming nigh and will also have to figure out a way to schedule a safety meeting in between. By then we'll be in LA and it'll be back to hectic 6-on-6-off port watches. Got a new captain joining there so he's gonna be all charged with life and want everybody to do double duty on the voyage back to Shanghai. Maybe someday I'll actually start using the gym that this ship has and try and offset the effects of Mr. Hedges.
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1 comment:
so is anyone stealing the pencils? :)
nice blog. continue
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