Scintilla Day Four :: The Infamous Lifeboat Email

Being trapped in a confined environment can turn an ordinary experience into a powder keg. Write about a thing that happened to you while you were using transportation; anything from your first school bus ride, to a train or plane, to being in the backseat of the car on a family road trip. Having fun a few days ago in the Rescue Boat has had me thinking about Lifeboats.....you know where I'm giong with this right?

How about we take time to reflect on My Worst Day At Sea Ever.  The one where I puked uncontrollably for hours in a lifeboat that must have been 130 degrees.  The one where the lifeboat broke down and we had to get rescued by an Arab Fishing Boat....and then hauled on board by the Coast Guard.  The one where I ended up totally delirious and wanted to take my clothes off?  Riiiight.  This was majorly pre-blogging days BUT I did send an email home that has been immortalized forever as The Infamous Lifeboat E-Mail.

If a Lifeboat doesn't count as a confined environment I seriously don't know what does!

I'm participating in The Scintilla Project.  Yay!  So far it's been a lot of fun - join in!  (Also, here is the disclaimer that I skipped Day 3....and that I'm linking to an old blog post....apparently this is allowed....)

Scintilla Day Two :: Like A Champ

Day Two.  Tell the story about something interesting (anything!) that happened to you, but tell it in the form of an instruction manual (Step 1, Step 2, Step 3….)

1.  Consult your annual inspection / drill matrix.  Confirm that a quarterly launching of the lifeboat and rescue boat are indeed required - and plan on conducting launch while at anchor.

2.  Have all essential personnel standing by ready to assist in launching immediately following anchoring of the vessel.

3.  Load the Rescue Boat with the Third Mate, Third Assistant, Cadet and Yourself.

4.  Lower the Boat into the water.

5.  Release the Boat.

6.  Motor the Boat around the vessel to exercise the engine.

7.  Listen to the boat motor putter out and die.  Turn to the Third Mate and say, 'Oh.My.GOD.'.

8.  Get out the oars and begin paddling!

9.  Quickly assess whether you are getting any closer to the ship.

10.  Switch places with the Third Assistant Engineer who is not having any luck restarting the engine.  (He's bigger anyways and maybe he can paddle harder....not...)

11.  Watch the Third Assistant fruitlessly paddle away.

12.  Determine that the priming bulb is rock hard.

13.  Unplug the fuel line.

14.  Shove your knife into the plug and drain all the gas in the line into the Rescue Boat.

15.  Plug the fuel line back in.

16.  Start the Rescue Boat like a fucking champ and motor back to the ship (that is now a mile away).

I'm participating in The Scintilla Project - and you should too!

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Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. :: So much banging, So hot, So busy.

I haven't said too much about my last port stay - mostly because it was borderline traumatizing.  Just kidding.  Just kidding I'm not. In all honesty, it was almost a saga.  It was one of those port stays.

It actually began days prior to arriving in port when we stopped in Khawr Fakkan, U.A.E. for bunkers.  (Taking bunkers means the ship refuelled.)  Everything was going so great, we dropped the anchor, the bunker barge rendevoused with us, we got our fuel, we heaved anchor, we began bringing the vessel up to sea speed......and then suddenly there was a really big banging noise.

We all looked at eachother and said, 'Main Engine, why are you banging like this?'.  It's funny now but, at the time it was VERY clear that there was something VERY wrong with the Main Engine.  It turns out that the connecting rod on the number 6 cylinder had essentially fallen off.  Nautie Friends, this is bad.  VERY BAD.

Five days, 9 tech reps and one less cylinder later we limped out of our 'un-official anchorage' and headed for Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. is where we were to discharge all of our cargo - including the two heavy lifts we carried from the States.

In addition to the cargo operations we were scheduled to have an external audit, CO2 and Fire Extinguisher inspection, Freefall Lifeboat and Rescue Boat inspection and a Tech Rep for our Liebherr Cranes.  It was going to be busy.

Truly, all you need to know about this port stay is that it was 'effin hot.

I'm talking like 120 in the shade - and the humidity - oh my god the humidity!  (For some reason people always assume that the Middle East is a desert and therefore it's a dry heat.  Not!  It's humid as all humid can be.)

The discharge of the heavy lifts went very well.  The lifts went soooo much better than our first go round!

Now, to answer some questions I've received over the past few days...

There were two heavy lifts.  One weighed 216 Metric Tons and the other weighed 279 Metric Tons.  The smaller one was a GE generator and the larger one was a GE gas turbine.  (Dad, you asked me what the photo in my snarky post was....this unit is the generator....the smaller of the two lifts.)  The large unit required two cranes to move.

The Stevedores hook up the cargoes whether we're loading or discharging.  When we're loading they hook the pieces up on the dock to be lifted and then they come aboard and lash the cargo to the deck.  When we're discharging they come aboard and remove all the lashings and then attach the slings to lift the pieces out of the holds.  The ships crew is standing by to make sure they have all the gear they need, that they don't damage any pieces, that all the cargo is secure.

For routine cargo loading and discharge the Stevedores also provide a crane operator.  For the heavy lifts sometimes there are special crane operators - in this case two operators were flown from Germany - no lie.  The ships crew operates the crane to move lashing gear into place for the Stevedores and they also move the tween decks (or pontoons) so that the lower cargo holds may be accessed.

Back to the saga.  All the cargo has been removed from the vessel - it's time to head to the next load port....Oh wait, we can't!  We still only have five cylinders up and running.

We shifted from our cargo berth to a lay berth.  Engine repairs commenced.  Psych.  That would be too good to be true.  There was a huge lead time on the required part soooo the Main Engine was buttoned back up - the number six cylinder was still out of commission and we chug a lug lugged out of port.

We are now limping through pirate infested waters on five cylinders.  No lie.  Talk about the little engine that could.  You can almost here her wheezing, 'I think I can, I think I can...'.

I can't wait to see what the next port has in store for us...or where the next port is for that matter.

p.s. you know what kinda sucks about being a chief mate?  you never, ever get to go ashore...

Nautie Friends Ask :: What are your thoughts on the Costa Concordia?

I've gotten several e-mails asking me what I think about the Costa Concordia (the cruise ship that was wrecked off the coast of Italy) and I must admit I'm hesitent to let my thoughts slip into the pipes of the interwebz however; I'm going to go ahead and let them slip (and I'm going to try not to swear).  When I departed La Spezia, Italy I actually saw the Costa Concordia on our electronic display - and I received their distress message.  Regardless of how I feel about the actions leading up to the casualty I have to remind myself that this incident has changed peoples lives.  For some, it will be the worst day of their lives.  I can't begin to imagine the terror experienced.

That being said, here's what I think:  It never should have happened.....but the crew did an amazing job. 

Look, the shipping industry is tricky - and bad things happens.....truly shitty, messed up things happen.  Straight up.  There you have it. 

Before I go any further I also have to say that I work on tankers - and have very little experience on other types of vessels.  The tanker trade and the cruise ship industry are two very different things.  I can't speak much about regulations governing cruise ships or on what constitutes standard operating procedures.

I've been reading about the Costa Concordia as much as possible - and just about everything I've read sounds like drivel.  I think it's very important to note that the vast majority of what we are reading is straight up speculation.  We're also reading a lot of commentary and data from outside sources.  It wasn't more than a day or two ago when we all believed the root of the incident was an explosion in the engine room.  I read an entire article about 'harmonic interference' and its ability to cause explosions.  We actually discussed this at the mess deck table - looking at each other we all said, 'have you ever heard of harmonic interference?  no?  me neither...'. 

Tankers are incredibly regulated.  This ship could honestly use an administrative assitant.  We do an insane amount of paperwork.  Just about every move we make is documented.  If I want to change a light bulb in one of my navigation lights I need to fill out reports - I need to have the Chief Mate and the Chief Engineer sign off on my work permits - I need to have electrical components tagged out by the First Assistant Engineer.  The voyage plans that I generate receive incredibly intense scrutiny from third party inspectors - most of these inspectors are dispatched by an oil major like BP.  I have requirements for position fixing intervals - when within 3nm of land I need to plot my position on the chart every 6 minutes - my positions can not be just electronic (i.e. GPS) - they must be a mixture (for example radar ranges and bearings, visual bearings, etc.).  It makes me wonder how much regulation a cruise ship faces and what their inspection process looks like. 

A tanker would never think of giving an island a 'salute'.  I've never even heard of such a thing.  A drive by?  Really?  I can just see myself sitting at my favorite beach on the Big Island and watching an oil tanker cruise by 200 meters off the shoreline.  Would I be thinking, 'Cool!  He just gave us a salute!'?  Chances are I'd think it was a big 'ole f-u more than a salute.

If I was the Captain of a tanker and I submitted a voyage plan for a 'salute' to the office for approval I'd expect to be fired.  Seriously.  I would hope that my company would take one look at a plan like that and think 'Megan the NautieCaptain clearly lacks sound judgement'.  To read that the company had previously approved such a plan is disheartening.  Truly disheartening.  We can all jump up and down and say that the Captain is a crack pot but, was he really?  He simply did something that had already been done - had already been done with the blessing of the company!  Which makes me think that maybe some checks and balances need to be established between cruise ships and their shore side managers to ensure that sound decisions are being made.

As to the Captains actions during the evolution to abandon ship who can truly say?  What I do know is this - don't discredit the effects of shock.  As a mariner you can only hope that when an emergency strikes you will fall back on your training.  You hope that your experience will lead you to make sound decisions.  You hope that your fellow officers and crew can do the same. 

When I read of the Captain leaving the vessel early (as in before many of the passengers) I didn't immediately think it was terrible.  What I would have liked to see was an alternate location set up as 'command headquarters'.  I don't think it's one hundred percent necessary for the Captain to remain on the bridge until the very last minute.  I do think it's necessary for the Captain to gather drawings of the ship, emergency plans, log books, hand held VHF radios - anything that could possibly be used to assist in search and rescue operations - and set up a centralized location to be used for organizing and directing emergency response.  I think that if the Captain could have established himself as the on scene coordinator (even if not on the vessel) he would have maintained his effectiveness in a time of crisis. 

I think that the ships crew did an amazing job.  There were 3,000 passengers and 1,000 crew.  The vessel experienced only a 1 or 2 % loss of life.  I in no way mean to undermine the sadness of the lives lost.  I think about how I myself would have managed the situation if aboard and can't even imagine.  Three thousand scared, frantic, disoriented humans is no joke.  The mob mentality alone is incredibly frightening.  I think of my current situation - I'm aboard a vessel with 20 crew members - what would it look like if we were all responsible for 3 people during an emergency?  While I may be able to direct three people would a messman be able to?  Now, instead of getting 20 people into a lifeboat we need to get 80 people into a lifeboat.  Again, I think the ships crew did an amazing job.

I've never taken a cruise.  It is just about the lowest thing on my list of things I'd like to do.  Do you know what you are when you go on a cruise?  Human cargo.  If a tanker ran aground and lost integrity of the hull a 1 or 2 % loss of cargo would be considered a miracle.  Lives lost can never be considered a miracle. 

Sometimes, when I'm on the bridge at night I play the 'what if' game.  What would I do if someone fell overboard right now?  What would I do if there was a fire right now?  What would I do if we had a collision right now?  I can only hope and pray that I never experience these things however; I also hope and pray that if I do experience these things I can respond efficiently and effectively.

My heart goes out to the crew of the Costa Concordia.  I hope that someone has said thank you to them in the last few days and, I hope that they are being treated like the heroes they are.

The Infamous Lifeboat Email

Aloha All- We're back at anchor.  We left our anchorage and went in to discharge. Things went pretty smoothly.  As smoothly as you could expect considering no one had ever discharged the ship before:..and the only person who had witnessed the discharge got fired.  As soon as we discharged we left and came back to anchor.  We are anchored about 4 miles off Fujairah, United Arab Emirates::my guess is we'll be here for awhile::let me tell you a little story about why we'll be here for awhile.  So, to become US Flagged we had to pass a Coast Guard Inspection.  Its called a COI (Certificate of Inspection).  All USships renew their COI  annually.  To become US Flagged you need to prove that you can meet USCG safety requirements.  We are in a unique situation because we are a foreign flagged vessel.  Foreign ships obviously don't have to be US certified. They comply with regulations that the IMO (International Maritime Organization) created called SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea).  While the two regulatory bodies have similar requirements they are not identical and for the most part the USCG goes above and beyond the SOLAS regulation.  Now, the UShas a law called the Jones Act which is a cabotage law.  Its sole purpose is to protect US shipping interests.   Not just shipping companies and the merchant marine but also shipyards.  So, to carry US goods between US ports you must be US flagged and the keel of your ship must have been laid in the US.  All these containerships you see coming from overseas really just bring cargo in and drop it off.  For example, they will drop off containers in LA and then go north and drop off containers in Oakland/ San Fran.  They cannot pick up containers while in LA and take them to Oakland.  So, the US merchant fleet had really been suffering because it costs A LOT more to build a ship in the USthan it does overseas not to mention operation and crewing costs.  So, MARAD (the Maritime Administration) created the MSP (MaritimeSecurity Program).  The MSP originally allowed for 43 (or something like that) ships to become US flagged with subsidies to be used for government cargo's.  The subsidies have all been used up however, a company like Maersk can apply to MARAD to bring another ship into the MSP if they can prove that there is a use for it and with the understanding that the government could confiscate it in time of war or need.  This becomes tricky however because our keel was not laid in the US.  This ship would never be able to carry goods between US ports.  It can carry goods to the USbut will never be on a USrun.  To get to my original point, the MSP allows SOLAS ships to become US flagged and USCG approved but, its cost prohibitive to make a foreign ship USCG compliant so, when we have these inspections the USCG waives many US requirements and just ensures that we are adhering to SOLAS standards. This, as a UScitizen and mariner can be a little bit frustrating because you know that there sometimes is a provision that would make you a little safer.  Or at least a little bit more comfortable.  For example, take drinking water in lifeboats.  The SOLAS regulation allows you to carry your water in bulk.  So, our lifeboats have a fresh water tank.  The USCG standard requires individually sealed packets of water that have been USCG approved and are stamped with an expiration date.  Now, both regulations require one cup per lifeboat.  So, would you want to be in the lifeboat where you have your own packet of water?  Or the lifeboat where you are scooping water out of a tank and sharing your scooper and your cup with 25 sweaty sailors?  So, for the most part we passed our inspection:..except for a few things:..here is the big thing and my traumatic story of the week:..hahaha. Okay, so we decide that we are going to lower the starboard lifeboat into the water.  This is after we had lowered the port lifeboat into the water the day before and I had gone for the ride of my life.  The 2/M was still out of commission and hadn't recovered from the port boat.  So, they decide that they are only going to send 3 people down.  An AB, the 3 A/E and myself ride the boat down into the water.  We were all a little nervous but, the boat goes down smoothly and the falls release from the hooks no problem. There is a releasing lever in the boat the flips the hooks away and lets the wires free.  Once we were free we motor away from the ship.  The CG is at the railing and they throw a ring into the water that we have to recover simulating that we are rescuing a man overboard.  We recover the ring no problem and then try to reset the hooks and secure the lever.  This will allow us to come up alongside the ship and set the rings from the wires into the hooks so that we can be raised back up onto the ship.  The lifeboat is like a tiny capsule.  It is fully enclosed so that we can go through fire. There are two small hatches on either end so that you can get outside and reset the hooks and there is a hatch on side of the boat so that you can get inside.  At about this point my AB gets sick and starts throwing up.  I forgot to mention that there was a substantial swell out and we were getting the crap beat out of us.  The lifeboat is insanely hot:.we were all just absolutely soaked with sweat.  My AB is sick and can't help too much so I'm running back and forth in the boat trying to reset the hooks and reset the lever while Dave the Engineer is driving the boat.  I should say that I wasn't really "running"  I was basically scampering on my hands and knees because the boat is so small.  So, we've been in the boat for about a half hour and we are insanely hot.  At this point I'm going to be sick.  So I tell Dave to turn the boat around so the ship won't see me and I loose my lunch out the one hatch.  So, we finally tell the ship that we can't reset the hooks and they decide that they are going to try to send out the other 3/M and the 1 A/E.  So we maneuver the lifeboat alongside the ship and we are just getting absolutely slammed into the side of the ship.  The 3/M launches himself from the ladder onto the roof of the lifeboat and then the 1st follows suit.  So now there are 5 of us in the lifeboat.  Its really hot and its really cramped and now I'm even more sick and am throwing up.  My AB is just laying there and can barely move except to throw up.  We finally decide that there is no way to raise the lifeboat safely.  The decision is made to have the lifeboat towed ashore.  At about this time the lifeboat begins overheating.  So we come alongside and tie the boat to the ship.  We are getting absolutely beat up.  The boat is just slamming into the ship repeatedly.  I'm now almost totally out of commission.  We get the cooling water opened up and the engine cools off a bit so we let go the line and get away from the side of the ship.  I'm hanging off the end of the lifeboat out a tiny hatch.  I'm getting exhaust fumes in my face and I'm laying over the engine casing.  So I say "you guys I'm really hot".  They are like "hang in there Megan it will be okay".  I say, "I think my pants are on fire".  All of a sudden there is smoke everywhere and I scramble back off the engine. The radiator had blown a hose and the whole lifeboat is full of steam, smoke and antifreeze.  Now everyone is sick.  All 5 of us are barfing.  The whole ship is standing at the railing watching this unfold.  Not to mention the Coast Guard Inspectors.  We are all fighting to get out the one window. Dave and I are barfing side by side.  He's got his arm around me and in between hurls says "are you okay?"  "you're a champ".  It is quite comical looking back on it:..definitely a bonding experience.  So the Coast Guard at this point decides that we have got to get out of the lifeboat  "Ya think?!" The one guy Ted is a rescue swimmer.  So he lowers the ships ladder into the water and goes and stands on the end of it.  We tie the boat off to the ship.  We have an Arabic speaker onboard and he hails down a small fishing boat that had been fishing near by.  They come over to us and we climb out this tiny hatch with our lifejackets on and are on the outside of the boat trying to hop off onto the fishing boat.  My AB can barely make it on his own.  Then the fishing boat comes over to the ships ladder and we have to jump from the fishing boat onto the ladder.   My AB gets lifted off like a baby and crawls up the ladder on all fours.  He gets rushed right to the ships hospital and has an ice bath.  Then its my turn.    I say, "I think I need to take my clothes off:.."  The guys are like "No, Megan, I don't think that's a good idea"  but, I was so hot and I had on little shorts and a tank top under my boiler suit:.plus I was wearing steel toed shoes.  Ted on the ladder is like "Come on Megan honey you can do it."  I said, "I don't think I want to".  The guys finally talk me into making the jump.  Ted grabbed me but my legs ended up in the water and he had to haul me the rest of the way out.  Then Dave hopped over and he helped me up the ladder.  We made it onto the deck and Dave is still throwing up.  They had us take cold showers and gave us some Gatorade.  It was really quite the ordeal.  It turned out that the releasing gear had a recall on it.  5 japanese sailors had died because they raised up the boat and it fell back down.  So even though it really sucked I'm just glad they didn't raise us back up!  Our lifeboat went ashore and they are working on it::. So needless to say we didn't fully pass our inspection the Coast Guard will be coming back to take another look at things.  I have a horrible feeling that they are going to want to see the refurbished boat put in the water and released.  I'm not totally sure what I'm going to say when the time comes to put me in it.  Hahaha.  It was a real eye opener to what a real emergency would be like.  Trying to imagine 25 sailors in that boat gives me a serious lord of the flies visual.  I guess ‘alls well that ends well’.  No one was seriously hurt::.thank goodness!  That's my story for the day:..very long e-mail.

Talk to you all later.  Miss you love you!

Megan

3's

You guys aren't going to believe this. Yesterday, I was standing my first cargo watch where we were discharging cargo - normally this would have happened weeks ago but we've been having issues with local port state control.  It was the first time I was running the pumps and I've been here almost three weeks!

The Chief Mate leaves me alone in the cargo control room and not even a half hour later we loose the plant and the ship goes dark.

Because everything is fully automated this means we lost control of the majority of our cargo valves - and obviously we lost control of the cargo pumps.

Long story short, it wasn't my fault - just an engine room mishap.  One of the generators tripped offline and because we had such a large load it caused everything to trip offline.

I really believe that not so good things come in sets of three.

In just under a week I've participated in a near collision, a steering casualty, and a ship blackout.

I hope this means that I'm off the hook for at least a little while.....