Christmas on board the Manukai- Fake Xmas trees- check Chirstmas Tunes- Check Christmas movies-check Xmas Lights- check traditional christmas dinner- check desserts-check Work, work and more work- check It maybe christmas but someones gotta drive the ship. Shit, where do you think all the gifts you bought came from. BAHH HUMBUG
there are many odd things aboard ships that not many people would even think to notice nor would think of why they are there. many of which were put into use out of necessity. Like most things, improvises to any work environment come retroactively due to an accident, catasrophe or a mistake that could have been avoided had the personnel knew what they learned after the mistake. Back in the day, ships traveling from port to port would be there for days on end, even months or years on end depending on the cargo and task set forth by the proprietor of the ship. While the ships were at the dock for these prolonged stays, creatures would climb aboard the ships via the mooring lines and make themselves at home. Many of these creatures, including but not limited to were RATS. Diseased scavengers that would hitch a ride from one port to another against their will. Plauge and disease were spread and people were killed and lesons were learned the hard way. A rat from the England, winding up in the Indies with Rabies for instance was the beginning of the end. Rats could not swim to an island in the middle of the ocean, and if they were not there beofre the only way they could have got there was from a ship. From instances like these, countries and ship owners decided it was best to configure a contraption to prevent rats from leaving the ships in the next port of call. So once a rat was aboard, it was supoosed to die aboard. Thats where the "Rat Guard" came from and thats why everyship has a rat guard on each of the mooring lines it sends to the dock. TO PREVENT RATS FROM LEAVING THE SHIP... although these days its more likely to prevent Rats from getting aboard.
Many people are unaware of what a ship does before it actually gets to the dock. Here is a quick attempt to shed some light. There are a crew of sailors, usually 3 watchstanders and 3 day working able bodied seaman responsible for preparing the decks. The watchstanders are coupled with a navigation officer and are helmsman/lookouts while the day workers maintain the vessels repairs and planned maintentance regiment. Prior to arrival in port all 6 sailors get together on deck and layout the mooring lines for which the boat ties up to the dock with. They then rig a pilot ladder off the side of the ship, most likely on the leeward side(the non windy side) a few feet off of the waterline so the piolt(the guy who has the local port knowledge and conns the ship to the dock) can climb aboard from sea. The 6 sailors are split up to bow and stern teams. Traditionally, the 2nd mate and dayworkers are tasked with tying up the bow while the 3rd mate and watchstanders take care of the stern. Usually for docking and undocking a tug boat is used to assist the ship in manuevering and it sends its own line up to the sailors on either the port or starboard (left or right) quarter (the back corner) of the ship based on what side of the ship is going be touching the dock. Once the pilot is aboard and the tug is made fast(secured to the ship) the teams on the bow and stern, once word from the captain is given, send the lines to the dock. The lines are big and heavy, so a heaving line, or a light weight line with a weight on the end is literally thrown to the dock so a line handler can easily grab it and pull the bigger lines to the bollards(horns) on the dock that the eye goes around. Every mooring line has a eye about 3-4 ft long at the end of it. then the lines are made tight by securing them to bits(horns) on the ship using a winch. Once all the lines are tight the tugboat(s) are released and then the gangway ladder is rigged so people can come and go from the ship. That's that. kind of, for sake of simplicity.
More to come on the job of the pilot and other aspects of life aboard a 900ft conainter ship.
There are few feelings in the world if any at all that can compare with watching land disappear into the horizon from a large ship at sea. It truly is amazing that something so large, can be dwarfed so quickly my mother earths beautiful blue ocean. Sky scrapers of the sea ever so swiftly become nothing but a blip on a radar among the expanse of the ocean. Some may think that getting a 900ft loaded steel hull to pitch and roll may be a difficult task, well think again. Pacific storms penetrating off the aleutians have the ability to shake these gargantuan vessels like a cheap hotels quarter fed vibrating bed from the 70s. Never take the power of nature for granted, always enjoy its beauty and respect the fact that shes gnarlier than you.
A typical loading plan showing stowage positions for the containers.
One \ means still working while an X means completed that bay. Schematics like these are used by the mate on watch to ensure cargo loads and discharge are happening as planned.
It's important while making rounds on deck to keep a very watchful eye. 1 dead bird with a disease could be disastrous for crew health...
the manukai is a us flagged jones act union ship. basically the shit. when a us crew ventures into foriegn waters the crew must present passports, physical fitness and sign foriegn articles stating amongst other things that there will be no pilferage, sabotage and illegal contraband smuggling.
8 am is the crew change. work starts immediately after. container stowage postions and times must be logged and mooring lines and gangway ladders must be tended all the while assuring the vessels security is being taken care of. there are 3 levels of maritime security... MARSEC 1, 2 and 3. 1 is normal 2 is sketchy and 3 is get the hell outta dodge cause some shit is about to go down. there are multiple size containers stowed on the ship ranging from 20 up to 55 feet. all goods must be accounted for and if the containers are filled with frozen or refrigerated goods, temperatures must be taken and that the refrigeration does not fail. there is a "reefer engineer" whos only job is to maintain those boxes.
from now until january 17th all posts will be from a 900ft container ship called the MANUKAI. this holiday season will be spent at sea with stops in honolulu, guam, xiamen, ningbo and shanghai china. follow the voyage here as attempts are made to profile life at sea.
happy holidays.
shit, whens the pipe masters in memory of A.I. gonna resume?
electric planer- $30
saw- inherited from grandpa (free)
2 hand planers- inherited from grandpa (free)
finger planer- $5
spoke shave and surform- $10
template fabric- $6
sanding screen- $2
Blemish blank- $53
sand paper and sanding block- scrap 2x4 and old sand paper from previous project (free)
total- $106.00
glassing-$200 @ studio 609 Board Craft, maybe a little steep but open on saturday
grand total- 306.00 + 3 partial days of creative fun-foam dust everywhere+riding your own shape= priceless
so whats the deal with pro surfers drawing on sponsors logos instead of using stickers?
is it the new offshore and hollow is onshore and crumbly trend? the first person of note to be drawing on logos was Dane. Now Jordys drawin on logos that can be seen from miles away, shit he's even trying to wear the same style hats and shirts as Dane. they say copying is the finest form of flattery but damn, at this rate jordy's gonna show up to the Pipe contest with a seagull and anchor tattoo. being unique is cool, its rad if thats actually you. if you gotta copy someone else's uniqueness than that is just weird. has anyone else noticed these similarities? is it a coincidence?
back to the drawing on of logos. are the team managers not sending the sticks out in enough quantity? are these athletes getting too many boards and not enough stickers? that would be understandable. what ever the reason may be; it was cool when it was unique now its like a song on the radio, played out.
dane set the trend, now kellys doin it, jordys doin it, even julian wilson, mr pookah shell poster boy is drawing on quik logos. its an epidemic. its gotta take twice as long to draw a mountain and a wave or write O'NEILL than slap a big red square on the nose or whatever? shit, not to mention look at the attention that huge advertisement brought Jordy's way...
3 hotties from the Midwest! sick
how similar is jordys stick below?
Jordy ReynoldSmith
"how much for a sharpie and pookah necklace?" as told to the ABC store cashier
when the waves suck and the wind is howling there isn't anything better than some serious ping pong rallies. shit even if the waves are good nothing beats a beer and a game of pong after surfing. lately ping pong has been a life saver. heres some serious inspiration for amateurs aspiring to be pros. McCabe this is for you!
Pilgrims land in Massachusetts after Columbus got lost.
The Pilgrims mingle with Natives.
Winter storms kill many of the new "discoverers" of the land.
Natives aka indians survive the weather because they've done it before.
Pilgrims declare the new world theirs and feast for three days on crops the indians grew.
Years later George Washington declares the first Thursday of Nov. a holiday called Thanksgiving.
Now its the last Thursday.
a day off of work or school is always cool.
What's with this shit? as soon as you enter "historic downtown ventura" from the 101 the first thing you feast your eyes on is a scummy looking bridge with shitty graffiti sprayed all over it. If the over payed and underworked "graffiti team" Ventura has deployed isn't going to help "recover" this unique landmark lets hire some struggling artists to put some cool shit on the bridge that represents our city. While the artists are "recovering" the bridge local paper and news organizations can document the operation and get some well deserving folks into the limelight. Maybe the problem faced in "recovering" the bridge is that the railroad companies own the bridge and not the city or county and it's definetly not top priority of a money hungry corporation to ease the eye pain of some potential income sources to our struggling city merchants. In other words, maybe if that bridge didn't make it look as if you were exiting into the hood, maybe more people would stop and buy something at your local art gallery or restaurant. Its a shame ventura has become known for thrift stores and not its potpouri of natural and one of a kind offerings. There are few places in the world that offer beaches, mountains, lakes and agricultural within minutes of each other all at a reasonable price, if not free.
heres ventura's graffiti hotline website... i wish they would take their own advice.
Congrats to 805 shaper Robert Weiner for winning the coveted "Shaper of the Year." What a major accolade.
Not to take anything away from the shaper of the year title, but in the age of computer generated surf design and so many shapers making such similar boards the title Shaper of the Year seems a little outdated. Now don't get me wrong, this title went to the best person this year. shit, you can't paddle out with out seeing at least 10 Roberts designs so obviously people love them. but any shaper this year was making stubby, wide tail grovelers for high performance surfing in marginal waves. yes there was conflict between Al Merrick and some online videos, with the bottom line being which came first the chicken or the egg? did the white diamond inspire the dumpster diver? was the dupster diver out before the dump truck? was the ...lost rocket out before the White diamond? Whos to say and who's to really care because since the beginning shapers and surfers were always trying different things, taking one of somebody elses and either adding or subtracting design ideas to make it that much more responsive or lighter or faster or whatever. the underlying goal was always how can the surfers on my boards surf the best they possibly can? the answer is with the best equipment for the skill set of the surfer and waves being ridden. its hard to get over the guys with 7'8" fun shape quad fin setups. its like you can barley stand up you really think the $800 custom quad setup is gonna put you over the top? maybe the award could be changed to "shapes or shape of the year"and will be given for the design that pushed surfing to the highest level, as the "diamonds and dumptrucks" did this year. it still takes a skilled and quality shaper to create the designs so there would be no recognition loss there.
"WHITE DIAMOND" the board that changed it all!
this years shaper of the year, seems to have worked with all degrees of surf skill and theory and came up with the best all around boards for this modern design theory. So that in its own right is a great claim to fame and well deserved. Roberts has been a grass roots local shaper dedicated to putting out the best boards he can for his surf team and all clientele for many years. Its about time he caught his big break. It truly proves that if you stick with something that you love through thick and thin dreams can come true. That's indeed what this award is about. Who knows what next years surfboard design gimmick will be but with s10ter, dane, jordy and Roberts' inspiring team defining modern surfing on unique equipment, I'm sure next year will bring a whole new dimension.
p.s. i want a 5'3" white diamond.. hook it up!
heres some previous Shapers of the Year
Tom Wegener
Rusty Preisendorfer
Bert Berger
Eric Arakawa
Al Merrick
BJ Penn walked out to his usual anthem, a crazed look on his face wearing a black shirt with yellow writing that said "A.I. WOULD SCRAP." that tribute shirt gave everyone goosebumps. good on ya B.J.! R.I.P. ANDY!
Oh yeah, BJ licked matt hughes in 21 seconds! when matt hughes woke up from getting beat he asked his corner "what happened?"
