pancakes recipe

dont be scared! try it.

1 cup pancake mix
2/3 cup diet coke
toss in some bananas

grill em
eat em
enjoy em.

thanks COSTCO

now a paper route and a neighbors lawns mowed, anyone can afford a SUP.
these 2 traveled all the way from sherman oaks to give it a whirl...
stand up paddle and board 600.00
gas for beach day 25.00
getting washed through the ventura pier and living to talk about it... priceless.

check it out duuude, i shot the pier

lifeguard-"that was the stupidest thing ive seen. keep it in the harbor."

cant wait to tell the valley chicks about our big day at the beach

Wednesday

its been a while

but nothings really been happening. Sunday afternoon was pretty nice. Everyone came out to play...from florida to australia here they were in the good old 805.

xmas

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

Rat Guards

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.

average day at sea

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.