A Brief Yet Informative Multiple Choice Quiz

1. Which definition below more accurately describes the term fire watch, the function being performed in Cargo Hold 1 while the Bender shipyard welders do their work?

(a) An additional person required to be posted at the site of "hot work"--welding, grinding, etc.--to watch for fires

(b) An additional person required to be posted at the site of "hot work"--welding, grinding, etc.--to watch the fires

Katie volunteered for the 7-10 fire watch shift this morning and, incidentally, joined the fairly exclusive club on the Caribbean Mercy of people who have personally extinguished fires on board. However, she also reported that today "most of them did," in fact, "go out by themselves."

On The Demographics Of Crustacean Ingestion

Katie's aunt and uncle in New Orleans graciously hosted us shipyard refugees on Thursday and Friday, along with more family, refugees from the frozen Northeast. Much fun was had. Also, large amounts of boiled crawfish were eaten, the leftovers (over ten pounds) of which, when hauled back to the ship and dumped in the dining room, left more than a few people ecstatically happy and several other people more than a little unsettled. Not to worry, though - not everyone sucks the heads.

The Magical World Of Bender

We moved across the river last week to a different shipyard (nice aerial view here) for the welding we need to do in the cargo holds. Since our main engine is still in pieces for various repairs, the shift was accomplished under the power of two tugs. I had never been aboard before when the ship was in motion without the engine running. (Drifting with engine trouble, yes, but we like to think that's different.) As it is generally frowned upon for the ship to be out wandering around without any engine or rudder control - this is one of those little things they train us to report on gangway watch, e.g., should we happen to observe it taking place - the silent movement was a bit of a strange feeling.

But it is nice to be back on this side of the river, however. Our nearest neighbors include six bail-bond establishments and the county jail, but now we can walk downtown in the time it takes to say "Bender" one thousand nine hundred and seventy-one times fast. A worthwhile trade.

Rhetorical Question

At what point in the ever-climbing ratio of replaced steel to original steel are you allowed to call it a new ship?

A Minor Procedural Question

Q: What do you call it when last Tuesday's inhaled steel dust finally stops draining out of your sinuses?

A: Saturday.

Sitting In...Panera Bread

You know it's bad when you see the ship's IT manager coming here to use the internet.

Asides aside, there is that certain je-ne-c'est-something about the magical synergy of free wireless and free refills. I like living the kind of life where something like this can make my day. But this is only the first stop. Today Katie and i have a rare day off together - actually, i'll be on the ten-to-six all night, but that's tonight. Right now, i'm free, and we are in possession of that rarest of rarities, the keys to a borrowed car. (Muahahaha.) The daffodils are blooming, there are green buds on the trees, and it's a sunny day in the South. Otis Redding, you got nothin'. We're going to sit in the park.

Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay

Big container ship coming past.

It's kind of cool to watch them glide by in the dark. Impressive, like seeing your first freight train up close when you were little. Gives you a feeling of continuity with the world or something, the comforting sense that all those huge gears of commerce and multinational corporate evil and whatnot are still turning even when you're asleep. When i was little, i assumed waterfalls stopped running at night, cuz really, why would they keep going with no one there to see them?

At this hour, shipwatching is a little disconcerting as well, with the big ones. Imagine you're downtown at 3 a.m., sleep-deprived, and you witness a whole building silently pick itself up and glide inexorably away down the street. Then imagine it was under control by live people, like yourself, so you could trust that this behemoth wouldn't run anything over...except maybe just every once in a while, like, say, a year ago when our ship was tied up across the river and that huge naval prepositioning ship got taken by the current and rammed a hole in our drydock and everyone had to stumble ashore through a cloud of escaping natural gas and there was only one remaining mooring line keeping our ship from drifting rapidly down the river and sinking.

Really, it's that delightful little bit of niggling uncertainty about things that puts the zest into life.