21 May 2005 10:48

A Midweek Dilemma


The power went out on Wednesday. This happens from time to time when we're on shore power - shore power meaning that instead of using our big Cat generators we're just running the whole ship on a glorified extension cord (albeit one the size of your arm) from the dock. Being on shore power has has several different ramifications for the engineering department, mainly positive, but the one that mostly affected me on Wednesday was the lack of emergency lights in the bathrooms.


When the power goes out, everything goes out but the emergency lights. If one is at sea, the instruments and radios and steerage run off a big bank of daisy-chained batteries until one can start the emergency generator (which generally takes six engineers and a full can of starting fluid), so there is a safety margin. In port, however, one sits and waits for Hoboken Light & Power to plug one in again. And if one were - for example - sitting buck-naked on the john in the pitch-black bathroom, just about to flush and get into the shower, well, it could potentially be a bit of a wait.


In this particular situation, there are several possible conclusions one could infer from the sudden and complete loss of all light.

  1. The power company will have it back in just a few seconds. No problem.

  2. The shipyard's forklift driver backed into a pole and everything will be down for the rest of the day. Inconvenient, but given a few minutes, i can probably manage to locate my clothes. Also maybe even the flush handle.

  3. There is a fire in the engine room and the alarm's going to ring in a split second and my fire team will have to run and suit up to put it out RIGHT NOW.


As i said, several possible conclusions. And if one has personally witnessed all of these, then there are many things that run through one's mind when one finds oneself sitting completely naked in the pitch-dark bowels of the ship. Such as--

  1. How much of my clothing do i really need to find?

  2. Maybe it's just a little fire.

  3. Do we really need two fire teams? Maybe Team One could just handle it. They're smart guys, aren't they?


Fortunately, one's dilemma can also be solved by the return of power after three or four minutes of this sort of careful deliberation. Then one can simply flush and step into the shower in peace.


See? This is what i'm talking about. Years of therapy to sort through this stuff.