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Gustav - The sleep depriving giant
2008-08-31 17:09:00
.Location : US Gulf.It is surprising how Gustav seems to have filled up the whole of Gulf of Mexico. It sure is tough to get any sleep out here when this fellow is stomping all over the place. .
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Gustav - A determined Cuban
2008-08-31 02:07:00
Location : US Gulf .When you look at the cloud cover over the entire Earth, the hurricanes heading towards me seem rather small. Gustav is turning out to be one Determined Cuban on his way to the US. He leaves the Cuban Coast tonight and is forcasted to make Landfall on the Mississippi Delta sometime early on the 1st PM. Since we were pretty much on its way, we are running with all our speed. Lets just hope that the forcasters know what they are talking about. If this Cuban decides to join his cousins in Florida, its going to spoil a lot of dinners out here! .

Helicopter landings
2008-08-30 18:39:00
Location : The US Gulf The other day we had a helicopter land on the vessels heli deck. In the US Gulf, since its too cumbersome to send surveyors and charterers rep by launch for the Ship to ship ops, they usually fly them out of New Orleans. As the mothership was actually smaller then us and didn't have a Heli-deck, the chopper came over to us. A nice change from the ordinary. I had flown in one of these choppers a few years back and it was a wonderful feeling. Please note the small floats on the bottom stands of the chopper. As the pilot then had explained to me, "They make the chopper sink slower in case we ditch this baby."
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Gustav & Hanna - The Hurricane map
2008-08-30 05:43:00
Location : US Gulf CoastFrom where I'm sitting, this is one uncomfortable picture.  The above satellite imagery shows the whole of the US gulf and Atlantic area. The One on tip of Cuba is Gustav and more to the east is Hanna . Hanna is projected to die down a bit to "Tropical Storm" status over the next few days, but Gustav is slated to hit the Louisiana coast on the 1st PM or 2nd PM. Which should make my life uncomfortable sometime late on the 30th.
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Freeport and the Baptist church
2008-08-29 04:59:00
Location : The US Gulf when I heard for the first time that we were bound for Freeport , I had wild thoughts of waterskying in the Bahamas. Turns out that there is a Freeport in Texas as well. Its not somethig that really appeals at first glance. Searching for places of intrest only reveals one beach out there over which surf breaks only when hit by a grade three cyclone. which is coming by the way. But unless the high winds start blowing them away, the place is being ruled by huge gangs of Mosquitoes. I read in a Louis Lamour book that mosquitoes in Texas can actually kill a horse. The author might have been thinking of Freeport when he wrote that. But then this post is not about freeport, but about Religion. With every post I try to learn something new and for this post I am going to read something about the Baptist Church . The reason I'm reading up on the Baptist structure is because of the Seaman's centre that really is one of the best things going for the town. The places is...

Iron Manolis at Corpus Christi
2008-08-23 21:21:00
Location : Freeport , Texas I came across the Iron Manolis as she was loading her cargo of Grain at Corpus Christi. It is essentially a gearless bulk carrier. What that means is that it is a bulk carrier that doean't have any cranes or davits to handle any cargo. While this would mean that it would be a problem to handle this ship at small ports, if an owner is confident of his ships run, saving money on the cranes can pay out in the longer run. The Iron Manolis is a new ship with its keel laid out in 2005 and was launched in 2007. One interesting thing I learnt during research for the Iron Manolis was that it belongs to the Kamsarmax class of bulk carriers. It seems that Kamsarmax bulkcarriers are bulkcarriers of about 82000 DWT, and are basically Panamax bulkcarriers with an extended length. In the picture above, you can see the Iron Manolis at berth. All its seven hatches are closed and you can even see the head lines going from the bow of the vessel. A tug is tied up on...

Corpus Christi - A bridge and a ship
2008-08-23 04:16:00
Location : Freeport 28 48 N , 095 12 WI have been twice to Corpus Christi over the past few days and since I have been there a few times before this, Corpus Christi has become one of my most visited cities on the US Coast.This is the view from the bridge as you go into the city harbor. Right up front is the Corpus Christi Harbor bridge and to the right is the USS Lexington, now a Museum.The corpus Christi bridge is good going in, because we are loaded and so deep into the water. It is while coming out without cargo, when the clearance height of 138 Feet makes us dismantle our mast so that we can slip under it. A fact that always irritates me as I lose Sat C reception till the time the mast is put up again.The Construction of the Corpus Christi bridge was started in 1956 and it was inaugurated in 1959. Even now, at 243 feet, this is the second tallest bridge in Texas. Sadly because the yanks are still not happy with it, they are going to break it down and built a bigger bridge that w...
More About: Bridge , Ship

Corpus Christi - The sinking ship
2008-08-21 09:39:00
Location : The Gulf Of MexicoSailing for over a decade, might lull you into thinking that you've pretty much seen everything that there is to see. But the other day when the ship went to Corpus Christi, I came across the above scene, and the first thing to cross my mind was a sympathetic thought for the brother captain of mine who must have been on that ship when it broke into two.But as it turned out a couple of days later, when I passed that way again, the vessel was floating happily around in its berth, with a huge oil rig strangely impaled on it. As it turned out, the vessel Talisman, is probably one of the handful of vessels built for the express purpose of transporting oil rigs. As per what I was told by the pilot, the vessel doesn't really break into two, but is in fact an submersible vessel that enables the main deck to sink some meters below the water. In the middle of the deck is a huge hole, like a well and it is in this hole over which the oil rig is bought over and pl...
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A recent Sunset
2008-08-19 00:10:00
Location : Gulf Of Mexico - 27 39 N, 095 11 W The last trip to Venezueal was a pity because they tied us up to an platform way off into the sea. But the sun that went down into those waters was beautiful. As it dipped down into the sea, it seemed to leave behind this river of molten clouds in its wake.
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Sunrise at sea
2008-08-15 05:04:00
Some days you wake up to the most stunning of sights in the morning that makes everything in the world worthwhile. This picture was though was not a recent one, but from the last ship. I promise myself not to go through old pictures but always fail at that. :)
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The Steaming decks
2008-08-08 23:31:00
Location : The Caribbean , 17 49 N 081 05 W I was going through some old snaps and wanted to show you a picture from one of my previous ship. Sometimes the oil that we carry needs to be heated. When we do this, the deck actually heats up. This night we were at anchor so the deck lights were all lit up and it rained. As the rain stopped, the water on the deck began to steam up. It sure was an spooky place to be on the deck that night. But ofcourse the ghosts on that ship were really nice folks. Maybe I'll tell you about them some other day.

The Statue Ferry ticket
2008-08-07 12:52:00
Location - The Caribbean , 14 03 N , 072 46 W   The last few days were busy, but didn't get much snap footage of Venezuela, so might as well fill some space with the statue. I wanted to show you the statue ferry ticket and the brochure on the statue that I picked up at the information centre.
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The statue of Liberty
2008-08-03 08:49:00
Location : The Caribbean ,  15 08 N , 066 33 E   Though it was fun to see the statue of Liberty from three miles, you do understand that the thrill wore off after two days of anchorage seeing it this way. So once we were tied up, we snuck off early in the morning to have a closer look at Lady liberty Early in the morning, she hadn't put on any make up and you can see the oxidation and the lines running down her face. Well she's been out there a long time so you can't really blame her for looking like that first thing in the morning.    
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New York - Liberty View
2008-08-01 11:54:00
Position : The Atlantic , 26 07 N / 069 58 W   As we came into Newyork, the day had dawned and we saw the statue of Liberty welcoming us as it must have been seen by the millions who came in with the immigration wave of the last century. We dropped anchor about 3 miles from the statue for our first cargo operations and this is the view of the statue from there.
More About: New York , York , View , New-York

Off Gibralter
2008-07-22 16:04:00
Location : Gibralter - 38 37 N 062 46 W A few days back I had put up a screenshot of Gibralter with my ship a few miles south East of the rock. Here's a picture of the same area of the view from the ship In the background is Spain and at the foot of the rock are a few ships anchored and waiting for orders or bunkers.

Turkey - Classic steamer
2008-07-21 08:57:00
Location : The Atlantic - 37 40 N 055 20 W   This a a beautiful example of the small steamers that were seen about a century back. Add a couple of paddle wheels at the stern and you could very well be in New Orleans. The thing that puzzles me is that there were no identification marks on the vessel. No name, port of registry of any such thing. The thing looks in great shape, so it might actually be a new building which is being test driven around before the official launch.   But please do note the beautiful Wooden superstructure (hell to maintain) and Masts, the midship Engineroom , The L shaped Air ventilator for natural ventilation, Mahagony wooden lifeboats, Extensive halyard design , and ofcourse the gaint wheel at the conning position on the fore of the bridge.   One give away that it is a new construction is the presence of the two shankless anchors neatly attached at the ships bow. These anchors did not really become popular with ...
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Saracena at Skikda
2008-07-19 08:20:00
Location - The Atlantic - 36 37 N 043 31 W   The picture above is of M.T Saracena with the Algerian port of Skikda in the background. Saracena was ahead of us in line and went alongside to discharge there before us. Small tankers like Saracena criss cross all over the Med carrying small parcels of chemicals or products. One this which we can't see in the picture is that there are two funnels in the vessel, which meant that there are also toe associated engines and propellers. This gives the vessels such as Saracena great manouverability. In the background is the port of Skikda. On the right we see the breakwater and behind it the oil tanks spread all over the countryside. Also in the background are these aweful flares that keep spewing smoke all over the place. The three days that we were there, the town of Skikda was downwind and I can only wonder what they feel about these flares.     I like this particular picture because its got a rou...

Turkish Fort
2008-07-17 11:23:00
Location - Atlantic : 35 57 N / 028 26 W   Now that we have left Europe and Asia behind, I wanted to go back to the main countries that I passed through before coming over here. The one with the best views was of course Turkey with the amazing skyline of Istanbul and the neighboring countryside. This picture is of a fort about five miles north of Istanbul along the straits. Unlike the Indian forts, these forts have a very open feel to them and sometimes go curving into themselves. I can only assume that the purpose of that would be to funnel the attacking army into places where they could be plummeted by rocks, arrows and other such items.
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Gibralter - view from the top
2008-07-16 06:54:00
Location : The Atlantic -   After yesterdays postcard of Gibralter, here's another view of the rock. This image of Google earth is used with the same format as that of the image a few days back of my ship in Italy. In this image, my ship is the one on the bottom right. The waters off Gibralter are very deep, with depths going down to over 500 meters just a few miles off the land. As a result, most of the ships have to come quite close to the land to anchor.   In the picture above, if you match it with the postcard of yesterday, you can pretty much identify the landmarks. On the right of the rock (East), the three ships bunched close together are vessels anchored, most likely awaiting orders or waiting to bunker. The advantage of anchoring on the East of the rock is that you don't have to pay the port dues. So if you have a ship heading to Gibralter with a long anchorage, you know where to anchor now. :)   My ship, on the bottom right was waiting...
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Ile Srigina
2008-07-12 07:55:00
Location -     Ile Srigina is sort of place where I imagine a woman in long flowing white dress, to face into the wind, looking far away at the horizon into the setting sun. The camera, possibly on an helicopter, moves around, panning the scenery, a few waves crash into the rock below and the sun sets, bringing in the credits of the film.    The British Admilarity takes a dimmer view of the island and describes the setting as a lighthouse, 54 meters high white square tower.  As additional helpful tips, it adds that the light is obscured by Point Esrah when bearing less then 122 degrees.   I was anchored for two days about a mile and half from this island and loved it for all that time. The sun sets rbehind the clifss in the background and the whole setting looks etheral. Though its a bitch to catch on camera!      

Flares
2008-07-10 03:02:00
Location - Algeria   Came into the port the other day and since they don't allow anybody off the ship, it is only a limited view of the country we get. FLares light up the night sky in the port. The weather is fine with a dry northwesterly blowling. This thankfully means that the smoke form the above flares drifts away from us.    So se sit on the stairs leading to the bridge, side by side, looking at the flames leaping and jumping - Struggling to get out of their perch.  

The bulk carrier Lepetane
2008-07-08 13:31:00
Location - At Anchor off Algeria      So here we are anchored off the Algerian coastline. Pictured above is the bulk carrier called Lepetane who seems to be waiting for her turn to berth and discharge her cargo. The port seems rather full so I don't think they are going anywhere in a hurry.   In the background is another small coaster that seems to be shuttling between the Algerian ports And further back is the rugged Algerian coastline.
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The bridges of Istanbul Bogazi
2008-07-06 02:42:00
Location : Off Sardegna Island, Mediterian / 38 45 N / 005 23 EYesterday I had shown you a picture of one of the bridges connecting thecontinents of Europe and Asia. To the bridge enthusiasts, who might find thepictures of the bridges often enough, I wanted to show this informationabout the bridges, given on the navigational charts. These are great bridgesand as we can see that the first bridge has a span of about 600 meters, thesecond bridge, goes on for about a kilometer.With a height of about 68 meters from the high water mark, these are some ofthe greatest bridges that I have passed under.
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The Bridge at Istanbul
2008-07-05 08:12:00
Location : 150 miles off Sardegna Islands, 38 50 N , 005 43 E   Readers of my blog will remember the Bridge of the Americas at Panama City , that connected the continents of North & South America.   Pictured here is one of the two bridges at Istanbul , Turkey. These bridges are the only road (and probably rail) connection between the continents of Europe and Asia. I did mention on my previous post that they are building an underground/water tunnel, but I think that is still some years away from opening.    
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Istanbul
2008-07-02 12:43:00
Location - 40 28 N / 006 32 E - Off Sardegna   This is another view of istanbul at dusk.     
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Mumabi
2008-06-30 02:05:00
Location : At Anchor, off Genoa, Italy   Puja is coming over to the ship today, and since my thoughts are in Mumbai, might as well put up a snap from there.    This is a snap taken on  Madh Island, Mumbai.    

Italy
2008-06-29 23:39:00
  Came in to the anchorage as dawn was creeping in itself. Sunrise caught us dropping our anchor and the countryside in a beautiful vista of mountain ranges covered in morning mist.    
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Istanbul
2008-06-29 23:39:00
   These mosques are the first thing that come to mind when I think of Istanbul . Took this picture a few days back as we passed the Bosphorous. It was evening and the setting sun painted the mosques in a magical golden color.   If you are wondering about the three minars on the right, they seem to have some scaffolding on at present for maintainence.   In the foreground are the many many small ferry's that keep going up and down the channel the whole day. Good thing they keep out of the way of people like us. Almost at this exact location the Turks are building an underwater tunnel that is built more than half way. We'll probably have less of these guys once that gets built. But then they are also planning a Oil Pipeline to the Med from the Black sea. So it might very well be that they will see a lot less of us. :)  

Italy - The Scouts
2008-06-29 01:53:00
Posn - East Coast Sardegna - 40 30 N / 10 38 EThe institution of Scouts completed a hundred years of its existence in theyear 2007 and everyone other then the Indian govt seems to have issued reamsof stamps to commemorate the occasion. Pictured above is one of the sheetsreleased by the Italians for the occasion. I am putting this here simplybecause so many people have been asking for Scouts stamps on the internetbulletin boards, that I am sure that I am missing out on their significance.I actually was in the scouts. I distinctly remember wearing my brothershand-me-downs to the parades. The only thing I took to those parades, whichwas my own, was this round ferrule type thing through which we knot thescarf and a fierce will not to parade. And that is what we did in the scouts, I swear. We paraded, saluted thatthree fingered salute and read some rules off some blue book. Which wasimmediately taken back as soon as the parade was finished. Of course the stamps prove that some scouts pla...
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The Map
2008-06-27 07:54:00
Posn : South East of Sicily - 36 18 N 018 11 EFirst off, please forgive me for the long absense off the blog. I wish Icould say that it was for a good reason like global hunger, but I wasactually busy killing friends and strangers on the Team Fortress servers.After a moth or so of that, I find myself again in the safe sanity ofbobbing along in the middle of the sea. This time in the middle of theLagoon - Something the US Navy calls the Mediterian. I don't particularlylike the Medi. Too crowded for my taste and some of the worst weathers thatI have faced in my seafaring life has been in these waters. But hey new waters translate into new stamps don't they? I had gone to thebeautiful Italian city of Trieste and actually stepped out to visit theInternational Maritime Institute to have a look-see, but it turns out thatthe place shut down few months back. Just my luck. Someone who knows someonetells me that there was some scandal. Money taking and all that. But don'ttell anyo...