one eighteen

Location : The gulf of Mexico

I met one-eighteen. Now I have been coming into the Houston ship channel for
more than two years, so it was just a matter of time before I met him, but
the fact that I actually met him just a day after I wrote about him on my
blog did startle me. Since I'm again posting my email, you'll have to go to
my last post to get a link to his pictures (or down on the left to the links
section), but he sure does have some of the best pictures on the Houston
ship channel. Now that I analyze it, there are a couple of reasons why I
thought of one-eighteen in the last post. Firstly I have been thinking of
buying a DSLR these last few weeks and being stuck with an iphone for
photography is weighing heavy on my mind. Secondly, 118 likes Bow waves. If
you go on his flikr pictures, you'll see a whole section on the different
pictures of bow waves. Whereas, me being stuck on the bridge, am a forced
fan of the stern wakes. and writing on the "skid marks", just made me
realize the difference and brought him to mind.

So it was a pleasant surprise when I saw that it was him who had caught the
shift of taking my ship out of Houston. From where we were moored, it takes
about five hours to get out to the breakwater, so it was sufficient time for
me to catch up with him. He remembered my blog. Now there are so few
visitors to my blog that it seems a statistical impossibility that you would
actually meet someone who has not only been on your blog, but actually
remembers it. Next thing you know, I will be taking bunkers from the pirate
or meeting Ken on shore leave!

We turned out to be kindred spirits. Turns out he also has daughters.
Ofcourse his elder is almost as old as me, but I'm sure she burps, doesn't
listen to him and probably keeps him awake in the middle of the night as
well. So we talked of daughters, blogs and photography. The funny thing is,
all this happened in the middle of the night. So I doubt if he'll recognize
me if he meets me the next time. Well, nice meeting you 118. And Happy new
year.

Pictured above is the Bayou city. It is 118's ride.