Corpus Christi - The sinking ship

Location : The Gulf Of Mexico

Sailing 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 placed for the long trip over to its drilling position.

A bit of research shows that the Talisman is a 1993 built vessel classed as a Heavy load carrier and is registered in the Netherland Antilles. A place where I was a lot if you go back on the blog. Also it actually has five more sister ships in operation around the world, built in the same shipyard from 1989 to 1993. Its a neat contraption and the first time I've ever seen something like this. The Pilot explained that the oil rig is being shipped off to Argentina. Well, smooth sailing to you guys!

A recent Sunset

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.

Sunrise at sea

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. :)

The Steaming decks

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

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.

The statue of Liberty

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.

 

 

New York - Liberty View

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.

Off Gibralter

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

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 the smaller ships till the middle of the century.

 

But thing is a beauty and it was great to see it in the setting sun.

Saracena at Skikda

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 rough look about it which reflects the real world.

Turkish Fort

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.

Gibralter - view from the top

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 for the anchorage to get vacant in the Gibralter bay so that we could go in and bunker (take fuel). Gibralter bay is on the left of Gibralter and you can see a few ships on the left of the screen.  The Gibralter bay gets very crowded and its not uncommon to hear at odd times of the night, various captains telling other various captians how they have anchored too close to their ships.

 

 Thanks to dad again for sending this picture along.

 

Location : Atlantic Ocean - 35 52 N / 015 11 W

From Algeria, we wound up in Gibralter for fuel. Sadly as events would have
it, by the time we dropped anchor, it was late at night and we left by dawn.
This meant that this was the second time that I had anchored at Gibralter
and couldn't see the rock. If you have found yourself in a somewhat similar
situation, you would appreciate the postcard above that the Agent sourced
for me. If you can't make out the markings properly, the things of interest,
seen in a clockwise direction from top left are :
-Cable Car
- Apes Den
- Catalan Bay
- Botanic Gardens
- Saint Michaels Cave
- Europa Mosque
- Shrine of our lady of Europe
- Europa point
- 100 ton gun
- The convent
- Cathedral of the holt trinity
- Line wall synagouge
- Cathedral of Saint Mary the crowned
- Marina Bay
- Land Frontier
- Great Seige tunnel
- Moorish Castle

This does let you know pretty much everything that a tour guide would tell
you over six hours and a hundred pounds. And as far as you are concenred,
another thousand pounds of air tickets. :)

Ile Srigina

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

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.