Fish Tacos
Well Nautie Friends.....I'm currently walking through a Mexican port in middle of the night. No, I'm not nervous at all.
Writing blog posts on my iPhone is a great distraction.
The fish taco was TOTALLY worth it.
Ash & Anchor + Megan the Nautie Mermate = LOVE
You know that feeling when you find something you love and you want to buy many, much, more? You want to use it all the time and you want everyone else to know how much you love it. More importantly you want everyone else to have it and love it too!
ASH AND ANCHOR SCARVES ARE THIS THING THAT WE SHOULD ALL LOVE! (and Nautie Friends it's your lucky day!)
I had been oohing and aahing over Ash & Anchor scarves for a long time. I would look at all the pretty designs and think, 'I think this is a need not a want, right?'. I've actually talked about them on the blog a lot too! (See here and here and here.)
Finally, I said: Treat 'Yo Self!
When my Pavo Scarf arrived in the mail it was packaged beautifully - with a hand written note - which my Grandmother would have majorly approved of.
I immediately took it on a few trips. Vegas, Austin, Seattle and, Vancouver were all just slightly more enjoyable with Pavo along. On my Seattle / Vancouver trip the weather was a strange mix of warm and cold - sunny and drizzly - Pavo was perfect for this.
Listen, when you have a scarf that looks good in a bag you know you've found a winner!
We talk a lot about travel accessories around here. What our travel 'must-haves' consist of. Where we like to go and what we like to wear when we go there. We talk about looking fancy when we feel anything but. We also talk about things that just make sense....and are lovely at the same time.
Traveling with Pavo was lovely...and made sense. It rolled right up into my purse. I wrapped Big Bertha up in it and threw her in my bag. I pulled it up over my head when I was freezing on the plane. I cleaned my sunglasses lenses with it. I zipped my jacket up over it when I was freezing in Vancouver. Lovely I tell you, Lovely.
Here's the good news:
Nina Glaser of Ash & Anchor has been so kind as to give a Veda Scarf to one lucky reader!
Nautie Friends, I'm so incredibly honored that Nina has gifted a Veda Scarf to this humble blog. I'm also incredibly excited that one of you are going to be cruising around town in style!
Here's what you can do to make this lovely yours:
- Post a comment. Tell us your favorite travel destination and your must have travel accessory. We love travel stories around here! Have you had an adventure that you'd like to re-tell? Now's your chance!
- We love us some social media. Tweet it up! Facebook your Friends! Instagram this amazingness!
- Tell everyone you know. You have a blog?! Perfect!
One week from now (that would be 09 Aug) I'll pull a name from a hat. Posted a comment? That's a slip in the hat. Sent a tweet out into the twitterverse? That's a slip in the hat. Invited a new reader to the blog who is sly enough to drop your name? That's a slip in the hat!
Was I right, or was I right?
IT'S A LUCKY DAY!
Can't wait to read about where you've been and what kind of shenanigans you've gotten up to! Can't wait to see you kicking around the interwebz! Can't wait to meet some new friends!
You can find me on Instagram @nautiemermate (sorry can't link up to Instagram on the ship) - I tweet away @nautiemermate - I'm alive and well at Megan the NautieMermate on Facebook.
The Panama Canal :: Sailor Friends Are The Bestest
I woke up on Panama Canal Day (yes, thats what I had been calling the day we were to arrive in Panama) with a tweet waiting for me. It said:
You see, when I was a Midshipmen at Maine Maritime Academy I wasn't the only tropical transplant. I had a classmate from Panama. We called him Panama. Seriously. (and for the most part he called me Hawaii...) So of course, knowing that he still lived in Panama and worked on Tugs I sent him a tweet. Hello, 2013! The age where sailors can tweet eachother from sea!
(okay fine, that's a highly edited photo of our anchorage. but doesn't it look cool?!)
Sure enough - there was an email waiting for me. Full of detailed information about what to expect for the day - detailed information - like, what anchorage we would be at, what our pilot boarding time would be, and what an admeasurement survey consisted of.
Unfortunately, we knew just due to the timing of our arrival - and his work schedule that he wouldn't be able to come aboard for the transit however; being the crafty sailors we are we had a plan!
Things went exactly according to his email.
The admeasurer boarded the vessel and began his task. When a vessel makes its frist trip through the canal The Panama Canal Authority sends a representative to the vessel to literally measure the ship ensuring that the tonnage and beam of the vessel is accurate. The admeasurer calculates the vessels 'extreme beam'. The extreme beam of the vessel normally doesn't vary much from the beam listed on the ships particulars but, will include the width of shell plating and, any fenders or gear that may protrude from the ship which may interfere with their ability to enter the locks.
This Gentlemen measured everything. Even the diameter of our Rudder Angle Indicators. Trust me: everything was measured.
Once the admeasurement was done I took a quick nap. I knew it would be a long night..
Before I knew it I was up on the bow heaving the anchor and shaping up to enter the Panama Canal.
Let me just interrupt things to say:
I'VE BEEN WAITING TO GO THROUGH THE PANAMA CANAL FOREVER. I WAS BEYOND EXCITED TO TRANSIT THIS CANAL!!!!!!!!!
Where were we? Okay, so we're shaping up for the canal. It feels like a jungle. I'm literally drenched in sweat. The humidity must have been 150%. The sides of the channel were lush and green and there was that weird tropical mist lingering above the trees. I have this picture in my head of The Heart of Darkness - like I'm on an old steamer and it may be awhile before I see civilization for awhile.
Very close to the Western Canal entrance is the first set of locks called Gatun. Now listen, I could go on and on about how cool the locks are. I'm going to save you from this and instead, just show you lots of pictures.
Basically there are these incredibly powerful trolleys (also called Mules) that give you wires and assist you in and out of the canal. There are four wires in total - two on the bow and two on the stern - which are crossed from port to starboard and vice versa. An efficient team of line handlers boards your vessel during your approach to the locks and handles everything for you. Basically, you need one crew member to operate the winch for the line handling team. Did I mention this team is efficient? Efficient!
Due to the variance in water levels sometimes the trolleys are on very steep inclines. Did I mention they're powerful? Powerful!
Admittedly, as soon as we passed through this lock I went straight to bed - to wait for tweets from my friend letting me know we were passing through his area.
Sure enough the tweet arrived and I ran up to the bridge and there, right near my stern was The Little Tugboat Who Could!
I ran inside, grabbed a flashlight and ran back out so I could start waving my arms around like crazy and swirling my flashlight around in circles.
Knowing that my friend got his crew together to come over and say hello was a moment for me. One of those moments where I realize that attending Maine Maritime Academy changed my life - for the better. The fact that I have friends who are going to come say hello in the Panama Canal on a Tug Boat while I'm on a Heavy Lift Ship is EPIC. Being a sailor is a strange mix of being lonely and being surrounded by people. It's hard to maintain friendships when you're at sea but the flip side is that Sailor Friends are friends for life. Panama (the person) you're the bestest - thanks for the lights and the tweets and the warm Panamanian welcome.
Clearly, I needed to tweet Panama. The amount of tweets exchanged in one day was pretty amazing. Two Ships Passing In The Night!
Following my Panamanian driveby I took one more quick nap before my last set of locks.
By this time I wasn't taking nearly as many photos. I was mostly enjoying the scenery and making sure my family could find me on the PanCanal Webcam's.
The grand finale? Passing under a pretty bridge! Don't ask me it's name...no clue....
Nautie Friends, this post has taken me forever to write and I feel like I've really rushed it. There is more to say! More photos to post! More to dissect!
It's going to have suffice for now and hopefully I can post a Panama Canal Dos soon. Please excuse all the grainy iPhone photos!
Buoys.
One of my coolest lifts ever. Large offshore mooring buoys for tankers.
I'm so exhausted my toes hurt but, I really wanted to share some photos.
The Past Few Days...
...have been some of my hardest shipboard days ever. I realize that sounds dramatic but it's nothing short of true.
Between all the work scheduled for the port stay, the inspections and the full crew change I've literally been going non-stop. IN THE HOUSTON HEAT.
The one saving grace? Cargo only worked until 1800. I really don't know how I would have survived otherwise.
It must be said however; that 'vacation mode' sets in quickly when you step off the ship and 'work mode' requires a more painful translation.
Climbing in and out of the cargo holds, climbing up to the crane cabs a few times a day, sheesh just the ladder ways up to my deck! These physical activities are unique to shipping - minus going to cross fit boot camp in a hot city there isn't going to be anything similar.
I'm happy to say that when I stepped outside this morning and the Houston humidity slapped me in the face I felt a teensy bit better than I did on morning day two.
I hope you're all having a fabulous weekend!
Planning Station
As things have mellowed out a bit I've been focusing on paperwork. Primarily the stability side of things. This means I've been drawing lots of boxes and putting them in their proper place in my stability program.
Time zapper. It's incredibly labor intensive and there are literally too many boxes to draw.
Instead, I lump large groups of boxes together and figure out their cumulative weights and dimensions. This also takes time...just not as much.
Coffee is a critical component of any shipboard task!
Just thought I'd keep you all posted on my goings on...
