ICE. VOLUME ONE.

I've been living and breathing ice conditions for the last week or two.  It's not something I ever thought I'd track, pay attention to or, make plans around.

I've enjoyed the challenge of navigating through the ice immensely.  Not only does it require heightened awareness and constant vigilance it's also just down right gorgeous.  

The ice fields we've been operating in have a distinct edge.  There are random pieces of ice through all the waters surrounding the North Slope of Alaska but, the ice we've been tracking has a fairly clear line where it begins and ends.  We track it on the radar but, we also have partners in planes who fly the region daily (as conditions allow) providing an ice report.

When you enter the ice field conditions vary based on location.  For example ice will 'stack up' around a barrier island making it much more challenging to transit.  The photo above is only about 40% concentration - but from the waterline you can see that it's really challenging to find clear paths to navigate through.

A lot of the ice is old and soft.  As our hull would make contact it would crack, roll and give way.  Part of the 'constant vigilance' is to constantly be scanning the horizon to assess the next pan of ice for what type of ice it is.  Is it solid?  Large underwater portions?  Are there fractures or weak places for us to target?  What color is it?  Our vessel is designed to operate in ice which gave us a huge advantage.

You can clearly see that not all ice is created equal.  You can definitely prioritize what you want to avoid when the concentration is only at 40%.  

One thing that surprised me was how dirty the ice was!  As this ice has broken away from its original location it's been 'rolled' by the forces of nature.  At some point the brown bits have touched ground or the bottom of the seabed rolling through the mud.  

Our toughest portion was about 60-70% concentration and it was much, much, much more challenging then 40%.

There are currently concentrations of up to 80% and we're hoping that a good blow will open things up for us.

In the meantime, I'm editing and resizing photos because Big Bertha had a field day!  I can't wait to share more!

Just a friendly reminder, I use Instagram a lot.  If you're frustrated I'm not posting you can almost always find me there!  @nautiemermate 

A Northerly Update

It's starting to get cold. Today we had little mini icicles on the railings - and it snowed! 

We spent two days last week in very heavy ice. It was intense, exhilarating, gorgeous and exhausting all at once.  

We are currently anchored and waiting in a safe harbor for the ice conditions to improve.  

It's incredibly hard to believe that it's August.  It seems like everyday feels a little more like winter.  I looked outside my window today and thought, 'I really hope we're out of here by mid-september'.   

I've been posting a lot of photos to Instagram but, I realize not all you lovelies can see them.  

Here's a mini look at what my Instagram feed is looking like!

Leader of the pack.  

Tugboat friends! 

A pan of ice along the hull while underway. 

Mini icicles in August! 

I loaded these all from my phone - while I cringe to complain about the wifi (because...hello!  awesome!) - our connection is slow and spotty. Please excuse the lack of formatting! 

The Arctic Circle

There are Mariner Milestones - I’ve been lucky enough to hit a few of them in my career.

The Prime Meridian - 0 degrees Longitude

The International Dateline - 180 degrees Longitude

The Equator - 0 degrees Latitude

I’ve crossed these imaginary lines.  Most times I’ve crossed these imaginary lines in the middle of the ocean with nothing to mark the occasion other than a glance at the GPS to say, ‘yep, here I am’.

I crossed a new line this week.

The Arctic Circle - 66 degrees 33 minutes North Latitude

As per usual it was a quiet affair with no fanfare.  My shipmates had all crossed it before and were uniformly unimpressed.

Mother Nature however, felt that a proper welcome to the Arctic was necessary and graced me with a nearly white rainbow.

Here’s to Mariner Milestones and Rainbows.  May they never get old.

Nautie Tugs Have Nicer Sterns

Sometimes things just unfold.  One second you're going one way and the next thing you know you're going another way. A path that you didn't even consider becomes a viable option and that friends, is exactly why I'm currently sitting on a tugboat headed to ports unknown.  

When I was in school I took Tug & Barge and it was hands down one of the best experiences I had. It was incredibly hands on - we spent all day on the tug - much of the day was spent moving around the barge. It was fabulous.  

Getting out of school I went deep sea. I worked on ships and I moved up my license. I didn't really consider tugs because the tonnage wouldn't have moved up my license.  

Now here I am. I've maxed out my license, I've hopped around the industry (and let's be honest I've struggled to find a home since my favorite ship was reflagged), I've moved back home to Hilo and I've had to do some soul searching. 

What it boils down to is that it's been harder and harder for me to get excited to go to sea. I've just slowly been losing steam. It's been longer than I care to admit that I enjoyed a watch, had fun with my shipmates or really felt like I was excited to learn something new.  All of this is out of character for me. I'm excitable. I enjoy the sea. I love to learn.  

When a friend said, 'why don't you try tugs. You might be surprised!'  I thought, what the heck...I've got nothing to lose.  

One week later I flew out to meet a tug in Japan. Destination to be determined.  

As I stagger around the tug (because ummmm....these tugs really move around...more on this to follow...) it feels new. Right now, new feels good.  

A week into shipboard life.

I'm a week and a day (or so) into this current rotation at sea.  Hypothetically, if I complete all the time allotted to my contract I'll be aboard for 126 days.  My plan is to avoid taking a trip off (like I did last time - so that I could move out of my place in Houston) and just get all three West Coast - Asian trips done in one clean swoop.

Doing all three trips isn't necessarily the best option for my mental health but, it's definitely the best option for my bank account and annual timeline.  It's definitely a mindset and I'm working on attaining said mindset right off the bat.  I think it was one of the reasons I packed so many 'extras' this go around.  I mean honestly, I'm looking forward to my daily chocolate out of my advent calendar!  Looking forward to small things goes a really long way.  Hence the extras.

It's been radio silence around here.  I attribute that to a small dose of 'hibernation' (ie I've been taking more naps than required....maybe just a touch of 'joining the ship blues'), limited internet (can we all agree I should be grateful just to have a small amount of internet in the middle of the ocean?!) and, plain old laziness.

Here's what the past week looked like:

First things first - setting up my bed with comfy flannel comforter and bottom sheet.  Aaaaah.  Cozy.  I love cuddling up.

November 23rd.  

Next on the agenda was getting used to early morning wake ups once more.  Of all the watches, 04-08 / 16-20 is my favorite.  Most times you get the sunrise and sunset.  

November 24th.

Our first morning out of Oakland was foggy yet sunny.  I'll take it.

November 25th.

I tried to get back in the groove by documenting my coffee with a sunrise.  You know....my signature shot.  I got foam blown all over my fingers.  I had to laugh out loud.

November 27th.

Dutch Harbor on arrival = Gorgeous.  Dutch Harbor on departure = snow blowing sideways and an aborted undocking due to high winds - the ship couldn't breast off the dock.

November 29th.

The exciting thing about December First was being able to dig into my Advent Calendar!  Thanks Trader Joes.  Those little chocolates are scrumdiliumptious.

December 1st.

This morning was gloomy.  So, so gloomy.  It was also Thursday instead of Wednesday - after all this time I STILL find the International Date Line confusing!  It's official folks, I'm in East Longitude.

December 4th.

There you have it!  A week in a post!

I hope your Thanksgiving was lovely and that you're gearing up for the Holidays with style!

The ever elusive dolphin...

Nothing gets me fired up to blog quicker then getting a great shot of a marine mammal.

I've posted quite a few throughout the years here.  Most recently it was of a fin whale.  My archives are a mess from transferring my blog a few times and so seeing older dolphins is nigh impossible.  

The thing is 9 times out of 10 I don't get the shot.  Of all the photos I take of dolphins and whales its very rare for me to get a gem.

They almost all look like this:

I've been trying for a little transparency on the photography front so I figured I'd share a dolphin splash.

For the record, I'll photograph dolphin splashes all day long if it means I might get a gem!