Back At It

Well, after a wonderful month home, I'm back in WA awaiting a taxi to take me down to the yards and I'll be heading out on the Polar Viking for a 5+ week trip to Whittier and Dutch Harbor.  I'm sailing with a familiar crew, all good people and things should go fairly well.

The past month home has been awesome.  The weather has been pretty decent aside from a few rain storms, but I managed to get some good projects done around the house and spend some good time with my wife and kids.

For some reason, I decided to sell my car while I was home, so I cleaned it up and put it on Craigslist.  I've always enjoyed tinkering on cars, so my plan this year (once licensing is done), is to buy and sell a few cars in my off time for profit.  My plan is to flip a few cars and build back up to a really nice vanagon camper over the year or so.  I like cars, always have and even though the Subaru has been great, I miss the tinkering aspect of older cars.  I had quite a few inquiries on the Subie, but it didn't sell before I left, so it's still sitting in the driveway.  When I return, I plan to fix the A/C on it and repost it up for sale, however I'll be knee deep in license prep and might not have time.

I received and email yesterday that my Coast Guard License was "being evaluated".  I don't know how long the evaluation process takes, but I'm guessing a week?  I hope to hear something soon on whether or not I get approved for the license I've applied for.  Exciting times.

At any rate, my taxi is almost here, so I'm out.  See you in 5 weeks or so!

Application Submitted and Back to Sea!

I finished up school a few weeks ago and headed home for a while to take some time off.  I had a few weeks left of ATO, so I spent them gathering my paperwork and filling out my application for licensing.  The application process consists of gathering a ton of information and paperwork to copy and send in to prove that you've met the requirements for an upgrade to Officer status.  Course certificates for the past 2 years, Physicals, Drug screen letters, onboard assessment sheets, sea letters from my company and anything else that the Coast Guard might need to deem me worthy of officer status.

So, I gathered everything, (about 100 pages total) made multiple copies and overnighted everything to a licensing expert back east (Chuck Kakuska of Sea K's Licensing) where he then took a look and double checked to make sure I have everything.  Once Chuck was satisfied, he walked it into the local REC about a week ago and submitted it in person on my behalf.  You can submit your paperwork by yourself, but hiring a licensing expert can save you time and money, especially when it's someone like Chuck who was the Executive Officer for the Toledo REC before retiring.  Needless to say, he knows the system and will get you the best bang for your buck.  There's isn't an REC in Sacramento, where I'm from, so I'd have to drive to Oakland, 2 hours away, if I wanted to submit it in person.

Chuck seemed to think that all my Navy time and recent tug time combined, would qualify me for a 3rd Mate Unlimited license, so it was worth the $100 fee to have him give it a once-over and walk the packet in personally.  If for some reason the Coast Guard doesn't approve me for the bigger license, I should at least be guaranteed a 1600 ton Near Coastal and 500 ton Oceans license, which is still a large license and very marketable.  Click here for an overview of Merchant Marine Licenses

So, the packet is in and we wait. Once approval is granted, I can test.  In the meantime, I study daily and try to up the percentage on my practice tests.  It's a lot of information to go over, but it's just like eating an elephant... one piece at a time.

This morning, I finally got word from my boss that he has a trip for me and I'll be leaving on Friday the 13th, bound for Dutch Harbor via Whittier.  This should be a 5 week trip, so it'll give me plenty of time to study and get ready for licensing. I had a trip last summer that left on Friday the 13th as well, which is a double negative since it's considered bad luck to leave port on a Friday, let alone, Friday the 13th.  Always an Adventure...  :-0

School: DONE!

Today, one-year and 10 months later (to the day) I successfully finished my schooling!  I had passed my final class yesterday (Flashing Light) and needed to do today's assessment in the simulator with my company representative, and that was it.  Done.

It's been an amazing journey to this point, and it's gone by extremely fast, but the journey is still only in its beginning phases.  Over the next few days, I will organize all my paperwork, certificates, sea time letters, medical physical results, etc. and put them into a nice packet that will get sent to my licensing expert back east.  He will walk the packet into the Coast Guard for me and from that point, we wait.  The Coast Guard will then forward the application to the National Maritime Center and will make sure I have everything needed for the upgrade to Officer status.  If they approve the packet, they will give me the green light to test for my license.  This approval process can take anywhere from 2-8 weeks and from what I hear, it's been taking more in the 8-week range.  Once I get the green light, I will take part in a 2-week test prep session somewhere, maybe Seattle, and then take my exams in Portland, OR at the Coast Guard REC.  There's an REC in Seattle and Oakland, but since my good friends lives in Portland, I can stay with them and have a nice place to study each night before the next module.  Testing will take a week and consists of 7 modules, 2 per day.  If I pass all 7, my license will be issued shortly thereafter and the next phase of my career will be underway.

I'm still in shock that school is over and it'll probably sink in over the next few days.  I've met some really cool people and I'm going to miss sitting in class with my schoolmates.  We've had a good time, and I'm sure we'll keep in touch as we move forward in our careers. I will most likely see them during test prep unless I get approved really early and decide to do test prep in another location.

At any rate, I will post up the progress of my packet as it gets submitted and obviously the steps towards testing.  I'm nervous about testing, mostly because it's a lot of information to get tested on in a short period of time.   I'll make it though somehow, just like everything else...

Best quote I heard last week from a senior officer giving advice for new deck officers:  "Don't be the senior guy with a secret".

that tiz all.

Driving Ships

I'm back in school and plugging away at my last class session.  This time around, we are learning about ship handling for a week, which consists of a morning lecture and an afternoon of practice in the simulator.  We've had to practice turns and stopping in current, wind, tight corners on rivers, shallow waters and even anchoring.

There's much to learn about the hydrodynamics of a ship and how other ships can effect you when passing closely, so we practice and practice until we get it right.  Bank effect can cause your ship to veer off in the opposite direction when passing closely to banks or other large structures and even ships.

Today we had to pass an assessment of anchoring a large bulk carrier in South San Francisco bay and it was a little nerve racking.  A fairly simply task, but we had to meet certain criteria (speed restrictions, distance off, etc.) and it's always stressful when your instructor is watching and grading you.  I pulled it off without any problems, as did everyone else.

Next week we do our flashing light (Morse Code) assessment and then we do our final simulation assessment where a representative from our company comes in and watches us navigate a boat for a few hours in the simulator. We have to make all the regular called to VTS (Vessel Traffic Service), make navigational passing arrangements with other ships and safely navigate from one point to another without any problems. This will be our final day of class and hopefully the company rep likes what they see and will offer the students a full time position afterwards.  I'm fairly certain that my company is already counting on my becoming an officer for them, but who knows... I could crash a boat in the simulator and they might have second thoughts.

Anyhow, I'm staying in a cool little apartment with my friend Jake and we'll be driving back to Sacramento after our assessments are done next week.  Then it's on to packet submittal and the waiting process before I can test for my license.

Feet Dry

We arrived in Seattle at about 06:00 this morning and quickly broke tow and handed off the barge to the guys at Western Towboat and then immediately high-tailed it north to Everett.  When you're running free on a tug, it's called "light boat".

We got to Everett around 09:00, offloaded the trash for the FDA inspector to check out and then packed the car and headed south.  I had to drop our 2nd Mate off at the airport and then I was southbound to Portland to grab a flight home.

Good trip, relatively speaking.  Good crew, good boat, bad weather and a long boring crossing.  I really don't like the long boring runs and would prefer to be engaged more on a daily basis with new sites, new ports, different scenarios, but I'm glad to have gotten the trip at this point in the year when most of those "other" trips are dwindling.

At any rate... Glad to be off the boat.  Glad to be off the ocean.  Glad to be going home.

Now it's holidays!

Homeward Bound

Honolulu came and went without a hitch.  We pulled in Friday afternoon and back out on Sunday around noon.  It’s now Tuesday morning, 2am and we are heading NE at about 10 knots.  The weather is good and the tradewinds are working in our favor.  There’s some large storms brewing up north that are creating some nasty conditions for anyone heading southwest, but that works in our favor and should get us home much quicker.

We run two trips to Hawaii each month, leaving every other Friday.  The boat that was scheduled to leave from Seattle this last Friday was put on hold until the weather conditions lighten up.  We should come sailing in with some good winds on our stern, but they can’t even poke their nose out into it without getting beaten down.

At any rate, all is well and it’s nice to finally be coming home.  The past few months have been draining.  I haven’t been home since the first part of October and it was only for a week.  Prior to that, I was in school for all of September.  The entire Fall season has been spent on a boat or in a class and I’m really ready for some downtime.  I’ll get a few weeks off after this trip for Christmas and New Year’s and then back north for a short week and a half of classes.  At that point, I’m going to hopefully be organizing my packet and application for submittal to the Coast Guard.  I have to show proof of all my seatime, my certificates of class completion, medical exams, drug screening and all the assessments that I’ve had to complete underway.  If all goes well, they will approve my application for testing.  It should take a month or so to get approval and then I just need to schedule a testing date, study and sit for the exams.

I’m shooting for the 3rd Mate Unlimited license, which will include 7 modules (exams).  Each module covers various topics, (i.e. Deck General, Deck Safety, Nav General (oceans and near coastal), Nav Problems (oceans and near coastal), Rules of the Road, Chart Plot, ) and each module will take about 3 hours to complete over a period of 4 days.  Once completed and passed my license will be issued and I’ll be deck officer.  I won’t bore you with the details of what happens if I don’t pass, because that isn’t an option.  :-)

I’ve begin studying, using an ipad/iphone app called Upgrade U.  It’s about a $20 purchase, but well worth every penny.  It lays out all the test pool questions and then tests you repeatedly until your scores are high enough.  We have to score a 90% on Rules of the Road, which is the one that typically haunts everyone the first time around.  I plan on studying as much as I can over the next few months to prepare.  I’ve learned a great deal of information over the past few years, and regurgitating it is going to be tough, but do-able.

Anyhow, that’s all for now….

Honolulu

We arrived in Hono yesterday afternoon, got the boat and barge tied up nicely and then headed ashore. I was on the hunt for wifi and ended up at a new brewery just across the street.  As per company policy, we can't drink at all during a trip, so I sat at the bar, enjoyed an iced tea and a burger while I uploaded some blogs from the past few weeks.

Today, we moved the boat over to the fuel dock and took on 59,000 gallons for the trip home.  My job during fueling is to keep an eye on the valves and make sure no leaks appear.  So, I essentially sit on deck in a camp chair for 3-4 hours and chill.

It was actually a nice relaxing afternoon and I managed to squeeze off some emails and make a call or two in the process.

After we finished up, moved the boat and helped the cook load groceries, Jon (the 2nd mate) and I headed over to Waikiki for the remainder of the day.  He proceeded on up to Diamond Head for a hike and I hit the stores to do a little Christmas shopping.

It felt good to get out and stretch the legs and look around. I managed to pick up some cool island stuff for the family, grab some fish tacos and meet back up with Jon at the beach during sunset.  

At that point, we grabbed some ice cream, then a cab back to the boat.

We are scheduled to get back underway tomorrow around noon, and then hopefully back in Seattle about 12 days later.  Overall, it was good quick stop here on Oahu.

Right now I'm on a security watch for a few hours then I think I may grab some sleep and head out for some breakfast before we get underway.  The weather is looking pretty promising for our return trip, but we'll see.  Fingers crossed.