drama at sea

i can't stop following this story of the collision between the stena immaculate (a product tanker, not an oil tanker, as all the news reports keep saying) and the solong (a smaller container vessel) off the east coast of england yesterday. it's in the area of immingham, where i've spent a lot of time filming ships, so when i first heard about it yesterday, i rushed to the report to see if a dfds ship was involved. it was not. 

i am inordinately fascinated by a shipping accident and kept refreshing the bbc app all day yesterday, as well as following the string of rescue and firefighting vessels that converged on the scene in my marine traffic app. the product tanker was loaded with 220,000 barrels of jet fuel and sitting in an anchorage off immingham when the solong came along and rammed into the side of it at 16 knots. the crew of the stena immaculate abandoned ship within about 30 minutes because it turns out that jet fuel is quite flammable. there were reports that the container vessel was carrying containers of sodium cyanide, but those were apparently false. they had some containers on board that had once had that substance in them, but which were currently empty. 

the captain of the solong has been arrested for "gross negligence manslaughter "(one crew member of the solong is missing and presumed dead). it will be interesting to know more of the story. the crew of the solong was russian and filipino and it was americans onboard the stena immaculate since it was chartered by the us navy. 

both ships are still smoldering today, but expected to remain intact. there were rumors that the solong would sink, but they've been debunked. it has disappeared from marine traffic, but someone probably turned off the ais. it will be very interesting to learn how they could have missed a large product tanker at anchor in an official anchorage, but i guess that will come out in the coming days. and i will be glued to the news, ship geek that i still am at heart.

you can put the girl in the kitchen, but you can't take her off the ship. or something like that. 

added - this guy does a good early analysis using marine traffic.

 

two grand old ladies meet

this grand lady is 27 years old. while it would be nice to be that young again from my perspective, it's pretty old for a ship, but she's in beautiful shape and carries 1800 pax daily between oslo and copenhagen. and i was standing quayside with camera in hand this beautiful winter morning in copenhagen - just a couple of grand old ladies, meeting at the docks.

summer in dry dock

i got to spend a good chunk of my summer at a shipyard. i know it sounds weird, but i love shipyards. ships on an ordinary day are cool, but in a dry dock, when you can stand underneath and take in the immensity of them, that's the best. in a dry dock those over-dimensioned hunks of steel are somehow just....well....sexy. even when they're cut in half, covered in scaffolding and exuding the acrid scent of welding. even in the rain. even at 4:30 a.m.

you can see what i was working on at the shipyard here and here.  and there's more to come, so why don't you subscribe while you're over there? and watch this video too, it's a really cool time lapse (that was made before my time). we'll have to arrange a new one now that the ship will be 30 meters longer.

nordic blue is my color

i took this photo yesterday evening from the bridge of pearl seaways. the waning wintery light was really that blue in the calm, gorgeous oslo fjord (this photo is SOOC). the bridge was dark and oh-so-calm. i had a great conversation with the captain, who was alone on the bridge, while everyone else ate dinner. it was a little bit like the kind of zen moment that yoga has given me of late. a calm, easy, yet meaningful, deep conversation after a very busy day, full of so much goodness, but also non-stop and stressful in its own way, filled up my heart and my energy reserves. namaste.

taking pictures of ships

did i mention that my molecules are humming in alignment these days? i think it's probably mostly because i get to take pictures of ships. for a living. is there anything more a girl from the prairie could ask?

more soon. it's been busy and i'm spending the evening eating sushi with sabin and watching a webinar with lea thau (of the fabulous podcast strangers) about storytelling.

just when i needed it most

you know that thing where you spend time with precisely the people you need to spend time with? and they just lift you up and make you recognize yourself again (even tho' they themselves are totally different). and you can't feel other than grateful. and a little bit your old self again. and by you, i mean me. and me? i'm settling back into myself. finding comfort there again, after far too long.

geeking out at a shipyard

so much to write about (after a long, dry spell, i've got a ton of notes in my little bloggy notebook), but my connection is a bit iffy and they're going to black out the starboard side of the ship to change some breakers, so these photos of the fabulous remontowa shipyard in gdansk will have to suffice for now. this is from the back deck, tenth story of our ship.

and a view in the other direction. there's a big floating offshore rig in for repairs next to us and a lot of other ships. some of them don't even show up on marine traffic (the best app for shipspotting geeks), so they're so out of service their ais systems must be turned off.

in the dry dock, the ship rests on these big steel beams, topped with wood. and nothing else. it's amazing they can hold an enormous ship!

and here, i even dared to walk around down underneath the ship, even tho' it's balancing on so little. so utterly amazing to walk around underneath a ship.

all of this is making my molecules hum in alignment once again. turns out what it took to make all things right in my little world, was a bit of quality time in the company of ships (and some of the pretty cool people who make them run).

i can die happy as soon as i build this

could there be anything better than combining my two favorite jobs i've ever had into one fabulous LEGO set? only if this was an LNG carrier instead of a container vessel would it be more perfect.

do you think it's too late?

...for me to be a naval architect when i grow up?

wherein i am envious of husband's workplace

last monday, i took a little jaunt with husband down to the harbor in esbjerg, where he works on a daily basis. he had a day off, but needed to pick up some wood he'd bought. wanting my year-end day at the beach, i rode along.

esbjerg is the port to the danish sector of the north sea. there are oil platforms out there on the horizon and quite a lot of offshore wind farms going up, so there are some exciting vessels in the harbor on a regular basis. like the sea fox 5, a wind installation vessel. and a floating hotel for all those wind farm workers to stay in.

and there was the old maersk frontier, a platform supply vessel (PSV) that must have been taking on supplies for one of the platforms. it used to be my job to make sure all those guys onboard had the proper training to do their jobs safely.

but my favorite one in port on monday was the pacific osprey. it's a huge wind installation vessel owned by swire. it was built at samsung heavy industries in korea (i've been there!), but finished and named in denmark (which sounds a little unusual). i have to admit that seeing such a ship makes my heart beat a little faster.

it has an enormous 1200 ton main crane. it has six jack-up legs, which can lift it out of the water and hold it in place for stability as the enormous wind turbine components are lifted into place.

these are just the bow thrusters, which help maneuver it into place. you can see it was jacked up on its legs there in the harbor.

here's another shot that shows the legs a bit more. they are 105 meters long, so they can lift the ship up, even in fairly deep water.

and husband is invited to a meeting onboard next week! he was a little hesitant to tell me, because he knew i'd be dead jealous. i think i'll just send my camera with him. i did tell him that he has to make more effort to appreciate that he gets to look out his window and see such things on a daily basis.

size matters

the world's largest container ship, the majestic maersk, is alongside langlinie in copenhagen these days. i don't think these pictures convey how truly enormous this ship is. 400 meters long and 59 meters wide and it can carry 18000 containers. it's good she's not closer to the little mermaid, because it would underline once and for all that the key word with her is indeed little. this is a whole new class of viking ship, don't you think?

scrapped

is it weird to be a little bit in love with a ship that's being scrapped?

it also reminded me of this:

and that made me laugh.

have i mentioned that i love my job?

this is what's on my brain this week and why i'm not visiting all of you as much as i would like. instead of my usual late nights of surfing all the blogs i'm folllowing, i've been up late writing. for work! and it makes me so happy! i've had three days in a row of talking to inspiring people and i get to write up their inspiring stories of innovation and dynamic change.

and this place is so beautiful, that i just totally can't believe my luck life.

and today, after a morning of learning and enthusiasm and meeting new people who love what they do and are doing totally amazing, innovative things, i had a bit of time to drive a little ways down the coast and find the most beautiful little beach covered in these:

i can tell you that i am once again grateful that i'm gold, because that  bag isn't gonna be light.

i promise i will be by to visit soon, it's just gonna be a crazy couple of weeks. so please be patient with me!

modern piracy

three years ago in my old job, realizing that piracy was on the rise off west africa, i had a course commissioned for the crews in our large fleet. it was a course on what to do in the event of a piracy attack. we created a combination of classroom and eLearning. senior officers would attend the classroom portion of the course, which was taught by psychologists and security specialists and then everyone onboard the vessels could do the eLearning. we felt it was important for people placed in such an extreme situation to be equipped to handle it. the stress and adrenalin and fear of such a situation are enormous. originally, the course was aimed at crews on offshore support vessels that take supplies out to offshore oil rigs, but was later expanded to the liner vessels on the west african trades.

even as recently as three years ago, inside and outside the industry, you didn't hear much about the piracy incidents that occurred off nigeria and in and around lagos and port harcourt. mostly because the oil companies kept them quiet so as not to encourage even more pirates from flocking there and increasing the frequency of attacks.  you still don't hear much about piracy in west africa, but we are certainly hearing about east african piracy these days.

pirates these days aren't romantic swashbuckling figures like captain jack sparrow. they're poor, desperate and increasingly organized africans from countries without functional governments--e.g. somalia. they're armed to the teeth both with weapons and desperation, which makes for a frightening combination. when people have nothing to lose, they can become quite daring, as we've seen in recent months...with a saudi supertanker and a ukrainian bulker loaded with guns and ammunition being taken and the attempt in the past week to take the maersk alabama, which was loaded with UN aid bound for mombasa.

but now that an american flagged ship with an american crew onboard has been involved in a piracy attack, a situation that's been escalating for months is suddenly in the spotlight. the situation was worsening prior to this, with attacks getting more and more daring and pirates ranging farther and farther out to sea, but it took americans being involved for anyone to seriously discuss doing something about it. why is that?

here in denmark, noises have been made about doing something about the situation and the danish naval vessel absalon only just returned this week to danish waters after leading an 8-month international mission to combat piracy in the region off east africa. the problem was that when absalon caught pirates in the act, there wasn't any way to prosecute them, so they generally took them ashore and let them go. no doubt they turned around, hopped in another boat and headed out after their prey once again. when ransoms as high as $25 million US are being paid by shipping companies for supertankers laden with 2 million barrels of crude oil, it's worth it to the pirates.

some shipping companies have rerouted their vessels around the cape horn rather than through suez, to reduce risk of attacks. they have assessed that the longer route is worth it in terms of the safety of crews and cargoes. with suez passages costing in the range of $150,000-200,000/per ship, this means decreased revenues for egypt and the possibility of further increasing poverty and desperation in the region. piracy has more knock-on effects than one at first realizes.

but, what can be done? and will something be done now that america's attention is focused on the issue? or will the undoubtedly heroic and brave capt. phillips just make the rounds of the talk shows and then there the issue will die.  it would seem to be a real opportunity for the international community to step up and unite to do something that's in everyone's interest, including the pirates. so far, they haven't actually harmed any crews in their piracy efforts, but it's surely only a matter of time...and all of the course preparation in the world isn't going to have been enough.

short-term thinking has long-term consequences

here we are at number 600 and it seems like just yesterday that i did no. 500! that's a lotta posts written in about two and half months. i'll admit i've felt a bit lately like i haven't really had anything of substance to say. maybe it's because my mind is on x-bows and ice-class tankers and ships that run on LNG and it seems like with all the crafty stuff i usually share here, that's not really the stuff for this forum. but there's some shipping stuff on my heart and on my mind that i just have to write about today in this, my 600th post. because it feels like those round numbers shouldn't be wasted.

* * *

last week, there was some hubbub in the news when one of the tabloids reported that the former minister of commerce, who recently stepped down from his post and from the leadership of the conservative party (of his own accord, by the way), had been on a whole lot of golf outings and hunting trips with the glittering heads of the danish business community. i'll admit that doesn't really surprise me all that much. it's called lobbying. companies do it. politicians partake. and influence is won, influence which actually goes both ways. it's how business is transacted. where's the scandal?

one of his big causes, no doubt as a result of these golf games and hunting trips, was something called "det blå danmark," which led a rather significant campaign to keep denmark among the main seafaring nations in the merchant fleet of the world. a big part of it is/was a drive to get young people to choose seafaring and shipping in general as a career. it wasn't the most effective campaign in the world, as far fewer are seeking admission to the officers' education than are needed. however, i'm not convinced that it was the wrong campaign, but more that going off to sea isn't really as appealing as a career anymore.

there are a variety of reason for this, as i see them:

1. young danish women expect their man to take part in household duties on an equal basis. if there are kids, the men are in there changing diapers. if you're out sailing half the year, it's a bit tough for this to be equal.
2. young danish men, while largely very attractive, are, to put it bluntly, afraid of the young danish women and their expectations. on other words, they're pussy whipped (to put it even more bluntly). this is bad for the officers' education (which although open to girls, is still overwhelmingly populated by boys). (clarification: this renders the boys too scared to choose this career.)
3. people can't imagine being out of touch--they expect internet, SMSing, email. not all ships have this onboard, as satellite broadband solutions are still very expensive. ships generally have email, but it's pushed to the satellite by the captain a couple of times a day. young people (and i would count myself here), can't imagine being without their twitter and facebook and blog and what have you. do we exist if we're not online these days?
4. seafaring is no longer a way to see the world. port stays are short and people are working their fannies off with loading and offloading cargo during the entire stay. there's very little time for shore leave.
5. people these days no longer feel "married" to a particular career. we try a variety of things and have different jobs in different industries. people don't go to work for one company at 20 and retire from the same company at 65. 
6. in denmark, the education to be a finished senior officer, including sailing time, takes 7 years. if people want to take a 7-year education, they become a doctor. those fiddling with this education have misunderstood their audience--people who want a long education aren't interested in being seafarers and people who are interested in being seafarers are not interested in a long education. (i'm generalizing, but it holds up pretty well.)

there needs to be a revolution in the way ships are crewed if this is going to become an appealing career choice. perhaps treating it more like the airlines do. when the ship "lands" in a port, a new crew could take over the offloading and loading, while the sailing crew gets some time off ashore--thereby getting to see a bit of the world. of course, this only works for cargo vessels, the whole offshore support vessel world is another story--and they've already made adjustments--wherein people are on shorter rotations (2 weeks on, 2 weeks off in some cases). 

there are great things about sailing as your job. if you're northern european, you're probably home for half the year and out sailing the other half. not a lot of jobs can boast of 6 months paid vacation. it's less for people from other countries (e.g. the philippines, which provides 25% of the world's seafarers)--they are generally out for 9-10 months and home only 2-3 months a year. it depends on what conditions you're culturally willing to accept and it depends on how good your unions are. northern europeans have had strong unions, so the conditions are pretty good. 

but, back to that commerce minister...i wonder what will happen now that he's gone? the young, smart, up-and-coming young lady who replaced him doesn't appear to be the golf course/hunting schmoozing type. and she' seems a bit fancy for det blå danmark, so she'll no doubt have another pet cause. but it seems to me that it's important for denmark on a geopolitical stage to be a seafaring nation. when you're pretty much entirely dependent on trade because you don't really have that many natural resources (a bit of oil in the danish sector of the north sea), having a role in international merchant shipping seems important. if there's no one in the government with the ear of the shipowners, reflagging ships to flags of convenience (marshall islands, liberia and the like) and getting those sailing personnel elsewhere (read: at lower costs) and moving ship/crewing management to places like singapore just might start to look very appealing to the bottom line. especially in these times where no stone of savings is left unturned. denmark's geopolitical position aside, what will it mean for the several thousand danes who are sailing in the merchant fleet today? and where will the danish shipowners get their experienced seagoing personnel for key positions ashore if no one goes to sea anymore?

i fear a time of short-term thinking and solutions is on the horizon and that they will have long-term consequences. i wish those good old boys would get back out on the golf course and sort this out.

ships aren't just for boys

i can't stop with the mirror self-portraits. i think it's really about photographing the camera. and maybe a little about my obama won ring. it just looks so cool with the lens. also could be a little bit the long-hair mirrors. because i don't really have long hair, but i kinda always wished i did.

* * *

i am loving my new job. it's a company that doesn't just say that they're interested in being environmentally conscious. they put their money where their mouth is, as you can see from these electric cars out front. it says, in norwegian, "i'm working for the environment." how totally cool is that? and i LOVE that paint job! 

i spent my day looking into what the first issue of "my" magazine will contain. and there's so much innovation and environmentally cool stuff going on, even in and perhaps even because of economic downturn, that my mind is totally swirling with the possibilities. it seems that treating the environment well is economically sound business. even more exciting that some of the innovations are about LNG (liquid natural gas). you wouldn't necessarily know it to look at me, but i totally have a thing for LNG.  probably because i did my familiarization sailing trip here:

and because the inside of the cryogenic membrane tanks for storing the LNG while you sail around with it looks like this:

like a magical, mysterious cathedral. i sneaked this picture at the shipyard in korea. we stepped into the tank from a big hole in the hull. i wouldn't want to go down once it's all sealed up and in use, but it's amazing while they're still working on it. probably because it's all sparkly and i do love the sparkly things. and you thought ships were just for boys.

spring, please hurry up

i'm officially tired of winter. especially because it pisses around and isn't ever real winter with snow and such. it's just grey and drizzly and windy and all it does is dry out my skin so that i feel constantly parched and like a look a bit like her. and she spent most of her life gracing the front of a ship and thus was REALLY exposed to the elements. if you click on her and enlarge, you'll see that her face has even been replaced at some point, probably because it dried up and cracked off, which i feel that mine will do at any moment.

there were whispers of spring in the air this weekend. husband swore he heard them yesterday. today, we went to kronborg castle--the hamlet castle--in helsingør because one of the members of the kraka viking boat group we belong to works there. when we went in, it was grey and very cold and windy with light flurries in the air. when we came out the top of the cannon tower to look out over the sound two hours later, the sun had come out and although it wasn't much warmer, you could feel a difference in the sun. it is making more of an impact, so we must be moving slowly towards spring. i know that i'm definitely ready.

i think tomorrow i'll buy some of the small forced bulbs--crocus or daffodils--that are in the grocery stores and perhaps that will help. in the meantime, i think i'll go put on some more moisturizer.

* * *

it's always more interesting to tour a museum together with someone who works there. benjamin had a ring with three big skeleton keys on it. these keys unlocked all of the doors to the secrets of kronborg. or at least all of the secrets on our particular tour, which was largely of the maritime museum portion of the castle.

whenever i'm in one of the danish castles, i'm struck by their lack of ostentatiousness. although kronborg is one of the largest, most imposing of the danish castles, you don't get the sense that the danish kings abused their power or were particularly selfish. in contrast to, say, russian palaces, where you definitely understand why russia needed a revolution. but then, the danes never had a revolution, so there is something to that feeling.

the maritime museum is an extremely traditional one of its kind--full of maps and drawings of ships and ships models and a slice of a container and a couple of boiler suits. there're some small rooms showing what cabins were like through the years. all very traditional. but they are building a new one, using an old dock from the shipyards that used to lie beside kronborg. it's another example of the excellent way that danish architects meld old and new in fresh, exciting new ways. if you click the link, you can see pictures, although the site is only in danish. the new museum will be far more interactive and i had a long and excited conversation with the guy from the museum about how awesome ship simulators are these days. it made me realize more than ever that shipping makes me tick. i got all excited talking about shiphandling simulators and models of ports and how the ship handles in the simulator. and i'm not even a seafarer.  i'm really excited to see the new museum, but it won't be finished until 2011.

i also learned about a danish training ship--of the sailing kind--the school ship københavn  that disappeared without a trace somewhere between buenos aires and melbourne in 1928.  the last they were heard from, they said "all is well, calm weather," a few days before christmas to a passing norwegian ship. then, they were never heard from again and no trace of the ship was ever found. it's a complete mystery what happened to it and the crew of 15 and all 45 students onboard. that's the kind of story that awakens my imagination and my curiosity. there must be books out there which at least speculate as to the fate of the 5-masted lady and i intend to find them and learn more.

what awakened your curiosity this weekend?

on interviews and antiques and other random thoughts

maybe because i am myself now an antique of sorts, it feels entirely different to go to an interview today than it was when i got a part-time job at a gannett paper during college. i've just got so much more experience now. and a network that means something. i just speak about myself and my experience in an entirely different way. with authority, even. after all these years of feeling i was faking it (they actually taught us how to do that at the U of C), i actually know what i'm talking about now. that said, i feel really good about the interview, even if i don't get the job, it was a good conversation that gave me a lot of much-needed energy.

and afterward, i hit all the antique stores on ravnsborggade in nørrebro, which was wonderful and just what i needed to clear out yesterday's case of SAD. i never did ask the price of the old ship above, but we know how much i love ships, so i'm going to print out this picture and place it around the house with the address of the shop where i saw it, as a hint to husband. although we agreed not to do christmas presents, maybe he could make an exception since it's effectively recycling and doesn't represent the manufacture of new goods, which should fit nicely with his inner thomas friedman.

* * *

a couple of notes regarding the danish news...lots of fuss over the death of jørn utzon, danish architect most famous for the sydney opera house. i find the fuss a bit much since he was never really accepted in denmark, which was why he had to go to sydney. it's always the way that when someone does well, they're suddenly accepted and loved and claimed by their homeland.

the other news of note in denmark is the collapse of something called IT Factory in a huge swindle by its director, who has absconded with 500 million danish kroner ($90 million USD) and disappeared without a trace. they've actually got interpol on the case. who knew they were real? there is much whining and expression of surprise, especially by the banks and investors who were involved, but i find it difficult to feel sorry for any of them. there are just so many people out there doing so many dodgy things these days, who can keep track?

and one more thing...on monday, the front page headline of berlingske, which is denmark's answer to the NYT, concerned the fact that danish actors have started to use agents. yes, i realize it's a small market and that perhaps it's business news that they weren't really using agents before, but seriously, is that worthy of the front page? aren't there people darfur being slaughtered or starved or something?

* * *

and i leave you with a teaser...tomorrow, i'm going to have a meeting with two of my favorite people. they also happen to be two of the most creative people that i know. and hilarious. one of them was accused by three children in first class on a gulf air flight last year of being mr. bean, so that should give you some idea of the level of funny here. more stories about them tomorrow.

oh the places i've been and the things i've seen

what a week. i've been at the largest exhibition of shipping-related things in the world. everyone who was anyone to do with shipbuilding was there, from the smallest sub-contractor providing valves to the guys who make the engines, to the classification societies that approve the hull integrity, to the yards that do the actual building, to those who provide simulators to train the guys who will sail the ships. it was nearly 2000 exhibitors and, according to their website, 47,000 people came by to pick up pens and canvas bags and rubber ducks and penlights (many of them on wednesday, i can tell you). i hesitate to imagine how many beers were poured and snacks served. nearly every stand was serving drinks and snacks in some form. some more elaborately than others. i saw one with a chef doing the trendy molecular cooking (isn't ALL cooking molecular, so i don't really get that, but it's very trendy) as a kind of performance.

here are some of the sights...

main entrance hall

where all those engine guys were

a cute little propeller

this one shows in color the stress points

they looked so beautiful!

this one too. fascinating to see them this way.

one of the ideas for sailing greener. a sky sail for the long hauls across atlantic and pacific.

why shouldn't the fire hoses be pretty?

a safe and sustainable future?

not for this ice sculpture.

we had a new one delivered every morning.

virtual reality glasses to aid in hull inspections.

luckily that was a mannequin.

it would have been a bit much to stand there like this for four days.

safety boats and signal flags.

model of a ship from safmarine.

i really miss those guys!!!

here's a clever shipyard showing that they can build

luxury yachts AND military frigates.

and a front rudder for a 13,000TEU* container ship.

that's bigger than any out there are the moment.

the largest right now are 11,000 TEU.

very heartening to see that the main thing on everyone's lips was the environment. shipping is actually one of the most environmentally friendly methods of transport but it's so encouraging to see all of the stakeholders taking the environmental question seriously and not resting on their laurels, especially since 90% of the stuff in the world is, at some point, transported by ship. many, many innovations are on the horizon and it was breathtaking to see the sheer mass of engineering intelligence all gathered into one place. i love playing a small part in this amazing industry.

but i am glad to be home. i wish you all a glorious weekend.

* TEU is 20-foot container, so that means a ship that will hold an astonishing 13,000 20-foot containers.