I just finished Land of Mist and Snow by Debra Doyle and James Macdonald. This an alternate history fantasy about two civil war era ships doing battle on the high seas. The twist here is that the souls of these ships are captured elemental spirits. It's an interesting premise, one that many professional, as well as recreational mariners, will appreciate; all vessels are viewed by their crews as near-living things, if not actually living things, and all crews consort with seaborne superstitions and myth.

The story begins as Lieutenant Nevis receives word he's getting the detachment of his dreams, the opportunity to leave his desk job at the War Department on Whitehall Street in New York to finally join the fight in the sailing Navy. His first assignment: to inspect and take possession of a dozen ten inch Rodman guns at the Naval Arsenal in Watervliet.

Your first inkling of the story's supernatural slant comes at the end of the first chapter, when Nevis learns the guns and cannon balls are made of pure virgin brass, and that they are destined for an experimental ship of war being constructed on the ice at Thule. For me, that was the hook. The vessel was being built on the ice and not a railway at a shipyard because, for reasons that become clear later on, the ship could not come in contact with land.

Doyle and Macdonald have constructed a logical and very entertaining supernatural story pitting good against evil, weaving in various aspects of reality and staying faithful to the prose and authenticity of the era. I was particularly impressed with their nautical detail and accuracy.

The story is told in log book or diary form, with first person entries from the various characters. If the overall effort has any fault, it lies here, as the entries don't really allow for much individuation of character. This can be a huge stumbling block for avid readers of contemporary fiction, i.e. people who prefer third person narratives and/or a more dialog driven format.

Perhaps the above is a kind way of saying the story lacked strong characterization. And maybe it does. Either way, I wasn't deterred from having a good time. Kudos to the authors for keeping me entertained throughout. And with a story that takes place almost entirely at sea. Trust me, one misstep in the nautical accuracy department and I would have tossed the book in the garage. (I would have said "overboard" but International Discharge of Waste and Dunnage laws prohibit that sort of irresponsible activity.)

-seabgb

New Pictures of Moonfish - July 10 Launch

Getting Your Z-Card

Not long ago some friends and I decided we needed to get Merchant Mariner Cards (Z-Cards) in addition to our USCG Captain’s Licenses. We needed the cards in order to work on US-Flagged vessels of more than 200 gross tons. What we decided to do was take a one-week AB course at a certified academy, whereby we could get a course Certificate of Completion. We were told that as long as our applications were in order and we had the sea time behind us the USCG Marine Safety Office in Boston would accept the Certificate of Completion as a rubber stamp for our Z-cards.

We were told wrong.

In a period of about two weeks, everything about getting a Z-Card changed. Some guys who went down with their Certificates got the cards and others didn’t. Coast Guard examiners were adding requirements the academy instructors didn’t know about. Suddenly, our Certificates weren’t worth anything, and the money we spent on the course ($600) was money spent in vain. When I called and spoke to an examiner, he said I would not be given my Z-Card unless I came into the office with proof that I had completed Basic Safety Training. In other words, before I could get my MMD I needed to launch an inflatable life raft, put out a fire in a garbage can, and float around in a survival suit in a swimming pool. To do this I had to shell out another $1,000 and sit through yet another week of classroom study that repeated the same course material I’d just gone through for the AB; which, incidentally, was a repeat of everything I needed to know for my Captains License, which I’ve held for some 25 or 30 years.

As if that wasn’t enough, it soon became clear that spending $1,000 on the Basic Safety Training Course would not be money well spent. Basic Safety Training is part of STCW, and STCW is the more valuable certification.

Let me put it another way:

If you’ve tried of late to figure out the requirements for a given Merchant Mariners Document you’re probably doing a lot of head scratching. From what I can gather, in and of itself, the Able Body Seaman rating, which used to get you into the wheelhouse of an inspected vessel of 200 or more gross tons, is completely worthless. In fact, according to some people, you can’t even get an AB unless you first satisfy the Basic Safety Training (BST) portion of STCW. The latter, otherwise known as the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping, is the qualifying standard for professional mariners established by the International Maritime Organization.

The smarter move is to skip BST and go straight for STCW. BST will get you your AB, but it won’t get you on a vessel working beyond the boundary line. For that you need the STCW Certificate. Of course, you can’t get your AB endorsement on your STCW Certificate unless you also have RFPNW or RFPEW, a.k.a. Rating Forming Part of a Navigation (or Engineering) Watch.

While you’re at it, you might as well get Lifeboatman and Advanced Fire Fighting. Chances are you’ll need them, too.

Confused? Join the club. There are a lot of Instructors and more than a few Coast Guard Examiners equally confused. Near as I can figure, it’s easier to get a license to practice medicine. You only need a MD to stick an arthroscope into a man’s knee, but you need an AB, STCW, and an RFPNW to needle-gun a patch of rust on the deck of 250-ton ocean-going tug.

I admit I’m exaggerating. Indeed, you can get on deck with an entry level Ordinary Seaman rating. But if you want the better pay, and you think you can get your AB by walking into a Coast Guard Safety Office with a dog-eared logbook and a nice letter from your boss, think again. Among other things, you’ll need to have launched a lifeboat, put out an oil fire, deployed an inflatable raft, and proven you’ve had your sensitivity training.

The STCW, Advanced Fire fighting, and Lifeboat education doesn’t come cheap. Add Evaluation and Issuance fees, transportation costs, and room and board, and you’re looking at expenses of $4,000 to $5,000, maybe more. It’s also three to four weeks’ worth of training.

Can you still come up through the hawse pipe? Sure. But don’t forget your check book.

-seabgb

The More Things Change...

Remember when the Coast Guard decided everybody needed to get rid of their Class C VHF channels-15/16 EPIRBs in favor of the ten times more expensive Category I and II 406 mHz satellite EPIRBs? Of course you do. Because you had to shell out $1000 instead of $100. If you recall, the argument for the phase-out was a good one. There were just too many false MAYDAYs with the Class C EPIRBs.

So, I ask you, if there were too many false distress calls on VHF channel-16 twenty years ago, why is it almost all VHF radios today come equipped with a DSC emergency distress button? Isn't this just opening up a whole new can of worms? In fact, if you go to the USCG Navigation Center web page you will find the following statement:

The International Telecommunications Union Sector for Radiocommunications has indicated that excessive test calls on MF/HF DSC distress and safety frequencies are overloading the system to the point where interference to distress and safety calls has become a cause for concern.. To minimize possible interference, live testing on DSC distress and safety frequencies with coast stations should be limited to once a week as recommended by the International Maritime Organization.

The ITU is acknowledging too many distress calls on MF (Medium Frequency) and HF (High Frequency) radios. These are radios and frequencies typically used by trained mariners on commercial and/or high seas vessels. If we're having problems with these radio operators, what can we expect from untrained and inexperienced VHF radio users in the recreational sector?

I'm at a loss to understand the logic of giving up a problematic MAYDAY system only to replace it with a similarly problematic system twenty years later. Just how problematic is DSC? Here's more from the Coast Guard Web Page:

The single largest operational problem of the U.S. Coast Guard concerning DSC had been responding to the large number of MF/HF DSC distress relays being sent by ships. ITU regulations require each relay to be individually acknowledged. The Coast Guard treats each distress alert relay as if it were a separate distress. Worse, certain radios insert the identity of a ship sending a relay, rather than a ship sending a distress, into the menu of a relay message, and ship operators are transmitting this relay falsely identifying the ship in distress to Coast Guard rescue coordination centers. The USCG requested that vessels not relay any DSC distress message which has already been acknowledged. If you do relay a distress message, make sure the identity of the vessel in distress is correct, and send the relay to a USCG radio station using an identity such as 003669999, rather than sending it to all ships.

Since this problem was identified, radio operators have cooperated to reduce the number of relays transmitted. Consequently, this is far less of a problem now.

If we were to identify the single largest operational problem of the U.S. Coast Guard concerning DSC today, it would likely be the lack of follow-up voice communications after transmission of a DSC call.

Continuing DSC problems include:

• the lack of follow-up voice comms after transmission of a DSC call, particularly a distress call
• Unnecessary and frequent alarms
• Distress alerts without accurate location information
• Distress alerts with unregistered MMSI identification
• Limited use of DSC for routine communications
• Inconsistent and illogical software menu defaults
• Alarms disrupting ongoing radiocommunications

The biggest problem listed above (important enough to mention twice) is the lack of follow-up communications. If I'm not mistaken, the lack of comms with the MAYDAY vessel was one of the two reason for getting rid of the old EPIRBs. The second reason, which obviously contributed to the first, was the anonymousness of the Class C EPIRB.

Regarding the latter point: In order to make a DSC-equipped radio identifiable it must be programmed with a Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number. How do you get a DSC MMSI? Commercial users, or those who travel outside the U.S. or Canada, must apply for a ship station license, or an amendment to a ship station license, to obtain an MMSI. Non-commercial users (e.g. recreational boaters) who stay in U.S. waters can obtain a U.S. MMSI through BOAT US and SeaTow. Canadian vessels should contact Industry Canada.

But if you call a retail store and ask someone there, they'll likely be at a loss as to where to send you. I know, because I just called three retailers and nobody knew where to get an MMSI, even though, collectively, they have over a hundred DSC-equipped radios on their shelves.

How many DSC-equipped radios do you think will be sold? Answer: Millions. Of those radios, how many will represent unidentifiable and untraceable potential MAYDAYs?

-seabgb

Ah, Spring!

I love a launching. Whether the boat’s brand new or just freshly painted, I can’t help noticing how pure and unsullied the thing looks. As Madonna would say, “Like a virgin.”

And yet, lot’s of things can go wrong at a launching. For example, I heard this story about a big, wooden dragger. . . . The builders never put weights on the cradle, so after the boat slid into the water, stuck was the baby, cradle and all. Kind of embarrassing.

There’s also the story about the multi-million dollar sloop that slid off the ways and kept on going. It turned out that the sloop’s transmission failed, and the yard skiff the builders had standing-by to tend the boat didn’t have the power to control it.

And how could I forget one of the most famous launching disasters of all time, that of the poorly designed and extremely top-heavy, Vasa?

On August 10, 1628, the flagship of the King of Sweden left her launch site in Stockholm with all her flags flying. She sailed less than a half mile, ran into a sudden squall, and tipped over. The 1300-ton warship took water through her open gun ports and sank. Very embarrassing, yes, but also fatal. A good number of the King’s best fighting men, as well as a few members of the aristocracy went to their graves amidst the wreckage.

In comparison, my launching experiences are kind of anticlimactic, although they didn’t seem that way at the time. At one yard, my lobsterboat got thumped on the bottom when an overanxious hoist operator lowered it too quickly in too little water. I was a bit miffed but . . . no serious harm done. Another time, at the same yard, while backing out of the slipway, my prop sucked an old canvas dodger off the bottom. It stopped the engine cold and set the boat adrift toward a grout pile.

My favorite was this one guy who told me I had plenty of tide. Famous last words. I came down the ways -- in a 50’ wooden deadrise-style party boat this time -- only to get stuck in the mud. He assured me I had lots of water and could back her out. When I tried, the bow came off the cradle and dropped a foot through open air. Thanks to his great advice, my stopwater leaked all season.

-seabgb

Nisshin Maru Fire Extinguished

The Nisshin Maru, the Japanese whaling ship hunted, haunted and harassed by Greenpeace and other anti-whaling activist organizations, suspended whaling operations due to a fire that occurred earlier in the month. Vessel will go home for repairs about 350 whales short of its harvest goal. Good news for the 350 whales, and good news for whale watch boat operators like myself.

Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior and other anti-whaling vessels have been battling the Nisshin Maru for years. These encounters have included interference engagements and collisions. The Japanese vessel, largest of the whaling fleet, is ostensibly engaged in whale research. If you believe that I've got some Florida swampland to sell you.

Fire aboard the vessel claimed the life of one crewman and damaged much of the whale processing plant. Vessel had lost power for some ten days and took on a port list. There was fear, according to Greenpeace activists, of a serious oil leak and the vessel coming ashore on a known penguin sanctuary. However, neither of these situations materialized

Nisshin Maru was assisted by another Japanese fishing vessel, the Yushin Maru No 2., and taken in tow back to Japan. It is not yet clear if the stricken vessel has regained power or her ability to make way.

-seabgb

A Sirius Weather Feed

If you’ve been keeping abreast of developments in navigation electronics you know the trend is toward multi-functionality, e.g. using one display for everything from engine data to soundings. Now we have Sirius Radio and WSI joining forces to bring live weather data to your dedicated plotter. Imagine that. A live weather satellite feed directly to your plotter. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Unless, of course, you have doubts about getting your data from the same people who bring you Howard Stern.

But wait. This isn’t just Sirius Radio at work here. It’s also WSI Corporation, the world’s largest commercial weather database, and The Weather Channel Marine Service.

These three companies are hoping to attract you with their special brand of value-added product. In other words, they collect the data, reconstitute it, and feed it back you in a way that makes it easier to digest. They’re banking on you being a niche consumer. Not too big you already have full download AND upload satellite capability. (Remember, the Sirius/WSI feed is download only.) Not too small you’re satisfied with the morning forecast and/or buoy report. They’re also figuring you prefer a sit-down dinner to a buffet, and that, either way, you don’t like to spend a lot of time chewing.

Truth is, you can get all this stuff yourself. You can go to any number of government and/or University Websites and surf the data and images online. You can even download free imaging software and personalize your weather and radar maps. This is why I mention buffet-style versus sit-down above, because if you do it this way, you’re going to be chewing on a great many more choices.

Furuno, Raytheon, and Northstar, are all on board with the new Sirius satellite feed. Furuno trails the others by a few months but says it will have a product available this spring.

So, is it worth the money? Costs will range anywhere from $29.00 a month (basic) to $99.00 a month (pro). And, of course, you have to buy a Sirius antenna and receiver.

My guess is day boat owners will say no, unless they’re gadget geeks or the type who need all the bells and whistles. Fishermen and yachtsmen who want full Internet capability will opt for broadband satellite (e.g. Sea-Tel) or cellular service (e.g. Sigma6) the latter limited to a range offshore of only 30 or so miles. Who does that leave?

Maybe just Howard Stern fans.

Mid-coast Maine Sunset

Photo by Steven L. Waterman

Tom's Meg Teeth

Swimming with Megaladons
by Tom Simmons

It all comes down to this: teeth or no teeth.

Three days of perfect diving off the coast of North Carolina. Out in the Gulf Stream where the water temperature at 120 feet is 82° F. Visibility 80 to 100 feet. Open sea as flat as a lake so the 40-mile trip out to the sites is a walk in the park. Even the locals are in shock. Life just doesn't get this good very often.

My son (15) and I have just completed our first deep water, Nitrox dives. We've been on a U-Boat and WWII freighter. We've been to a wreck that's a Sand Tiger Shark breeding ground. This morning, we went on a dive that finally identified a wreck sunk in the 1920s by measuring her length, beam and boilers. This is what you dream about. And it all means nothing, nothing without teeth.

It's the afternoon of our third day. Our sixth dive. We're anchored over Fossil Ledge where we hope to find prehistoric shark teeth. Megaladon teeth. Teeth as big as your hand. My son has thought of nothing else during the three months since we planned this trip. If we find teeth, we've had the trip of a lifetime. If we don't find teeth, it's all been for nothing. Wouldn't matter if we rode the Loch Ness Monster.

No teeth, no fun. That's the rigid calculus of this trip.

Andre, the dive master who set the anchor, has come up with a goody bag filled with teeth. Fourteen of them. One of the passengers is a little frosty to think that there are now 14 fewer teeth on the bottom for others to find. But the rest of us are just hot to get down there and hunt. It's all about teeth.

"Don't move around," Andre instructs. "Stay in one place. Keep digging in one place." You're telling my 15-year-old not to move around. It's like telling the wind not to blow. He's not going to spend 20 minutes of bottom time digging a dry hole. Two minutes, max.

We follow the anchor line down. At 60 feet a huge ball of bait fish, so thick it looks like the bottom, swims below us. In its midst, moving lazily with the school, is a 12-foot Sand Tiger Shark. What a fabulous sight! Incredible. Meaningless. Nada, zilch, bupgus, zero. Nothing if we don't find teeth.

The bottom at the anchor is sandy with rock outcroppings. Andre said to dig near the rocks. I hung on every word, gathering them in my memory like golden secrets of life. We tie our wreck reel to the anchor line and move 20 feet away, toward a likely looking outcropping. (They require wreck reels on Fossil Ledge, an advanced dive, because on every single trip this summer someone with Teeth Fever has lost sight of the anchor line and bobbed up to the surface down current from the boat. Every. Single. Trip.)

We start digging in our likely spot and the water around us becomes silty in seconds. Every minute or so, I stop digging and let the current take the silt away. Nothing. There are petrified whale bones by the hundreds. But we don't care about them. We're after teeth.

About three minutes in, my son is on his second spot. Nothing. I let the silt clear and see a large black fish, immobile, about five feet away from me. He has silt on his head. And he's looking at me like Eyore. "You gonna be long? 'Cause I'm getting a little dusty here."

Another minute and let the current clear the silt. What's that? Damn! There's a Megaladon tooth in my hole. Huge. Gorgeous. I grab it as if it might swim away. Good size. Good enamel. I tap my son on the shoulder and hand it to him. It goes in his goody bag. And he digs faster, like a person possessed.

Now he's off to another place. Chasing fish is always fun. I keep digging. About five minutes later, I've got another tooth. Now, I'm as excited as the next guy and I enjoy the discovery. But more than anything, these finds have ratified the whole trip. I now know we've had a good time. I know it wasn't all for nothing. Life is good.

In a few minutes, we're headed up the anchor line. On board, everyone compares finds. Some found more. No one found better teeth than ours. The grumpy guy got none and he's convinced it's because Andre took fourteen of them out of the running. He's pissed.

"Nice teeth," Andre tells my son. My mood can only be described as serene. We found teeth. All of the other fun things we did on this trip get to stay fun. It is a dream come true. And better. We got the teeth.

Teeth=Fun. It's great

Written by Tom Simmons
Photo by Tom Simmons

Boarding Last November

Heading out for a sea trial after some minor engine work. Joined by friends, Dwight, Larkin, Hugh (on camera) and Hugh's dog, Dave. . .


Seas in the 4' to 8' range. Winds from the northwest.

What's that astern? Small orange boat going 30 knots or more. Blue light.

They had been trying to board the new boat for quite awhile. New boat in town. An unknown. They attempted a week earlier in the 47' MLB but decided to postpone the boarding as I was in the middle of a survey.

It always pays to be courteous and cooperative during a boarding. Prickly and confrontational gets you nowhere.

My thanks to Hugh R. McKellar for the photos.

-seabgb

Fire Suppression Systems

erosfaust


If necessity is the mother of invention, one of its grandkids is bound to be a screw-up. Case in point:

Non-automated fire suppression systems went into use in textile mills in New England as early as 1852. Twenty years later, an engineer from Massachusetts came up with an automated system, and two years after that someone else, a guy named Henry S. Parmalee, made a sprinkler head that really worked. In 1874, Parmalee installed what was probably the first functioning fire suppression system into his piano factory. These, of course, were all mechanically operated sprinkler systems.

While we still have automated systems that work purely by mechanical means, using principles of pneumatic or hydraulic expansion, many, if not most of today’s systems, particularly those on boats and ships, rely on an electrical circuit for fire detection. Herein lies a serious problem, because without early warning capability, the vessel’s crew and passengers are at the mercy of lady luck.

In October of 2004, a fire destroyed the Express Shuttle II, a 65’ passenger vessel operating out of Port Richey, Florida. Following an investigation of the incident, U.S. Coast Guard officials decided to take a long, hard look at custom-engineered fire fighting systems. Systems using DC electric detection components were most suspect.

What happened aboard the Express Shuttle was not atypical of many engine room fires. A high-pressure fuel leak in one of the boat’s two Caterpillar engines sprayed fuel on the engine’s hot manifold, causing the fuel to ignite. Instead of manually triggering the fire suppression system, the crew (a captain and two deck hands were aboard as passengers had just previously disembarked) decided to fight the fire with hand held extinguishers. The fire rapidly became unmanageable and the crew had to abandon ship. Vessel was a total loss.

Coast Guard Investigators determined the loss was due to three factors: poor maintenance of the fuel feed line to the number five cylinder; inadequate crew response to the emergency; a non-functioning fire detection system; in fact, the fire and smoke alarms on the vessel never sounded.

For further reading, try the full NTSB Accident Report on the Web: http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2006/MAR0602.pdf. And note the following U.S.C.G. recommendations:

1) A panel light should notify an operator of a fault or break in the fire detection circuit.
2) Detectors should be UL, FM or LPBC approved.
3) The system should be testable by smoke or heat.

-seabgb

Don't Forget to Update Your Charts!

Sorry I haven't been very attentive to the blog of late. Pressing problems at home. Work on the the boat. Yada-yada. I know. Who cares? But here I am -- with some info on mapping software for you to stew on.

I use Maptech's Offshore Lite, a great package that comes bundled free with their Chartbook. Basically, it's an abbreviated version of their professional navigation software. You get digital versions of all the charts in the Chartbook but not all the features of the Nav software. For example, while you can track vessel's position with an integrated GPS, you don't get the full save and store capabilities of Offshore Pro. You don't have access to bathyspheric and other data, like tide info. You can't place a mark or waypoint on your vessel's position at the touch of a button, nor can you tie into an autopilot, or transfer routes and waypoints to and from your GPS. As I said, it's a great little tracking and plotting program that does the job and more. However, the more you use it, the more you will want to buy the pro version. And if you're doing any kind of commercial work, whether it's fishing, towing, whatever, you'll need Pro.

I'm currently doing an underwater survey using a magnetometer and forward-looking fathometer. I collect event data using proprietary logging software, and I create event markers on a C-Map cartridge being displayed on a Hondex plotter. I also take the raw data output from the Mag and manually transpose it to the Maptech charts in the form of event markers. In other words, I use the Hondex to re-locate targets, and the Maptech chart -- a NOAA chart with real NOAA symbols -- to chart my data. It's not an ideal situation because even though I have the redundancy aspect working in my favor, I'm doing a lot of extra work. Why not just keep a running plot of event markers using the Maptech software? The answer: Because Maptech Lite can't do it. You need the Pro version. I tell you this to give you an idea of the advantages and disadvantages of both.

The big advantage of Maptech Lite is that you get real-time tracking capability on a NOAA chart for free, or what amounts to 'free' when you buy a Chartbook? You still need paper charts to be legal, so why not get the Chartbook and play with Offshore Lite. It's free?

-seabgb