under siege

Yesterday, as I mentioned in my post, I got a tour of the Paul Buck tanker.  I said it was a VIP tour because it lasted almost 2 hours!  We saw everything from top to bottom, it was awesome.  Again, and I apologize, I didn’t hold onto a lot of the details, there was just too much going on and too much to try to remember.  It was odd how it worked out too, I had asked the head line handler if there was any way to get back on the Oden and he sent me an email basically saying:  “Well it’s tied up to the Buck and you can go tell the guys on the Buck that you’d like a tour and see what happens.  If they let you on board, maybe you can get across to the Oden”.  So I told a few fellow line handlers and we figured we’d see if we could get on board, and boy am I glad I did.  It was a little intimidating walking up that gang plank uninvited and trying to find someone on watch, but once we did he was so nice and inviting.  He said that someone was on the way to relieve him and when they got there he’d show us around.  He did a great job showing us the back deck and took us into the engine room (ENORMOUS) and pointed to all sorts of things I didn’t understand.  He showed us into the engine control room which was like stepping back in time with huge levers and buttons and bright lights.  In there he handed us off to what I think was an important person in the engine room who showed us even more in the LOUD engine room and he knew a lot about everything in there.  Again, I was ignorant of most of the things he was saying, but I could at least appreciate the size and noise of everything.  I shook my head up and down a lot.  Then we went back out onto the deck and he found someone that would take us up to the bridge and inside the cabin.  This guy was a real character.  He has been in the shipping industry 30 years and had a ton of stories (some not relevant to anything at all, and a big reason the tour lasted so long, but interesting nonetheless).  He showed us the upper part of the boat in it’s entirety with accompanying anecdotes.  Well at least everything we were allowed to see, like the galley, the gym, the shop, a cabin, the bridge, the upper deck, etc.  It was awesome.  At the very end, the first guy we saw came down to where we were, all the way at the bow, and was saying how he had just finished giving another group a tour and asked if we had any more questions or if there was anything else he could show us or explain.  (Great guy.)  We told him we’d seen it all but wanted to get on the Oden if possible, and he said “well let’s go see” and took us over and yelled down to them.  They were very receptive too, it was incredible.  We didn’t get a tour because they were leaving soon (literally 25 minutes) but they allowed us to come aboard and they found the guy who could open up the little store aboard the ship.  These people were so nice, I was blown away.

So that’s a long way of explaining how it all happened, and in this case, how it happened is almost as good a story of what happened.  Like I said, I don’t remember all the facts, but I did put a link up at the top if you want he official details of the ship.  I will, however, try to describe some things I do remember and did notice.  This needs to be said first, one of the few things I remember is about those ropes (remember the ropes that parted).  As we were walking on the deck the guy pointed out the ropes and how they usually use wire rope but that the ropes that broke the other day were 600ft ropes and each cost about $20,000!!!  I don’t know if he was just messing with us or not, but that is ridiculous!  Here is a fully intact, $20,000, 600ft rope in case you’ve never seen one:

The engine room was absolutely ridiculously huge and very loud.  It was loud because of 2 of the 3 monster generators were running, the main engine wasn’t even running.  That main engine…holy cow.  It was basically a  5 cylinder engine where each cylinder was about 2 stories tall.  It was absurd.  And it had a supercharger that was the size of a conversion van.  In the picture below, notice the person on the right hand side (who happened to be painting the silver silver again) for perspective.  He is sitting on one level, then to the left is another level which is about the middle of the engine, it goes through that floor to a whole different level!  That thing was HUGE:

Let’s see, what else.  Lots of pumps, lots of motors, lots of oil, lots of metal, lots of steps, lots of noise.  It really kind of seemed like I was in a Steven Seagal movie.  So of course I gruffly whispered the cheesiest things I could imagine and judo chopped everything I saw.  But anyway, once again I’ve really failed to capture the enormity of the ship and all of the very impressive details have fallen overboard.  I am sorry about that, but I can’t think of anything else right now…HERE are the pictures that, of course, don’t do it justice.

The Paul Buck left today and the resupply vessel is supposed to be here Monday.  That should be another interesting experience.  Um, the guys on the South Pole Traverse just arrived back in town to a parade and much fan fare.  Well, not really, but they’re back.  Oh, and it’s snowing.  It hasn’t done that in a while.