Arrival/departure

We will arrive once again in the US on August 4th. Docking in Norfolk, VA.
We will leave from VA on the 10th and head out to Spain then Cameroon then
return to the US in Philly.

It appears we will return to the US just about a week or so to early. This
company will not pay our way home unless we do the minimum 120 days aboard
the ship. This means it is likely that I will also have to do the trip to
Kuwait and on to Hawaii as well. I will probably wind up doing close to 6
months on this ship.

With luck, we will be delayed in Cameroon. I would much rather go home
after 120 than stay for 200. No crew changes are allowed overseas except
for the top three people onboard...

Last night I got to see stars. It has been some time, it was nice.

66 degrees 33 minutes point 000 North

At 16:45 (12:45pm pacific) on Sunday 2/26/09 we crossed the Arctic Circle
line heading South. Bumped my head as we went over it.

The weather is getting colder now and we are experiencing fog again on the
way back home.

We are headed back to Virginia. Once there we will unload our backload from
Greenland, then head to another dock for Coast Guard Inspections.

Our next voyage is expected to take us to Rhoda, Spain for loading cargo,
then to Duala, Camaroon, then back home to Philly. I should be getting off
in Philly and heading back to the NW at that time.

I am looking forward to Spain. It will be my first time there. This will
be my second time in Cameroon. Last time I spent my time getting my hand
checked out by the local witch doctor. Hopefuly this time will be better...

I hope everyone is doing well back home.
Drop me an email if you like.

crew06@ter.aplmaritime.com

Take care
Jesse

Conversations with the crew

Conversations with the crew.

Chief Cook: What would you like?
Jesse: I'll take two chili dogs.
Chief Cook: Would you like chili on those?
Jesse: Yes please, chili is one of my favorite parts of a chili dog.
Chief Cook: Okay.

----------------------------------------------
In Greenland

AB: Where are these people from?

Jesse: Denmark

AB: What do you call people from Denmark?

Jesse: Humm, not sure. Hey you suppose the cook left any "Danishes" out to
snack on?

AB: You're nuts, they never serve those.

Jesse: Yea, I know.

AB: Maybe Denmarkians...

Jesse: Yep, that has to be it. Look at that guy over there; he's been
working like a dog. He looks like a Great Denmarkian.

AB: You must be tired

Jesse: Why do you say that?

AB: Because you're not making any sense today.

Jesse: I know, sorry about that. Think I'll go below and read a little
Hamlet.

AB: Ok man, have a good night.

Jesse: Thanks, you too man.
------------------------------------------------------------

Chief Mate: Have you ever been to Mystic Connecticut?

Jesse: Yes, as a matter of fact I once...

Chief Mate: Yea, I went there once, it's a funny story. I was in New York
visiting my Aunt Nelly annnDuh she wanted to go to the Super Center to look
for a TV. Nelly doesn't drive so I agreed I would take her. So anyway I
was driving this Fiat which is really a great car, they got a bad rap you
know. So here I am getting the car a tune up at the service station my
friend Tom runs. Turns out I need to get new plugs so I wind up buying a
new set and Tom goes ahead and installs them for me. Annnduh - so I head
over to Nelly's house; she lives on Long Island. Nelly was a great cook and
she offered me some lentil soup, it was sooo good. So uh, eventually Nelly
gets into the Fiat. I was so glad I got that tune up. Annduh we head out
to the Super center. The Highway was packed; it always is though around
there... Annduuh..

Jesse: (drifting away in thought... Billy Crystal, Saturday Night Live-
"You know what I really hate? When you take an ice pick and slam it into
your ear really hard. I just hate that!")

Chief Mate: ....(laughs) so the TV won't even fit in the car. So I call
Laura Dern, she's a friend of mine, but she isn't the famous Laura Dern, you
wouldn't know her. AnnDuh, anyway she shows up with a pickup. Not a lot of
pick up owners on Long Island you know. Anyway she shows up and we put the
TV in the truck....

Jesse: (lost a mile away in thought..."I wonder what walrus tastes like?")

Chief Mate: So it turns out that Laura ate at this seafood restaurant in
Mystic and it was the best she ever had.

Jesse: Yea, I had a great....

Chief Mate: Yea, annDuh so I made the point to go there someday and check
out the seaport there and try out that restaurant.

Jesse: The old tall ships there are something to see, I got to tour....

Chief Mate: Yea? So anyway Aunt Nelly was wearing these fishnets and she had
a run in the left leg.......

Thule Greenland

Located about 930 miles from the North Pole, Thule is a thule majestic
place. Thule boasts being the Northern most deepwater sea port in the
world. They also claim to have the northern most bar in the world, the Top
of the World Club; AKA the TOW Club. I did manage on one day to have a
couple beers in the TOW club but alas, my schedule was opposite that of all
the Thule residents.

Thule was established as a US Air Base in the early 1950's, yet I only saw
one plane fly over head during our stay, nothing landing, nothing taking
off.

From the ship I could see what I believe were two separate glaciers in the
hills surrounding the base. The jagged mountain sides straining to contain
the unstoppable ice sheets were occasionally bested by what looked like a
busted dam, where the ice seemingly poured out and down to the fiords below.

The blue water of the fiord in which we were docked was surrounded by
beautiful rock formations with sedimentary strata of differing colors from
deep browns to bright reds, black and sometimes I thought perhaps a little
green. Ice bergs flowed into the fiord and as I stood my watches, I would
witness the constant changing view. The ice came in so many shapes and
slowly the sun would circle the sky, casting new angles of light upon them
thus changing the appearance of each berg. Every day, every hour the view
of the fiord changed to my eyes.

On land toward the airbase, the windswept hills undulated into the unseen
lands beyond, or into the glaciers in the far distance. There are no trees,
no brush of any kind, and I had to look hard to find what I think may have
been grass. The hills were barren to my eyes and looked like a dessert, the
soil and dust had many hues so there was still a hostile sort of beauty in
them. The dust was heavy and did not blow, yet it was as fine as powder as
feet trod upon it. As I looked around this place it occurred to me, this is
the place that survival guy on TV needs to come. I would love to see how he
finds shelter in this land. Short of killing whales, seals or bears, I
think survival here would be impossible in the wild.

No animals did I see either, except for a few birds, gulls and ducks which
lived off the sea. There seemed to be no living animals on the land other
than people. I was told in the past six moths, two polar bears roamed into
the base. When this happens, the base is locked down until the bears are
destroyed. Apparently there is no practical way to save the bears from that
fate.

The weather in Thule was fantastic. When the air was still, you could
almost get away with wearing shorts and a Tee shirt, but if the wind picked
up, cold weather gear was necessary.

We are sailing south now; soon we will be reunited with night time and the
darkness we remember.

The Fog and the Smoke

On our way here to Thule Greenland the M/V American Tern ran in to fog. The
fog lasted about 2 and one half days. The constant sounding of the fog horn
and the presence of the captain on the bridge made for very long days.

I suppose some people feel a bit claustrophobic in the fog, not being able
to see past the faint shadow of the bow does give you this closed in
feeling. On the other hand some feel rather comfortable being wrapped in
this blanket of fog. I was annoyed.

On February 20th of this year I quit smoking tobacco. Somewhere along the
journey I seem to have developed an allergy of some kind to tobacco smoke.
When I am around the smoke I instantly get a sinus headache and I feel
rather sea sick and nauseous. It is my luck that our captain is an
inconsiderate chain smoker. He lights up on the bridge but refuses to open
a door just a crack.

Hear we are, dodging ice bergs in the fog and I am out on the bridge wings
all bundled up trying to avoid the smoke. I don't want to say anything
directly to the captain; I have already heard that he would not take my
complaint kindly even if delivered in the most positive of ways. So
instead, each time he lights up, I begin donning my cold weather gear then I
step outside and close the door behind me. I will stay out there and when I
finally get cold I would look through the window and wait until I see him
put out a cigarette. At that point I will re-enter and take off my cold
weather gear. The last time I came back into the bridge, he walked right up
to me, asked me how I like the weather, I responded that it wasn't as bad as
I expected the arctic to be, then he smiled and lit another smoke while
standing right next to me. I immediately went back outside.

It is not easy to complain about smokers. I smoked for nearly 25 years and
ex-smokers are often the worst. I really do not want to be one of those
guys; but now I am seeing the other side... It really is a pain.

Well, anyway

After a couple days the fog finally broke. The ice was much easier to spot
and maneuver around. We arrived in Thule (say: tooly) on the evening of the
19th. We were called to all hands for docking around 10:30 pm, and after
the slowest non-pilot docking in history we were tied up by 5:30 am. We
were delayed by another ship that was leaving the dock, and by the captain
who couldn't have possibly made the ship move slower without turning back
time.

Midnight here is no different than noon, except that the sun has moved to
another spot in the sky. It is odd not having darkness, time is all screwed
up. As the ship was inching its way to the dock, the 1st Assistant Engineer
came out to the stern, he said "Don't worry guys, I am almost positive we
will get to the dock before night fall!"

Arctic Circle 66 degrees and 33 minutes

We officially crossed into the artic circle at 07:29 Ship time (03:29
pacific) on Friday 07-17-09

The coast line of Greenland is on our left and looks very rugged.

We are still looking at Sunday arrival in Thule.

Jesse

Correction

19:56 Ship time 07-16-09

Okay... Bergi Bits are the sizes of houses and Growlers are the size of
automobiles. I have also seen very small ice chunks which untill otherwise
told I will refer to as Growly Bits... :)

Just got my first view of the South coast of Greenland. It looks very
mountainous and rugged.

Ice bergs, bergi bits and growlers

Thursday 07-16-2009 08:30 ship time (+ 3 zulu)

Today around 06:00 I got to see my first real life Ice Berg. It was
impressive but rather far away. We saw several more by the end of my watch.
I was given a brief lesson on terminology. The large ones are Ice Bergs.
Smaller ones about the size of Volkswagens are called Bergi Bits, and the
ones that slip under the surface now and then are called Growlers (I guess
they make a sound as they bob up and down).

We have another day of sailing before we cross into the Arctic Circle. By
Sunday we should be docked in Thule.

Last night we received word that after this load is complete we will head
back to Norfolk, VA and wait at a lay birth for two weeks (probably the
exact same dock as before) then we will load somewhere on the east coast and
head to the Middle East. No exact destination has been given, but most
think it will be Kuwait. I am really getting tired of sailing through the
Suez Canal and the pirate waters of the Gulf of Aden but I guess the luck
just keeps coming; another trip is one its way.

It is getting colder now, but still above freezing and we expect it will
stay that way.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Keep in touch and let me know how you are doing.

Jesse

PS The ONLY way to communicate to me is by email:
crew06@ter.aplmaritime.com

I have no interconnecting tubes to the internets technologies.

OH, I almost forgot.... I will be vague in the future about the trip to the
Middle East. For detailed info you will need to email me direct and me to
you... Don't need no pirates reading the ole blog and getting ideas ya
know... :)

Eat at Joe's - Because the food here really sucks most of the time :-(

Weather

19:55 07-12-09 +3 zulu (4 hours ahead of Pacific Time)

Well for 2 days now we have been rolling in high seas, rain and low
visibility. After 4 hours standing at the wheel trying to maintain a course
while at the same time attempting to remain standing you begin to feel very
fatiuged...

In addition we are now keeping an eye out for ice... So far no ice, but we
will certainly be getting our fill within a few days. We should be in port
on Saturday or Sunday depending of course on weather and speed.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Kim Nies - Happy Belated Birthday!!!! I hope you had a great time.

Remember, if you read this on Facebook and want to reply to me, you must
email me. I cannot view any internet.

Jesse