Lucky

Things were looking really scary for a while with hurricanes Madeline and Lester headed for Hawai‘i. Fortunately, Madeline turned to the south and Lester to the north of the islands. Whew!

Due to the hurricane threat, there was no harbor traffic in the morning, but things picked up in the afternoon after it became clear Lester was moving away from O‘ahu.

Kinei Maru No. 83 arriving at Pier 9:

Crew handling mooring lines at the bow:

Tug Hawaii and barge Capella with Pi‘ilani assisting:

Tanker Ross Sea heading to the offshore anchorage:

Ross Sea draft marks:

View from offshore:

Back in the harbor with another tanker, St. Joseph:

Mikioi at the bow:

Pi‘ilani:

St. Joseph tying up at Pier 51:

Salishan with Matson barge Mauna Loa:

Job done. Mikioi headed back.

Mahalo to Captains Enos, Hopkins, and Demuth. Special thanks to Paul.

Fanfare…Mostly

I arrived at the harbor to catch the departure of Sichem Edinburgh and was surprised and very pleased to find Fanfare tied up at Pier 9. Honolulu was an unscheduled stop due to engine problems.

The nice thing about having the ship at Pier 9 is the chance to have a good look at her.

Rat guards!

Bulbous bow marking:

Lots of cool textures:

While I was checking out the hull, I was invited by Captain Enos to go out on the pilot boat for the Sichem Edinburgh job. 😀

Stern view of Fanfare while heading over to Sichem Edinburgh:

Mamo assisting:

Job done, Captain Enos disembarks:

Bye!

Nunui with a bone in her teeth:

Some of the HART train components at Pier 1:

Fanfare:

I was also allowed to go out on the B. Sky job.

Alongside B. Sky at the pier with Hilo Bay astern of her:

Hoku Loa:

Mamo assisting with Kukahi:

Back to Fanfare!

Lifeboat:

More hull textures:

Scupper:

Draft marks and Plimsoll line:

Hatch cover details:

Winches on the foredeck:

Mahalo to Captains Enos and Collins. Special thanks to Paul.

Gener8 Argus from Land

More Gener8 Argus!

Pi‘ilani at the stern:

Where the rudder post meets the hull:

Hello again!

The pilot, Captain Dorflinger:

Bulbous bow with draft marks:

Mikioi at the bow:

On her way:

Pasha Hawaii Ships – New and Old, but New

Horizon Enterprise, now in Pasha Hawaii livery, has been stuck in the harbor due to problems with a boiler, so I hear. She was moved to Pier 10 from Pier 32 by three tugs (deadship tow).

Horizon Lines no more:

Old-style lifeboat:

Details:

One of the three tugs, Mikiala II:

Churning up the water:

Later on in the evening, Marjorie C:

Waiting for the pilot:

Mahalo to Captain Ed Enos and Paul!

Singapore Voyager

Crew at bow:

Mikiala II working:

Very Fortunate

As I’ve noted in previous posts, I consider myself quite fortunate that I’ve been able to get a glimpse of a world most people don’t give much (or any) thought to. It is my sincere hope that Hawai‘i residents who stumble upon this blog gain a little bit of insight into what goes on at the waterfront and more appreciation of the men and women who work there.

Along the starboard side of outbound (from Honolulu Harbor) Horizon Spirit. View from the pilot boat on the way to pick up the pilot, Captain Tom Collins, who is on board the ship:

The pilots have the important task of guiding ships into, within, and out of the commercial harbors in Hawai‘i.

Captain Collins disembarking from Horizon Spirit:

Horizon Spirit headed off to California:

From Horizon Spirit it was straight to an offshore anchorage job.

Captain Collins going aboard the tanker Future Prosperity:

Hull detail. From left to right: load line marks (old and new), Plimsoll lines (old and new), draft marks.

Future Prosperity approaching the anchorage:

Later on, it was out to meet inbound MELL Sudong.

Unfortunately, some photos don’t turn out the way you want them to.

Captain Tom Heberle preparing to go aboard as seen through spray on the window of the pilot boat:

I didn’t like this shot at first, but it’s growing on me.

Back in the harbor, a brief peek at FOC. Very grainy. The street lights reflected in the spray make the scene seem a little magical:

The illuminated square on the main mast is video being projected on to a sail. Movie night on the ship.

MELL Sudong safely moored at Pier 51:

View along the pier, waiting for Captain Heberle:

That was it for the evening for me. But work in the harbor continued on…

Mahalo to Captains Tom Heberle and Tom Collins. Special thanks to Paul. A pleasure, as always, gentlemen.

Floating Refuge

Friday was not a good day. I was planning to chill out and not do much, but my laptop had a major fit. Before I knew it, I found myself making an unplanned visit to the Apple Store, where I ended up buying a new one. Ouch.

Although Saturday was a little blustery (winter weather!), I was happy to be on board the ship after the stress of Friday. It’s a different world where I can hide away and do some mental healing.

The ship was rolling more than usual, due to the swell in the harbor.

Mokihana was loading vehicles at Pier 1:

It was unusual to see the two tugs stationed along the hull…Pi‘ilani and Moana Holo in this shot (extra $$$). I suppose it was because of the position of the ship and the conditions at the pier.

The morning was spent working with a volunteer. We did a walk through the ship, talked about potential projects, and emptied rain water buckets. (It’s raining as I type this, so I expect those buckets are filling up again.) We also cleared some plugged scuppers. It helps to have scuppers that work.

Measured the tank ullages:

The new form I designed is working well, but I have to modify it to include a few more measurements.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know about the problems we have had with the aft draft mark pole. Based on a chat with one of the naval architects we are working with, I looked for easily accessible areas at the bow and stern to take measurements from. It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s what we can do at the moment and it’s better than nothing.

Looking down to water from porthole at stern:

Mark up on fo’c’sle head indicating measurement point:

After I was done on the ship, I decided to stay at the harbor for a little while longer.

Watched Mokihana shift from Pier 1 back to the Matson piers.

Tugs!

Tira Lani passing Mokihana:

Mikioi:

I’m still trying to get used to seeing the Foss logo.

Setting sun with sun dogs and halo:

JRS Canis arriving:

Goodnight, lass:

New Toy, Old Grind

It was back to the harbor on Saturday.

Before I went to the ship, I stopped to have a look at the tanker Suez Rajan. While I can see the tankers from my house when they are out at the offshore anchorage, it’s always neat to see them up close.

Empire Navigation logo:

Draft and bulkhead marks:

Rat guard:

It was a hot and humid day, so I decided to do some sweeping in the shade of the fo’c’sle:

That photo and the following were taken with my fancy new phone. 🙂

A friend came by to help out with measurements for the mooring line project. I need to get going on that.

Another examination of the stuff encrusting the draft mark pole, now dry but still smelly, produced a couple of surprises: Shrimp casualties!

On the left is a mantis shrimp and on the right is a snapping shrimp. College ruled note paper for scale.

Poles Again and Sailing Vessels

First off, mahalo again to Paul and the Hawaii Pilots Association. Paul was able to bring the pilot boat over to the ship to work on the draft mark poles.

If you have been following the pole saga, you know that we lost the stern pole. It was found by the Star of Honolulu folks.

The wayward pole back at Pier 7:

It is now a spare pole, since Paul made a new one when it disappeared.

The new pole in place:

Hopefully this one stays put.

We also adjusted the pole at the bow:

Nice to see other sailing vessels in the harbor.

Robert C. Seamans arrived this morning:

Kaiwo Maru…well, her masts anyway:

Back on the ship, more experiments with numbers on the tween deck:

Beam detail:

Doing and Redoing

The pumps that were part of the water ballast transfer system that was dismantled by the previous owner of the ship were moved to the tween deck. It was another small, but positive step toward getting the system rebuilt. Mahalo to the USN Sea Cadets from the Missouri who provided the muscle power.

We have yet to test them. I hope they work.

I did a test to see how well different sizes of numbers photograph for a future project:

I also finished the chafing gear for one of the starboard spring lines:

I probably should have used larger line. Oh well. It’s doing what it’s supposed to.

Paul returned to adjust the draft mark pole at the bow and to put a new one at the stern. Conditions weren’t as good as last weekend and the boat he had borrowed (the pilot boat was busy) was rather unwieldy. So…mission aborted. 😦

The rescue boat from Star of Honolulu doing person overboard drill off FOC’s port side:

Speaking of rescue, the folks from Star of Honolulu fished our “lost” draft mark pole out of the water. As I was leaving FOC to go home, I saw it lying on the side of Pier 8. When I went over and asked if I could have it back, the fellow I spoke to said it had been found floating in front of their ship. Oops.