Communing

Rain. 😦

Although it was already 0800, it was dark enough for the Aloha Tower lights to remain on:

I took advantage of the water on deck and did a bit of…er…swabbing. 😉 I also did the usual rainy day drill of checking and moving buckets around.

A bit of news early in the week disturbed me. I still feel uneasy about it, but there’s nothing I can do…except spend time with the ship.

Yes, I talk to the ship and to those who have gone before. My non-ship friends will think it’s crazy, but those of you who love and care about old ships will understand.

Shifting a pile of dirt and rust in the lazarette, I found these old-style square nuts (nod of thanks to my FB friends):

Better lighting from hatch:

One of the things I love about working on the ship is that I am always learning new things. I never really noticed the square nuts before, but there are a lot of them.

In situ on a frame:

Just for the heck of it, I took a look at some of my pics from Balclutha. What do you know…

For attaching the cargo battens, I assume?

Looking up at the deckhead:

And on Balclutha for comparison (with lovely COATS mark):

Frames on the starboard side:

Planking cut away near the aft bulkhead of starboard tank #5:

Ends of planking:

Moving forward, just aft of the mizzen mast:

I’d seen these holes before, of course. However, the lightbulb went on this time.

Were the pumps located on the weather deck above, before the ship was converted into a tanker?

Again, going to a photo taken on board Balclutha:

Something that may be unique to FOC, one of the pipes leading to the mizzen mast:

Forward to the main mast and its spigot:

Quite odd.

Looking aft along the tween deck, with the main mast at left and a water tank at right:

The deck under the water tank is really dodgy. There are holes, through which you can see into port tank #2:

Our lovely ballast water…sediments stirred up a bit.

Forward to the boiler room.

Rivet detail from another water tank:

A peek into the Scotch boiler:

As the day went on, the weather improved.

On the weather deck, I took this photo of what was left of one of the yard arms that had been sawed off:

Okay, back to the world outside…

Lost hardhat floating by:

Hachinohe Maru, the wood chip ship, still at Pier 1:

By coincidence, the home port of Aomori Maru, the Japanese ship that was at Pier 8, is Hachinohe.

I was surprised to see a red pencil urchin in the water at the end of the pier:

New Sailing Star, winner of the unique ship name of the day contest, was leaving the harbor:

The Navatek got stuck behind New Sailing Star:

It was like watching a sporty car following a slow moving truck.

This made me laugh:

I guess the silly skull thing is good for something after all.

My usual stroll around Aloha Tower…

Aomori Maru chafing gear:

Not unexpected, but still a bummer…the sundry store is gone:

Falkor at Pier 11:

American Contender detail:

Pump Progress

More progress on the pump system this week.

On Tuesday, I got out of work early. I travelled into town, ate lunch, and then went down to the harbor to check on the ship.

I found two ladies looking at the ship from the gate area. I had a nice chat with them and gave them a quick tour.

Paul was on board working to get more of the PVC set up for the emergency discharge line (which, hopefully, will never be used). After the ladies left, I did what I could to help him. Trying to do stuff like this in office attire is no fun.

Yesterday (Saturday), we did more work on the emergency discharge line. It involved going down into one of the tanks. Shhhhhh! Fortunately, the set-up drill was a familiar one, having been into the tanks myself.

The newest member of the FOC Tank Club:

Work on the weather deck:

Out through a scupper:

(Yes, the deck needs a good cleaning. It’s on my list.)

View from the pier:

After we were done for the day, I did my usual stroll around Aloha Tower.

Nippon Maru’s masts visible in the distance:

I went to the Aloha Tower sundry store to get something to drink. Most of the remaining shops are being pushed out by the HPU dorm project. I asked the lady behind the counter about their status. Unfortunately, she said that they had to leave too. That makes me unhappy.

She did say that there are plans for a merchant area, so they may be back. I hope so.

Pacific Venus rat guards:

Pacific Venus at Pier 10:

Marine creature sticker art:

Pirate Toby jug in a window downtown:

Once More Into the Tanks, Dear Friends…

I took time off from “real life” to help out on board the ship for three days this past week. Representatives from JMS Naval Architects were in town to do a survey and meet with the shipyard. This survey covered the same areas (tanks, forepeak, aftpeak, pump room) as the past two done by Chris Jannini, so I felt quite comfortable with what needed to be done.

The aftpeak has remained dry since summer of last year when we pumped the water that was in it, forward into the tanks:

The numbers we put up to label the frames were still there:

Looking into port tank #3:

Water in the pump room:

Pump room looking aft toward the forward bulkhead of the first set of tanks:

I was pleased that I was able to get a decent photo of the inside (port side) of the chain locker by sticking my fancy phone into a hole:

It looks like a wooden bulkhead dividing the space, but I have no idea what the dark sheet-like stuff is.

I had a couple of small scares while down in the pump room. I was standing on a board that worked loose and dropped a few inches and then had a ladder slip a bit as I climbed up it (so much for thinking it was secure all this time).

On Thursday, we were able to give our visitors a closer look at part of the exterior of the hull thanks to Captain Ed Enos, who very kindly made arrangements for use of one of the pilot boats:

We also did a bit of recon (wink, wink):

Back at Pier 19:

L to R: Bruce McEwan (Friends of Falls of Clyde), Jack Ringelberg (JMS Naval Architects), David Forrest (JMS Naval Architects), Captain Ed Enos (Hawaii Pilots Association)

Mahalo to Herbie!

My post wouldn’t be complete without some ship spotting!

Horizon Spirit:

Mokihana without containers:

Container detail:

Not the sharpest photo, but it shows Mikioi with the Foss logo:

Pi‘ilani also bears the Foss logo now. Kind of sad. The end of an era.

Celebrity Century with a few lifeboats lowered into the water:

Back to FOC, the birds continue to leave gifts in the form of seeds. There was also some weird stuff on the deck:

Not sure what it was, but obviously the ants liked it.

Whew! A Relief…

When I arrived at the harbor this morning, I didn’t want to look at the water for fear of finding dead fish floating around the ship. It was a relief to see things pretty much as they normally are. However, that doesn’t mean that the area will not be affected by the Matson molasses spill. So far so good, but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Business as usual for the (hungry) cleaner wrasse, seen here with a bunch of mamos:

A bit of rain…pretty double rainbow over the harbor:

I helped out on the pier with gangway related stuff, so I didn’t spend much time on the ship today.

I should know by now that taking the ullage readings at mid-day is a pathway to heat stroke. There’s nothing like staring down into a tank and getting hit with a blast of stale, hot air while the sun is beating down on your head.

Thank goodness for the relief of the mizzen mast shadow:

I noticed that the poop deck rail needs work. Must remember to order more Le Tonkinois.

Visible from the deck, this rather interesting contrail:

And, oh look, a balloon stuck on the jigger stay:

The source of the balloon:

Bad for sea life. Being so near to the ocean, they should know better.

Someone lost a lot of fishing line:

Lots of tug movement today. Aside from the usual tug and barge combos, a group of Kirby tugs left the harbor (no pics, camera not handy).

I was surprised to see Mamo in Foss livery:

A bunch of people (looked like members of the press) on board Tira Lani:

Interesting ship of the day, car carrier Splendid Ace:

ETA: Donated a bit to the ship via Foodland’s “Give Aloha” program today. Will probably give more before the month is out. Remember…78512.

Cautious Relief

Returning to the ship this morning after last night’s drama was a bit strange. I was (and will remain) cautious as I stepped aboard.

I have pretty decent visual memory, so I can usually spot when something’s out of place or not quite right. It was a relief to find things as they should be.

Anyway, a quiet day on the ship. Whew!

I did my usual walk around. Lots of bird poo that needs to be cleaned. 😦 Left that for another day.

I checked the tank ullages. I liked the ripples in the ballast water, so had to grab my camera and take a photo of that.

I’ve posted pictures of the numbers on the steps of the ladders leading down into the tanks before. I like them, so here’s another one:

I was fascinated by the rivets attaching one of the bitts to the deck. They remind me of suckers on an octopus leg:

I never noticed the ring on this port before:

Even old spider boxes need camera love:

I haven’t swept the deck in a long time. So, crud has built up:

Bad me.

Took care of some of the stuff in the waterway and around a couple of the scuppers:

Better keep up with the sweeping.

No interesting ships in the harbor today (except FOC, that is).

Termites Looking for a New Home

Work on the tween deck today. We took down some old (but not historic) wood shelving.

Friends of Falls of Clyde’s president, Bruce McEwan, making the termites unhappy:

Oh the joys of termite frass!

Old signage Bruce found:

Removing the shelving also opened up that particular area. It’s no longer a dark, uninviting space.

Of course, I had to have a look around. Here’s the CLIFF manufacturer’s mark on angle iron riveted to the tank bulkhead with an interesting texture around the margins of the rivets:

The ship’s original iron frames and beams are stamped MOSSEND. Anything stamped CLIFF is an addition.

I wanted to move the rest of the shelving to have a look at the surface of the bulkhead behind it. Oops.

It was heavier than it looked, so I had to abandon that idea. I had visions of me being squashed under it…not good.

The new gangway was making mournful sounds…a distinct improvement from the elephant trumpeting of last week. From inside the ship it sounded rather like humpback whale calls!

Port tank #2 illuminated by sunlight streaming through holes in the deck:

More rust-tea:

Too lazy to empty.

The Shadow of 5:

I received a lovely gift today:

Mahalo Jenny! Beautiful work.

Elsewhere in the harbor…

Two types of rat guards on Rhapsody of the Seas:

And my old friend the needlefish, cruising around looking as toothy as ever:

It’s All a Blur…

One of my favorite pics from the past two and a half weeks: Chris at work in one of the tanks.

Pau

Today was the last day of the FOC photographic hull survey. Bittersweet. We accomplished a lot, but it was sad to see “the crew” leave for the last time.

Discussing the pumping system and remaining work to be done on it:

The last tank to be photographed was Tank 4 on the port side of the ship. We didn’t have time to pump out the ballast water, so we did what we could.

Broken stanchion and water:

Collision = bent and cracked frames. There is more damage beyond the bulkhead in Tank 5.

It has been lovely to have the ship buzzing with activity. I could not help but feel rather down, as I sat alone in my cabin for a while before heading for home.

The old man shouts, the pumps stand by,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her!
Oh, we can never suck her dry.
An’ it’s time for us to leave her!

Fun on a Friday

Some images from yesterday.

Measuring ullage:

Not just one, but two sections of pipe fell to the bottom of this tank.

This leads to the hottest new shipboard craze…

Forget planking! We’ve gone beyond that to…tanking!

Suction line with check valve and strainer in situ in tank:

Second section of pipe recovered and passed up to the weather deck through the tank hatch:

Examining patching (and repatching) done in Tank 5 (starboard):

Oops. It seems the patching has failed.

Looking up again. The only way in and out of the tank:

Finally, a manufacturer’s mark spotted on a steel frame in the tank.:

The steel was added when the ship was converted into a tank ship.

In the Tanks

When I arrived at the ship on Monday the 23rd, the ship was visibly listing to starboard. This was not a surprise considering that we were pumping ballast water between the cargo tanks in order to access their lower levels and that the tank bulkheads have holes in them. No cause for alarm, but strange to walk on a slightly tilting deck.

Over the past week, I’ve had the opportunity to climb down into just over half of the tanks. It’s one thing to look at photos and videos (Brush’s 2009 survey), but quite another to see things for myself…a sobering, but fascinating experience.

Here is the upper part of Tank 2 on the starboard side. Not so bad.

A different world waits at the bottom of the ladder.

Brush taking photos with Esmon and Tony from Leeward Marine assisting:

Interesting detail…bottom of the main mast, which was incorporated into the centerline bulkhead.

And, yes, that’s water leaking through a hole in the bulkhead. The tank on the other side has a higher level of water in it.

A view looking up to the access hatch, giving some idea of the depth of the tank: