CRANE DAY/ DON'T TRUST A CABBIE IN OAKLAND, PART 2

Today we met up with a Webb alum, Kyle Brunelle ’82. He had seen that we were in the area and offered to give us a tour of the Port of Oakland, which he works for. Of course, we thought this was a good idea. He was able to meet us at the gangway and we drove around to observe cargo operations for a little while. The Matsonia had also been moved to the new Matson terminal and there were a couple other ships doing stuff as well. We watched containers being moved on and off ships by different types of cranes as well as smaller vehicles moving containers around the yard. Some of the boxes get put onto railroad cars for their transport around the country and some just go on trucks.

We made our way over to the end of the terminal, which Hanjin just moved out of. There were 3 cranes not being used, making them perfect for our tour. We stopped to pick up a mechanic (Joe) who took us up in the tiny crane elevator to the operator’s cab. It’s a lot like an enclosed ski gondola, but with more glass panels so the operator can watch the crane trolley move around.

Joe showed us how the crane is turned on and how the boom has to be lowered from the stowed position before operations start. (Watching large pieces of steel flex while moving is exciting.) He pointed out the operator’s controls, which are mainly 2 joysticks. Then he said, “OK, who wants to go first?”

YES!! WE DROVE A CRANE!!!!!! They didn’t let us pick anything up (very smart), but we got to drive the cab forward and back and move the trolley around. The trolley actually sends feedback to a PLC somewhere so that when it is over the pavement, even if you are sending it toward the ground at full speed, it will slow down and stop before you hit anything. The same goes for raising it at full speed. However, when over the water, this feedback does not happen, because cranes need to be able to get containers out of the bottom of a ship’s cargo hold, which can be 40 feet below the surface of the water.

Joe: “OK, now do you want to see it go full speed?”

There is an art to driving cranes that we do not have. The controls are very sensitive, so it is very easy to jerk the cab around and difficult to make things operate smoothly, and the trolley can start acting like a pendulum. As Joe showed us, the good crane operators are able to counteract the swing of the trolley or use it to their advantage.

A little while later, we went up a level to the machinery house. All the cable spools are up there, along with auxiliary motors, a reduction gear, and the switchboards. After this, Joe had to leave us. The rest of us decided to go all the way up to the apex of the crane. Mr. Brunelle says that when the weather is not foggy (unlike today), it is the best view of San Francisco. We weren’t able to see past the Bay Bridge, but we could look out over the whole terminal, the park next door, and see Berkeley off to the right.

this is what the cranes looked like when they were shipped from China

they barely fit under the bridge at low tide

that’s us!!!

It was an entirely super cool experience and we’d like to thank Mr. Brunelle again for the opportunity (and for all of the crane photos)!

At that point, we had already used up most of our day, so again we were forced to acknowledge that we would not be able to make it to San Francisco. After meeting Cody and satchel for lunch, we got donuts (tiny donuts) and may have also gotten cake, cupcakes, and/or ice cream. Then we were left on our own and went to do some exploring.

We ended up at a little park thing (Lake Merrit) outside Oakland. We found a lot of birds, including 2 cormorants, 9,999 pigeons, and 99,999 ring-billed gulls.

I didn’t take this picture either.

There was also a big sign that said “CHILDREN’S FAIRYLAND” in rainbow letters, so of course we had to check that out. It’s about as weird as it sounds- an abandoned kid’s fairy tale amusement park.  Do not let your children go to this park. You do not want to go to this park.

And then it was time to start heading back to the ship. I mentioned earlier that we have moved from the sketchy part of Oakland to the sketchier part of Oakland. Did you know that it’s so sketchy, cabbies don’t even want to take you there? The companies kept bouncing us around to other companies, occasionally promising someone was on the way, more often insisting they “had no one in the area”. Eventually we had to face the facts: no one was coming to get us.

Yeah, we walked.

DON'T TRUST A CABBIE IN OAKLAND

We arrived in Oakland yesterday around 1700. The Matson terminal just got relocated, so now we dock in a different place. Essentially, we’ve moved from the bad part of Oakland to the worse part of Oakland.

Our plan was essentially the same as last time – to meet Satchel (Cody was busy) for dinner just a few minutes away. We figured we could walk like we did before. One of the ABs stopped us as we were about to go down the gangway, asking if we had a cab waiting for us. We told him we hadn’t planned one. He said,

“This is not like the other terminal. It’s a whole different jungle. Call a cab.”

We ended up departing with 4 other crew members who were all going different places. (Captain Idema just went for it with characteristic chillness. He walked all the way back to the other terminal to get his car. In a fedora and a leather jacket.) Usually, the shuttle drivers will have the main gate call a cab to pick you up. However, this shuttle driver had an anxiety attack when we said we wanted more than 1 cab for the six of us. (She was basically having panic attacks the entire time she drove us around the terminal, plus acting very put-upon whenever she had to do hard work like relay messages through her radio, plus stopping 3 times to answer phone calls about her other job. So that was a good start to the night.) Well, the main gate decided that wasn’t necessary anyway, so they called 1 cab. This cab driver showed up 15 minutes later thinking he was going to make a bundle driving 6 people to one spot. Upon hearing that we wanted to go 2 different places (The train station and Jack London Square), HE had a panic attack that manifested itself in a fit of rage.

Complaining the entire time, we got the people to the train station, and then he stopped at a random intersection and said “OK this is Jack London Square.” We all laughed (THERE WAS LITERALLY NOTHING THERE) which made him angrier. “Don’t you try to tell me about Jack London Square, I know where Jack London Square is, I have been here twenty-five years!!” Mike: “Okay, then just drop us at BevMo.” It’s the really big liquor store right across from the movie theatre, right next to the huge Jack London sign. Driver: “What the hell is BevMo?!”

I’ve never met a cabbie who was angry about driving people farther than he anticipated. This guy has some serious issues to work out.

We found Satchel and his longboard a little while later. Dinner was good and our journey made an entertaining story. He had actually tried to come to the terminal to meet us, but we missed each other and possibly even drove past him with the angry cabbie.

Andy: “I’m surprised you didn’t see our captain then, he walked right down that street.”

Satchel: “Wait, was he wearing a fedora?”

After dinner we departed for the ship in a cab from a different company. Our driver was a perfectly reasonable human being. The shuttle driver had not improved.

SEATTLE SHORT DAY

When I got up today I assumed we had entered Puget Sound because the ship was moving so little. However, when I looked out the window to see how far we were from the dock, I saw…nothing. I could not see the city at all. In fact, I couldn’t see the water or the sky either. I have never been in a thicker fog than today. Even when we had tied up around 1030, you could barely see across the channel.

We decided to hang around for a little while to watch the day workers pull the #1 piston from the main engine. The piston rings needed to be replaced. To do this they had to first cut off all supply and return from the piston. Then, unbolt the cover with the help of hydraulics. After the cover was removed, the guy in charge got inside the cylinder and polished it up with a grinder. Finally, after about 3 hours, they were able to pull the piston from the engine and set it down.

The piston + piston rod together, when lifted by the ship’s gantry crane to its maximum height, do not even clear the cylinder head bolts. To get the pieces out they had to tilt them and move them diagonally. This is a pretty good example of people forced to do unsafe things because the ship wasn’t designed properly (tall enough).

The cylinder liners all need to be replaced, but that job is done in Hawaii. Someone at corporate decided to veto the idea to be smart about this and do all of the cylinder work on the same day. It also seems that day workers have never gotten the “wear a hard hat” or “don’t stand under a suspended load” memos. But they definitely got the one about doing stretches before working.

So, we finally got off the ship around 1600. None of our friends in the city were free to meet us at that time, so we went back to Pike Place Market. We have both run out of books to read, so we decided that in Seattle we would look for a used bookstore. If the books are any good, we’ll keep them, and if they’re not we’ll donate them to the officer’s lounge. You’re welcome?

We ended up in the most hipster bookstore ever. All the shelves were neatly labeled with categories like “biographies of anarchist people of color”, “animal liberation”, “anti-civilization literature”, etc. sheesh man, I only wanted a story.

From there we moved on to another store in the lower level of the market. This one was much better for me, so I had to leave quickly before it got dangerous. We ended up eating dinner in the market with waterfront seating (see below).

We made another short visit to Justin’s house (“Jenny, how many paper cranes did you hide in our apartment??”) for ice cream before heading back to the ship. Our stay this time was very short, probably to make up for the time we lost on the way to Hawaii. Surprisingly, we never met the storm that we had been worried about, so weather routing does actually work. We should be in Oakland in a couple of days.

From today:

daytime ferris wheel

from dinner: NIGHTTIME FERRIS WHEEL

 

as usual, our ship is in the background. We just can’t get away from it.

 

(fireworks appreciation noises)

 

VBA, EVERYWHERE

This entry is a little thin as the past couple of days have been spent on our Excel program. We are glad to say it’s almost finished. It has the same format as the original spreadsheet and can also generate daily logbook entries and California fuel tax paperwork based on this data.

Today we took a field trip to the bow thruster room. There is not much to see down there except a lot of dirt and grease, and not much to hear except cavitation. The bow thruster is not closed off by a valve or anything so when we are at sea the water rushes through.

Since it’s a confined space, Andy and I got left on tank watch while the electrician (Bruce) and junior engineer (Europa) were doing their work. We had to monitor the air-quality pump to make sure the space was safe and help them bring stuff up and down the ladders.

The other thing we did today was test the lifeboat engines again. We have the method down now, so it only takes about 15 minutes.

In other news, we have found out where the stewards keep the ice cream sandwiches.

Tomorrow we are supposed to arrive in Seattle before noon. What will we do there? No idea! Stay tuned.

CARGO HOLD DAY

This morning we crossed paths with another ship that was heading east. Marty and Mike said it is a car carrier going to Mexico.

Andy and I joined the chief mate, Duncan, today as he inspected the cargo holds. The stuff we were looking for is fuel leaks, excessive rust/damage, and piles of trash (every so often our people have to clean up what shipyard workers leave behind). There was much climbing up and down ladders and sneaking around containers and flat racks. Some of our cargo holds are completely empty right now. The non-empty ones hold flat racks with cars, normal containers, and reefers (containers that require refrigeration). The reefer hold is a little bare right now as not all of our refrigeration is working.

We found a few fuel oil dribbles, some container guides in questionable shape, a lot of trash, and some spiders. (seriously though what do they eat down there?) We have been told much of the Cargo Hold Spiders, such as

-their eyes glow red
-they’re HUGE, like SO HUGE
-and GREEN
-WITH FANGS
-they only go for cadets
-they can jump like 9 FEET
-and they ROAR when they jump

I can now guarantee that at least 2 of these are not true.

In the afternoon, the chief engineer (Howard) asked for our assistance in improving the excel program in which he records the daily readings. It is also supposed to calculate the fuel available from fuel consumed, fuel bunkered, and time elapsed. The problem is that at least 3 chief engineers have been working on this at different times with no particular documentation, and at this point it’s pretty convoluted. However, I think we can fix it, and by fix it I mean we probably will have to rip it all out and start over. I am currently trying to re-learn VBA, which is slow and painful but coming along.

LIFEBOAT DAY

Today was entirely spent on one task- draining and replacing the fuel oil in the ship’s two lifeboats. This needs to be done every 6 months. How could such a thing take a whole day? Well, I will tell you.

The whole morning was spent on gathering our supplies. These included many hoses (for fuel and air), many connections for these hoses (few of which fit), many more connections for these hoses (that we could actually work with), a pump on a stick (really a pump with a pipe attached to the suction side), an empty barrel (to transport the fuel oil between the lifeboat and the tank), full barrels (of good oil), life jackets (worn any time you’re working in the lifeboat), walkie-talkies, screwdrivers, pipe wrenches, the wiper (Josh), and 3^rd engineer Todd, who will disappear the second you’re not looking, mysteriously move all the supplies around, and take 30 minutes and 3 people to find again.

After lunch we started the actual process. The tank where we were depositing the old oil was too far to reach with the hoses, so we had to use the barrel in between. The small pump on a stick was powered by ship’s service compressed air. Between completion of the 1^st and 2^nd lifeboat, a squall blew up. It was neat to see it coming over the ocean toward us, but luckily it was break time anyway, so we went down to the control room and ate cookies. By the time break ended the rain had gone.

We did get the oil changed eventually and now the boats are all good to go.

THE DAY WE WENT TO DIAMOND HEAD

So, Diamond Head. It’s a crater and a national monument on the southeast corner of Oahu. Once, there was also a fort which never got used. We decided to climb it in the time remaining before the ship’s departure, allegedly 1300. Since it was recommended to leave about 2 hours for the hike, we left just after 0700 in the morning. The total elevation gain was about 560 feet.

missed the sunrise but I’m not too mad

we saw a pod of whales out here but they were too fast for me.

and here you can see my future properties (all of them)

some bits of fort

some more bits of fort + Waikiki in the background. You can also totally see the ship if you look hard enough

in the foreground, the University of Hawaii

a little sketchy

and now we go back down.

We knew it would be a pretty short hike, but the entire trip up and down actually took us less than an hour. Rather than try to squeeze something else into the remaining time, we went to get a late breakfast (bagels in Hawaii- not their specialty, but not too bad), returned our car and got back on board.

We knew something was amiss when we returned only 2 hours before the posted sailing time and there were no containers on deck. Although most of the containers we bring back from Hawaii carry either pineapple or nothing, there was no way we were going completely unloaded. Andy made a few inquiries, and we found that the cargo guys in the yard had decided that football > work, and hadn’t yet shown up.

When asked for comment, the chief mate replied “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Sailing time was delayed to 1900. So now we are farther behind, and are supposed to meet an exciting storm between here and Seattle. Will the Manoa ever be on schedule again??? Tune in next time…

HAWAII + WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO, PART 2

This was a pretty short work week as we had the Oakland port stop. The weather on the way was really great. Really, it hardly felt like we were moving at all. So when the #2 turbocharger died in the middle of the night and we shut down the main engine, I didn’t even notice. As the 2^nd engineer said, “Turbocharger #2 gave up the ghost…but in a nice, gentle way.”

The turbocharger set off the high-vibration alarm, but the problem was dealt with before (luckily) it got to the point of something drastic, like exploding. It has been due for maintenance for a while…so due, in fact, that we received the replacement parts while in Oakland. It just wasn’t a dire enough problem to fix until like, right now. So the plan originally was that we were going to be kicked out of Honolulu quickly to get to Seattle quickly so they could work on replacing the ME cylinder liners, but we lost time, travelled at a reduced speed for the remainder of the trip, and  needed to get some serious work done in Honolulu. So there goes that plan.

In other news, the 2^nd and I have completed the reassembly of the HFO purifier, which may or may not have involved one person standing on it while the other sledgehammered stuff into place. (“Sometimes I do both by myself at the same time. Yeah, it’s a little sketchy”) We also replaced the governor connection on the #2 generator, which had been seriously worn away. Generator #2, my favorite generator, seems to be commonly referred to as “Christine, The Generator From Hell”. Maybe she’ll be a little happier now.

Usually on westbound weeks, dinner the night before arrival in Honolulu is a barbecue. Last time it got cancelled because of weather; this time we were able to make it happen. So, Andy and I got reassigned to help the stewards carry stuff around. The barbecue was super, and although I did not join the poker game afterward, I heard that was pretty good too.

Our arrival in Honolulu this time happened somewhere between 000 and 0500, so we just got up early to make as much of the day as possible.

First: snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, which we were told is the best place to go.

 
It was not too crowded, because they limit the number of people who can come in (so you have to get there early). Also, stupid people have been killing the reef for years, so you have to swim out past them to a) get away from people kicking you in the face and b) get to the part of the reef they haven’t reached yet.

the white line is where the reef wall is.

However, the bay is really shallow AND the tide was going out, so we kind of got stuck beyond the reef and had to swim all the way around to get back to the beach. And the current was pretty strong, so that was exciting.

ANYWAY, the snorkeling was awesome. We saw lots of stuff including parrot fish, trumpet fish, unicorn fish, all the fish, sea urchins, starfish, and our crowning achievement, a green sea turtle. He came out from his hidey hole, bobbed around a little (Andy: “He’s so majestic!”) and then he went back down again. So, the day was totally worth it.

I don’t have any internet right now and this is the only sea turtle picture available to me

speaking of majestic

this is Koko Butter Head, which has lots of steps you can climb if you’re crazy

After lunch, we went to Waikiki to explore a little. We ended up at the zoo, although we did not actually visit the zoo. Outside it is this tree:

our map failed to mention that “Waikiki Banyan” was actually a hotel, but we got there in the end

We went around the shops, although we stayed far away from Luxury Row, because some of the stores definitely had bouncers and would have thrown us out for being scruffy. We stumbled upon the end of some young peoples’ hula dance recital, which was neat, and then we visited the statue of Duke Kahanamoku, Olympic champion and the person who introduced surfing to the West Coast and Australia. We watched the tourists walk by and voted on who had the best outfit -matching husband and wife Hawaiian shirt combo? WHOLE FAMILY matching Hawaiian shirt combos? Hipster/hippie couple? No, the prize went to a group of ladies in “bridesmaid’ sashes escorting their friend, who was wearing a white dress with the veil and all. I’m sure they had an exciting weekend.

 

Pro tip: most of the expensive Waikiki hotels have open-air lobbies, and you can totally walk in and chill on their couches without anyone bothering you. We also tried asking the concierge what we could do next for fun; he said “nothing” (it was about 7 PM) which was not very helpful. We ended up having a late dinner in a restaurant in the Hilton because we do what we want. Then as we were pretty tired we decided to go to sleep and make an early start the next day.

NEW ENGINEERS' FIRST DAY

Today we requested a break from tracing systems (“if you have anything else for us to do…ANYTHING…”) and worked with the 2^nd and 3^rd engineers on some purifiers. Always more purifiers. I worked with the 2^nd, Chris, to put back together the HFO purifier that the 3^rd and I took apart on the day we got into Oakland (a glorious act of destruction). Andy worked with the 3^rd today to clean and repair a lube oil purifier.

The HFO purifier we were working on (#3) has 2 water inlets. One has significantly less pressure than the other. We know this because we tested them and I only got covered in water once. However, we have determined that the problem is not inside the purifier, so we are putting it back together after replacing some o-rings, springs, and seals (the parts that wear out and need to be replaced every so often).

This morning, Andy and I also repaired a pressure-controlled valve on the #1 purifier. The 2^nd engineer noticed it was leaking, probably because of a problem with the diaphragm. There was black oil everywhere, it was exciting. We isolated the valve and took it apart (the diaphragm was ripped in 2 places), cleaned it out (it was full of oil), replaced the diaphragm and put it back together. They turned the purifier on after lunch and all works fine again. Success!

Other exciting parts of today: Something has gone wrong with the 3^rd seawater pump. This pump is HUGE. It’s like, person-sized. And it was spraying seawater everywhere instead of pumping it like it should. We got the valves closed eventually (I actually helped very little, especially since it took me a long time to find a pipe wrench because I forgot the difference between a wrench and a pipe wrench) and there are 2 more seawater pumps working instead. The 2^nd exciting thing that happened today is that someone was running the HFO transfer pumps with all the valves closed…oops. The 3^rd exciting thing of today is that we got more snacks in the control room. Yes!

THE DAY WE DIDN’T GO TO SAN FRANCISCO

So we had to be back on the ship by 1530 for departure at 1630. So we saw the ferry schedule and saw we needed to take the 1100 ferry to SF, and the 1400 ferry back. So, we watched the 1100 ferry leave as we got there.

Oops.

Well, next time. We decided to see what Oakland had to offer. The answer is, not much. I’m pretty sure we saw all 4 things in Oakland today.

We went over to Jack London Square, which borders on a marina and is the center of the nice part of Oakland. Not many people around, but they had a lot of restaurants. We hadn’t had breakfast so we went for an early lunch at Kincaid’s. We were the first ones in, so they gave us the corner table right over the marina, which was awesome. Also, all the staff was really friendly, which was a little surprising since we definitely weren’t fancy enough for this place either. The lady at the next table totally gave me side-eye the entire time. Hey lady, I’ll do what I want with my money and you can’t stop me.

Afterward, we decided to go back to a shop we had glimpsed during our walk from Cody/Satchel’s apartment to the square. “World Market” promised food, art, and furniture from all over the world and we were interested to see what they had. While it took us an embarrassingly long time to find it again, we got there in the end.

Oh man, if I had a way to transport stuff home, I would totally have bought furniture. It was super neat. They also had stuff like musical instruments from Asia, wood carvings, wind chimes, dragon kites, and other folk art and clothes. Unfortunately, the store wasn’t very big, and we ended up at Jack London Square again maybe an hour later. But there was a Ben & Jerry’s store, so we weren’t sad for too long.

We also visited Jack London’s house, which has been transported from the Yukon to the middle of the square. Actually, it is half of Jack London’s house. Actually, it is a house built from half of Jack London’s deconstructed original house. What? And the other half built another house somewhere else. But they had a wolf statue, so that was nice. And that took up maybe 10 minutes. Left with really nothing left to do, we ended up back on the ship.

At this port stop, we went through a crew change. We got a new chief and 1^st engineer; the 1^st and 2^nd engineers we have been working with went back to being 2^nd and 3^rd engineer. We also have a new radio operator and new cook. So, we went to meet our new engineering bosses, and then went to the bridge for departure.

OAKLAND DAY

The weather has been calm lately, which is a significant improvement. However, I was too quick to say we are done in the purifier room. I forgot lube oil purification.

Anyway, we arrived in California today by way of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was awesome!

here we go…

Many appearances by seagulls, although I could not tell if they were of the ring-billed variety (my favorite)

I’m on the bridge wing.

I’m on the other bridge wing!

creepin creepin

It’s really hard to get a good picture of this thing.

Sailboat guy + Alcatraz

now we’re almost under it

now we’re REALLY almost under it

Now we’re totally under it (At this point the captain had me blow the whistle to alarm the tourists)

And now we passed it.

here’s my pretty picture

the second appearance of sailboat guy

[CREEPING INTENSIFIES]

Mom, here is our bell, + Marty for scale

MINIATURE TIME

accidentally artsy seagull

Here comes our tug…

aw yeah

this is us going into the terminal after we spun 180°.

Excuse me who invited you

Matsonia, not a sistership of Manoa (part RO/RO)

Bay ferries do not care, they were cutting in front of us all day

Rowing guys! + dude in a small boat

Caught creepin by dude in a small boat

My new camera is super cool.

Not pictured: guys trying to tie us up at the dock but being super lazy + tying the lines to pickup trucks instead of walking them back

After arrival, we went off to meet our Webbie friends Satchel and Cody, who are living in Alameda and working in Oakland. Picking a restaurant solely based on Satchel’s Yelp app led us to a Belgian pub where the only food choice was between a Reuben and a grilled cheese sandwich (I wouldn’t have minded) and the décor included a lifelike zombie statue. We didn’t stay there long. We finally met up with the rest of our group (Cody, Lindsay, and freshmen Hannah and Laleña) at an Italian restaurant that we were nowhere near fancy enough for. Anyway, the food was interesting.

We had decided to spend the night at Cody and Satchel’s instead of going back to the ship. Tomorrow our plan is to take the ferry and visit San Francisco, since everyone else will be working or gone.