Seascapes

Without looking at the exif, see if you can spot the difference between the output of a DSLR and a compact digital.

Back to basics

Back to the things I know a bit of, ships and the sea. Photos taken on a rather hazy, moody afternoon which gave the rather cold bluish cast.

Penang Feri

NT

Seafarer's Open Day

Invitation is open to all active and non-active seafarers, their families, ship owners, agencies and training institutions which involved directly with the development of Malaysian Seafarers.
Central Mercantile Marine Fund and with the cooperation of Malaysian Marine Department will organized a scheduled coaster bus to attend seafarers onboard their vessel and transport them to the Mariners Center to attend this event. It is a complementary service.


Various programs will be held from 1100 hours
until 1530 hours. They are:

i. Customer Open Day by Ministry Of Transport Malaysia Agencies.
There will be at least 12 agencies under The Ministry Of Transport Malaysia. To name few, Road Transport Department, Department of Civil Aviation, Port Kelang Authorities, MIROS etc.
Booth and information counters will be set up along Jalan Depoh in order to ease the agencies to interact with their customer.

Exhibition Booth will be available by the agencies to relay information’s of their services to public.

ii. Blood Donation Program
This program with the cooperation of Ministry of Health will be held at Laksamana Room, Mariners Center, Port Kelang. It is open to all visitors.


iii. Traditional Games
Traditional Games such as Congkak, Dam Haji(checkers), Batu Simbang, Permainan Tutup Botol and much more will be held at canopies around the Mariners Center Port Kelang.

All seafarers and visitors are welcome to participate. This will make the Mariners Open Day more eventful.

iv. Hari Raya Aidilfitri & Deepavali Feast
Hari Raya Aidilfitri & Deepavali Feast is held to celebrate all seafarers and visitors during the Mariners Open Day celebration.

SEAFARER OPEN DAY 2008
“GREETINGS MARINERS”
CUSTOMER OPEN DAY BY MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AGENCIES
ORGANISED BY
CENTRAL MERCANTILE MARINE FUND
MONDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2008
AT MARINERS CENTER PORT KELANG, SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN

A public service announcement for KWPPL.

Back to basics

Recently I had the opportunity to impart some basic navigation knowledge to a group of seafarers on Mahsuri's island of legends. A diverse muddling of men with the need to acquire a piece of paper officiating them as legal seafarers. Ironic when you realise that they spent most of their breathing moments with the sea yet somehow all those experiences does not count - a piece of paper does.

45 men registered with 43 turning up. From late teens up to those reaching their 6th decade. Some can't read, some can't see (but refused to wear glasses), some can't speak proper English or Malay and one who came in an "S 320". It was challenging, yet their enthusiasm carried the class on till past midnight. Imagine two days to teach buoyage systems, rules of the road, basic chartwork, first aid, safety, seamanship, stability with a touch of Malaysian law.

6 of them failed the mandatory oral exam. I am sure, not for lack of knowledge but either the inability to express themselves or becoming overly nervous when facing the examiner. They should be able to re-sit the oral exam with a nominal fee. Good luck guys.

Back on the Water

Time to think.

Aim for something else and you may get another thing altogether.

Now that I am in a different line of work, I am beginning to appreciate the term "24 hours is not enough". Of course some might quip, you are just bad at time management aren't you ? I could agree with that, except my point is that you never truly understand anything until you experience it yourself. The 24 hour phenomena is made worst when its not just your time that you have to manage but the time of others who most likely will have a different understanding on the concept of punctuality.

Anyway, when there is a little room to think I have been mulling over Jim's story. The prequel comes to mind. How he began, before the separation that leads him to finding peace in putrid cigarette smoke infused with coffee on the balcony of his apartment. Well, perhaps when I have time. In the mean time, I'll just post some photos to fill the gap. There are stories to tell.

Abandoned.

Just some scenes and a comment "What a pity ? I could use those..." that sets me thinking. What is useless to someone may be of value to another. Then I ponder, am I being viewed as such ? Will I be abandoned ? Will I be the one who abandons ? Oh well, just some deep wild thoughts before I attend to more mundane matters.

Trust ?

Dev is a typical nerdy mama’s boy. A chubby man with rosy cheeks, medium built with all the common characteristic of an Englishman approaching middle age. He is an Electrical Engineer on board our ship and is very excited as we approached port for he is going to be signed off. It was not so much the signing off that put him in that state but the prospect of what he is going to do once he reaches his home. His excitement had a twofold effect on us, one of elation as his joy was so intense that it rubbed onto us, second of envy as we were staying behind and he is going home.

Once he got home, Dev is going to get married. Compiling the conversations that we had, Dev never had a steady girl friend of more than a shore leaves worth. Whatever girl he met and tried to build a relationship with only lasted for as long as he was on leave. Once his leave ends and he goes back on board the relationship will inadvertently ends. Either the girl has met someone else or the more common excuse, her family and friends advised her not to pursue the relationship as Dev is always away at sea and to lessen the blow these news always ended up with - lets remain friends.

This time it’s going to be different as Dev started this relationship while he was still on board. It was a girl his mother had selected for him to befriend. Their communications through letters and telephone calls was so promising that they had agreed to venture forth into marriage the moment Dev reaches home. According to Dev, the girl had taken to sleeping over at his house to keep her mother company and that both of them had gotten on well, which just sweetens the deal.

We wished him luck.

A year and a half later, I met Dev again on another ship. He is still the Electrical Engineer and he has been on board for more than 4 months, which is the usual contract term for an LNG ship. He didn’t mind serving beyond the term which is a bit puzzling as all of us would rather serve below not beyond any contract term. It was then that I got to know that his marriage is nothing but a bad memory that he wants to forget. It transpired that everything went well until he returned home from the previous ship that he was on.

His wife had left him taking with her all the contents of their flat and wiping his accounts clean. He regretted this the most, as immediately after marriage he transferred the control of his accounts from his mother to his wife. Back then he thought he was doing the right thing, removing the burden of monitoring and paying his bills from his mother at the same time proving to his wife that he loved and trusted her enough to give her total control of his finances.

Some of us saluted him for loving and trusting someone enough to do such thing while some thought he was being stupid and just asked for trouble.

His predicament made us ponder our own relationships, how far should we trust a person, be it our spouse, partner or best friend. Do we dare take the risk ? Should we take the risk ?

But then a wise voice quipped, if you can’t trust your wife whom you promised to share life and death with, who else can you trust ? And if it turns out that she does a "Dev" on you, then it’s just your bad karma. Perhaps he is right for otherwise you will have to keep doubting which will not lead to a healthy nor happy union.

Enforcement boats.

The newly established Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. 450 horsepower...

Marine Department Peninsular Malaysia.

Marine Police. Interestingly, this particular one was built before I was born and it is still in service. I just love its wooden deck.

Fisheries Department.

Thanks for all your comments to the previous post guys. Point noted.

The Folding Boat.

I went on a fishing trip with Mr. Mak in January 2001. Was not so interested in the fishing actually as I do not have the patience and prefer to get fish from the markets instead of fishing for it. I was very interested to see and have a ride in his folding boat. That's the boat loaded on top of my CRV. Of course there are bits and pieces of it in the car i.e. transom, seats, engine, gas tank etc.

The boat being unfolded with bits and pieces strewn about.

Its taking form with one seat in place.

Two seats and the sides secured.

All three seats and the transom attached.

This is the hardest part as it was low tide and we have to carry the boat and engine out quite a distance to get to the water. Actually we could just pull the boat along the sand but that seems risky at the time as the beach is littered with sharp stones and other objects.

The ride is not bad, you can feel the boat flex with the waves and I was quite certain that at some point it felt like being on a water bed.

More ships.

For Mr. Raj.

Received an email forwarded by the Ancient Mariner (he is ancient.. he he he): "The pics of Istanbul brought back memories-Sudha & I did this route for 3 year from India with Bulk Iron Ore to Constantza via Cape of Good Hope -Gilbraltar- Dardanelles & Istanbul were the real highlights Not Constantza.

Great pics.- If Noor has more pics of the Dardenelles water-way -channel- inc Black Sea entry points etc also do post. "

That warms the cockles of my heart, not because of the flattery but because the photos give joy and brings back memories for the viewers. After all, when all is said and done, all that we are left with is memories of a time gone by. So, some more of the photos that I took. Not exactly what you requested for but I hope you enjoy them.

Remember the anxiety of waiting for the crew boat ?

Entrance to the Black Sea.

That is the entry to the Black Sea from the Turkish Straits. Beyond those two jutting land mass lies the Black Sea. The winter weather is dark, gloomy and cold. I was told that once in a couple of years it will be so cold that the sea will be frozen.

Been there .....