Shanghai Nights

Up we go!  Up the river and up to the bridge, that is...  I actually take the wheel and drive this big old girl up the Yangtze River- it’s the only time I take the wheel (as the deck boss, the Boatswain is always on deck- this transit is the exception).  The only other time I’ve seen the Bosun take the wheel is going through the Suez Canal… this particular instance is a five hour transit with tie up and crane ops at the end… I’ll be done at 0200.  Hopefully.  The crane ops involves hauling up a piston crown.

Despite the large quantity of latex and nitrile gloves I go through my hands are always filthy.  Nothing on a ship is clean.  I wash my hands so often I feel like an obsessive compulsive- and by washing my hands, I mean using fast orange up and over my elbows (waterless degreaser) followed by pumice soap and water.  I probably wash them twenty times a day, if not more.

I keep a gallon bucket of fast orange and a bar of pumice soap in my shower, too, incidentally.  I wear shorts as often as possible due to the tropical heat and my exposed legs collect grease and paint throughout the day.

As we were rigging the gangway for port today I saw a jellyfish beneath the olive skin of the sea whose dome had to have been 6 feet across.  It was gargantuan.  The gangway is right by the fidley fans so getting anyone’s attention was impossible for the noise, so I just watched it go by as the gang raised handrails, tied off the safety lines, and hooked up the chains.  A bubble of isolated wonder inside the roar of heavy industry.

In spite of my best efforts I am starting to get tired… I suppose it should be expected after almost 60 days of non-stop work and a schedule that is spelled out as hundreds of possible conditions in the Agreement, a book of sailorly legalese 64 pages thick with terminology that dates back to tall ships.  Which watchman is where and when while the ship is doing what in which particular condition.  When watches are set and when they are broken.  Who cleans what.  Who steers, who drops anchor, who rigs the pilot ladder, and at what rate of pay do we get for all of it.

This run is heavy on the front side: 5 ports in China and one in Malaysia, then back to Singapore all within the first 21 days- the Agreement gets debated heavily during this half of the trip.  The second 21 days is Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and then back to Singapore- mostly sea days spent doing deck projects and amassing overtime.  Because of the corruption in Pakistan this ship seems to get stuck for a week at a time when we go there- Americans are not permitted to go ashore per the State Department and company policy, so the first half of the trip is a sleepless and frantic blur while the second half is a long, hard slog.

Right now I am in the blur… and up to the wheel I go to relieve the helm.