Well, I sit here on the bridge of the Safari Spirit, drying out from the downpour that has engulfed us since early this morning when we departed our fair Alaska. Last night I was running the late shift through some technical navigation spots in Sitklan Passage and Pearse Canal (within 360' of shore at 10 knots, tightish turns, radars, plotter, depth sounder, anemometer, and autopilot all crankin' with zero visability), chugging along making minor heading adjustmets, tuning radar gain, adjusting VRM's for each point along the route, and everything was going smooth. Upon approaching a section where the "prudent Mariner" would slow to reduce potential for a minor error to be compounded by excessive speed, I pulled back the throttles and slowed to 6 knots, which allows for decent steerage and safety. Now, on the fine vessel Safari Spirit there is a duplicate radar display in the captain's bunk, which allows for the master of the vessel to see a copy of everything that is on the bridge display, and control it. The problem, however, is that when one unit is tinkered with, it affects the other, so, for example, if the range and VRMs are changed on the captain's display in the middle of a tight navigation area in pitch black weather, the bridge unit changes too. So my heart rate got bumped up a bit, but realizing what was happening, I simply slowed the boat to a near stand-still while keeping a close eye on distances and speeds, making sure that we weren't approaching "the hard stuff" at a dangerous rate. The slowing of the vessel caused the tinkering to stop, and seconds later the captain showed up in the bridge, where I informed him of the inner-linked navigation systems, and I then got the boat back underway to our anchorage at Regina Cove - which, by the way, is pronounced by the Canadians like "vagina, but with an R." Yet another Canadian language idiosyncrasy - who would have known. So that was fun!
My favorite part of these repositioning trips is that we get to navigate (especially in the increasingly dark Fall) at night a fair amount, and that we participate in a traffic control scheme that requires frequent communication, course alterations, passing arrangements with other vessels, and other bits of navigation that in our day-to-day operations we rarely partake in. Plus we see places that we only see twice a year, and get the chance to see strange things like Ketchikan, and Spirit Bears (the white black bear, as pictured above, seen with a black black bear, courtesy of T. Wadsworth at www.bearsmatter.com.)
Anywho, we'll be in Seattle on the 17th, and that will be nice - but until then, wish us fair weather and safe travels1
Cheers,
Danny
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