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[Rough
Conditions in the northern Pacific]
 Conditions
around the 39th northern parallel became
particularly windy and foggy last night as the T.S. Golden
Bear experienced her most severe pitching yet. “I’ve had a
hell of a time staying on course,” helmsman Tom Steele said
this morning, defying Follow the Voyage’s strict
anti-cursing policy, as he tried to position the ship on a
274º heading. The compass read 263º. Sean Strachan, the
port lookout, estimated perhaps only half mile visibility,
making it unclear whether the watch’s big event would be
observable to the naked eye: in ten minutes the Modern Link,
a vessel headed towards Port Hueneme, would be crossing
within two miles of our wobbly position.
[Cadet Steele at the helm]
[Cadet
Brierley calls up Modern Link]
 While
we swayed up and down, Cadet Brierley picked up one of
thirty thousand or so bridge radios and attempted to
establish communications with the Modern Link. This mostly
just involved repeating the words “modern link.” “Modern
Link, Modern Link, Modern Link, this is Golden Bear, Modern
Link, Modern Link, channel thirteen please.” I assume
Modern Link switched to channel thirteen. “I have you twelve
nautical miles at starboard requesting starboard passage,”
she continued, and it was that easy: Modern Link cordially
obliged and stayed the hell out of our way.
[Modern
Link shows up on our radar as a yellow dot on the left]
A few minutes later, Modern Link was
indeed visible, shrouded in fog but undeniably there, as she
slithered along the gray horizon. After all the fuss, she
didn’t look particularly modern, and what, exactly, she was
linking was hardly clear to anyone. As another twenty foot
swell doused the deck, Cadet Brierley told me that her boxy
shape and lack of cranes pegged Modern Link as a car
carrier.
[Modern Link 2 miles to
our Starboard]
Down in the Engine
Operation Station (EOS), third class Cadet Jon Hedberg
didn’t have many complaints about the swaying. Of course
with only a dogwatch to occupy his Friday afternoon (in
order to accommodate dinner, a dogwatch, from 4-6PM, is only
half as long as a normal watch), cadet Hedberg didn’t have
much to complain about at all. But the swaying wasn’t
bad. Because the engine room sits low in the ship, close to
its center of gravity, the motion here is noticeably less
pronounced than it is on the bridge. “It’s the heat that
gets you,” Hedberg explained. Temperatures can reach up to
120ºF in the engine room.
[Jon
Hedberg in EOS]
 The
opposite problem exists on the upper helo deck, where today
it was is windy, cold, and one felt the contours of every.
In the afternoon, though, the sun came out for a split
second, long enough for deckies to get one fix on the sun.
“She tries to knock you all over the place,” Cadet Padilla
said, “and a few seconds matters.” I wondered if he would
rather be down below, listening for inconsistencies in the
ship service diesel generator fuel injectors through a
wrench. Ultimately, each cadet sways their own way.
-JSF
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