on a ship

Tomek has a friend from elementary school in Poland (Marcin) who is currently the 2nd engineer on a big ol' freighter ship... cargo ship...? The kind that carries 5500 of the containers found on the backs of transport trucks. His current 4-month run (he works 4 months on, 3 months off, not seeing home while he works) is bringing him to our wet city three times. He came in October, and he was here this past Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday was the day that Tomek, LB and I visited him on his ship.

Want to feel like a tiny speck of insignificance? A smidge of nothing on a highway?

Go to a shipyard.

It was already dark when we drove to the shipyard, and all we knew was how to get to the bridge where trucks, etc. enter it from. We didn't know if they'd let us in with our car. If they hadn't it would have been a very long walk with LB because we couldn't take the stroller (steep stairs on ship). We rolled up to the first set of gates, and told the guard we were there to visit someone. He told us to back up and talk to the intercom in the next lane. The lady in the intercom was nearly impossible to understand. And she sounded irritated that we couldn't understand her. Finally, we figured she wanted Tomek to hold his drivers license up to the camera. He did so, and she let us through, no questions. We knew Marcin left Tomek's name with the gate people, we just weren't sure which gate people exactly.

Once inside the first set of gates, we saw signs for visitor parking, and we promptly drove past the parking lot. Second time around we found it, only to read a sign saying we needed to have a visitors pass from the gate because the lot was continually patrolled and our car would be towed immediately and without warning at our expense (ok ok we get it) if we didn't have a pass. I thought they meant the gate we'd just driven from, and was thinking "Frick. Now we have to drive back, figure out how to get out, turn around, pick the real gate keeper or the electronic one and ask for a parking pass". But Tomek noticed the parking lot guard booth which was also a booth next to another set of gates.

This gate guard was a really nice Filipino who had this way of mixing p sounds into words where they shouldn't be. He was cheerful and friendly and really helpful. He had to get our ID (even LB's) and give us visitor pass necklaces and then he walked us to a shuttle that would take us to the ship. There were double doors on the side of the bus/van and one was open, but he struggled with opening the second one for us so we could get in the middle seat. He made some comment about it being difficult to open, giving a little laugh, and the guy sitting in the first seat said "it's got a latch on it where every other double door has one", and didn't lift a finger to help the guy. Looking at his face, and hearing the tone of his voice, I felt ashamed of every time I've been exasperated with an Asian driver. This guy was a JERK. I wanted to tell him to shut up and get the wrench out of his ass, but I didn't think that would go over very well. When the driver saw LB and the obvious lack of car seat (we'd assumed it would be a shuttle like a bus or an airport shuttle where you hold the kid or they stand) he started bitching the guard out and asking him if he had a car seat for the kid. They were all so nasty to this guy I just wanted to say fuck it and walk to the stupid ship. The driver said he wasn't going to drive her w/o a car seat because he didn't want to be liable. So we walked back to the guard house with the guard, him chattering apologetically the entire way. We heard someone calling out and looked back a few times, but they didn't seem to be calling us. Turned out it was the driver of the shuttle and he was calling to us. He started saying something to the guard, then cut off, turned to Tomek and said "do you speak English?" He then lowered his voice (with the guard leaning forward to hear, oblivious to the fact that the guy didn't want him to listen) and told us to go talk to the superintendent and if he gave his okay for the guy to drive us, he'd drive us. At this point I remembered how it had been driving with LB in a taxi in Poland, and decided I'd just rather walk.

Somehow, it was decided that Marcin would come and get us from the guard's gatehouse and we'd then drive our car right up to the ship. So we waited in the toasty guard house and Marcin arrived a few minutes later. We then drove out of the parking lot, around, and back to the 2nd set of gates where the Filipino guard fobbed us through. He told us to drive slowly and to keep our hazard lights on.

We were tiny. Probably easily could have been driven over by the other vehicles zooming around the shipyard. We had to meander our way through stacks and stacks of containers (lots of blind corners) and Tomek was so on edge that instead of driving slowly, he zipped and zoomed around the other vehicles and across empty spaces when we had them like we were being chased. But we made it to the ship without getting squashed. We parked next to a 3-high stack of hatch covers and I asked Marcin if he was sure they wouldn't be needed before we left? My car wouldn't stand a chance. 'Specially if one of the covers accidentally got dropped.

So we were at the ship. No gangplank. Just a steep set of wobbly stairs attached to the side of the ship leading up about 3 stories. ULP. Tomek had to carry LB in one arm and hold on to the railing with the other. I just held on to both railings for dear life and tried not to toss my cookies. Being pregnant and afraid of heights does not go well with ship stairs.

Marcin introduced us to 2 officers on the ship who were also Polish. One of them kissed my hand. :) Then he showed us his room, which was like a one-bedroom apartment w/o a kitchen. He had a desk, a table with an L-shaped couch, sound system, tv, and a separate bedroom and bathroom. He showed us photos from home and when he went to Jerusalem. There were pictures of where Jesus was supposedly born (all now protected inside a chapel, but people are allowed to touch it), where he was bathed after crucifiction and a spot on a wall where he leaned to rest while carrying the cross.

Then Marcin took us up to the bridge. 10 stories up. But there was an elevator. Yay! Let the pictures begin.

City lights and some of the containers on the back
of the ship viewed from the inside of the bridge

The front of the ship, and the cranes used to load and unload it

Crane zipping along with a container

Lowering the container into it's proper spot

The orange is the crane... see the little dark object above the orange on the right side?
That's my car. The yellow is the crane and the blue is the container the crane just took off of the truck that's just driving off.

Cranes and the maze of containers we drove through

The bridge

Outside on the bridge again, over the water. The white box is also a steering "wheel".

I can't remember when it's used though.

Tomek in the engine room where Marcin works.

A guy working in a turbine.

View of the ship from our car as we were leaving. See the stairs on the side?

Another shot of the crane

That's a lot of flights of stairs to get to the box where the crane operator spends his shift.

We also saw the weight room, swimming pool (they bring in sea water and don't heat it), sauna, ping pong table (on a ship?), kitchen and mess hall. LB and I didn't go down to the engine room because Marcin thought it would be too loud for her even though they weren't fully running. Tomek said when they got back there would have been no way he could have gone down the stairs while holding her.

So then we took Marcin off the ship to find a post office where he spent $110 to get a box of Christmas presents home in time for the holiday. He said they were for his girlfriend so money was no concern. Good man. :) Then we came back to our place and had pizza. Tomek drove him back to the ship around midnight.

And yes, LB was up the entire time... she didn't get to bed till 11:45. Little social butterfly.