Search This Blog

Saturday 22 January 2011

eMail to a batchmate who agrees to have me on board as his 2nd Mate



Hey V___, hug the coast, and all the best, as a cadet/2nd mate in SST
and then Arya Lines, I still remember the bets on how close we could
go to the coast that J___, K____ and I would have - also racing through
fishing boats like cars on traffic. This was on Satya Kamal - and also
playing end-on chicken games, "aim for the other ship ltorpedo" games
(taught by M_______) as we learnt how the other ship sees us.

Once coming out of Aden we were headed to Kandla on 072 and on our
port beam was Akbar headed to Bombay on 077, converging and at same
speed (Old Man on Akbar was T____ F______ and 2nd Mate on Akbar was
E____ M______) we had G_____ E____ sleeping as Master and B_____ as
Mate also sleeping, so i called B_____ and asked him to give engine
speed to exactly matcjh Akbar and as they came closer I refused to give
way, finally our crew were talking to the Akbar Haj pax on deck like
50 metres apart, T____ came on the bridge and started howling at me, I
showed him the finger, finally they had to alter to port and go around
behind us.

One more time, R______ was cadet 20-24 and I was 2nd Mate 00-04
and when I came on the bridge I darkened the ship downstairs totally
and then switched off the navigation lights,and started aiming for
oncoming traffic, again torpedo movements Red Sea approaching Suez -
every ship going past would go nuts and call up on VHF. We would say
we were on secret mission and not supposed to show lights. Those days,
clear vis, radar was not used, remember?

I guess those were the days. can't do stuff like that anymore. Still
want me as your 2nd Mate?

No comments:

Post a Comment