Plugging a Leak at Sea

With an emphasis always upon hard work and practical training on the
“Empire State VI,” you can imagine my surprise this morning when I went
out on the deck and happened upon a group of cadets in their bathing
suits. In addition, there was an awful lot of water on deck. In fact,
the deck was awash in water. Did I miss something here? Are we sinking
and our cadets, wise to the wonders of the sea are simply prepared to make
a swim for it? Or perhaps our ship become a pleasure yacht, or perhaps we
were having a special “Monday at Sea” since we didn’t have our typical
light day yesterday. Or maybe the cadets were just getting ready to take
a swim in the warm waters off of Majorca.

Upon closer examination, I discovered that all of these suppositions were
as far from the truth as possible. The students were in fact, practicing
how to plug a leak.

Aft, near the fantail, by the “crane thing,” they had set up this
contraption that was hooked up to a pump. It sort of looked like a red
wall with some holes torn in it. What they did was rig it up to the pump
so that water came gushing out of the holes. Then the cadets, using
makeshift plugs of wood, clothing, and various implements attempted to
plug the holes. Several strategies were put into play as teams tried to
beat the force of the water. Usually the best results were achieved when
one cadet would block the largest hole on the bottom with their body while
the others would use rags and all sorts of things to plug the upper holes..
All of these holes were far bigger than a thumb, so the story about the
Dutch boy who plugged the hole in the dike with his finger could not apply
here. To make matters worse for the cadets, and more humorous for the
observers, the instructor, desiring to simulate real conditions, was
taking buckets of seawater and tossing them on our neophyte mariners. And
never fear -- I have taken plenty of pictures that I will post once we hit
Dublin.

The only complaint I would say about this whole exercise, is that if a
leak did occur on the ship, they wouldn’t be wearing their bathing suits
(one even had on a pair of goggles). I would suggest that in the future
our cadets do this exercise in uniform.

Today, we are supposed to be doing boat exercises, although I heard that
might be delayed until tomorrow. We are now parked off of Mallorca, and
there seems to be a great deal of practical training going on.

Despite all the practical training, students still manage to make their
way down to me and inquire about the status of email. I am apparently a
Source (capital ‘S’ intended) of information concerning email, but all I
know is that the problem is on Seawave’s end and that it is being worked
on. We may even start receiving as early as tonight. We shall see.

In other news, I came not that close to actually getting to go to
Mallorca. The word on the deck is one of our cadets dislocated his
shoulder, so they are taken him ashore for X-rays. He’s probably ok, but
they need to verify that there are no breaks. So the doctor, is going to
take the fast rescue boat and take him to the hospital. I of course
volunteered to escort the young man myself, since we could always use new
periodicals for the students, plus it is better to have the doctor aboard..
They could say… drop us off for a day or two and simply pick us up again
when they are ready. I think they thought I was joking when I made this
suggestion…

So I’m still aboard.

I have also begun the process of preparing my port guide to Dublin. The
word is that the ship is going to be docked F-A-R from the city center (at
least 2 to 3 miles), so I may be indulging in a cab. Dublin, I have
discovered, has no metro system, and I have an aversion to buses rooted in
my childhood of going to summer day camp in a bus.

On the checklist of places to go I have Trinity College, Guiness Factory,
Pacino’s (the restaurant – I don’t think Al lives in Dublin), Grafton
Street, and Temple Bar. Incidentally, “Temple Bar” is a neighborhood, not
a bar… although there are bars in Temple Bar, but I think they call them
pubs in Dublin.

That’s all for today!

Fair Winds and Following Seas,
Joe