Christmas on the Nadia

Christmas 2012 was spent away from friends and family on a booat in the Andaman Sea south of Burma.  I'm at ANTIPODE (look it up) from home.  Its a bit sad but holidays out here become arbitrary and are only noticed due to exciting feasts.

 

Santa did make it to our boat! I guess we were good enough after all!



 



I even got a present though I wasnt expecting one.

 

  

The Feast was Awesome... Steak, Lobster, Roast Suckling Pig and all the sides, except green bean casserole... these guys must be communists or something!

 

 

 

 

Here Piggy Piggy!

 

 

 

 

Lobster auGraten and a Baked Ham in addition to Steak and Pigs this is Awesome.  It's an Atkins Dream Feast! We don't need no stinking vegetables... but I'm sure there were some!

Burma and The Transfer Barge

Burma still has multiple Rebel Factions and is in an ongoing siege in the north and east of the country.  Thousands of refugees have flooded the southern cities and the place is FULL!  The tourist thing is still new to them so the prices are what they have seen in advertisements for VietNam and the French Riviera. At approximately 300USD a night for a hotel that is not on the water, but is safe enough to stay in with some style.  Plenty of backpack hostels and rooms are available but dont do that alone.  Crime is also a major factor and they say do not go outside of your hotel alone or after dark.

Cellphone service and the Internet are a MYTH.  They sell Sim cards at the airport for 30USD but those only work in a very few types of US phones and the same cards are sold to the locals for 300usd LAME HUH!?

I was inside Burma (Myanmar) for maybe 7 hours, in the dark and inside a building, so I didn't see much.  They shuttled us out to the harbor, in the late night/early morning and we got to see some of Rangoon (now called Yangon)

The town has great design elements but is in desperate need of a pressure-washing. It's a case of a large population in a small place which has just been opened up to the outside world. The Harbor was more like a trash-pile on the water and they loaded us on a fast transport boat at 2am and hustled us off to a accommodation barge about 150 miles offshore.

The Surfer 321 Fast Transport was as nice as any crew boat Ive been on.  Airconditioned and fast at 30+ MPH

The "Swiber Triumphant" Accomodation Barge, where I spent two days waiting on a chopper.

The "Swiber Triumphant" Maintains most of the supplies for the O&G platforms and work vessles in the area and it provides a transfer point between boat and helicopter. It is a floating hotel with rooms, food and entertainment for transitioning crews for the whole Andaman Sea





This is the funniest safety message I have ever seen and could only happen around here... Toilet Squatters... Really!?

Total Platform in the Distance...

Vienna, Austria and Bangkok, Thailand

Vienna Airport Lounge was quite nice and very relaxing.  It had an exceptional buffet of soups and light fare as well as the typical full operational Bar.  The chairs were a nice place to sleep fora few hours while waiting for my flight.

Nice Light Fare at the Vienna Airport Lounge.  If you travel frequently you MUST buy the

Priority-Pass Lounge Access Membership

 @  www.prioritypass.com

Typical Vienna Airport Lounge Bar Scene... Same as in most International Airports throughout the world.

Now A Shameless Plug for Austrian Airlines
In a computer glitch Austrian Airlines lost my seat reservation on my flight to Bangkok from Vienna, and instead of delaying me until the next flight (the next day) and without even so much as a mention of it to me, they upgraded me to First Class on a 9.5 hour international flight. so use them if you have the need:

THEY ARE AN AWESOME EXAMPLE OF HOW AIRLINES SHOULD BE RUN! http://www.austrian.com/

Bangkok Airport

Bangkok Airport is known as the "Airport of Smiles" it is more aptly described as the "Airport of Miles" with huge expanses of ultra modern halls between gates without easy access to refreshment, restroom or shopping. Also be ready for the bureaucracy and random ticketing requirements.

A Little About Frankfurt

 

First off, a little about Frankfurt.  It’s one of the easiest cities to get around in. The airport (flughaffen) is very well laid out and full of people who live to help.  If you even speak a gurgling of German you can easily get by, but not to worry most here speak two or three other languages including English (Shame on us) Everybody  seems happy here, probably due to the ready availability of good sausage and beer, because everything is better with good sausage and beer.

As far as getting around... its a blast... As you clear immigrations and customs, so fast you wont believe it.  There is a train station (bahnhof) in the basement of the airport.  The station has ticket machines which have touchpads that work in numerous languages including English and if you're too stupid to work the maching there will be a uniformed person standing by who will also speak English.  The machines take smaller Euro currency so if you have a card or a large denomination bill you will need to go to the service/ticket desk and deal with a human... dont worry they speak English too... (are you getting the feeling that everybody learns our launguage, then maybe we should learn a few others too)

Buy a day pass for the trains and explore the city and surrounding... You can go to Weisbaden and Hanau also.

Even someone with a childs understanding of German can get around here

In fact if you get on the wrong platform you wont have much choice other than to explore.  Most trains into Frankfurt Main Hbf are approximately 5 stops from the train station.  Just look at the overhead sign on the trainplatform to see which train you are getting on and make sure it is correct for your destination.


Geographically and Historically

 

 

Geographically and Historically, Frankfurt am Main , (Frankfurt on the Main River) commonly known as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2011 population of 695,624 . Frankfurt is the financial and transport center of Germany and the largest financial center in continental Europe. It is the seat of the European Central Bank, the German Federal Bank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and the Frankfurt Trade Fair. 

In the area of the Römer, Roman settlements were established, probably in the 1st century; (the FIRST FREAKING CENTURY) some artifacts from that era are found even to this day. The city district Bonames has a name dating back to Roman times—it is thought to be derived from bona me(n)sa. Nida (Heddernheim) was also a Roman civitas capital.

 

The name of Frankfurt on Main is derived from the Franconofurd of the Germanic tribe of the Franks; Furt (cf. English ford) where the river was shallow enough to be crossed by wading. Alemanni and Franks lived there and by 794 Charlemagne presided over an imperial assembly and church synod, at which Franconofurd (-furt -vurd) was first mentioned.

Frankfurt was one of the most important cities in the following Holy Roman Empire. From 855 the German kings and emperors were elected in Frankfurt and crowned in Aachen. From 1562 the kings/emperors were also crowned in Frankfurt, Maximilian II being the first. This tradition ended in 1792, when Franz II was elected. His coronation was deliberately held on Bastille Day, 14 July, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. The elections and coronations took place in St. Bartholomäus cathedral, known as the Kaiserdom (en: Emperor's Cathedral), or in its predecessors.

The Frankfurter Messe (Frankfurt Trade Fair) was first mentioned in 1150. In 1240, Emperor Friedrich II granted an Imperial privilege to its visitors, meaning they would be protected by the Empire. The fair became particularly important when similar fairs in French Beaucaire lost attraction around 1380. Book trade fairs have been held in Frankfurt since 1478.

In 1372 Frankfurt became a Reichsstadt (en: Imperial city), i.e. directly subordinate to the Holy Roman Emperor and not to a regional ruler or a local nobleman.

Franfurt survivied virtually untouched until the Second World War where it was subjected to extensive aerial bombardment followed by an allied ground campaign which was reflected upon as some of the most fierce urban fighting of the war.  The damages of the allied incursion and subsequent occupation left all but a few of the historical buildings in ruins.

First, Why do I do this... A little culture to explain... Ewwww, I know Right!?

"All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea -- whether it is to sail or to watch it -- we are going back from whence we came."- John F Kennedy

Sea Fever

By John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking,

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

So then

    Getting to the sea is often the fun part... This time, although tedious, the trip was set as, Starkville, MS, USA to Atlanta, GA, USA to Frankfurt, Germany, To Vienna, Austria to Bangkok, Thailand, to Yangon (Rangoon) Myanmar then onto the boat (Nadia)... whew that's a trip!

First Stop FRANKFURT

The Christmas Festival from Above.  There is not much better than a German Festival, but add in Christmas and nice cool weather and it becomes AWESOME!

Romer Square in Frankfurt, is really an awesome place... The Römer (German surname, "Roman") is a medieval building in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and one of the city's most important landmarks. It has been the city hall (Rathaus) for 600 years.

Of Course I Ate Sausage... are you freaking kidding me!? Let me assure you I had at least one of each from each stand I passed, plus bread and Gulashen Suppe.

 

And I discovered a new local bier...

Probably the best Weizen Bier I've ever had, ever, in my life, like really!

Deanos' Pub, Stanley, Falklands

So we made it to Port Stanley for the evening and found a nice warm place to stay. Deano's Bar is a nice little pub on Johns Street in Stanley. It just so happens that it is the very same bar where the Asima crew got in the legendary fight.

We on the Nadia, have never had any trouble in there. The only thing the place is missing that all the other pubs in Stanley seem to have is a fireplace.

Here we are (Thanks for the picture Stef) in Deano's having a good time being off the ship. It was the first time we made it off the boat in 5 weeks so you can imagine it was well celebrated. From here we went to the Brasserie and ate an awesome meal.

Here we are in Deanos' again this time we got Nigel and Stef in the picture. Stef is our new Third Officer, and Nigel is our Captain.

Winter time in Stanley is a very quiet time. Many people tend to leave the island before it gets too terribly cold, but still there is plenty of fun to be had. You can go to church, the grocery store, the post-office, the seaman's' mission or the bar... and let me tell you the post-office... man that is lots of fun!

;-)

Relly Was especially happy to be off the boat!

A night off the boat...

Sometimes we forget we are Sailors

 We have been on the water now for 5 weeks... Thanks to the foul weather around Cape Horn, we got a rare day in the harbor along side Port Stanly.  Its hard to think about what we do and maintain much in the way of sanity. Our families are saints for dealing with our long absences as they do.  Looking into the future here is like looking off the bow into the fog, we don't see much past where we are now. One thing we did was to stop into the International Seaman's Mission center at the head of the port. I'll post some more on this neat little place in a bit. But here are some of the guys as we just walked off the dock into a cold misty morning. Left to Right: Julien, Ian, Hilmar, Kevin, Relly and Owen. It was the first time we'd been "on the hard" for over a month.

In the distance the snow was falling as we entered the harbor. It is amazing how comforting it is to be this close to land again.

Looking out the port bridge wing over our communications array

A rare look at all the ships officers on the bridge at one time.

Left to Right: Haans, John, Thomas and Stef all staring at the thruster controls for the ship as we pull into the harbor and position ourselves for docking.

The vessel technology has progressed SO FAR from when I started on boats. There is no wheel, or rudder, it is all directional thruster and satellite guidance and is more like a flight simulator than driving a boat.

Here is the main steering and control center for the ship. See no wheel, its all joysticks and trackballs.

 

http://www.missiontoseafarers.org/about-us

This is the Seaman's Center/Mission. If you didn't have a charity in mind for this year try this one. Its awesome. I'm going to post some of there info from their website below but I strongly suggest you go to their site which I have linked to, and see some of the work they do to make our lives better. Thanks guys..!

Excerpt:

Loneliness, danger and separation from loved ones are just some of the problems seafarers face. Around the world, night and day, The Mission to Seafarers provides help and support to those in need. As a Christian agency, we work in more than 230 ports caring for the practical and spiritual welfare of seafarers of all nationalities and faiths.

Through our global network of chaplains, staff and volunteers we reach out to seafarers by visiting them on their ships, offering them the hand of welcome and friendship, and caring for them in their hour of need.
In over 100 ports we also run centres which provide ‘a home away from home’. These are places where seafarers can contact their loved ones from whom they are separated for months on end, receive assistance with any problems they may be facing and get a break from their demanding way of life onboard ship.
To find out more about what we do and how you may be able to help, please contact pr@missiontoseafarers.org