open sea sunrise

Here I am again with these two photos of the Sun setting on the horizon.
Weather has been on a rough side for the last couple of days and swell
slowly increasing to some 20 feet and working its way towards our beam (not
exactly best of things, as it increases roll and lessens cruising comfort).
All else is well and in about 3 days we should reach a Hawaii waypoint .
...

Received: from MPD at Globe Wireless;
Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:02 UTC
Message-id: 614354318

Out to sea

At last after a long period of breaking the ship out 5-month long
retirement,we have completed the load of grain for Middle East and departed.
Bad weather awaited us (as seen in the photograph), but the southerly route
chosen played out well (vs. the northern route suggested by the often
unreliable and down right dangerous weather routing service. I'll be
updating this blog with more trip photos as they become available.
...

Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless;
Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:30 UTC
Message-id: 613875818

The ship I'm on

This is a unique class of vessels that were built in the early 1980's to
circumvent some regulations in order to decrease required manning levels
(among other requirements). The result was a design that was attempted only
a handful of times, has always been more of a pain for any shipyard periods
than an actual benefit to anybody (although I would think some acountants
might want to argue).

This is a class of vessels that will have shortly become all but extinct.
This is an ITB or an Integrated Tug Barge. This is not an ATB (Articulated
Tug Barge, where tug is pinned to the barge in a pivoting-type connection).
Integrated stands for a rigid integration where tug engages with the barge
via a long tong at barge's after end and corresponding "cradle" within tug's
pontoons. Resulting connection secures the two together and cannot be pulled
apart unless very specific draft and trim conditions of each unit are met.
In reality the two come only apart for shipyard and drydocking. Given the
amount of water that has to be moved in order to attain disconnect
condition, the process of disconnecting is around 2-3 days long, somewhat
less for reconnection.

Pictures show the tug after it was disconnected (end of the barge's tong is
also visible) and the same tug in the drydock in Portland Oregon.
...

Received: from GCC at Globe Wireless;
Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:30 UTC
Message-id: 613875780