Diary of a Deckhand - August 2008

Well, i had almost forgotten to write something on here, almost, but not quite.

I am going diving later, woohoo yeah :o) However, i did get to dive with my strobe the other week and out of the 40 or so pictures i took a grand total of two looked ok. Some more practice needed i suspect. However, before i get onto the underwatery pictures, here are two which have a small story behind them. The first is the lifeboat whcih came to our aid three weeks before. The night was so still and perfect i just couldnt resist taking a picture. The second picture is the reason i was out and about so late.

Back when BSAC divers ruled the earth (sorry diver joke there), i did a degree where i studied otters for several months. I never ever saw a live one, lots of dead ones but no live ones. Ever since i have looked long and hard to try to catch a glimpse of the elusive Lutra lutra but with no sucess. Other people had told me of the otters which bimble along the quays in Lerwick, so as often as i could i would walk along late at night hoping to catch a furry head or tail or even a pawprint or poo. Nothing. Not a squeak. So on our last night i headed off for a long walk again, returning without seeing a sausage, let alone an otter. Sitting in the wheelhouse something catches my eye.....an otter pootling along the quay. I swear it was sniggering. I finally got my first look at this beautiful animal, short but sweet, it was a sighting none the less. Off to bed feeling very pleased with myself only to find that Hazel was rewarded with a full 5 minute show from one animal which chose to bounce (!) on our ropes holding us to the pier, then bite them.... Hazel grabbed the camera but knocked it onto a manual setting turning it on, hence the picture is more a dark splodge and a pair of eyes saying "who me?".





And finally, here are the pics i took with my strobe. Apparently they are not too good as it was too dark down there.

As we pulled in alongside the crossberth, the amount of weed tangled around the cross beams made me think the inevitable might happen. We have a seacock in our hull (actually we have several, but lets not get all fussy here), that sucks water up and passes it through a few different places that need cooling - such as the gearbox and the generator. Well, this long stringy weed seemed instantly drawn to the hole, and lo and behold the water flow slowed down to a dribble. Bums. Hazel descends into the bilges and empties the filter, only to find weed was not the only thing to bung it up....


Edit - hope this is showing the pic this time....


Having thought about how this poor little booger ended up in there, i reckon they were playing chicken around the hole....

"bet you a mouthful of weed you cant swim over that hole"
"bet you i can"
*schlooooop*
*buggggggggggggggggggggggggggeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

Or....

"Oh look, a nice little hidey hole, if i just back myself in here........"

*brrrrrmmmmmmmmmmm*

"Hang on, whats that noiseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeshloop"

And what happens when you get a group of divers who are all as mad as a box of frogs and mix them with a three man (or woman) water bomb launcher......

Well, needless to say a few people got a bit wet, and another boat got used as target practice... mwhahahahaha

I make it no secret that I love cats, I miss the two I left back south more than anything in the world. Several surrogate cats now fill the small moggy shaped holes that exist, but as any feline owner will confess there is nothing better than to have a cat climb onto your knee, curl up and descend into furry blissful sleep, possibly with a quiet purr. Cat sitting for a friend last week made me realise quite how much I miss cursing the hairs on my clothes, the cat farts (which are probably classed as a WMD in some countries), the scratched furniture and the standing on an errant cat toy in the dark. I do miss these things, they add another layer to your life, something or rather someone else to look after and be loved by. Cat love is so much harder to achieve than dog love. Canine adoration is simple, give the dog a biscuit and you have a friend for life. Give a cat a biscuit and you have a friend for exactly how long it takes the cat to work out if you have another.
Anyhoo, I was bought an ant farm which remained ant-less for a very long time, until one of my divers quizzed me about it and its lack of inhabitants. Duly a small package arrived and lo the ants did descend into their new home and start digging! it’s a gel filled sealed box (lid taped on to be totally sure), where they can dig in the gel stuff but also eat it too, so you don’t have to feed them - ever. Hurrah, my kind of pets. I had never really looked at ants before, they were just something that might bite in the garden, but these guys are fascinating! They have dug a little tunnel down one side of the gel already, they get stuck with too many of them trying to dig at the same time….and I am sure if ants could swear they would do that too.



A random Lifeboat shot too.



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I got to go diving today, so here are a few piccies worth posting











People seem to come and go in my life, only a few remain solid, always there, always ready to chat on messenger or on the phone or send an email. Sometimes a relationship seems to get so intense, so utterly intimate so quickly you find yourself wondering how you never knew this person before, how you survived without them there. And suddenly, without warning, they are gone.

The tides of our lives are filled with strange subsea currents, dragging us here, pushing us there. Fight them and you get tired, go with the flow and who knows where you will end up. And so, with one final messenger conversation, a person who I can confess I loved is swept away to who knows where. I hope that someday, once the tides have moved him to a better place than where he is now he can forgive me.