Oh no, you!

  • 31 Posts
  • 1.97K Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: November 3rd, 2024

help-circle





  • Depends whether you want to be part of a ships crew, or have an auxilliary role. The crewmen need to be certified, at minimum as Ablebodied Seamen. However, there are plenty of ships that have additional personnel that technically aren’t part of the crew;
    My current career started on a survey ship, and all I had was skills with IT, linux, heavy machinery, and a an affinity for DIY stuff. The company paid for the training courses necessary for me to be on board, working a 5week rotation. The certs you need are usually BOSIET and HUET, depending on the type of ship. I just remembered that I need to renew mine.

    So what you want to ask yourself is this: Are you after a maritime career, or just any job on a ship? The first one requires STCW certifications. The second one requires a lot less.

    NB: Smaller boats, such as private fishing vessels with much smaller crews may not require the above. I am unsure how they operate in this regard - I know people who’ve joined fishing vessels with little to no prior boating experience.

    As it’s somewhat relevant, I’ll lazypaste a comment I made a while back after someone asked how life on a ship is like:

    While I’m not an AB myself, I’ve worked on ships alongside them, so I’ve gotten a lot of insight into how the crews work.

    The short answer is that it depends on your role. Basically, there are usually three or four types of crew on any ship:

    • Bridge
    • Deck
    • Engineering
    • Anyone else (me), on more specialized ships.

    Bridge:
    Responsible for the navigation, safety, comms, scheduling, and all procedural tasks with running a ship. There are always someone on the bridge at all times, and this person is in charge of everything. The captain is of course the senior officer, but his responsibility and authority is delegated when he’s off duty.

    Deck:
    It can be pretty chill, but there’s still a fuckton of tasks to do. Painting, chipping rust, inspections, maintenance, helping out bridge/engineering if they need it. Most people on the bridge or in engineering have been Deck crew (AB - Able-bodied Seaman) at some point.
    I’ve also seen deck crew being responsible for grilling on Saturdays.

    Engineering:
    Everything to do with the engine, and overall mechanical functionality of the ship.

    I intentionally left out the galley staff, as this varies a lot between ships. When it’s a big crew, like the ships I’ve been on, there’s a dedicated galley staff. On smaller crews, it can be the ABs’ job to serve up meals.

    Source: Roughly 800 days logged offshore, spanning all continents except Antarctica and Oceania.








  • Back in the day I memorized the lyrics and tried to sing along to the hardware story inventory selection part. Since no human have lungs big enough, a friend and I learned to alternate back and forth so we could cover the entire thing.

    They’ve got allen wrenches, gerbil feeders, toilet seats, electric heaters,
    Trash compactors, juice extractors, shower rods and water meters,
    Walkie-talkies, copper wires, safety goggles, radial tires,
    BB pellets, rubber mallets, fans and dehumidifiers,
    Picture hangers, paper cutters, waffle irons, window shutters,
    Paint removers, window louvers, masking tape and plastic gutters,
    Kitchen faucets, folding tables, weather stripping, jumper cables,
    Hooks and tackle, grout and spackle, power foggers, spoons and ladles,
    Pesticides for fumigation, high-performance lubrication,
    Metal roofing, waterproofing, multi-purpose insulation,
    Air compressors, brass connectors, wrecking chisels, smoke detectors,
    Tire gauges, hamster cages, thermostats and bug deflectors,
    Trailer hitch demagnetizers, automatic circumcisers,
    Tennis rackets, angle brackets, Duracells and Energizers,
    Soffit panels, circuit breakers, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers,
    Calculators, generators, matching salt and pepper shakers,


  • I was bored as hell, sitting in a hotel room with literally nothingbto do for three days (waiting to get my passport back from visa processing), so I looked up the phone number of someone I used to know before we moved to opposite ends of the country years ago. I ended up getting an invite to a discord, and we now have two nights per week set aside for gaming together. Not just him, but the others on the discord too, so I’m not as socially isolated anymore.

    And when there’s no gaming going on, just hanging out in VoIP is still nice. I might be baking stuff in blender or perl, while someone else is painting minifigs or planning a D&D campaign. It’s not easy having a social life when I’m a family man with four kids, living in the middle of nowhere with no shared interests with anyone nearby. This is my remedy.





  • Lol no

    I might be curious about the car itself, just to figure out how it may or may not differ from my own, based on the year it was made, but I don’t give two shits about the driver. I generally don’t like other people, and car brand ownership makes no difference in this equation.

    Used to drive a Tank 1995 Volvo 940, and more than a few times did someone approach me to talk to a fellow “vintage Volvo enthusiast”.

    Now that I drive a 2019 Volvo XC90 T8, people assume that I am a Volvo enthusiast based on the fact that I’ve had two Volvos in a row. The truth is that I really liked the durable tank that was my old car, and I really like the comfort of my new car. They are not similar in any shape or form. They just happen to both be Volvos.