On this side of the pond, at least, Channel 13 is the Bridge to Bridge,
Ship to Ship channel, usually used for navigation broadcasts by the
ships. No shore stations are supposed to be allowed. Not sure about
your region's ship-to-ship channel, but I suspect it's the same.

I'll try it when I leave here. Even though I do have aN N.Z. marine
operator's radio licence, when we sailed as a family my wife did most
of the radio work and pulled down the weather faxes. It was just the
division of labour thing. I do it now of course.


Many of the merchant sailors I talked to were under the impression us
"yachties" were just too snobbish to talk to mere Merchant Mariners.
And, the yachties I've talked to thought the MM guys hated them, which is
just not true. They're as curious about your boat as you are about
theirs! I've even been aboard some of them docked at Charleston for some
chow or the nickle tour. You should see a 38,800hp, 7 cyl inline diesel
with 5' diameter pistons on a 7' stroke, if you haven't. It's a 2-
stroke!
I have a German friend who captained an ULCC that used to carry oil
from Kuwait to Europe around the Caope of Good Hope and to Japan. The
draught laden at 80 feet was too deep to go through the Melaka Straits
so they had to go the long way through the Lombok Strait between Bali
and Lombok Islands in Indonesia. It was 1,150 feet long and at top
revs the prop was revolving at 73 revs per minute. I still have
difficulty in understanding how the thing moved


Noone sits in the engine room and watches it any more.

I don't ever sit in my engine room either


I've always wanted to go to Europe on a commercial ship. There's a
Polish steamship line that carries 6-8 passengers for around $1600, one
way. That's a helluva 2 week vacation really cheap. Many lines have
dropped passenger service because everyone, today, is just in too much of
a hurry to be crammed into an airplane after humiliating strip searches.
No thanks....I wanna DRIVE a ship!...(c;

I have been on board a Polish ship like that in Tauranga N.Z. a few
years ago. An American couple we met on the docks invited us aboard
and showed us around. What a way to see the world. So much better than
aboard a cruise ship where you are in more of a hotel than a ship.
When I was aged between 12 to 15 we used to go across Cook Strait that
seperates the North and South Islands of New Zealand - a very wild
stretch of water sometimes in the roaring 40's. We used to go every
Christmas school holidays (in N.Z. 6 weeks) to a camp run by the
Police where we lived in tents and learned to sail dinghys, fished,
tramped, (bush walking), scuba dived etc. under harsh discipline -
pants down and touch toes in front of all while a belt was liberally
applied. It was for rough kids who they were keeping an eye on - don't
know why I was there. My best memory is of steering an old ferry, the
Rangatira for half an hour- they were quite large ships, not a little
Staten island type with its large wooden ship's wheel. It had an open
bridge deck with an enclosed wheel house. I even remember the
Captain's name - Captain Russell. I knew then that I wanted to be at
sea. What a way to give a kid the determination to get something.

Larry, what I like most about you is your apparent enthusiasm for both
life and what you are interested in. You have a personality that
stands out. God knows the world needs it as most are so damned
negative by their mid thirties.

cheers and thanks
Peter