Wingnuts and bolts

[Portland, Oregon}   Here’s a post to show how the images and text get to you from such crazy places as Portland, Oregon…(and Shanghai, Lhasa, Ulan Bator, and other places less strange and daunting than Portland.)

I’m working with WordPress, as you already know, since you’ve found your way here! The tool I’m using to upload is my phone, so if you get some garbled gooblibluck, or there is a typo or three, please forgive me. It’s really hard to see the tiny screen, and the autocorrect does some really amusing things. You can be sure that every once in a while I’ll let the autocorrect have it’s way, if it makes itself amusing enough! My phone is a Galaxy S4, just in case the Samsung people are watching and want to sponsor this adventure….(fingers tapping…)

The tool I’m adding to the mix to make this easier is a really cool little keyboard. It’s an iwerks, and it’s quite nice. It has all the functionality of a normal keyboard, connects to my phone using Bluetooth, and has actual tactile keys so I know when I push them (This is really helpful for us oldsters who learned on typewriters…) When the keyboard is folded, it fits inside a little case that also holds up my phone. In the folded position, the keyboard is about the same size as the phone. It’s a lot faster for me to use it, but that means that sometimes I’ll likely get carried away with really long posts! I’ll try to control myself.

My office on board the Hanjin Brussels.

The blogging tools folded away and ready to travel.

The blogging tools, ready to share!

For those of you who know me as a photographer, please bear with me during the travel. I’ll be shooting with my regular camera, but what I share here will either be a phone camera shot or video, or will be a phone shot of my camera’s viewing screen. The quality of the images will be less than what you are used to seeing from me, but I’ll share the full resolution stuff once I get to England. Something hopefully to look forward to. I already have a few on the camera that I can’t wait to see on the full sized computer screen.

There will be challenges. One I know of already is that I won’t be able to post regularly due to the spottiness of the internet where I’m going. I am quite certain that there is absolutely no 4G at sea. China has some pretty challenging restrictions on the internet, and my experience there has proven that it’s hard to get through at all. Despite that, I’ll keep writing into my phone, and will post everything I can when I get to a place that permits it. While I’m getting my sea legs pretty quickly, the closest I’ve come to losing it was while working on the keyboard and phone combo as we came up to the Colombia River bar, where the mighty Columbia meets the Pacific. I’m sure that weather, phone and keyboard charging, and time will just add to the challenge. That said, I’m so excited to write this, it’s kind of like sitting around the campfire, sharing a story.

Still, there will be kinks. I’ll be learning the whole way around, so if I make an error in reporting, and you know that I’ve got something wrong, please let me know so I can get it right. It’s hard, since I don’t have the access to Google, the Human Collective Consciousness, nor spell check. Right now I’m really feeling it, since I don’t even know the names of most of the things on the ship or in the port that I’m trying to describe. Um, that thingy that looks like a lifeboat, but is a liferaft, and that oddity that has the toilet and shower, but isn’t a bathroom. It’s the head. Hmmm, just when I’m getting it, it will be time to distinguish between the front end and back end of a horse… I’m doomed!

Hopefully you’ll be amused.

Getting Under Way

[Seattle, WA]   The morning has arrived, and the alarm drills a hole in my head. Thinking about leaving drills the hole in my heart. But, under it all is the exciting feeling of setting off on a grand adventure that gets me out of bed (Or was it Maceo and Sachmo, stereo screaming cockatiels that did it?)

Today is the day to get under way!   Amanda and I decided that dim sum in Seattle would be a good sendoff meal. We both enjoy it, and it probably wouldn’t be terrible if seasickness set in later in the day! As we parked the car in the International District in Seattle, we were surprised to see a team of students practicing their routine for a traditional Chinese march in full regalia. I think they are students at the Chongwa Chinese School, and they were rocking their well rehearsed routine involving a lot of marching. Somehow, it was a fitting and auspicious sendoff on the day one would leave for Shanghai by container ship.

Chinese American dancers from Chongwa School in Seattle.

As we ate our dim sum, it was hard not to order extra to take home as we normally do. Home, for a while, is wherever my backpack sits. And at this moment, it sits in the back of the Prius, next to the traditional Chinese dancers. In the restaurant, listening to the Cantonese being spoken, it’s easy to see that as distant as China seems, it’s not really that far at all.

You’d think finding a thousand foot long container ship in downtown Seattle would be easy. I’d been given very precise instructions by Zachary King, the Sea Ops contact at the Port of Seattle. “Sure, I’ll remember that,” I thought to myself as he told me on the phone. Well, with the Sounders in town, getting lost, the trip to REI for the forgotten headlamp, getting rear-ended by an aggressive professional driver, getting lost again, and that necessary stop for one last Diet Pepsi, it was over an hour before we found the North Gate of the port.

I’m going to skip the mushy goodbyes at this point. Ahem.

After some good natured teasing from the guys standing at the gate (who happened to be the cooks on Hanjin Brussels), it was time to take the shuttle to the ship. On the loading docks, it’s strictly forbidden to walk anywhere unless you are directly involved with ship operations (mainly handling lines during docking). Even the longshore workers ride the shuttle. The two longshoremen I met on the shuttle were discussing how many containers each team still had to load. It was interesting to hear them talk about how much more important it is to work safely than quickly. It was a good reminder when I heard that one of the containers alone has a tare weight (unloaded weight)  of 8,600 pounds. The driver dropped me off right next to the ship, and suddenly, I was alone.

The gangway to a container ship is an impressive thing. The stairs are narrow and high, and the treads are rounded upward to accommodate the different angles the ramp requires under different situations. Negotiating it with a backpack, camera bag, ship tote, and three gallons of beer was daunting. I did what any sensible person would do and left the beer at the bottom of the ramp. Hmm, sensible, don’t you think?

At the top of the ramp, I was met by the duty officer who watches the gangway. Being a working ship loading in port, I was quickly deposited in my room by the third mate, and asked to take a rest. In my world, this is the polite way to tell someone to chill out for a bit. These guys were busy. By my estimate, we left Seattle with well over 1,000 containers, each loaded one at a time by three huge container cranes. Shipping companies pay for the time their ships sit in the berth, so there is a focused effort to get the job done.

On my own, I was able to watch the loading from my cabin porthole. Since I don’t sit still very well, and asking forgiveness has been far more successful for me than asking permission, I set out to see the action. Here are some photos.

View of container loading from my porthole in Seattle.

It would figure that dinner and departure were going to clash, and dinner is a Titan that I’m going to root for every time. Dinner arrangements on this particular cargo ship are very interesting, but more about that later. So, while eating Mac and Cheese in the officers’ mess, my journey to sea began.

Dang, that Mac and Cheese was good!

The Kitchen Sink Won’t Fit in My Backpack…

[Gig Harbor, WA]   I’ve been asked several times over the last few weeks, “Are you all packed yet?”. I don’t know how to respond to that one, as I often don’t. I’m usually the guy who is up until 2 in the morning before a 4:30 a.m. departure, starting a load of laundry because I can’t find my socks. Why should taking a three month jaunt two-thirds of the way around the world be any different?

Well, this time might be, since the start of the trip would be 25 days at sea. If I didn’t bring it along, I would probably need it. I mean, really, really need it. So, I should likely start thinking about what to bring a bit earlier this time. And…it might be a good idea not to forget anything. That’s when I began sizing up the kitchen sink…

The follow-up  question to “Are you all packed yet?” often was, “What are you going to bring on a three month trip?”. So, here’s the inside scoop on how I chose not to bring the kitchen sink.

The idea behind enjoyable world travel, I’ve heard, is to travel light. I’m a huge fan of that, so I made a commitment to lay my stuff out on the living room floor, then pare it down, and get rid of all the fluff. So, I started with a huge pile of things. The challenge with doing that is that this trip is a trip of extremes. Temperatures will likely range from 95 degrees down to 15 degrees, with humidity from near 100% down to almost 0%. Elevation will likely range from sea level to Yeti level (17,000 feet). Choices spanning from freighter togs to Mount Everest wear to visiting family in Hong Kong for a night out on the town attire. When I laid it all out, looked at the pile…pared it down, looked at the pile again.. took out about half of what was left, I was still going to need a yak to carry my stuff.

It was time to take a different approach. I figured I’d have to start with the essentials. Travel light… hmmm. Let’s start with the number one essential. Thirty five pounds of camera equipment. Do I really need two wide-angle lenses? Well, that’s a silly question. Thirty five pounds of camera equipment is absolutely necessary. Perhaps I’ll just bring one less pair of underwear.

Essential number two would be guide books with handy phrases translated.  For example, it might be nice to be able to ask where the bathroom is located, or, how about this (true example from one of my four guidebook): “Where can I hire a horse?” That’s the one I’m going to need, for sure.

Essential number three includes all the equipment for watching birds and other less interesting animals like snow leopards, yeti, and the Przewalski horse. I have a pair of 10×40 binoculars, which go everywhere with me and are fairly light. Or, maybe I’m just used to them. I also have the field guide collection. This trip requires four guides, each a textbook of a tome. I’ve brought The Birds of China, The Birds of Central Asia, and Birds of Europe, just in case you weren’t going to be able to sleep without knowing. In the end, I decided to leave Birds of North America at home, one wouldn’t want to bring too many books!

Everything else is less essential. I have a small stuff sack with all the clothing that may be useful; three shirts (one for each month), two pairs of pants, etc. I’ll do laundry in the sink every other day, and forever after will never complain about having to move the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer. I have a baseball cap, the essential American cultural uniform. I brought a shell, a Marino wool jacket (a highly recommended piece of equipment that is warm, wet or dry), and a down puffer that compresses smaller than a mid-80s cell phone.

I did bring a bag of fun stuff for the ship. I have a whole shopping bag full of paperbacks I got at Half Price Books in Tacoma for a dollar each. I’ll leave them on the ship for the crew once I disembark in Shanghai. Another way to whittle away the hours is that I plan to carve and paint some wooden ducks to give as gifts as I travel. It will help pass the time, and is a very meditative (and sometimes frustrating) practice.

The last thing I carried aboard the ship was a shopping bag with growlers of 7 Seas beer (Yay Gig Harbor!). I plan to give these to the Master (captain), and the Cook! It’s good to share some local brew with the crew, and I hope they’ll understand how grateful I will be for their patience. I’m sure to wear their ears off with questions as we make our way to Shanghai, and I don’t want to walk the plank!

Believe it or not, that all fit in my backpack, camera bag, and ship tote bag! Here are some photos of the packing and packed stuff.

The final pile.

All packed and ready to go!

Oh, and as for the kitchen sink, I decided that it needs to stay at home… It wasn’t going to fit in my backpack with all of the other stuff.

Shipping Lanes

The cargo ship I’ll be taking to Shanghai is approaching Seattle, where I’ll board it to start my journey. Right now, it’s in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, and is expected here on Friday afternoon.

At the end of the post is a really cool link that will introduce you to the Hanjin Brussels.This ship is a container ship that is about 912 feet long (think three football fields, go Seahawks!). I’m hoping to get to run a few miles end to end to end… um, to end… and a couple more times…while we are underway!

The nice thing is that there is a tracking graphic that shows the ship’s most recently broadcast position. It’s a fun way to see where we are while we are at sea. Once I leave Vancouver, I don’t expect to have an internet connection until at least South Korea, so there won’t be much action on my blog after, until I get to Asia. That said, I’ll be writing furiously, since there will be a lot of free time in the middle of the Pacific! Hopefully I’ll be able to share a bit about the life on board a cargo ship in the Pacific once we make the crossing and get to the other side.

The link to the ship information and tracking website is:

Link to Hanjin Brussels on www.marinetraffic.com

If you are interested in more ship tracking, you can visit this MarineTraffic’s really interesting site at:

http://www.marinetraffic.com

The image was taken by Manuel Hernandez for MarineTraffic.com. I’ll post some of my photos once I get them.

Prelude to Insanity

Willie Nelson.

I’m going to leave Paradise with Willie on my mind.

As I pack, Willie fills my room.

It’s fitting, isn’t it? This is the ultimate road trip, and Willie knows the road. But the funny thing is that for a lot of this trip, there won’t be much of a road, if any. There will be lots of train tracks, so perhaps I should look for a train song. But it’s Willie Nelson’s voice that burns clearly into my mind tonight as I collect my belongings and lay aside my fears.

I’ve been invited to leave the beauty of Wollochet Bay for the adventure that all of my friends envy. Me, I just want to stay home. I want to look across the water, and see the evening sun paint the Douglas Firs along East Bay, see the crown of Tahoma Peak, or Mount Rainier, or whatever we all want to call the beautiful lump that builds a lump in our throats on every clear day. There is a huge longing to stay.

But, moss gathers quickly here in the Northwest, and I’ve been given the chance to go. To See. To Think.

The seeing, the thinking, that’s a gift. For that, I am grateful. I will go.

While this is a trip I will take alone, I will be far from alone on the way. The world is abounding with new people to meet, and new things to see. One of the joys of having a traveling partner is being able to debrief the day’s events, and sound the new ideas and discoveries off of someone who also knows home. I hope that by sharing here, I will get that chance.

So, please come along for the ride!