Friday 30 March 2007

Smacked!!

By water :|. So the weather finally picked up yesterday, and by afternoon it was blowing quite a gale. Went out for a look just before I turned in, and was greeted by the roar of waves thrashing on the bow. A nice comfortable pitching, that could make you feel like you're in a smallboat instead of a ship, at times the ship dipping so low at the head that you could almost touch the water... which is all very good. Then, as I'm heading up to the opening (marked 1 in the pic :D) right at the bow to get a better look, a sudden dip, a mad crash and a huge jet of sea water bursts into the deck!! Misses me by a foot, maybe :D. Now I'm really excited, I figure, even if there's water coming into the deck, as long as I stay away from the front of the opening I'll be high n dry, right? Er, wrong!! While I'm happily dodging the volleys coming from straight ahead, I fail to notice the pitching getting even more pronounced. Suddenly, with nothing by way of prior warning, (except like, insane weather for the better part of the day :|) in comes another jet, but this time through the bit marked 2, and right onto me!! It had been a while since I'd been out in the boat, but I was very quickly reminded exactly how cold the water was in these parts.

And then of course when I did finally get to bed there was the incessant creaking and the pitching that kept getting worse and worse till I was actually asleep. It's probably a good thing I'm the kind who sleeps through mild earthquakes :D.

And tomorrow night, if all goes as planned, I shall be in Sydney!!!!!!

Feeling: perky :D
Listening to: Avril Lavigne - Sk8er Boi

Wednesday 28 March 2007

The evil laugh >:)

Maybe I'm carrying this too far, but I've now gotten to colour swapping sunrises, with absolutely wicked results!!! >:)Of course, some of them look like bad attempts on photoshop, but this one was just too much only :D!!!! People are welcome to come up with what they think it looks like, I personally think it's the best representation of the evil laugh :D.

Current Mood: evil >:)
Listening to: Deep Purple - Burn

Counting days

More time changes, Australia's back out of daylight saving, finally! And sunrises are back at 6. Unfortunately, that's proving to be a pain all over again :-<. Ah well, in another trip or so I'll get back into this habit I suppose... and then we'll be back in the North-West shelf and another 2 hr time change /:).Anyway, I've taken to extending my experiments with colour accents to sunrises. With some rather spectacular results, and some gigantic flops... Realisation of this trip: still not worthy of a D-SLR. If a point and shoot can bewilder me with certain features for over a month, imagine what can happen with one of those!! :-S
--Anyway, if anyone asks you what 'dead-head's in seismic are, (in the extremely extremely unlikely scenario that sane people would discuss seismic unless they absolutely have to :|) the above pics almost defines it. We've been doing this for a week now, I was more excited to actually get pics of the helideck with the guard rails down without helo ops :).

Currently: bored
Listening to: Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Zephyr song

Monday 26 March 2007

Teardrop

Haltingly, unsurely walking down a once familiar path. No longer surefooted - the footholds that you once knew seem to have disappeared. It isn't night. The sun shines brightly in the lush green. But dark green. Too bright, the light. Things you thought you knew have changed. Morphed into gigantic pillars of indifference, of unfamiliar courtesy. You're stumbling in the dark...

Love, love is a verb
Love is a doing word
Feathers on my breath
Gentle impulsion
Shakes me makes me lighter
Feathers on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath

Nine night of matter

Black flowers blossom
Feathers on my breath
Black flowers blossom
Feathers on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my...

Water is my eye

Most faithful mirror
Feathers on my breath
Teardrops on the fire of a confession
Feathers on my breath
Most faithful mirror
Feathers on my breath

Teardrop on the fire
Feathers on my breath


You're stumbling in the dark
You're stumbling in the dark


Feeling: vindicated!!!!
Listening to: Massive Attack - Teardrop

Saturday 24 March 2007

Inclemency

Ah! Bad weather, finally!! >:) Well, not in proportion to the calm that preceded it, but bad enough to suspend operations. And one should not be too picky :D. Almost froze my arm off taking this pic by the way :P.Interesting things have been happening. The other day this humongous thing called a sunfish got caught on one of gunstrings. I imagine it gave the gunners quite a fright as is got dragged onboard along with their gear! This had to be the ugliest thing I have ever laid my eyes on :-&. It's like this massive, massive fish with no tail. I really don't know how else to describe it. I mean, it's got a fin sort of thing, but that's more like a rear end than a proper tail. There are no scales, just slime and barnacle infested skin. (Which was sending up a suitably strong freshly-rotting-barnacle stench.) And a couple of flappy ear thingies.. which might have been more fins. Anyway, I refused to take pictures. It was too ugly. And too dead :|. Had to pose for size comparison as the onboard MMO clicked away though. I haven't gotten around to seeing the pics yet, but I think most of them would have me clamping a hand over my mouth and nose :|.I choose not to mention cricket, the world cup, the Indian team, dead coach(es?) and other such (respectively) depressing, painful, disgusting, horrifying things in a completely selfish attempt to avoid agony.

Currently: in denial
Listening to: Porcupine Tree - Last change to evacuate planet Earth

Wednesday 21 March 2007

Too much of a "good" thing

So much for wishes coming true :-<. I remember hoping for some rough weather not so long back. Well, since then even the tiny little waves have disappeared. If one believes in the concept of the calm before the storm, we are in for a really really big one! (If and) when this horrendous stretch of calm does eventually let up that is :|.
Oh and yesterday I got the absolutely perfect example of strange things happening to the ocean surface! (Ok, so this doesn't exactly qualify as an ocean, but it serves the purpose.) In the midst of the, well, horrendous calm, as I put it, I notice this patch.Looks very much like rain falling on water. And I find myself reminded of one of those cartoons where you have a tiny dark cloud (with red eyes and furrowed angry eyebrows n stuff) whizz into the frame, dump a huge amount of rain onto some poor chap and then whizz off again.

Current Mood: blah, very blah
Listening to: Radiohead - Sulk

Tuesday 20 March 2007

On loss

Feels like a little pinprick, a paper cut. But a wound, that instead of healing, keeps growing. A matter of time, you say? A matter of getting used to living, not dying, breathing, not choking, waking, not resigning to sleep forever, though that at times might seem the easier choice?

It is a matter of time in fact. But then there is that thought. What was it you lost, that you thought you had loved, but in a matter of moments (that might have been ages, or merely seemed like it) you have forgotten? Did you not think that it would last forever? And if you did, then how is it that it is over and you are not?

Grab at that lonely floating bed of straw (amidst the wreckage that's sinking fast), treacherous as it is, of double standards, of hypocrisy, of denial. It promises a happiness that reality has disowned.

Currently: floating down the mountainside riding a cloud of snow... I wish :)
Listening to: Christina Aguilera - Beautiful

Sunday 18 March 2007

GIVEUP!!!

tarnished Sun :(

They are com-p-l-e-t-e-ly useless!!! How could they??!!! And now some people are going to actually take the opportunity to point out how this has vindicated Ganguly's inclusion in the squad and is a slap in the face for the captain and coach and what not X-(.

Okay, so maybe I'm taking due credit away from Bangladesh. Does it sound like I care?!!! :|

Currently: disgusted X-((
Listening to: Massive Attack - Black milk

Friday 16 March 2007

Gray

The fog seems to have leapt out from the inside of my head and settled all around us :P. Blogging is like a core dump, dump the crap and restart. Getting back to blaring music in the instrument room definitely helped. As did my plan :D. Which seems to be bearing fruit much sooner than I could have expected :).

So. Have been religiously making my way out to some deck or other around sunrise. Or what I assume to be around sunrise, 'cos there isn't really any way to tell if there is a sun beyond this or not.That was yesterday, and today there was the rain. No torrents, no thunder and lightning, no rushing wind. Only a cold chill that sent goosebumps across the expanse of water. And the silent drops that left ephemeral pinpricks on it.

Currently: me - back to smiling, life - back to good :)
Listening to: Linkin Park - Points of authority

Wednesday 14 March 2007

Stoned (I wish I was)

I find myself in an unusual situation. Well, more unexpected than unusual I suppose. Ever felt like your life is being stolen away from you? And when you come to think about it, you realise with a sudden burst of horror that it is you who is actually doing the stealing. Screwed up eh?

In the meantime time is flying by at a frightening pace as days melt into each other. But the hours seem to have slowed down to a cruelly deliberate pace. Escapes are cut off. So many things clamouring for a piece of your mind that you are always on the brink of losing it. When you try to think you can't. Even with nothing and no one around there is a whirling inside your head that keeps you from letting yourself calm down. You try to remember a simple thing. It takes you so long to clear out the static, you eventually end up forgetting what you were trying to remember.Fortunately, I seem to have caught myself before things begin to really slide off the plane of sanity. And really, it's not so bad :). Also, I have come up with a plan! (Well, I think I have, it might be lurking somewhere behind the smokescreen pervading what passes for my waking mind these days, so not completely sure yet, but getting there.) I'm trying to stare hard down the long road to claiming my life back, hoping to see the end.

Actually I'm kinda hoping for some really really bad weather at this point. Would be a break from the unnervingly flat windless seas. And the boat trips every day that I miss.

Feeling: wired, mired, tired...
Listening to: Dido - Stoned

Friday 9 March 2007

His n los

So once we did get to the Bass Strait, it was time for deploying the gear :(. Yes, which is why I have stayed away from posting, and in fact from most other things associated with the internet, including checking mail, which landed me in some trouble when I called up my mum recently :|. But now that it seems (not sure, might have to land up again tomorrow, but hopefully) backdeck work is kinda over for a bit, here are some of the high and low lights from the past few days. (Let's keep the actual gruelling work and bitching about it out of this, shall we?)

So, highs:

Saw seals!!!! Yes!! It was awesome!! Saw them almost every morning, playing around the stern of the ship, apparently attracted by the brightly coloured streamers :).

This area has fairly dense oilfield activity, with rigs all around. And of course tons of Sikorsky's keep buzzing around picking up/dropping off people to and from these. For the first few days, every single sighting would have a whole bunch going hysterical, waving and hollering at them. The gist of their efforts being, please come and take us away from here :P.

Then there was the really cool stuff!! One morning, this really ominous looking fleet of ships lined themselves up around the horizon. And I mean, all around! I knew they looked funny! No cargo vessels ply these waters, and these had that military gray colour and the funny looking radars on top that mean only one thing: Navy!! Now why was the Australian Navy surrounding us with at least 4-5 guided weapons destroyers and a some more frigate class warships?!! (The details I found from the bridge later.) No one knew! In fact even the bridge had not been given any response. Except of course the curt assurance that they'll stay off our cables and try and avoid cutting them in half or running over them and stuff.

And then there was the rain :). Its not often that I've seen it raining at sea. (Having, thankfully, never been too close to any sort of cyclonic activity :D.) And I've definitely never seen it rain this hard! The whole sheets of water being blown almost horizontal by the wild wind kind of rain I'm always raving about :).

And lows:

The clouds managed to botch all but one of the sunrises. Which is usually the high point of my day on the back-deck :-<. And the nights were awfully cold! Well, more chilly and windy than cold actually. And after having laughed my head off at some of those who sought out some hideous looking fluorescent yellow jackets (that had been meant for East Russia close to winter, not Australia in spring :|) I couldn't even go get myself one of those. I don't think anyone noticed me shivering furtively a few times :P.

And of course, I was too busy to take any pictures, not of the seals, not of the one spectacular sunrise, not of the brilliant sunlight-bursting-out-through-the-clouds mid mornings.
But I did make it out on the workboat today!! Yes, no more generalised 'small boat'. The two work-boats are now the only small boats on board :(. I miss the CMV. With it's twin impellers, and high speeds, and almost water-skiing experiences. And most of all of course, I regret the fact that I never got to drive it, even though I did make it to coxswain trainee :-<. Just one of those things. . .

Currently: dead tired
Listening to: Vertical Horizon - Give you back

Sunday 4 March 2007

Chocolate heart-shaped bubbles melting in the rain

We're finally in the waters of the infamous Bass Strait. Infamous for its notoriously fickle weather, but for us it seemed, there was an especially warm welcome. Nice calm seas, and merely a mild breeze blowing. I took the rare opportunity to stretch my legs on the helideck, without fear of being blown overboard :P. A flicker from the horizon caught my eye. It was still a while before sunrise, and in the almost dark, I could see islands, blacker than the surrounding black. And then I saw it again! It was the regular sweep of a lighthouse beam :).As a matter of fact there were three I could see, but I managed only a rather poor click of one of the others, as they were farther away. Managed to keep myself entertained with many many attempts to capture the momentary flashes, and every time I managed to time it right, I did a little jig :D. I was in no mood to concede any credit to the clockwork regularity of the light itself :P. Till eventually the eastern edges of the dark clouds turned a dark crimson, rather like a large, irregular cotton ball, when it soaks up blood. Only darker.And then it started raining. A kind of heavy drizzle that didn't send up the same kind of splashing sound you hear when it rains on a swimming pool. But by now I was much higher up, on the newly added catwalks around the sides of the bridge (when you stand on these there's pretty much just thin air between you and the water below, except of course the fibreglass grating, and it's a long way down :D). But it was enough to send the thinnest of rainbows arcing through the sky :).I didn't wait to see if it got any better. The drops were getting bigger.

Currently: almost tranquil
Listening to: Crazytown - Butterfly

Friday 2 March 2007

In between dreams

I've taken to heading up to the bridge every day now at dawn, and with fairly brilliant results! Even managed to convince Jon to go up with me today, but he didn't stay outside for too long. Said something about getting blown away :D.
Finished with The Curious Incident... a couple of days back. Must say it turned out to be quite different from what the pastel shades and fluffy clouds on the cover might suggest. Well, maybe not, what with the dog, and the pitchfork in it's stomach. An excellent and compelling read nonetheless! I'm not so sure if the Captain would find it the same though :|. Ah well, he's the one who asked for it. (Intrigued by the cover, no less.) I just hope he doesn't find it too distressing, what with the ultimate authority over my life while at sea resting with him and all :-S.I've also recently started experimenting with colour accents on my 850. With, umm... interesting (?) results.

Feeling: the effects of the pause before the plunge :-<
Listening to: Radiohead - Bones