Remember those cuckoo birds that chirped
relentlessly when I didn't have my itinerary? Yes. It seems that they also chirp if I don't chirp, er... post regularly. Not to fear! I'll update you on the goings-on in Sharjah.
Scheduling conflicts prohibited me from popping over to Al Jadaf on Monday. By scheduling conflicts, I mean the ABS attending surveyor showed up at the office to talk about underwater lighting and the oily water separator. I'm glad that I didn't go to the shipyard because I learned a lot by being in the meeting. At some point, I really would like to intern with ABS on the survey/tonnage side of the business. It's fascinating stuff, and I think it would be a great way to learn the ins and outs of the ABS regulations. After we finished the meeting it was impractical to drive over to Al Jadaf (see: Dubai rush hour traffic; cross reference: parking lot.)
To avoid the Dubai traffic, we settled on leaving the hotel at 6:30am this morning. Those familiar with Sharjah-Dubai traffic are already shaking their heads. We should have left at 5:00am if we were really intent on avoiding the traffic. This morning a simple, 15-minute drive at any other time lasted almost two hours. Oy! I'll take NY traffic any day. Aside from roads being pushed beyond their limits, a real source of the delay is the sheer number of (stupid) drivers that take "shortcuts" off of the shoulder and reenter traffic no more than three cars ahead of where they left. The slowdowns that result from said drivers trying to merge cause a good bit of grief.
This morning was no exception. Most of the shoulder is fenced so that drivers can't "make-their-own-bypass," but just as soon as a break appeared in the fence, there were cars darting off to chase the "shortcut."
Haida is still waiting patiently outboard of a small cargo ship to see her day (see: eternity) on dry land. Unconfirmed speculators have said that Thursday, Jan 21 looks promising, but I'm not holding my breath.
Today I traced some of the piping that I've been plotting from the original plans. Note to self: designs on paper seldom see execution. Supposing that you are fortunate to have a shipyard that builds exactly to spec without some laborer deciding that you, the engineer, really wanted that pipe welded instead of threaded, a half-century of operators will surely muck up your design. I wasn't really surprised to find modifications from the original schematics, particularly on the fuel oil service system. I wasn't expecting the globe valves on the fuel oil lines to have been replaced by ball valves. I also didn't expect the new diesel generator's fuel line to branch off of the day tanks before the fuel strainer. Oh well.
In preparation for the eventual dry docking, the new bow thruster and stabilizing fins were offloaded today. After the crane had neatly placed the assorted crates on the pier, I went up to the yard's office to hire, er... rent, a forklift and driver. Who knew that moving and weighing seven crates could be such an ordeal. So often it is the simple tasks that take too long (see: Haida refit.) After finding a chap, er... guy, to drive the forklift it took another two hours to move everything. The wayward sheep kept doing other odd jobs to help out his coworkers -- moving little bits of scrap or things instead of moving our cargo. My favorite moment was in the middle of the last transport. The driver decided that a smaller forklift would due, so he abandoned the nice, new forklift to go find a smaller, older one. Twenty minutes later, the wayward sheep returned. Just classic. He's lucky he doesn't work for IMI. He'd never make it on one of the supply boats.
On the long rides between Dubai and Sharjah, Scott and I have been talking about UAE politics, construction projects, and environmentalism. Did you know that Abu Dhabi is the home of the International Renewable Energy Agency's world headquarters? (See: travesty.) At some point I will do an entire post about all of the great energy saving (wasting*) construction methods used here in Sharjah and Dubai. I'll follow that post with a lesson on infrastructure planning and why it was not necessary (necessary*) to install a central sewer system in Dubai. After all, why wouldn't you want a cesspool truck to come to your house and business each day to pump out your tank?
Oy! Scott is allowing me to work from the hotel tomorrow while he goes back to Al Jadaf. Thank goodness I don't have to get up at 5:30 again. I have several other posts in the works, so keep reading and commenting!
5:53 PM
hampton
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