Audit

It's quiet in here, but the seas are getting rough outside and I can just hear the muted howl of the wind as it picks up, yet again threatening a big blow.  Conversations in the instrument room just outside my office are subdued.  Mostly quiet complaints of being here too long, the lousy up and down weather and the overall lack of anything new.  A few are discussing the upcoming crew-x, flights, pubs and going home.  That keeps me in here with my headphones on.  Not knowing when, or if I will be finished here, it hurts to hear talk of home and hearth.  My near future and fate are tied up in too many unknown variables.  I'm charging the batteries to my camera and might take a walk around the interior of the ship and snap a few shots for the old blog, just to get out of here and do something different.

Yesterday, I took a trainee in tow and did an internal audit of several areas of the ship.  First, he had to actually find the areas to be audited, which can be a daunting task for somebody new to the ship and operations.  Although each member of the crew is given a safety tour of the entire ship their first day, or two aboard, usually little is retained, especially those places that you don't visit during your daily routine.  Fortunately for him, we only audited four locations; the paint locker, emergency generator room, the foc'sle, or forecastle deck, and the heli-deck.  Twice, he had to consult one of the many fire plans-a diagram of the entire ship and location of all it's fire and safety equipment.  Fire and safety equipment checks were both part of our audit.  We had to inventory, check inspection and expiry dates, re-inspect all hoses, nozzles, fittings, etc.  Inspections of the generator, heli-deck lights,and railings, windlass, breaks, hawser pipes, mooring ropes, mushroom and block leads, gangways,vents, fire pumps, keys and cutoffs were also conducted.  All the while we made notes on signage, pinch and crush points, grease fittings, paint, and general house-keeping.  Took a long damn time and a lot of tromping all over the ship to test systems and whatnot.  Funny how much time I spend doing things that really aren't in my job description like vessel inspector, firefighter, coxswain, crane operator, rigger, marine mammal observer, winch driver, gun mechanic.  It varies from ship to ship, but there's always something.  Not that I'm complaining, I'm really not a very big fan of sitting in front of a computer system for 12 hours straight.

So, I took a break, wandered around inside accommodations (it's dark outside) and snapped a few pics.  I shall post a couple after coffee...here's one of our interior decks.  This one is open at the stern, right to the water line.  In rough weather (every day down here) huge waves roll onto the deck, sweeping it clean.