The sway and secrets below the surface

We sit at the bridge, day after day.

I am reading “Life of Pi”.

A, one of the passengers, takes photos, selects one and paints them. Ri, his partner, crochets, reads, talks to the crew and energetically sings, dances and moves around. I sit in front of my digital devices …. And gaze at the ocean most of the day. So far, I have finished 2.5 books (given up one half way through – perhaps because I do not agree with the definition of the word), painted half a picture, drawn about 5 drawings and written about 20 emails – very long ones that perhaps most recipients do not even know what is in it.

My attention deficit disorder stirs but energy gets added like a trickle, and then another one, and then and another one … until finally, I cannot sit anymore. I jump up, look at the navigational systems, ask a thousand questions, look for ships that are still too far to be seen or run outside to take a picture of a crossing ship. I get excited when I can spot a ship at the horizon without the help of the binoculars. It was possible until about 20NM until a few days ago when the clouds descended on the horizon. I still refused to use the binoculars until I could not see the ships at 11NM either and I looked through the binoculars and found the ships. “You can be a look out instead of Ra” – says the Officer on Watch J. He teaches me how to report when I spot a ship.

My lack of ability to sit still reminds me of the elastic potential energy in a spring that I had learnt about, when I had wanted to become a physicist. One of those dreams, sacrificed at the altar of my second love at that time, computers, and that I cling on to by the end of a thread… In 2004, when my first midlife crisis occurred, I had wondered whether I should go into Physics or pursue my MBA. I chose the different path – just as I had done in 1995 – what am I afraid of?

The sway has increased considerably. The last couple of weeks, we went from 1m high waves to 4m high waves. Between 1.5m and 4m, we lost count of the height of the waves. We started measuring it by the angle we felt as the ship rolled. While we were sleeping, we went from feeling the movement slightly (so slightly at the beginning that I never felt it – only M), to moving slightly on to our shoulders, to moving completely onto one side. I am convinced that I cannot sleep anymore without this roll. Yesterday, I felt it moving in all directions – first onto my right shoulder, then it suddenly went in the direction of my head, then to the left and it completed the motion by finishing at my leg. Masseuses will find it very easy on the ships.

A couple of days back, we had been to the engine room. We walked for long under the cargo hold – each row of the cargo-hold with this own entrance, own machines to monitor – in case anything goes wrong. We finally came onto one of the doors on the left. Chief mate led us into a workshop filled with tools where one of the crew members was working on something – he looked up and smiled shyly. He is used to me taking their pictures. I had been following them for their drills, at their party and now, at his work. Even just a peep into this workshop showed us a completely different world than what we see in the accommodation tower. There was a whole different world down here – a world of its own. Pliers, screw drivers of all different sizes and shapes – I wondered what type of work got done down in these workshops.

The Chief Mate (CM) waited for us at a door painted with flags of Philippines and Romania while A and I took pictures of every screw in the workshop. After a few moments M, made an impatient move towards me (if anyone knows M, you will also know that if he had to make an impatient move, how bad the situation must have been).

When he finally opened it, rather ceremoniously, we felt as if we were invited into a secret chamber down there, we were transported to a whole different world. It was like one of those movies, perhaps Star Wars like or perhaps some alien movie (as I avoid those movies, I do not know which type they are – I just know that these are the types I would avoid – I wondered whether an alien like person was going to come up and greet us). There were huge engines spanning 3-4 floors – the sound was deafening – I could hear it even despite my ear plugs – I tightened them to see whether it helps – not much. Each machine worked heartily clanging, chanting, huffing, puffing… I could imagine a scenario, perhaps from Wall E, where only robots worked here. I waited for one of them to come and greet us, chain us and take us around. Were we the exhibits or were we the visitors?

Ri, when I told her what I am writing about, tells me – “Oh! I thought it was the chamber of secrets and Basilisk hid there and would come out any moment”.

The CM ensured we were wearing our ear plugs and our safety helmet and gloves were all filter tight. While we were distracted by the huge engine, he waited patiently to usher us into a room where the modern type rectangular machine engines are. Rows of green rectangles with buttons and lights and a small rectangular glass windows greeted us – behind these windows, we saw numbers, gauges and tried to interpret it. As we moved further into the room, we could see the controls and the computer panels that show the workings of the whole ship – graphs, diagrams, readings. One of the controls was the same one we had seen on the bridge – the gear to set the speed of the ship. “Do you fight, as in a video game, to set the speed? – one puts at full speed and the other at dead slow?” – I asked. “We are the heart – the bridge is the brain” – said Engineer G, seriously. He would be our guide during the engine room tour – no, he was not a robot.

We gathered there and the CM again made sure we were all secure. He noticed M struggling with his gloves and saw that Ri has bigger gloves. Realizing that he had given them the wrong gloves, he asked them to switch. The number 7 was for the ladies. Number 10 for the men – M’s struggles were over. Now we were all set. We moved into the engine room and walked down a floor holding onto the railings of the metal stairs gingerly. I love these types of tours – like a trapeze artist, we needed to balance ourselves carefully so as not to slip down those thin steep metal stairs. Later, while standing above, taking pictures, I would notice An, one of the youngest engineers bound up those stairs with an abandon I could never have.

As we walked down, I noticed a huge wheel turning at a very high speed and another huge pipe running along the length of the ship turning at the same speed. I wondered what they were. The huge pipes and engines reminded me of what I loved about machines.

We walked around the engine into a room behind on this floor. Here were the machines for cooling. There are several machines that cools with the sea water that comes in – “sea water in, water out” – said the different signs under different pipes. From this room, we walked to the generator room and then to the purifier rooms and then one more floor down where we could see the propeller, the pipe I had seen from above – the wheel that I had seen before connects the propeller to the engine. These are what makes the ship move at the speed that we have seen above – 15 nautical miles, 17.4 nautical miles, 20 nautical miles. We stood above a bridge above the propeller and wondered at this steel tunnel like pipe. All those readings we saw on the bridge were a result of the workings in this hidden vault below the surface of the containers.

This room, below the sea level, are all those machines that power the whole ship. This whole room is a like a huge factory. Standing there, you cannot believe, even for a moment that the ship is only as big as what you see, standing on the bridge. Standing in that engine room, you feel very small, like an ant in a huge factory spanning acres. You have new respect for all the ships that are running around the world. (I did not imagine, at that moment, that a conversation with the Captain next day will make me appreciate this industry even more). An indescribable feeling of wanting to see the LHC filled me at that moment.

G took turns to explain to each passenger, B, A and M about the machines – M explained to me and A explained to Ri. At a point, while in the generator room, M was behind me and G next to me – I looked askance at G and he told me “I will explain to your husband – he will tell you”. I am puzzled. M’s theory – “you are too short – he will have to bend extra to explain to you. In my case, I will do the work on bending to his height”. Probably right – he did explain to Ri who is around the same height.

We came back to the room where G had met us – the one with all the green rectangular machines. He took us to the room at the back, the reefer room. From here, they can monitor all the refrigerated containers. Any change in the conditions of any of those containers will affect the containers and might make the ingredients useless. They get all readings from each of those containers and can monitor them. These readings are also sent directly to the office – for the customers to keep a watch. The power of computers, internet, connectivity and technology was at play at first hand here. My favourite topic of IoT at play here. I was excited.

We wrapped up the tour – said Thank you to G and I tell him, I would love to spend more time here. The engineers reminded me of the heat they work under and the noise they work in. As we left, we crossed the workshop again – the only way out. The 5 crew members there were taking a break and eating the tastiest sweet the cook has made on this trip until now, Pande coco – they were sitting around in the circle as if on picnic, surrounded by the screws and the pliers. They modeled for my photograph before we moved out.

So here I am, two mornings later, at the bridge again sitting and gazing at the horizon. The ship sways from left to right – I think about the directions in which my life could go. When the ship sways to the left it is one direction and as the ship swings to the right, it goes in a different direction. Physics figures no where in my thoughts.

Today will be one of those days when I can spot the ship at 20 NM. I jump up. G, the officer on watch now, says “Hey you make a good look out”. Is this a sign? – I wonder, as the ship sways to the right.