Songs of the Sea: The Ocean

Here’s another for my Songs of the Sea series. Dar Williams is another of my favorite singer/songwriters. I love her stories, she can really sing too. I’ve got a couple of her CDs. I listen to them while I’m driving. 😉

The Ocean- Dar Williams

When I went to your town
On the wide open shore
Oh, I must confess, I was drawn
I was drawn to the ocean

I thought it spoke to me, It said, “Look at us
We’re not churches, not schools
Not skating ponds, swimming pools
And we have lost people, haven’t we though?”
Oh, that’s what the ocean can know of a body

And that’s when I came back to town
This town is a song about you
You don’t know how lucky you are
You don’t know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming, back from the ocean

I went back to the ocean today
With my books and my papers
I went to the rocks by the ocean
But the weather changed quickly

Oh, the ocean said, “What are you trying to find
I don’t care, I’m not kind
I’ve bludgeoned your sailors
I’ve spat out their keepsakes
Oh, it’s ashes to ashes, but always the ocean”

But the ocean can’t come to this town
This town is a song about you
You don’t know how lucky you are
You don’t know how much I adore you
You are the welcoming back from the ocean

And the ones that can know you so well
Are the ones, that can swallow you whole
I have a good and I have an evil
I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing
You are the welcoming back from the ocean

I didn’t go back today, I wanted to show you
That I was more land than water
I went to pick flowers, I brought them to you
Look at me, look at them, with their salt up the stem
But you frowned when I smiled and I tried to arrange them

You said, “Let me tell you the song of this town”
You said, “Everything closes at five
After that, well you just got the bars”

You don’t know how precious you are
Walking around with your little shoes dangling
I am the one who lives with the ocean
It’s where we came from, you know
And sometimes I just want to go back
After a day, we drink ’til we’re drowning

Walk to the ocean, wade in with our workboots
Wade in our workboots, try to finish the job
You don’t know how precious you are
I am the one who lives with the ocean
You don’t know how, I am the one
You don’t know how, I am the one

A to Z: Nicaragua

Nicaragua is a beautiful and interesting country. There is so much to see and do there. Volcanos to hike or surf, jungles to explore, rivers to raft, oceans (2) to swim or surf, historic cites, small farming or crafting towns to visit, local markets to shop, you’ll never get bored.

I spent a few weeks vacation in Nicaragua last summer (they laid me off while I was there). I was actually going to attend another blogging workshop in Costa Rica. It was much cheaper to fly into Managua (and cheaper for everything else too), so I decided to spend more time exploring Nicaragua instead of Costa Rica.

I started off by taking a Spanish immersion class for a week in Granada at Nicaragua Mia. They picked me up at the airport in Managua and delivered me to my home for the week with Sra Maria Elena. She took very good care of me while I was there and even gave me a nice birthday cake. 🙂

I spent the week exploring the beautiful historic city of Granada after my classes at Nicaragua Mia. It’s a small city and very easy to walk everywhere, or if you’re tired you can hop on one of the cute little horse drawn carriages. They’re all over the place and very affordable. I took a tour on one with a local guy and got to see a lot of the city and learn more about it’s history.

I liked to walk the few blocks down to Lake Nicaragua to check out the Malecon. They always had people selling snacks and drinks, sometimes playing music for tips. There were kids playing and couples strolling by holding hands.

From there, I could walk back up a few blocks towards town and pass through the lively pedestrian street La Calzada, full of bars and restaurants with outdoor tables and wandering mariachi bands. I usually stopped for a 2 for 1 drink special or ice cream, maybe even stick around for dinner.

From there Central Park, surrounded by churches, hotels and government buildings was the next stop. I liked to go up the church tower to look out over the city skyline and the lake. Then come down to sit in the park (free wi-fi) to watch the ‘action’ for a while- the line of horse carts drumming up business, the food and drink vendors, the families watching their children play, the school kids heading home. It was all nice to see and calming in a way.

I was a little sad to leave Granada and my hostess Maria Elena, but excited to get to Costa Rica for my blogging workshop. I was really hoping to learn how to improve my blog and finally figure out how to monetize it.

After a long day on the bus, crossing the border into Costa Rica, I arrived at the hotel where we would be staying the next week. It was beautiful! Way out of my usual style of travel. Very nice, but unaffordable for the kind of long term stays I like.

I spent the week there with a dozen other bloggers, all of us excited to be learning how to better our blogs. It wasn’t all work and no play. We took day trips to hike a volcano, horseback ride, and to Tamarindo for a day out sailing, snorkeling and fishing.

When the class was over, I headed back to Nicaragua. San Juan del Sur was my destination for the next few days. I found a nice apartment right on the beach. Nothing special, but it was on the beach, close to everything and all I needed (full kitchen, AC, wi-fi). I spent my days walking the beach, wandering around town enjoying the laid back atmosphere, taking lots of photos and an excursion to see the sea turtles come in to lay their eggs.

I could have stayed longer, but I wanted to get back to Granada for the Tope de Toros and Hipica. I was really looking forward to the celebrations. I wanted to watch the ‘running of the bulls’, see all the decorated horse carts and the competitions. I heard it would be a week long, city wide party. I was ready for some of that!

When I arrived, I was disappointed to learn that they had changed the dates at the last minute. Nobody really knew when they would have the parades, etc. But turns out not during my stay. So, I cut it short and headed to Matagalpa. I was ready for some cooler temperatures.

I met an old friend T., from high school there (he was looking to escape his kids), and we had a good time exploring the area. We found a small town of weavers, we checked out a waterfall on the way, we looked through the local markets. It was cooler than Granada and definitely worth the trip.

From there, since T. had a rental car, we headed to Leon, another colonial city. We spent the day hanging out in the city center, looking at old churches, listening to music, checking out a special food and drink show for the trainee bartenders and having lunch.

It was about time to go home, so we headed back to Managua for the last couple of days. I wasn’t really ready to go back home, but I still have too much to do here to just say ‘the hell with it all’ and stay down there. I really need to find a way to get rid of this stuff here!

*A post for the A to Z Challenge (N)

A to Z: Mariner

I’ve been a mariner pretty much my entire life. I’ve worked as a professional mariner since I was a cadet during high school in 1977. I love being out on the water, there’s just nothing like it.

I used to love working out there too. 🙂

Things have changed. A lot.

I’ve been laid off since last September. This is the worst downturn in the maritime industry I’ve ever seen. I was lucky enough to keep working through the 80s and earlier in 2000’s. This time, I got hit with everybody else and hurting hard. 😦

Mariners are simply people who work on the water (on boats). Fishermen, sailors, ferrymen, marine crew on cruise ships, tankers, container ships, drillships, etc. There are a lot of different sectors in the maritime world. Many more when you consider all the shoreside support.

I am a licensed merchant mariner. I have earned a Master Mariners license. I worked my way “up the hawsepipe” after spending a lot of years at sea, studying on my own and taking some USCG required courses before I was allowed to sit for their exam.

I started out commercial fishing. First with my father on his boat, later with some of the other guys around town who knew me. My first ‘real’ job was on the party fishing boats down the street.

I never planned to do this for a living. I was going to be a doctor, or more probably a veterinarian. When I got shipped off to school as a cadet on a couple of traditional sailing vessels in high school, my entire worldview changed and I decided I wanted to be a ship captain. Sail around the world and get paid for it- YEAH!

So I moved to Texas to go to school for my AB and oiler (QMED) endorsements. That way I could work and earn money to go towards my license. I started working in the offshore oilfield. In school, I was able to work on the party boats on the weekends, but in summer for our required projects, we were assigned various supply boats.

I worked for about 4 years on various crew boats, standby boats, production boats, supply boats, etc. I finally got finished with school and found a job I liked and that worked out very well. I started at Kilgore Marine on their vessel the K Marine 1 as an ordinary seaman (even tho I had my AB ticket). I worked my way up to AB, mate and finally master on their supply boats.

supply boats

When I earned my 1600 ton masters license at the USCG, they also gave me an unlimited second mates license. Fool that I was, I gave it back. I didn’t ask for it and I didn’t feel ready for it. More than once, I had been stuck in a rating higher than I was hired to do. One time I was hired on as ordinary seaman (not even AB), and wound up taking over as captain! Yes, I did have the same license as the ‘captain’ on there that the company hired.

Before, I had always felt that I could handle it, whatever it was. Now, I wasn’t so sure. I just didn’t want to get stuck again in a position by chance, and because I wasn’t ready for it I could cause some serious damage. I probably should have just accepted the license. I’ve been kicking myself ever since for that mistake. It’s cost me a decades of time and a LOT of money!

Because I gave them back the license, even tho they told me that I could just ask for it “at any time” and they would give it to me, I had to start back over again as a deckhand in order to get my third mates license (not the seconds I had already earned)!

So much for trusting the US government to follow their own rules!

So, I quit sailing as an officer for Kilgore and went to work for SeaRiver (ex-Exxon) as an AB on their tankers. It took me almost 10 years to earn my third mates license and when I asked for a promotion I was told I could never sail in any position of authority with them. Soooo….

I had to quit working there and found a job as third mate for Coastal Tankships. I worked for them for a couple of years til they sold out to El Paso and scrapped all of their ships. I got to take the Coastal New York to China (and spent a couple of weeks in Hong Kong afterwards).

Seeing the writing on the wall at Coastal, I had applied to Oceaneering and luckily their application process finished up just before my unemployment benefits ran out. I went to work as third mate/DPO. I was soon promoted to second mate/SDPO.

I really enjoyed my time there. I had a good ship, a good crew, and we were doing interesting work. We spent all of our time outside the US, so I wasn’t prepared for the culture shock when we brought the ship to the Gulf of Mexico in 2008.

I couldn’t take it. I HAD to get out of there! OMG what had happened?

For as long as ships have been sailing the seas, the captain has always been the one in charge. He is the ultimate authority on any ship. Now it seems he still has the legal responsibility, but he doesn’t have much actual authority. It seems the lawyers and bean counters ashore have taken that from the captain.

I’ve seen it over and over where the office people decide what, when and how something is going to happen on board. Captain’s not even allowed to chose their own crews anymore!

OK, yes, the captain can always stand up and exert his authority. For instance, tell the office that he’s going to delay sailing until his crew is properly rested. How many can continue to do that when their job is on the line? Not many. After all, it costs a lot of money for every hour that ship is not underway…

IMHO, being a mariner has certain meanings. Things like knowing your ship, understanding the weather, being able to work with your crewmates for months on end, able to survive in your own little world out there-on your own. Independence, freedom, a sense of pride and a job well done.

I think a lot of what it means to be a mariner is being slowly stripped away from us. I think we’ve already lost a lot of what it meant to go to sea, I don’t like that at all. 😦