Today entry is about the things I experienced during my
shipboard training or you guys would called during my practical year on board
merchant vessel. Well, for starter I was sponsored by Malaysia International
Shipping Company (MISC) to study in Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM). Eventually
when my practical time came, I need to do my practical on board MISC vessels so
that I can learn all the navigating skills and cargo work that related to MISC
vessel. Since MISC have a lot of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Tanker, so my 12
months practical is all on board LNG tanker vessel.
During those 12 months, I have been away from home 6 months
for the first contract onboard Puteri Mutiara Satu. Then rest up for 1 month at
home, and finally finishing the last 6 months of my practical time on my second
contract onboard Seri Alam. Well, we will skip the part of my training,
studying, and working, and went straight to the rewarding part during this
journey of mine. The things that I about to share may be the things that most of
you reader may not experience during your life since the sea and the land are
two complete different worlds even though both are located on the same planet.
For starter, the sea offers us a lot of different view and
scenery that even a normal human brain can’t process the very beauty of it. Each
day with different view of sunrise and sunset due to the formation of clouds
and the density of air, and other factors involved which gave out a few phenomenon
that are very rare to occur. Some of the phenomena are twilight, green flash
and crepuscular rays.
Twilight is a soft glowing
light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, caused by the refraction
and scattering of the sun's rays from the atmosphere.
Green flash is optical phenomena that sometimes occur right
before sunset or right after sunrise if the condition is met and last only for
few seconds.
Picture source : google - green flash
Crepuscular rays or also known as angel lights are rays of
sunlight that appear to radiate from the point in the sky where the sun is
located. The rays happen because of the small gaps between the clouds.
Picture source : google - crepuscular rays
Moving on to the night sky. I would say that I’m amazed and
at awed by the scene of million stars and the other objects that can be seen
during this time. This view can only be seen due to lack of bright lights that
may block the luminosity of these stars which it is very impossible to get the
sight of it in or near the city. This view also the one of the thing, that made
me feel grateful to the God which gave me the very chance to see the something so
wonderful. Doing your work while accompanying by the night stars, how can it gets any better than this. Other than the stars, other phenomena such as the shooting stars are
very frequent to be seen.
Picture source : google - night stars
Shooting star is the visible path due to meteorite got burns
as it entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
Picture source : google - shooting stars
Next, are the phenomena which involves marine activities is
called bioluminescence. It is because of the light emission from marines’ life
form. Some of the researcher beliefs that these occurrences are to lure their
prey, or signalling the same species of any danger, or maybe even to attract
mates. Whatever the reasons are, it does not matter because it is an intriguing
and wonderful sight to see.
Picture source : google - bioluminescence
Picture source : google - bioluminescence
Lastly, the weather. As we all know, weather is the state of surrounding temperature including the changes of moisture and air pressure
in the atmosphere. It is a natural phenomena that can occur anywhere on Earth be
it on land or at sea. Well, the weather at the sea are my main topic for today
entry. These phenomena are water spout
and tropical cyclone. You guys must be thinking why the hell I'm considering these natural disaster as a good thing. The answer is simple. As a seafarer, it is not going to be always a good weather where you can only enjoy a good views. Accepting the fact that you will encounter bad weather some of the times, is also a part of your life at sea. For me, when I encountered these phenomena, I'm just grateful because at least I've experienced a taste of the world and saw them with my own eyes.
Water
spouts are tornado (or a diameter column of rapid swirling air) that form over
water. Usually created by a cumulus cloud due to upward moving air current.
Encountering a tropical cyclone a few hundreds nautical miles away from the eye of the storm. This picture shows the heavy rain that affect the visibility.
Waking up every day on the sea and looking at the vast
horizon, made me realized, that there is so much the sea can offer to us. It is
just up to us to open our eyes and to see the beauty of it. I would say that
I’m glad that I joined this seafaring career, and yeah to cope up with
the piles of work onboard a vessel is quite tiring, but it seems to me if
everyday means I got to behold a sight of the different view at sea, then this
is the best reward that this career can offer me. There is a saying goes, “the
beauty of a woman has its limit, but the beauty of the world has no bound to a
limit”. I’m sorry to you reader as most
of the pictures here are downloaded from Google, the thing is, it is either I
forgot to snap a picture during these phenomena or the picture that I took from
my smartphone camera didn’t do the view justice.
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