High Wire Act

Some years ago when I was the Radio Officer on  https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/photos/of/ships/shipid:924471/#forward  a.k.a. City of Durban, ACT8 as well as Pegasus Bay, I rejoined after an incident whilst I was on leave where in the USA the ship had been blown under a low bridge.  During the next few months whilst I was on board, we were in a repair yard, possibly in South Africa.  Besides a damaged radar scanner, the mast above had been damaged and lost a navigational light.  The ship yard managed to weld a new signal mast up before the nav light was refitted, so I found myself on the radar platform to refit the light. This had good access although about 140 feet above water. Problem was they had not drilled the four holes required to bolt it on. Access to the nav light was,to say the least iffy without scaffolding and the ship yard welders were not willing to go up any further. What it needed was for 2 maybe 3 holes to be opened up with an oxy-acetylene torch. With me was a Filipino member of the crew and as soon as the South African said no, he said he could do it....  At sea, Filipinos if asked will say yes, rather than no. I must have asked him 10 times could he  do it, was he happy doing it, did he consider it safe to do it etc. Yes, he kept saying. Up he went, I think I was looking the other way and within a couple of minutes job done and we both got on with what we were up there for in the first place, which was to cable tie the nav light supply cable to the mast.. Job done.  I always had a lot of respect for our Filipino crew members. They enjoyed a beer as much as anyone and were great colleagues to be on a ship with. When they first joined the ship, they were asked if they would like a weekly Saturday Night darts challenge. They said yes of course and did not do too well against the British Officers.  That soon changed and they regularly thrashed us, much to their delight and my amusement. Well they had been practising hadn't they, we hadn't..... About 23 years ago now.  


Clive

Some years ago when I was the Radio Officer on  https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/photos/of/ships/shipid:924471/#forward  a.k.a. City of Durban, ACT8 as well as Pegasus Bay, I rejoined after an incident whilst I was on leave where in the USA the ship had been blown under a low bridge.  During the next few months whilst I was on board, we were in a repair yard, possibly in South Africa.  Besides a damaged radar scanner, the mast above had been damaged and lost a navigational light.  The ship yard managed to weld a new signal mast up before the nav light was refitted, so I found myself on the radar platform to refit the light. This had good access although about 140 feet above water. Problem was they had not drilled the four holes required to bolt it on. Access to the nav light was,to say the least iffy without scaffolding and the ship yard welders were not willing to go up any further. What it needed was for 2 maybe 3 holes to be opened up with an oxy-acetylene torch. With me was a Filipino member of the crew and as soon as the South African said no, he said he could do it....  At sea, Filipinos if asked will say yes, rather than no. I must have asked him 10 times could he  do it, was he happy doing it, did he consider it safe to do it etc. Yes, he kept saying. Up he went, I think I was looking the other way and within a couple of minutes job done and we both got on with what we were up there for in the first place, which was to cable tie the nav light supply cable to the mast.. Job done.  I always had a lot of respect for our Filipino crew members. They enjoyed a beer as much as anyone and were great colleagues to be on a ship with. When they first joined the ship, they were asked if they would like a weekly Saturday Night darts challenge. They said yes of course and did not do too well against the British Officers.  That soon changed and they regularly thrashed us, much to their delight and my amusement. Well they had been practising hadn't they, we hadn't..... About 23 years ago now.  


Clive