moving methane

we've finally set sail from Qatar, it's Sunday afternoon and I have some time
off to catch up with a few emails. I joined the ship Wednesday morning, at
anchor off Fujairah, after a sleepy day and sleepless night in Dubai. Before
that was the week in Norway then we flew to Glasgow, and arrived just as
Scotland and Italy were in a huge football match, and the streets were swarmed
with drunken Scots in Kilts bemoaning their loss to Italy.

The ship is quite impressive. The most sophisticated that I've encountered so
far in my career. The last ship was also quite nice, but was more like a brand
new compact car with no features (no electric window, only AM radio) while this
ship is like a fully outfitted Lincoln Navigator with all the bells and
whistles.

The Chief and I both joined in Fujairah, and with neither of us having been on
these ships previously, they're having the current 1st engineer stay onboard for
two weeks to help guide us in learning the operation of the engine plant. It'a
a steam ship, so I basically know how it works, how A is connected to B is
connected to C. But the controls are vastly different. There is a central
computer server, and various stations for operation. We have 5 screens in the
engine control room (ECR), then there are screens in the Cargo Control Room
(CCR), the bridge, and even in my soon to be stateroom there is a laptop where I
can access the control system.

What I'm having to learn now is what pages contain what information, where do I
have to look for important data such as boiler pressures/temps, valves that are
open, etc. But much of the operation is sitting with a mouse, clicking valves
and opening/closing with the mouse/keyboard, and watching a graphic on the
computer screen rather than the actual component out in the field.

The layout of the engineroom is wide open, with lots of space for maintenance.
And the engineroom is huge. From top to bottom, it's 8-9 levels. I'd say it's
about as big as my apartment building, all 247 apartments worth.

temporarily you can write me at

A31 DOT areesh AT ships DOT teekay DOT com

but that will change once the current first engineer goes home and I officially
take over the position.