Life Onboard RRS James Cook
I get
asked a lot of questions about life at sea. I have started writing this page to help people who have not gone to sea before
Signing On and Safety Induction
Ok, when you join a ship you have to "sign on". This involves you bringing all the neccessary documentation (passport, ENG1 (medical) and Sea Survival Certificate) to the purser who checks that everything is ok and all the certficates are in date and valid. You are then asked to sign the ship's articles and "join the ship".
So you have joined the ship. The next step is a safety induction to get you familiar with the RRS James Cook and the safety aspects of living at sea.
Usually within 24hrs of leaving port we will have an emergancy drill which everyone will attend.
What to take
This is a brief list of useful items that you may worth considering taking with you
- Passport
- ENG1
- Sea Survival Certificate
- ID
- Travel Details
- Credit Card
- Sea Sickness Tablets/Remedies
- If you taken medication remember to bring enough for the cruise.
- Sun tan lotion - we supply sun block but you may want a tan!
- Gym kit (if you want to use gym)
- Warm clothing (Especially if working in a constant environment lab)
- Big towel (You can’t take cabin towels outside if you want to sunbathe)
- Sunglasses
- Hat
- Personal Protective Equipment (Steel Toe Capped boots, overalls, hard hat)
- Notepad, pens, paper - general stationary you think you'll need
- MP3 Player
- MP3 Charger if applicable
- Mobile Phone
- Mobile Phone Charger
- Camera + Batteries and charger (or lots of batteries)
- Laptop + Cables (Blank Media, Portable HDD)
- Securing equipment to lash your laptop and personal gear down securely
- List of Email Addresses/telephone numbers – just in case the internet fails
- Books to read (We have a library with lots of books but do you need study books?)
- Toiletries
- Deodorant
- Shower Gel
- Toothpaste
- Toothbrush
Meal
Whilst onboard you will be fully catered for. You do not need to "buy" your meals. You will have three meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Breakfast is a choice of a cooked breakfast, porridge, cereals and fruit yogurts.
Depending on the catering team lunch may be al a carte and chosen from a menu or a set by the catering team. Cold cuts and bread/cheese/meat are always available for making sandwiches as well as fresh fruit
Dinner is usually three courses comprising of a starters, main and desert.
Tea/Coffee and soft drinks are free onboard
Safety Onboard and PPE
Safety is the No. 1 priority when working at sea and you must pay attention to your surroundings especially when on deck.
When going out on deck you must wear the correct PPE for the operations that are going on. These are usually a minimum of hard-hat, overalls and safety boots. However, you must check what PPE is required for the operations you are undertaking and adhere to this without exception.
Some job's onboard will require special "Permit's to work" or risk assessments to be completed prior to commencement.
For more information on safety at sea click here
Installing and Securing Equipment
 .jpg)
Above Left: Unsecured PC's destroy themselves in rough weather - do you think the student got the data off this?
Above Right: A Laptop that took a fall off one of the lab desks
Ship's work at sea.
The sea is affected by the wind, which causes waves. The ship rolls and pitches due to the affect of these waves.
The laptop you place on the desk moves with the ship towards the edge of the desk and then gravity takes over and your lovely £1000 laptop that we didn’t need a gravity meter onboard to prove Isaac Newton was right. Your laptop is now in pieces and the hard disk heads have smashed into the disk. You now have to explain to the principle scientist that the data you have been working on and your thesis is unrecoverable.
We are not using scare tactics here. I have seen laptops, portable hard disks, camera's and whole PC's damaged usually beyond repair because they were secured down ineffectively or not at all
Bring sufficient non-slip mats, eye-bolts, screws, tape and anything else that you think will secure the equipment you are bringing with you. This is your responsibility to ensure that your equipment is secure.
BUT REMEMBER! Only certain surfaces on the ship are sacrificial allowing you to drill eye-bolts and screws into them to help you secure your equipment. YOU ARE NOT allowed to drill your cabin desk!
Do I need to Bring Bedding?
No. All bedding is supplied and changed frequentlly. When you arrive at the ship you will be advised on bedding changes.
Cabin Facilities
 
The RRS James Cook has very nice cabins maintained to a high level for the scientific team.
All cabins onboard are single berth - i.e you don't share with anyone.
Most scientific cabins share a bathroom with another cabin.
Your cabin will be spacious with the majority having a port hole so you can look out. The scientific cabins are located low in the ship near the waterline and as a result do not suffer from motion as much as the crew cabins.
Your cabin will contain a cupboard for hanging up your clothes, under-bed storage and a cupboard above you bed.
You will have a desk and on this desk you will find a phone and sockets for connecting to the ship's network and internet. You will have shelves above your desk for books and other items
Each cabin has a dial for heating/air conditioning.
Laundry
There are laundry facilities onbaord for you to wash your clothes. You do not need to bring washing powder or detergent - these are all supplied and the washing machines will automatically add these once you have selected the prgram.
Smoking
Smoking is permitted onboard only in pre-designated areas. You will be informed about these areas when you arrive at the ship. Smoking inside the ship is not permitted.
Limitations may be placed on smoking whilst the ship is taking on fuel (bunkering), science is being conducted using sensitive sensors, when hazardous gases/chemicals are in use and various other reasons. Please find out and listen for announcements before you light up!
Alcohol
You can drink onboard but must not excead the daily limit (3 Units).
Buying things onboard
You can buy various things onboard using your swipe card which is used when you arrive onboard. You must first top up your card by phoning the finance office in Southampton (this can be done free using the ship's phone) and adding credit to it using a credit card.
Each of our ship's has a bonded store. You can buy VAT free items in this store such as tobacco and sweets for consumption ONBOARD the vessel. You can also buy souvenirs of your time onboard such as T-shirts, mugs and copies of the ship's crest.
You can also buy alcoholic drinks in the bond using your swipe card
Contact with the outside world
PHONES
The RRS James Cook is well equipped with communications equipment. Each cabin has a phone capable of external calls that can be used to make calls to the big wide world. The ship's satellite service is based in Aberdeen so all calls are charged from there. So if your phoning in the UK it's cheap.
However, most cabin phones are only able to dial free phone numbers. You must setup an account with an "phone card" style company. Firstly you find a company that best for you. Setup an account and add credit to your account. You can then dial their number (usually a free phone number) and enter you account number and pin. Then you are free to make a phone call. There are lots of companies on the internet who offer these services so please shop around for the company that best suit your needs.
INTERNET
The ship does have always on internet connection so you can communicate with the outside world via email. The ship's internet connection is not fast and is slower than most broadband connections - it's 256kbps (this is the ammount of data transferable in a single second).
This 256kbps connection is shared with up to 52 crew, scientists and technicians. So if things were that simple it that would be roughly say 5k each. Now, Binghamton University did a study and found the average web page size is 130k. So, if the connection is being shared by a lot of people your slice of 5k/second would mean an average webpage would take a while to load 20+ seconds. However, generally the internet is good and we have very few problems with large numbers of people using it at one time (unless it's the weekend and there's football on!!).
However, there are programs which cause the connection to slow down owing to their ability to consume large amounts of bandwidth - Skype, Spotify, Streamed media (YouTube) etc. These slow down the internet connection and cause problems for everyone. If this occurs action will be taken by the Technicians onboard to identify the culprit.
SAT PHONES
The RRS James Cook also has a satelite phone located on the bridge. This is more expensive to use than the ship's internet phones.
FAILURE OF THE INTERNET
Technology and equipment does unfortunately fail especially when exposed to rough weather at sea over prolonged periods. Whilst spares are carried, some systems can fail in a way that makes them impossible to fix whilst at sea. We have had rare instances of downtime with the ship's internet. If you know you have a grant application, important papers to submit or any other important documents I would try and get these done prior to a cruise and not solely rely on the ship's internet. If the internet system did fail we have a redundant system through the satellite phone which is expensive and primarily used for work-related communications.
Seasickness
One of the most common questions I am asked about is sea sickness. First timers are always worried that they will succumb to some extremely deadly form of sea sickness – in reality few suffer from anything more than mild symptoms for the first few days. Most first timers are more worried about the embarrassment attributed to sea sickness than sea sickness itself. Don’t worry about it – there’s nothing to be embarrassed about and nearly everyone who works onboard the ship has been sea sick at one point – just asked about the hurricane we sailed out from Vigo into during cruise JC004 and had to turn back….
What is Seasickness?
Seasickness or Mal de Mer , is a form of motion sickness characterized by a feeling of nausea and in some cases, vertigo, experienced after spending time on a boat/ship. Seasickness can affect anyone; even the most seasoned sailor can be suddenly plagued by its symptoms.
Symptoms
Some of the symptoms of seasickness are:
- Drowsiness
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Cold Perspiration
Cause
Human beings instinctively seek to remain upright by keeping their center of gravity over their feet. The most important way this is achieved is by visual reference to surrounding objects, such as the horizon. Seasickness often results from the visual confusion on a moving craft, when nearby objects move with the motion of the craft. Because the lines of the masts, windows, and furniture on a ship are constantly shifting with respect to fixed references, humans, especially those unaccustomed to being at sea, can suffer a number of afflictions.
Sea-sickness has such a remarkable effect because both the sense of sight and touch are disturbed by the motion of a craft on water. The severity of seasickness is also influenced by the irregular pressure of the bowels against the diaphragm as they shift with the rising and falling of the ship.
In his book The Human Body, Isaac Asimov related the anecdote about a seasick passenger whom a steward cheerfully assured that nobody ever died from seasickness. The passenger muttered, "Please– it's only the hope of dying that's keeping me alive."
Many experience similar effects while not at sea:
- in railway carriages
- in automobiles
- in aircraft
- on swings
- while looking from a lofty precipice where known objects, being distant, are viewed under a new aspect and not so readily recognised
- while walking on a wall or roof
- while looking directly up to a roof
- while observing the stars in the zenith
- on walking into a round room, where there are no perpendicular lines of light and shade and the walls and ceiling are covered with an irregularly-spotted design
- on twirling round, as in waltzing
- while watching video captured by an unsteady camera
- Ski sickness whilst skiing with very poor visibility
Prevention and Remedy
Over-the-counter and prescription medications such as dramamine,scopolamine and promethazine (as transdermal patches and tablets) are readily available. As these medications often have side effects, anyone involved in high-risk activities while at sea (such as SCUBA divers) must evaluate the risks versus the benefits. Promethazine is especially known to cause drowsiness, which is often counteracted by ephedrine in a combination known as "the Coast Guard cocktail."
Ginger capsules are also considered effective in preventing motion sickness. Some sufferers find that wearing special wristbands helps stave off the condition.
Those suffering from seasickness who are unaccustomed to the motion of a ship often find relief by:
- keeping their mind occupied
- taking anti-seasickness/nausea capsules
- keeping their eyes directed to the fixed shore or horizon, where possible
- lying down on their backs and closing their eyes
- drinking any substance that is likely to temporarily diminish their senses of sight and touch
- using THC (see Medical cannabis) or narcotics, which act through neural suppression, thus diminishing the all of the senses, and directly reducing the feeling of nausea (unfortunately, judgment may also be influenced).
- move into a position where fresh air is blowing on their face
- sucking on crystallized ginger, sipping ginger tea or taking a capsule of ginger.
- moving to the boat's center of gravity to eliminate motion due to pitch, roll and yaw (but not translation): see SS Bessemer.
- wearing an anti-nausea wristband, or otherwise stimulating the P6 acupressure point (on the inside of the forearm, three fingers' width down from the wrist crease)[citation needed]
- taking the helm of a yacht can reduce sickness as the sufferer has something to concentrate on, and can also anticipate the movement of the vessel
|