TP3 Tuesday

Tuesdays are famous for being the most hectic day in the shipping industry. Many ships arrive on Tuesdays and so the terminals have to be on their toes to be efficient and safe; today is not any different. This morning, we have two ships on our pier- the Adrian Maersk and the Maersk Utah. The Adrian Maersk we refer to as a TP3 because it is a trans-pacific ship that had almost 6,000 containers on it! The TP3’s are always the largest ships and normally take up to two days to complete. I was able to go on the Adrian Maersk this morning and the size comparison to the TS Kennedy is unbelievable. You feel so small on such a large vessel. A few of my colleagues graduated from MMA and apparently graduated with one of the mates on the Adrian Maersk as well. Coincidently enough, Josh Lamm (you can read his post here) is on the Maersk Wyoming who will be coming to APM Terminals Tuesday, January 31st which is one week from today! Their ship has about 1,200 containers on it if you can fathom how large the Adrian Maersk is.
When I get to the office in the morning, it is my responsibility to be on top of any potential problems we might have regarding labor, equipment, container space and problems we might run into regarding the Chief Mates. When I come into work I go over the work order for the day to make sure that the management working has all of the appropriate paperwork sorted out including the sequence sheets that the containers should be loaded on, the flash drive with the entire plan for the ship to give to the Chief Mate and to spot and problems they might have, and enter in all of the data in a series of spreadsheets that determine our productivity, time sheets for the operators and the overview for the day. Not bad, considering last winter I did not have a job, and now I have one that I love.

Snow, Scheduling, and Ships

Well this weekend New Jersey finally received their first “snow storm.” It was not very bad and we only got a few inches, but when working with large RTG machines they are very temperamental in any other weather than beautiful 80 degree weather, we had quite a few break downs at work. When these machines break down it causes congestion and back up in the runs that the outside trucks wait on. The weather also affected the arrival times of a few of the Maersk ships that we had. They were supposed to come in at 0800 on Saturday, January 21st, however they ended up arriving on Sunday instead. Now that I am in the Marine Department at work we must work when the ships arrive and the schedule is changing daily. Some ships have to slow down because of weather or other circumstances or they take longer than expected at a certain terminal so their course is changed. This job has certainly taught me to be flexible with my schedule. Sometimes I feel especially bad for the crew on those vessels because I can only imagine how desperately they must want to be on land or get to see their family and they can’t because of circumstances outside of their control. With our two ships in today, we have been focusing on increasing the number of lifts per hour the STS cranes are working on and improving our Rail boxes arriving in correct locations. APM Terminals still uses paperwork for many of their operations so we must make sure that the communication between the labor and management is fluid. Many of the difficulties at work are derived from the miscommunication, so we are working on improving it.

Week 2

Over the past few days we have been very busy going through meetings and we activated the command center. One of the floors at the Hospital had mold growing on the back side of a wall which lead to the vacating of the entire floor. This happened before I started at BI but now it is time to move all the patients back into their rooms. This process seems simple but what I haven't told you is this entire floor is for patients that need their environments to be completely disinfected and free of anything airborne. So there was an entire cleaning team that took a day and cleaned every surface and as soon as they were done air samples were taken and tested.

Well back on point is now its time for the move and myself and the EM Dept are in charge of the smooth and safe transfer of patients and patient tracking. After 2 hours we had all 29 moved from their temporary rooms and back into their own with no injures or problems.

I also finished the first phase of my project here at BI. I have created a digital floor plan of the new Emergency Ops Center. My plan includes wall mounted flip down desks, and removal of a wall to join two rooms as well as many multimedia and computer upgrades.

Beginning of the Internship

Finally I arrived in Italy and settled into the apartment (Sunday, January/10/2012). I received my Visa about a week ago (Monday, January/2/2012). Right now I am in Italy. I cannot believe that I am in Italy and doing my internship! The apartment and airplane ticket are paid for by the company and they also include lunch at the office.  I do not know too many Italian words; I know how to say “hi/bye” which is not too different (ciao) and “thank you”; so yes, basically I know nothing. I was nervous and excited so I couldn’t sleep during the eight-hour flight.

The person sat next to me on the flight was from Milan, so I tried to talk to him. I learned some things about Italy we ended up becoming friends online. He taught me words and phrases that I might need for the next six weeks in Italy.

My friends, Lucas, Shauna, Karen and I got to Rome and flew to Pisa. Everything went smoothly until we got to Pisa where we had to get on the train which we missed by three minutes. We had to exchange our tickets and waited for an extra hour. After we got on the train in Pisa and were heading to La Spezia we were still worrying about whether we got on the right train or not; luckily we were on the right one.  La Spezia is a young city which only has about two hundred years of history. We were picked up by the company and they are very nice. They helped us to load our luggage into their cars. If you been to Italy, you will know that the size of the cars is not too impressive.  Some of the cars I cannot even get inside of. We barely fit our luggage inside that car so you could barely see through the back window from the driver’s seat.

We arrived at the apartment which is not too far from the train station and near the center of La Spezia.  The apartment looks amazing.  I still cannot believe I will live here for the next six weeks.  How exciting, we will absorb not just our experience at work and also the amazing European culture.

Marine Traffic

I hope everyone has been having a great new year and enjoyed their holiday season. This winter I am interning at APM Terminals in Port Elizabeth NJ, like I did last summer. Over the summer they trained me in the Yard Department where I learned a lay of the terminal and became comfortable with labor and the machines used, now I am working in the Marine Department. Although I was worried when I first started and unsure of what to expect I have really come to love working with the ships and crew directly. My job this winter, over the past 2 and a half weeks, has been to prepare and designate specific locations of bays on the ships that we discharge or load at a time. I am working with a few other MMA graduates, including a former Business Operations Officer and people from all different backgrounds. The maritime industry can seem very specific but one thing I have learned since working here is that many times employers look for fit like we always talk about how school. How a new employee would work with their team or even A and B type personalities. My mentor this winter has been a man by the name of Courtney who had come from Jamaica and working with the shipping lines down there. He has great insight of the terminal because he's worked as the consignee and the shipper, which makes his understanding of it excellent.

I know that there is a Follow the Voyage blog and I am very much enjoying reading all about their adventure down in the Carribbean ( truth be told, I'm jealous reading all about it!). At work we use a website called MarineTraffic to monitor ships coming into the port and how far away they are to dock; it is always perfect for checking out where the Kennedy is on her voyage!

It is easy. Just put under "Go to Vessel" type in TS Kennedy and when it is in range, the ship will be able to be tracked. Keep in mind though that sometimes for safety purposes it is an hour or two off or it is not in range. You can even get email updates on their position!

I hope this helped! I'll be writing soon :)

EM Intern!

My internship started at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. I am currently working with the Emergency Management Department. Over the past week I have assisted in a full scale evacuation drill at South Shore Hospital. My job was to put together the “patient” medical folders as well as be a volunteer patient. My alias was Clark Kent, 61, from Russia and I had cardiovascular complications and was Non-Ambulatory, meaning could not move under my own power. The simulation was if a helicopter or plane crashed into the top floor, what the evacuation process would be and the deploying and use of the Stryker Para Sled to move patients laterally and vertically down stairs.

I also was brought to a HazMat tabletop exercise in Dedham. At this exercise a hypothetical nerve agent was released at a high school basketball game. We talked about how to react to such as scenario and what potential problems there could be.

This has been a huge eye opener for me in understanding the EM field and what to expect after graduation.

On the Maersk Wyoming

On December 18th I boarded a train headed to Newark, NJ to board the M/V Maersk Wyoming for my commercial shipping term. I was able to fit in all my finals before I left thankfully. I was also one of the first two cadets to leave for a ship this winter. The other was Eric Shea, he is my roommate on the Wyoming. The Wyoming is 950 ft. Container Vessel. Built in 1996 she was acquired by Maersk Line Limited in 2009. She isn't the prettiest ship in the fleet, but I love her all the way through. When I first left, I was petrified about meeting the crew, would they be nice? Would they like cadets? Turns out, that the crew is some of the nicest people that I have ever met. Most of the officers are academy grads, and some are from MMA. It was a relief to meet such great people. Cadets on the Wyoming are treated like officers. We share some of the responsibilities that the other officers do, and at the same time a lot is expected of us. This trip so far has been a very rewarding and great learning experience. Everyday I'm learning something new. I have also seen a lot of neat sights, such as the Azores, the rock at Gibraltar, and the Suez Canal. Right when we exited the Suez Canal and let the pilot go, the captain turned to me and said "Junior, you better study that chart mighty quick. I'm giving you the con in 30 seconds." 30 seconds later I was in charge of the ship calling the shots as we moved the channel. I was more than nervous, the captain was standing behind me, checking my every move. The Suez was a neat experiece, it's almost like organized chaos. We'll be heading back throug in about 15 days. I found out tday that I'll be getting off on February 24th in Dubai during my second trip over seas with the Wyoming. I'll be sure to keep the blog updated as I travel along.