DISQUS

EstherK · 1 year ago

Watch your back, and always lock your container when you leave for the clearly top-of-the-line onboard spa facility...those pirates love themselves a new laptop. Good luck from a new LA writer (and new reader courtesy of a Tweet from @gapingvoid.

Rob Long · 1 year ago

I just can't figure out from the photograph where, exactly, the Lido
deck is.

Amrita · 1 year ago

Smart move. I did something similar but on a Russian research vessel to Antarctica but 10 yrs ago when we weren't all so plugged in. Good luck with the writing and hope you don't suffer from too much internet withdrawal, they say it is worse than scurvy.

Rob Long · 1 year ago

Thanks! What I'm most nervous about, in reverse order, are: 1)
missing important stuff and calls and messages for 2 weeks; and 2) not
having any important stuff, calls, or messages to miss.

Mark30339 · 1 year ago

Sounds like the plan is to get hijacked by pirates, be sure to put the Hanjin's picture on milk cartons so the pirates can't miss it. After all, true life is easier to write than fiction. If all else fails, there's sure to be a couple Jack Bauer episodes among those containers.

Rob Long · 1 year ago

True enough, although I don't plan on getting all "Jack Bauer" if
we're hijacked by pirates. Unless by "Jack Bauer" you mean begging
and wetting myself.

CT · 1 year ago

Ah, to be there again. I was a Merchant Marine, working my way through college. And my primary route would take us across the Gulf of Alaska, down along Kamchatka, into the waters of Korea, Japan, and points south. Sometimes around the Straights of Malacca, where the Orient turns into the land of Islam in the space of 20 miles. We occasionally would carry a passenger or two. But mostly family members of executives, as life on a merchant ship can become very monotonous. The one thing I rember best is how in the space of 3-4 days you will go from bitterly cold stormy conditions (where to fall overboard you'd die in minutes), to the deep deep blue clam of the south Pacific. Dolphins and flying fish. Have a safe journey. CT

CT · 1 year ago

PS You said, apparently takes passengers. Please look up the history of Portland and Seattle, and the term Shanghai(ed).

Rob Long · 1 year ago

Right, well. Something to be aware of.

CT · 1 year ago

PS You said, apparently takes passengers. Please look up the history of Portland and Seattle, and the term Shanghai(ed).

CT · 1 year ago

PS You said, apparently takes passengers. Please look up the history of Portland and Seattle, and the term Shanghai(ed).

Bill Walsh · 1 year ago

Rob,

Just practice saying the following, or have it printed on a card, in case you run across some Somalis out for a cruise around the Marshall Islands:

Waryaa! Xabad ha ridin! Soodhawaw! Waxaanahay saaxiib! Keen qoriga! Ma baddaan ku duugnaa isaga?

Waan ku jechlahay! Qabiilkaa? Miyaad haysataa hubka sida xun wax u gumaada? Miyaad istic maashaa kaniiniyo dhalmada joojinaya? Ma lagu qabaa? Ii ogoloow in aan soo galo aa gaaga! Waan kaa caawini doonaa labis is ka bixintaada. Ha cararin!

Agalka ayaan rabaa in aan waco.


Hi! Don't shoot! Welcome! I am a friend! Give me the gun! May we bury him at sea?

I love you! What tribe are you? Do you have weapons of mass destruction? Are you married? Do you use pills for birth control? Please permit me to enter your control zone. I will help you undress. Don't run!

I want to go home.

Bon voyage!

Rob Long · 1 year ago

This is going to be hugely helpful. Many thanks.

Also: this feels like the beginning of an excellent phrasebook. Have
you thought of publishing one?

Tolockadoor · 1 year ago

First class or coach?

How do you even get tickets for something like this?

Not that I want to try...

Rob Long · 1 year ago

"Container Class"

Douglas Allen · 1 year ago

"You can't really track the progress of the writing I'm supposed to be doing. You'll just have to trust me."

Trust, but verify.

Michael Taylor · 1 year ago

Rob;

I wouldn't worry about those pirates -- they'll just take the ship hostage, anchor it off the Somali coast (alongside that frieghter full of Russian tanks, and the 100 million dollar Saudi oil tanker), and maybe trot you out with the crew for a quick video to help speed the ransom negotiations along. This could be the perfect Writer's Boot Camp Retreat -- weeks and weeks of enforced idleness: nothing to do but write.

Let's see -- Russian tanks, a fully loaded supertanker, and desperate pirates with guns.... there's got to be an action/adventure script in there somewhere.

The only thing to worry about out there is one of those hundred foot rogue waves that occasionally rise up out of nowhere. If one of those monsters hits the Hanjin Miami in just the wrong way at just the right time, that overloaded top-heavy scow could go over and under in a flash.

On second thought, worrying about it won't help, so don't worry. Just write.

Good luck.

FrankC · 1 year ago

Sharpen your cutlass

Ann Handley · 1 year ago

This sounds both incredibly awesome and incredibly terrifying. I hope it's the former, for you. And I hope it's not too cold. Pack fleece.

(@marketingprofs on Twitter)

Imran Anwar · 1 year ago

Hey, this is one interesting posting. Be safe.

Imran
http://imran.com/media/blog/

trfall · 1 year ago

I was going to say "Which container is yours?" ... then I read your next post.

trfall · 1 year ago

I was going to say "Which container is yours?" -- then I read your next post.

sji · 1 year ago

Actually, the call sign is DDZE2. The correct link for tracking is

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.p...

Ellen Beeman · 1 year ago

Enjoying reading about your trip, as I'm also a professional writer with too many distractions in my life. I hope you're getting in the writing time you need. FYI, your AT&T phone should work fine in China, I was there a month ago and no problems. If you post to Twitter with SMS, though, you can encounter a type of international SMS error where Twitter will want to create a new account for you. So you may want to post via web.

Rob Long · 1 year ago

The phone works. Too well, frankly. I hate to think what my bill is
going to be, after all of that Twittering and Facebook updating.

aaronjhill · 11 months ago

I am interested in alternative methods of travel and am wondering how you booked passage on a cargo ship. Please send me any tips you may have. I love listening to Dennis Miller's radio show and was fascinated by your stories.

Thanks for any information.

Sincerely,

Aaron J. Hill
Salem, Oregon

Rob Long · 11 months ago

I used a company called Travltips.

The website has most of the information, but there's also a company in
Pasadena, CA that does the same thing -- not sure who that is, though.

Thanks for listening to me on Dennis' show!

soultravelers3 · 10 months ago

It IS a great way to travel and most miss the joys! We did it as a family though not in that direction, just on a big freighter. We did not do it to write, just an excuse to learn more about life on our open ended world tour. Enjoy!