So I'm hopping a freighter to China...
 

Well, actually Vietnam. But I'll make a stop in China.

It just seemed like the thing to do. I'm in Oakland now waiting as they load cargo. I'm the only passenger on a 1,000 foot ship for the next 19 days.

Here's my ship: http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/...:CMA_CGM_RHONE. I got whisked aboard before I could take an exterior photo.

Since I'm the only passenger, I get the owner's cabin on the top deck. Here are a few pictures of my cabin area. I also have the use of a lounge on another floor, and I can share the crew's gym.

So if anybody needs me, I won't be around for the next few weeks as I sail my private 1,000 foot yacht across the Pacific.

Here's the view from my porthole right now. They're still unloading containers, so I have a feeling that it may end up being obstructed when they load the new ones, but I'm up high enough that I may still get a view.

so how did this come about?

You're in Oakland? My condolences.

I like journeys, and I've done long trips on trains, cruise ships, and ferries over the past ten years. I was wondering what to do next, and the cargo ship thing came to mind. I thought it would be cool to cross an ocean by ship. I've been thinking about it for several years and finally decided to pull the trigger.

Who did you kill and who is after you?

Jesus. No wonder you suck at Mock Drafting.....

The ship is metal, so I suspect that small caliber bullets will just bounce off.

My god is there at least internet or some sort of TV?

He has a plan to upgrade in 19 days.

They will never ever figure out where I'm at, unless they read this thread.

I'll get off in Vietnam, meander through Cambodia and Thailand, then fly to Japan for a few days and take a cruise ship back home.

"Buy me a ticket for an aeroplane..."

No internet, no TV, no contact with the outside world once I leave port. I'm doing the acid test right now to be sure that my voltage converter is working for my laptop. Otherwise it'll be a long 19 days.

so is this something you can book online? how did you find a place to buy a ticket?

Wow good luck RM, write if you find work.

RIP

it says that boat stops in HK? Are you continuing on to China?

Great, so no polls the next 3 weeks. Did you even think of us before you undertook such an endeavor?

Be careful or pirates will be after your booty

Are you planning on running a half marathon over seas?

He should have watched "It's a wonderful life" before making such a hasty decision

Well, it's just Hong Kong. But that's technically China.

You have to book it through one of a handful of travel agents who does this thing. I worked with a company in England to get on this one.

C'mon, computer. Give me a battery bump! Show me that the voltage converter is working!

I really wanted to, but I couldn't find one. Apparently it's really hot in Cambodia this time of year.

Keep your eye out for castaways floating aimlessly in the middle of the sea.


I'm sure this is going to make for a great story....I'm pretty curious how a guy hooks up something like this....Enjoy your trip.


Maybe you should plan a route on that ship....and run your own personal half marathon at sea. You might be the first man to do it!

I'll have a flurry of polls about the open ocean ready to roll once I hit Vung Tau.

Yes! (Fist pump.) The batter just went from 80 to 81 percent. I will have a laptop on this voyage!

Do you pay for the 'Captain for a Day' option?
If not, try and buddy up with the third shift on the bridge maybe they'll let you drive.

Will you share meals with the crew? Are you expected to work?

In an interesting bit of trivia, the ship travels from Oakland to Hong Kong. I was wondering about the route, and it actually goes north almost to the Aleutian Islands since it does a Great Circle Route. It heads straight west for a few hundred miles, then does a big arc north toward Alaska and then south past the east coast of Japan. But we won't be close enough to see any land until we hit Hong Kong.

I have so many questions.

Are meals prepared? Do you eat with the crew?
Are there any recreation activities?
Can you wander through the container area?
How many crew are there? Do they speak English? All male?

I'm sure I have more.

I brought a candy bar on board. I bet I could bribe them to let me steer for a while. There won't be much to hit.

If I were on this trip, I'd track my location and be sure to pee from the balcony each time the ship crosses into international waters and into those of a nation.

Did you bring the movies Titanic and Castaway on your laptop? Did you recently watch shark week on discovery? The movie "open water"?


You at least brought a captain's cap and a pirate hat right?

This actually sounds really cool! Do you get to wander around the ship? What are meals? Can you bring your own alcohol on board? You need to follow up when you're finished and post about this.

Enjoy your journey and may the wind be at your back.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/2/1352/5...96d31728_b.jpg



So.....Rain Man does take exotic/weird vacations, so this is possible. Then again, he is married and enjoys his creature comforts, so....

Is your wife going?

Your business is going to be ok with you taking like 5 weeks off or whatever? I mean, 19 days just to get there, then time in HK, Vietnam, etc., so....

Inquiring minds want to know!!

He thinks he's getting 5 star dining and little does he know he will be feeling like Andy Dufresne by day two.

The Andy working in the laundry or the Andy who helped tar a roof top?

Thinking laundry Andy. It gets lonely out there.

I'm worried about you, Rainman.

Be safe

I'll eat with the officers. There's a 26-man crew that is mostly Filipino. I wandered around a bit and met the cooks, who showed me the kitchen, enlisted mess, and officer's mess. It's pretty nice in the officer's mess, with regular china and a white tablecloth. There were people in there when I went in, but I'll get a picture at some point.

No recreation activities. There's a TV in the lounge for watching DVDs, but you don't get live broadcasts. (At least, I don't think you do.)

I'm in the ... I don't know what you call it ... the crew tower? It's 8 stories tall, and maybe more below deck. Each floor is probably 2,500 or 3,000 square feet. But a lot of that is crew quarters and various working areas. I can wander hallways, but only a few rooms: my room, the passenger lounge, the gym, the officer's mess, and there are some other areas that have open doors that I peeked into.

I suspect that I can eventually go outside, but I'm not allowed onto the deck now. Those big cranes are moving containers around.

So far, I think every crew member I've met is Filipino. All male. Looking at the crew list, it appears that most are Filipino, but a few are Chinese or Indian (or maybe Sri Lankan). The offers are eastern European, and I'm guessing maybe Romanian based on their names. There appears to be a little English, but not a lot of English among the folks I've met so far.

My wife has zero interest in traveling via cargo ship, so she'll fly over next month and meet me in Vietnam for the land portion. At the office, I have DaFace, so I figure the firm will be better off without me there.

My mom said this, too. But she didn't know that I was getting the owner's cabin. I think contractually I get the #1 spot on any lifeboat, along with my choice of survival cracker flavors.

You have got to the most interesting person I know.

My suspicion is that I could bring alcohol aboard, but I don't drink.

On the white board near the entrance, they listed rules for entering an American port (for the crew). This was hand written, and said, no alcohol in the cabins, no pornography, and no pirated DVDs. Since those are rules for entry, I assume that we'll be met in international waters by a retail ship that sells those things.

Will the crew appreciate your clever witt as much as us planeteers?

Hopefully low cost travel. I couldn't imagine paying a good amount of money on that much boredom.

Is it typhoon season?

Well, that is ..... I dunno....some weird combination of awesome, scary, and something that I really don't think I want to do because I'm thinking the awesomeness wears off by like, day three, when the regret starts to set in. But maybe not.

You do take some EXOTIC vacations, I'll certainly say that.

I'm thinking the wife and DaFace are the smart ones....

No. That, at least, it is not.

How often to you plan to poll the crew during this voyage. And I take it you will fly home?

That would have been like the Ritz Carlton to Frazod when he was in Navy I bet.

Nah. This guy offered him a ride across the Pacific. The goods news is Rain Man doesn't even need to take a turn at the oars!

https://memegenerator.net/img/instan...ill-rowing.jpg

I'm going to need to bone up on my Tagalog. But I've got time.

It is indeed a grand experiment, and once we leave the only way to go is forward. But all indications now are positive, as long as they eventually turn some air conditioning on and serve good food.

I'll actually take a cruise ship home. It will have more amenities but a smaller cabin.

I actually checked at some point when I remembered this, but as amnorix said, I'm in good shape on the typhoon front.

All in all, it's about $3,200 for 19 days when you include the required (and expensive) travel insurance. Apparently it's expensive for them to make a detour if a passenger gets sick, so the risk is not that there's greater danger, but that there's more cost if something happens.

So overall, if you think about a hotel plus food on a vacation, it's pretty comparable, and you get to watch them load and unload containers.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I could honestly bring some good books, and as long as the weather is reasonable and the waves aren't ridiculous, I would have a helluva relaxing time. Too often, the world is entirely too rushed/stressful, and this is an enforced break from that.

5 min into the voyage:

"Excuse me captain, but my Chiefs hat just flew off my head. I was wondering if we could circle back for it?"

That's what I told myself my first time in prison.

$168.42 per day, meals included. I bet your cruise ship is a BIT more than that. LOL.

I think this is the video I watched a while back. It heads to HK on a freight ship. Just way faster than 19 days. I think I'd go crazy trapped inside for that long. Have fun

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Can you think of a new Von Miller joke while you're on this trip?

That's my goal. I brought reading material and a laptop, and I'm going to have zero distractions for three weeks. I'll just unwind.

This is quite interesting. Cheers!

You could have outfitted a trailer Raymond Reddington style, filled with all the creature comforts, to steal off to when the view getting dreary.

Have them load it somewhere accessible.

Had you seen this

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I'm having trouble coming up with new ones after all these years. I'm concentrating my efforts on Bolles more these days.

Oh, that would be cool. As long as it wasn't 20 feet up in a stack. It would get old rappelling up and down all the time.

I have seen that. I was tempted to try something of my own like that, but I don't have the photographic skill. It's gorgeous.

I'm looking forward to seeing the night sky out in the middle of the ocean.

this is awesome - have fun.

I think this would be a great idea if you were writing a book on deadline. So long as the weather was ok you'd have nothing else to do but write. And spending money on forced writing sessions probably helps too.

And the ride is just $3200?

Take some Playboys, bud!

I have one request, post some pictures of the night sky when you're out in the middle of nowhere. Viewing the stars should be great.

I have a friend that just took a freighter from Chile to Mexico on the way back to the US. He did it for much the same reason you are, just something he's always wanted to do. He said no TV or internet, ate with the officers, but they did have beer on board. His crew was mostly Poles. He said it was interesting, but something he'd think twice about doing again.

Day 5

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You really truly should hit up Dave Lane, see if he has some astronomy equipment that will travel well.

I knew it. Someone does have info on the Seth Rich murder. /Taco

Random questions:

1. Is there a country you are more excited to visit then the others?
2. Any particular event you have planned that you are looking forward to?
3. First time to southeast Asia?

Hope you have a great trip.

Have fun

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Perhaps for entertainment you can hum "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."

Who the hell approved Rainman to be off CP for 19 days. I did not get that memo!!!!!!!