Friday, May 8, 2009

Victoria

The boatnerd web site reported today the Victoria, a German-owned cargo ship, was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. There is no report at this time on the condition of the Victoria's crew. You can read a detailed report at Sea-Jacking of German-owned Victoria.

The Victoria has sailed on the Great Lakes as late as June 2008. I checked my boat sighting record and the last time I saw the Victoria in the St. Marys River was June of 2007. Finally, I found a use for my boat sighting log!

This brings another thought to my mind. Do any of you keep detailed records of the ships you see? If you do, how to you maintain them? It has been a great source of discussion in our family. We live on the St. Marys River for several months every year. We see many ships pass daily and I keep a log of every ship that passes and whether it was upbound or downbound and any interesting information about the sighting. There is no real reason to do that but I just enjoy it so I have continued it for the past 10 years.

At first, I kept the records in a notebook but in 2007 I began keeping a spreadsheet on the computer. This made it very easy to find the Victoria by just entering her name in Find and it immediately took me to June 2007. I didn't have to pore over pages of boat lists.

I would love to hear about your compulsions (as my family calls it) or hobbies and interests (that I call it) that you keep records for. I feel like I come from a long line of record keepers. I remember my grandfather writing down the weather data every day when it was aired on WSOO radio at noon. We had to be very quiet so he could get the data.

Last year when my grandmother moved to a nursing home, I found diaries in her house for the past 40 years. Everyday she wrote about the weather-just a short note as well as interesting things about what she did that day. All winter it was usually snow and the temperature which was often below zero.


This photo was taken while the grandkids were visiting (note the cartoons) but shows my computer ready and waiting for a boat sighting.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had no idea that boat watching was a serious hobby! I never even thought about it but I can see where it could become as addicting as bird watching (if you are in such a location as you are!).

Very interesting information.!

Soo Boat Watcher said...

Yes, Cathy, I guess it is addicting. My family thinks it is bordering on a sickness. That is why I stopped logging in for a while and then a friend told me-if you enjoy it, continue. I guess it isn't hurting anyone. This year I'm going to try and Twitter the sightings. There might be someone out there who would enjoy that. We'll see.