Catina 1929 - 2014; Our Fishing Vessel

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CatPat

Washing Up
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Aug 17, 2013
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As many of you know, she will not see another season. She's old and very tired, and she is now being tugged to a dry dock for dismantling and scrapping.

I am heartbroken. I first learned to drive her when I was 14. Everytime I went with Papa to her I worked very hard on her. I worked on the deck and ran the reel, I cooked, I cleaned, I did laundry, I made the crews' beds, I went into the bilge to check the pumps because I am small and I went down into the battery hold to check for corrosion and to test the batteries. I learned of the engines and how to look for troubles like leaks and inequal power. I crawled all over her for to look for hull compromises, I went under the recirculating holds to look for leaks and to check and test the pumps, I climbed the remaining mast to check for cracks, I climbed up to the antennas to check them and learned to calibrate some of the electronics in the wheelhouse like the GPS, weather radar, tracking system, radio and I checked the EPIRB. I tested the alarms, made sure all 45 survival suits were where they should be, I wound very much rope and made sure the life rings were in place, I checked all 58 fire extinguishers, and when I ran out of things to do, Papa would either put me on the deck with the deck crew or make me do very many things over again.

I worked 12 hours and I had 8 hours off for sleep then another 12 hours, etc. Papa had a tiny bunk aside of the wheelhouse and I was allowed to sleep on the floor there.

I so love her. I had some ideas of what to do with some things of her. She has beautiful teak wood, and when I talked to Papa tonight after asking a member here of this, he is saving this teak wood for two boxes for his and Mamma's remains and much more for me. They want to be cremated and put to sea, and they loved this idea. I also don't have a jewelry box and so I wanted wood for this for to pass to my children. There are pewter handles on the cabinets of her but the extra cabinets were thrown away and there is a box full of these pewter handles in our Constanta home. I could make a medallion for Mamma and something for Papa of this pewter and put a pewter plaque upon my jewelry box.

I could use the extra pewter for something for my children.

I will also make a book of all these memories.I'll find all the photos I can and if I can, I'll ask Papa to take many pictures, even of the bilge and where I had to go. I'll talk to the crew next summer and record all their memories, along with Mamma and Papa's memories. I'll dedicate this book to my parents and the crew, and I'll also include my memories. I want this book to be on the new Catina, for she will carry on this legacy.

I'm trying to be practical but to be honest, I am very, very sad. She was such a good ship and I will miss her.

Sail on, Catina.

With love,
~Cat
 
You really are full of surprises, Cat :) What a wonderful story and plans you have. I'm glad you will be able to save and re-use some of the boat's materials.

This reminds me of my family's boat. My great-grandfather sailed a lot on Lake Erie in Michigan - for recreation, not commercially - and had a Chris Craft, also made in the 1920s. It is now docked in Mississippi with my uncle. He and my dad are restoring it and plan to take it back to Michigan and give it to the Monroe Yacht Club where it will be the committee boat for the races. My great-grandfather was commodore of the yacht club for several years.

You certainly have a lot to keep you busy! ;)
 
She certainly has! But she bounces well, I think. She found a hull and keel for sale in Ukraine. It's new; the owner building the boat went bankrupt and it's 285 feet long with a beam of 34 feet. It's dry-docked so there's no rust and it was built in 2013 intended to be a cargo vessel. It also has a reinforced, ice-breaking bow and the hull is a double layer.

I have a very, very good feeling about this. She stayed up late searching and was up early still searching. She's run the budget and it's about $121,800 less than she had figured. PapaCat may even get the financier to settle for less than the asking price if he's really in a hurry to get rid of it.

Keeping fingers crossed! We just may be looking at our new Catina! Good job, Cat!

MammaCat

PapaCat is on his way to look at it, and we'll know something soon.
 
We've got it!!!! Papa goes to pay for it tomorrow morning!!

The financier also took about $1,200 off the cost to rid of this for he needs the dry dock space for another boat. It will have to be towed to Constanta and that will take a long time.

I just knew if I could find a keel and empty hull it would be cheaper than to build it! Now I've got this extra money in the budget to redistribute it! I'm putting most of into the electronics for now. I want a state-of-the-art wheelhouse with the best equipment we can get for the money. This is the lifeblood of the vessel, the brain of it. It's so important to have good equipment!

Catina's survival suits, fire extinguishers, and other safety equipment will just be transferred. This hull allows for a very large rudder, nearly four times the size of Catina's rudder. It's because this was built for a cargo vessel and with all that weight compared to that of a luxury yacht/fishing vessel that there is this room. The keel is also backset, meaning the propulsion system can be very large with two screws instead of one. The engines can well support two screws.

NO SAILS! I told Papa if he wants a sailboat, go get one. This will be the best fishing vessel in the entire Black Sea fleet! HA! Two engines, two screws, large rudder, double hull construction, icebreaker bow....oh my gosh this will be the best boat ever!!

No cooking tonight! It is time for celebration and looking forward, while remembering our beloved Catina also. Her engines and many parts of her will be in this one, and as Papa said, she will be all mine!

He said she is mine because I proved myself worthy of her by working very hard on Catina and I never complained. But I love hard work! I loved working on her. Papa works hard also; he got just as dirty as I did on Catina, and he worked the deck and the reel and the nets.

I'm putting Mamma and DA into Joy and we're going to Outback, which we love!

Now I've got to reassess all the electronics, look up more stuff, I need to find shafts and screws and a rudder now that I have these accurate specifications and I have to find very good windows for the wheelhouse. Papa wants a two-bunk (upper/lower) space off the wheelhouse so I won't have to sleep on the floor any more.

So much to do! I'm so very happy!

With love,
~Cat
 
You also made me proud, Cat. I'm just saying this here for the record. DA is proud too, and when the news hits the rest of the family, you'll have made them proud as well.

To be honest, I never knew she knew so much about boats. She told me this morning about all she knew, and she had 2 notebooks full of printouts of Catina and other fishing boats. There are all kinds of specifications, measurements, propulsion systems and grids, and other things.

And she wants to be a journalist, but I'm thinking maritime engineer.

MammaCat
 
Thank you!!

I'm so happy!! I made Papa proud!

With love,
~Cat

You made all of us proud! I am so impressed with your knowledge of shipbuilding. A lot of crew members that sail on these vessels don't have half your knowledge. And you have that deep seated love for the sea. Not just the Catina. It shows Cat. The boats that my husband shipped out on had the focsile and the galley in the same space. Small boats? Sure. But I used to go out with him on the shrimp boats until I became pregnant with Poo. A rocking boat and expectant woman are not a good combination.

Cat in this country, having a woman aboard a boat was considered bad luck. So I used to have to ask if it was all right for me to come aboard. A lot of times permission was denied. And that I understood. I come from a seafaring family. :angel:
 
You also made me proud, Cat. I'm just saying this here for the record. DA is proud too, and when the news hits the rest of the family, you'll have made them proud as well.

To be honest, I never knew she knew so much about boats. She told me this morning about all she knew, and she had 2 notebooks full of printouts of Catina and other fishing boats. There are all kinds of specifications, measurements, propulsion systems and grids, and other things.

And she wants to be a journalist, but I'm thinking maritime engineer.

MammaCat

I like your thinking. Maritime Engineer pays much better than a journalist. It would be a shame for all that knowledge to go to waste. And she will become the new owner of the CatinaII someday. :angel:
 
I like your thinking. Maritime Engineer pays much better than a journalist. It would be a shame for all that knowledge to go to waste. And she will become the new owner of the CatinaII someday. :angel:

Papa had called my brother Nicu and he has called Cat. Nicu is quite a seagoing one, and they are having a lovefest. I knew my brother would love this!

She has no formal training, Addie. But she does have a scientific calculator and she was looking up things and punching away at it. She's good with mathematics, for sure, but she has no formal training in anything like this. I don't know where this came from, unless I missed something. She does love the sea!

PapaCat has told her that the new Catina will be in both their names with joint ownership. This one will be all hers when he passes.

UNCA doesn't offer maritime studies. I certainly wouldn't know what to do with a fishing vessel.

This may become quite interesting.

MammaCat
 
Papa had called my brother Nicu and he has called Cat. Nicu is quite a seagoing one, and they are having a lovefest. I knew my brother would love this!

She has no formal training, Addie. But she does have a scientific calculator and she was looking up things and punching away at it. She's good with mathematics, for sure, but she has no formal training in anything like this. I don't know where this came from, unless I missed something. She does love the sea!

PapaCat has told her that the new Catina will be in both their names with joint ownership. This one will be all hers when he passes.

UNCA doesn't offer maritime studies. I certainly wouldn't know what to do with a fishing vessel.

This may become quite interesting.

MammaCat

We have maritime academies in this country. One is located right in New York. They are located all over the coast line of this country. We even have one down on the Cape here in Mass. The Massachusetts Maritime Academy. It is associated with the Woods Hole Oceanic Institute of Oceanography. It is recognized as one of the best in the world. With her diploma from UNC she will qualify for officers training. That means all aspects of seamanship. She already has a head start with all her knowledge.

I would suggest during her third and fourth year at UNC that she switch her major to mathematics. It will come in handy when figuring her location on the seas. Should all the electronics on the boat go out at the same time, (an unlikely event) she will know how to use a sextant. :angel:
 
But I already know how to use a sextant! No one said anything about maritime engineering until now! I'm very good with mathematics.

Anything of this must wait for I am taking care of DA right now and I still want to be a journalist.

With love,
~Cat
 
For the record, Cat, it's an option for you in the future. There are maritime places of learning we can send you to when and if you wish. Now don't get all huffy and puffy.

We all understand your responsibilities and goals. Sometimes goals can change, Cat, and we'll talk about this later.

We're off to Outback for a celebration!

MammaCat
 
I guess I could be a journalist when it isn't fishing season, yes? Someone will have to drive that boat when Papa gives it up!

During the summer when I was 17, we were out to sea and Papa became really, really sick. At the time, the only other driver was me, for the other two weren't there. A couple of the crew had some rudimentary skills at driving her and using the radio, so I dragged them to the wheelhouse for help because we were in the path of a nasty storm and the nets were out and the only thing to do was to ride it out.

The Black Sea is a beast. She can be sweet and kind one minute and the next minute she's trying to break you in half. Storms form quickly and become very powerful within just a few minutes. This one was horrible. The crew secured the deck, and I told all of them to go below and get into their survival suits. They did, and they took turns manning the bilge pumps in case we took water and they were just incredible! So smart, so very sensible!

The windows started leaking right away and poor Catina's stupid rudder wasn't cutting fast enough to rebound off the waves which were later thought to be 50 feet high. I don't know. I just saw wall after wall after wall after wall of water coming at us. The men were yelling at me to hold steady, and I was, and they were watching and looking and on the radio with other boats in the fleet. There was lightning everywhere! I stayed in there 22 hours until Papa finally dragged himself in after the storm. I was terrified, exhausted, and shaking like an earthquake and Papa took over and this time he didn't make me sleep on the floor, he let me sleep in his bunk.

I slept for 10 straight hours. When I woke up, they were eating lunch in the galley and I went in there and they all raised their cups at me! The sea was calm, and Papa came into the galley and hugged me right in front of half the crew and they shook my hand and thumped me on the back and said I was an old seadog! That isn't an insult; it's a compliment in Romania.

The very sad part of this is that I heard two boats in distress on the radio and learned later both of them sank with all hands lost. I couldn't get to them without putting us at great risk. The inquiry found these boats didn't have proper survival suits or rafts or anything. They weren't Romanian; I believe they were Georgian, and they have very loose regulations of fishing vessels there.

Maybe after my time with DA is over, I wonder if I have another responsibility? We spoke of this at dinner and Mamma said I should tell you all of this. I'll never forget that awful storm. Sometimes it comes back to me in dreams and I wake up shaking and scared. But there's something about the sea which is so wondrous, so amazing, so astonishing and so unpredictable that I can't imagine my life without the sea being some part of it.

I could probably work as a freelance journalist and be available for fishing season, yes? The crew knows me and they trust me. They know I don't act like a spoiled brat like some daughters and sons I've heard about in the fleet. And I shall know our new Catina from bow to stern and port to starboard and everywhere in between this time!

So much, so much, so much! Perhaps I must refocus when the time comes. Right now everything is DA and college and that is how this is for now and it is as it should be. I'll break my tail helping Papa build this new boat and Uncle Nicu is helping him also. I'll keep my grades up and I may have to cut out very much time with Carl and Laki but they'll understand and get over it, yes?

Mamma said she and Papa would definitely send me to a maritime academy of some kind if I wanted this. If I'm inheriting a boat, I think I should. That will be much later, of course.

I do need to learn from Papa how he inspires such loyalty from his crew. I know he dismissed them from Catina and paid them all their salaries until April 2015. I want to be just like Papa; his crew loves him. Other boats have approached Papa's crew members with offers over the years, but they never went away. I must learn to be as good with them as Papa is.

Oh I have too much to learn! Too much. My head is so tired now!

With love,
~Cat
 
Who says that because you will eventually own a fishing vessel that you will have to work on it? You can hire a captain to do that for you.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, getting an education in a U.S. merchant marine academy incurs a service obligation just like joining the Air Force to get pilot training incurs a service obligation. Is that what you want?
 
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Face it Cat. You have salt water for blood and you will never get rid of it. I can not live more than a mile from the ocean. I think it is why I married two men of the sea. So I know. As kids, we used to go down to the beach and sit on the steps across the street and watch the waves come over the wall during a Nor'easter. I love the beauty of a sea storm. :angel:
 
Who says that because you will eventually own a fishing vessel that you will have to work on it? You can hire a captain to do that for you.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, getting an education in a U.S. merchant marine academy incurs a service obligation just like joining the Air Force to get pilot training incurs a service obligation. Is that what you want?

Not necessarily. I know a lot of men who have been to sea as deck hands that will go to the Maritime Academy here on Cape Cod for the sole purpose of getting their pilot's license. They get to bring in the big cargo and oil tankers to their docks. They like the idea of being home every night and weekends. No ship movement on the weekends here. And if I am not mistaken, they now have classes on line.

Very few owners of fishing vessels hire a captain unless they own more than one boat. And if the owner chooses to no longer captain his own boat, he usually has a son(s) who have been going out since early childhood with their father. So they take over. Some corporations own a fleet. They are the ones who hire captains. And they have to be licensed and certified by the U.S. Coast Guard.

It is not an academy for the Merchant Marines. It is a Maritime Academy. For the sea. It used to be to train officers for the Merchant Marines. But that changed many years ago.

I read this over. My tone has come across as condensing and a know-it-all. But I am too aggravated to go back and rewrite it. Please accept my apologies. :angel:
 
Not necessarily. I know a lot of men who have been to sea as deck hands that will go to the Maritime Academy here on Cape Cod for the sole purpose of getting their pilot's license. They get to bring in the big cargo and oil tankers to their docks. They like the idea of being home every night and weekends. No ship movement on the weekends here. And if I am not mistaken, they now have classes on line.

Up-thread, you were talking to Cat about becoming an officer. That's what I was responding to.

Very few owners of fishing vessels hire a captain unless they own more than one boat. And if the owner chooses to no longer captain his own boat, he usually has a son(s) who have been going out since early childhood with their father. So they take over. Some corporations own a fleet. They are the ones who hire captains. And they have to be licensed and certified by the U.S. Coast Guard.

So what if Cat is one of the very few who does not captain a fishing boat she owns? Her education goals and interests don't seem to jibe with that lifestyle.

I know in this area, there are commercial fishermen who own more than one boat. Since they can only captain one at a time, naturally they hire a captain to manage any additional ones.

Remember too that we are talking about a ship located in the Black Sea, presumably registered in Romania and not the U.S.
 
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