This morning I headed across the street with family in tow and we hit up the opening sale of the sports apparel store inside Woodside, across the street. Now, stalkers can trace me even more precisely! In any case, we got in and saw a variety of tasty deals (such as my two new pairs of Hurleys and my Adidas duffel).** After driving to Scarborough Town Center and being sorely disappointed at the lack of Old Navy jeans going for $12 (television ads, you lie to me). My parents and sister had to go downtown (father for a work-related exhibition, and my mom and sister for the CNE). I ended up hitting up the Best Buy for a keyboard skin (so stuff doesn’t get in the cracks). The iSkin key-condoms were almost $30, whereas a sexy little USB wired, Microsoft media keyboard was only $20, so I ended up opting for the keyboard (of my dreams) over an overpriced piece of rubber. I abandon the rubber as soon as Amy leaves town on a family roadtrip, it seems.
To get to the point of the post’s title, I got home after this slight spending sexcapade and saw an episodes of Superships (or something to that effect) on the Discovery Channel. This one happened to be talking about a small fleet of ships called Super Servants, originally designed to carry (within themselves/on board) destroyer sized ships after some war or something in Europe. That is more or less irrelevant since now they ferry yachts, mostly between Port Everglades, Florida, and European harbours.
While shopping today, I saw lots of young people working as sales and inventory staff. It seems everyone I know is working in some way, shape, or form to make monies. I think maybe I’ve been taking things too easy, counting a little too much on my scholarship monies (not negligible by far, but I won’t always have them). That’s why when I saw that there was a job for professional SCUBA divers other than in tourism, I was thrilled.
When these yacht ferries load up yachts (yes, those private mini-cruise ships), they fill up with about 16 feet of water from the harbour by sinking with filled ballast tanks. Next, the yacht owners pilot their comparatively puny crafts into the gaping deck space, now flooded. Beneath the water’s surface inside the ferries, there are specific spots with what is called “cribbing” for the boats to eventually sit on. These are more or less stands for the yachts. Now, when all the boats are in place inside the flooded cavity of the ferry, a team of divers go down and inspect the positioning of the parked yachts to ensure they are resting directly above the cribbing. This is so that when the ferry empties its ballast tanks and its deck, the yachts will land squarely on their stands, thus preventing a million-dollar luxury toy from toppling over and/or smashing into things.
Now, these divers go down and actually stay submerged as the ferry empties of water, usually sitting beneath or beside the boats, next to the cribbing. For those who have never gone diving before, that level of steadiness and buoyancy control (to prevent things like death by crushage) makes this job not one for the faint of heart. Also, you’d have to have quite a bit of experience with underwater maneuvers (such as avoiding getting your leg caught) and dealing with emergencies (such as getting your leg caught). Also, you get to fix some problems with sledgehammers. Underwater. Sledgehammers underwater. It’s pretty much my dream summer job at the moment.
In summation, I spent a lot of money today, but it was worth it. Yacht ferry divers are badass, and I want to get paid for diving. Also, no rubber for me while Amy is away.
**I do believe the sale is ongoing so if any of you guys want to get in on some nice deals (like I was watching the Discovery Channel this morning (as usual).