WHAT?!

First of all, any seaman, military or commercial, can tell you there is no heckler known as the “Filipino Monkey“. Rather it’s a phrase that’s been uttered anonymously by thousands of mariners for decades. This harassing radio call with racial origins is made over the radio when a sailor hears the distinct accent of a Filipino mariner on the VHF radio.

Why you may ask?

Mostly out of boredom but also for the simple reason that it is sure to get a heated response.

It also happens to be the bane of every Watch Officer’s existence; a joke that is no longer funny but refuses to die. Tim’s Times gave us the details behind this heckle back in September 2008:

The two tone alarm has gone again and this time it’s a pan pan from La Coruna Radio, other side of the Bay of Biscay. You wouldn’t mind so much if it was just the official users of VHF and MF radio that you had to contend with, but oh no there is every manner of animal sound, and jungle noise on the VHF from people who should not be on the radio, let alone a ship. One moron was calling out, “Gorilla from Manila, and Filipino monkey” my watchman who is from Manila laughed and said that it is often Indian’s who call this out to provoke a response from Filipinos, who say “Indian I can’t see you, but I can smell you”. So childish and these guys are in charge of ships, frightening, and these days it is all being recorded, so you must be dealing with stupidity, says a lot for the profession….

Boing Boing tells us;

Indeed, the voice in the audio sounds different from the one belonging to an Iranian officer shown speaking to the cruiser, USS Port Royal over a radio from a small open boat in the video released by Iranian authorities. He is shown in a radio exchange at one point asking the U.S. warship to change from the common bridge-to-bridge channel 16 to another channel, perhaps to speak to the Navy without being interrupted…

“For 25 years there’s been this mythical guy out there who, hour after hour, shouts obscenities and threats,” he said. “He could be tied up pierside somewhere or he could be on the bridge of a merchant ship.”

And the Monkey has stamina.

“He used to go all night long. The guy is crazy,” he said. “But who knows how many Filipino Monkeys there are? Could it have been a spurious transmission? Absolutely.”

Initially I was shocked that a Navy ship, or any ship, could not have known the taunt was a joke. This is seamanship 101. I clearly remember having the taunt whispered in my ear by an upperclassmen during my plebe year that the Naval Academy and by the time I received my officers license I had heard it hundreds of time. How could the officers of the cruiser Port Royal not know this was a common joke? I’m admitting still confused but after hearing the audio file I must say it doesn’t sound like the typical ‘Filipino Monkey’ taunt.

I’ll give the last comment to the cruise ship captain quoted by the Navy Times since it’s both accurate and contains good advice to mariners:

“It was just a gut feeling, something the merchants did. Guys would get bored, one guy hears it, comes back a year later and does it for himself,”

The former skipper noted that he warned his crew about hecklers when preparing to transit Hormuz. “I tell them they’ll hear things on there that will be insulting,” he said. “You tell your people that you’ll hear things that are strange, insulting, aggravating, but you need to maintain a professional posture.”

A civilian mariner with experience in that region said the Filipino Monkey phenomenon is worldwide, and has been going on for years.

“They come on and say ‘Filipino Monkey’ in a strange voice. They might say it two or three times. You’re standing watch on bridge and you’re monitoring Channel 16 and all of a sudden it comes over the radio. It can happen anytime. It’s been a joke out there for years.”

While it happens all over the world, it’s more likely to occur around the Strait of Hormuz because there is so much shipping traffic, he said.

You can watch the Iranian video at EagleSpeak.

Rob Almeida, sailing across the Arabian Sea in 2006. (2 months after leaving active duty)

10 years ago I remember someone saying that we’re all connected to one another by no more than 7 degrees of separation, but with the advent of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and all the other social media and networking websites out there, I think that number has dwindled to 5 or 6 since then.

High speed internet has enabled us to build new online communities, friendships, and unite individuals who may never had had an opportunity to talk with one another.  Companies and individuals now have an opportunity to reach out and express themselves to the masses via their own uniquely-designed websites, Facebook pages, LinkedIn groups, Blogs, Twitter accounts, and others.  It’s an amazing situation that we’ve found ourselves in, and one that deserves it’s fair dose of consideration.

When social media first came on scene, many companies were terribly afraid of this new means of communicating.  It was so raw, unfiltered, and at some times, anonymous.  These companies enjoyed their perfect little sphere that they carefully created around them, and the relationships they have cultivated with their trusted news providers.   Their “brand’ was of the utmost importance and everything that ever left the company walls had been filtered through the proper corporate communications channels so that it was as vanilla as possible.   In many cases, these same companies put up firewalls on their company network to block sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or even gCaptain in some cases.

How dare our employees waste company time with such nonsense, senior executives grumbled.

Facebook was an unstoppable force and finally these executives caved in and gave access to this unfiltered communications platform.  Scary times indeed for these executives, heaven forbid what their employees might spout off about online…

Other companies have not been so cautious and have embraced the fact that business generally happens between people, not companies.  Getting to know people, interacting with them, establishing a repore are all critical factors in successful business.  Online chat, blogging, networking, “Facebooking”, are all part of that.

Sure, having a 3 martini lunch may be another option to get to know someone, but those days are long gone.

Among other things, communicating online allows companies and individuals to “brand” themselves in ways that we’ve never even considered in the past.  It’s a bit like earning a reputation, but different in that it’s not a good or bad thing, it’s more that you’re associated with a particular expertise or genre.  Websites like Klout.com have algorithms that actually measure this branding and online influence in case you’re ever interested in seeing how you measure up.

One of the biggest challenges for companies is online brand building.   As an individual, it’s generally pretty easy because you’re free to say whatever you want online, which essentially forms the basis of your personal brand.  For a company however, posting online about things of interest do nothing for your company brand, nor does it really contribute to your sales objectives.  Press releases go largely unread, and Facebook posts from companies are generally uncreative and most are dismissed quickly.

But why?

Simple reason… people just don’t care that much about the fact your company won some new contract, opened a new office, or hired a new CEO.

Unless…

Someone else tells the story and explains WHY it’s cool.  Social buy-in is a critical factor

If you are trying to communicate something great about what’s going on in your company, having someone else communicate that story and spin it for you is far more powerful that trying to do it on your own.  Individuals and companies who tell everyone how great they are generally lack friends and allies, so just let the news companies do their job and report about it. Successful news companies are successful because they have the proven ability to turn the uninteresting, into something working finding out more about.  That’s their whole reason for being!

Another option is to use the professional news media as a tool to talk about topics as a subject matter expert.  Your employees come from diverse backgrounds, and are experts in their field.  Why not encourage them talk about industry-relevant topics, or write their own blog post?  This greatly supports the brand development of the individual and employer alike.

Industry is also truly ineffective at taking advantage of the communications opportunities it experiences on a daily basis.  Historically, the only medium for sharing and discussing ideas on a broad scale and conversing has been via professional conferences.   They are certainly perfect places to get business done and to get face-time in, but seriously, of all the amazing lectures and presentations that have occurred, how many have been filmed, or shared via social media?  A more important question might be, “What is the potential, for the sharing of these ideas via these mediums?”  Visit www.TED.com if you want an answer to that question.

How about we get ourselves out of the dark ages and realize that the spreading of ideas digitally is THE way to go, not just a way to go.

Look at ExxonMobil for example.  They are excellent communicators, and have a strong brand.  But why?

They communicate in a way that doesn’t sell to their audience.  They teach their audience and help them understand what they do in a way they can relate to.  They do this via paid TV commercials on mainstream television.  Sure, they could buy their own satellite and TV station and promote their message all day long, but infomercials and self promoting gets old quick.

Do individuals “like” companies on Facebook, or visit corporate websites on a regular basis so that they can keep up to date on the latest press releases?  Those who have some sort of vested interest in keeping close tabs on them, such as investors, will for sure, but most don’t.  The news media does though, being in the know about stuff is how we succeed.

So why are companies investing so much effort into this by meticulously tracking Google Adword campaigns, getting crazy with SEO, creating LinkedIn groups, and the such?  Do they really think that the masses care that much and that they can communicate effectively on their own, without the support of the media?

I suppose it’s a good exercise, but seriously, the news media exists to tell your story so that people will want to hear it.  Support them in this effort, it’s good for you, and it’s good for your industry.

Your internet connection at sea has nearly the opposite problem… it’s severely lacking the horsepower to make your online browsing fast and enjoyable but is it being further hampered by the shape of your ship? Would a bulbous bow, less weight and a clean browser help you surf faster? Certainly!

Lifehacker offers some tips, here are snippets of the top five:

Pick Your Browser (Hint: Opera)

Obviously, the first thing you need to do is pick which browser you’re going to use as your secondary. I highly recommend Opera, as its one of the fastest options out there and has the very nice Opera Turbo feature that is absolutely perfect for browsing on slow connections.

Block Ads and Flash

You may already do this on your primary browser, but others may not—I know I usually try to support sites I like (after all, it is how I make a living), but when I’m on a sluggish connection, all bets are off. There’s no surer way to use up bandwidth and slow down page loading times on slow connections than by trying to load ads and flash animations all over a page.

Use Fewer Extensions

Using too many add-ons can seriously slow down your browser, both on the local end and by using up bandwidth. I’ve kept my secondary browser almost completely free of add-ons, including Xmarks and Lastpass. I don’t need them bogging down my browser startup, nor phoning home to sync all the time. T

Use Mobile Sites

Mobile sites aren’t always pretty, but they’ll get you checking your email and reading those articles much, much faster, so if you’re on an unbearably slow connection, it might be worth using them. It isn’t necessarily something you want to do all the time, because it gives you a seriously minimal page. Of course, this is all personal preference. Some mobile webapps, like Gmail’s iPad-optimized page, are quite nice, and will run much better on a slow connection. You’ll just have to decide how awful the connection needs to be before you turn this on.

Disable Automatic Updates

These days, its become common practice for most browsers to automatically update themselves in the background, and to do it often. It’s convenient as heck most of the time, but if you’re on a slow connection, you don’t want it to be sucking up bandwidth in secret while you’re trying to browse.

The full article at lifehacker goes into more detail and contains 10 tips in total so be sure to check it out for all the “high speed on low bandwidth” goodness: How (and Why) to Set Up a Secondary Browser Optimized for Slow Internet Connections

gCaptian purchased an older model GSP-1600 Phone via Amazon to test the voice plan. The results were good, we purchased a used phone for less than $100 and had it activated on the $20/month plan in just a few hours. Pretty seamless but there are a few minor concerns you should know about.

First Globalstar is know for having had connection problems in the past and they require that you sign a disclaimer – which states “I understand that there are some temporary limitations to the Two Way Voice and Data Services on the Globalstar Satellite Constellation.” – prior to activating the service. The service activation itself was also a bit strange. The company doesn’t allow you to activate the phone via their website or customer service number. Instead they email you a, rather confusing, excel spreadsheet which you must fax back tot he company. Once faxed our service was activate in a few short hours.

The plan itself requires a phone which range in price from $100 (used online) to $500 for the latest model sat phone via Amazon. Once purchased you will also need to pay a $50 activation fee and this must all be done before the $20/month promotion expires on March 31st.

In short, I would not use this phone for emergencies but it – and the price of the unlimited voice plan – is perfect for making phone calls from the ship. Combined with a Google Voice account you can even have your incoming calls routed to both your sat and cell phones!

For those on international voyages be sure to check the Globalstar coverage map below to make sure it works in the areas your ship travels.

Signs Service Agreement With Radio Holland to Provide Shipboard Service in More Than 50 Ports Worldwide

The remaining posts of this series will look at terrestrial based systems for accessing internet at sea but all such systems fail once your ship sails into deep water. So, for ocean voyages there is only one solution: satellite internet.

Once you have decided to invest in a sat system you have a few choices.  An inexpensive option, and one that is used by many Americans that live far from city centers, are systems like Hughesnet or Wildblue.  While you may save money, you will run into connectivity issues as these systems are not designed to connect with a continually moving object.  To compensate you will need a gyro stabilized antenna with an internal VRU that compensates not only for changes in heading, but for the pitch and roll of a vessel. These antennas are expensive.

The second challenge of using a Hughesnet type system is that the satellites are geostationary, hovering at points within line of site of the continent. As you can see from these maps, you are not going to travel more than a few hundred miles from shore before losing your connection.

The second option for satellite internet at sea is the more robust solutions provided by Iridium, Inmarsat and Globalstar. These systems were designed for use in remote places and each has good coverage at sea, with Iridium providing service even in high latitudes.

And the hardware for these systems is relatively inexpensive. A satellite dish with a hardwired internet connection will cost you between $5,000 and $10,000.  Handheld units, which are getting better at maintaining connections, can be bought for less than a $1000 online.

While the hardware is “cheap”, the per-minute cost of connectivity is very expensive with rates measured per megabyte in addition to the time spent connecting.  Some have lowered their connection costs by investing in BGAN or other systems designed for use on land but able to connect at sea.  The slow data rates combined with high connection costs means this solution is not good for doing much beyond downloading text-only emails.

Enter VSAT.

When BP needs real-time connectivity to monitor systems aboard billion dollar rigs their choice is VSAT. For many years these systems had poor coverage at sea but with the continual launch of new satellites by companies like KVH, the availability of a signal mid-ocean is improving. And they are fast, outperforming the “high speed” DSL lines installed in many homes.

VSAT does seem to be the way of the future and connection prices are reasonable.  With VSAT you generally only pay for the connection speed and are free to download unlimited amounts of data.  Expect to pay between $500 and $750 per month for a fast connection.

So what’s the catch?

VSAT antennas are expensive with KVH models costing nearly $40,000. The lowest price I have seen was for a refurbished SeaTel unit priced at $28,000.

At these prices, ubiquitous internet at sea is unfortunately still beyond the reach of the average mariner, but we have heard of the costs of such units being shared among the entire crew of a ship.  $28,000 divided by an average crew compliment of 50 persons (both on and off hitch crews) averages out to $560 per man for the hardware. But once purchased a decent data plan can be had for $500/month or just $20 per member of the crew…. putting VSAT service just within reach of some.

And there are many reasons why a shipping company might want to subsidize some of the cost. First, an internet system that’s 100% independent from the ship’s computers is the only sure way to prevent viruses and the occasional hacking by mariners with too much time on their hands. Plus there’s redundancy. If the company’s satellite fails, you only need to flip one switch to “take over” the crew network.

Palm Bay, Florida, December 2010): Inmarsat has named Globe iFusion the 2010 Maritime Solution of the Year.

Globe Wireless became a FleetBroadband Distribution Partner in January 2010. In September 2010 Globe iFusion was released, making Globe Wireless the only Distribution Partner that is also a type approved FleetBroadband equipment manufacturer.

Chris D’Aguiar, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Inmarsat, presented the award during the Inmarsat Partner Conference in Saigon, Vietnam. He said, “Despite their recent appointment as a DP, Globe Wireless have over performed against target and made themselves immediately busy in personalising the FleetBroadband service. They have not only invested in and launched a number of end user value adds and traffic control systems for the marine community; they have enhanced their solution suite by integrating the below deck equipment and personalising the FB terminals to provide a complete end to end maritime solution.”

The total solution provided by the Globe iFusion system is a completely new way for shipping companies to manage communication with their ships. For the first time, it will offer a one-stop-shop for hardware, installation, airtime, applications and maintenance. The system is comprised of two main components; The Globe i250 and the Globe iPortal.

The Globe i250, incorporating Inmarsat FleetBroadband 250, allows the user to make voice calls using a GSM handset or normal fixed-line telephone, send/receive email and fax, browse the Internet, and upload/download files. The Globe iPortal offers full shore-side control of the solution, including the administration of user profiles, browsing capabilities, firewall settings, satellite gateways and least cost routing.

Frank J. Coles, President & CEO of Globe Wireless said “We are extremely pleased to be recognized for the steps we have taken towards reinventing maritime communications. This award validates our position that a stand-alone terminal is not a viable solution for the modern maritime fleet.” Mr. D’Aguiar added, “Inmarsat and our channel are stronger for this diversity, and the end user benefits from variety and choice.”

[Source - Globe Wireless]

Some companies have moved to systems like Reflex Marine’s Frog, a unit that is basically a Billy Pugh basket with seats, but my personel experience with these units are mostly negative as they share the same basic principal, and thus same basic dangers, of their predecessors. What has been missing in this operation is a radical new design.

Enter The Offshore Access System (OAS) for heavy seas, a new product by Offshore Solutions. This heave-compensated gangway is built on a hydraulic pedestal equipped with motion sensors to detect the crewboat’s motions.  The hydraulics are then engaged to maintain the gangway at a constant height relative to the horizon.

One problem with the technology is that, while it’s potentially useful for transferring personnel from boat to fixed platforms, it’s of less use transferring people to floating platforms due to the fact that the heave of boats never matches the heave of larger vessels. But with technology advancing at a rapid pace this could soon change. Fanbeam sensors currently use laser to line workboats up with dynamically positioned vessels and could possibly be used to match the motion of the ship with that of the gangway. If that happens then pilot boats could be outfitted with the device obviating the need for pilots to climb rope ladders.

The Nautical Institute’s AIS error reports webpage tells us:

I have observed too many vessels with wrong data transmitted by their AIS. Mostly headings are not correct, but the main problem – is offset correction given by GPS. If GPS has offset correction (set by navigator on bridge) then AIS transmits wrong vessel’s position (equal to offset).

You can watch now on ECDIS some vessel in the harbour is not alongside the berth but e.g. stays in the middle of harbour instead. The greater offset – the greater error. Some of the vessels have offset from 0.02 up to 0.3 nautical mile, and if you meet such vessel in Singapore Strait – then AIS information maybe very dangerous, as you can mistake such target with others.

I like AIS information very much, but when I watch such a picture on ECDIS – I would like to suggest to all navigators not to use on their GPS any offset. Nowadays GPS is reliable information and better to plot position on sea chart manually using satellite-derived calculation instead of inserted offset into GPS unit.

Lesson Learned: check the GPS offsets on your ship and assure you are sending accurate data… or you could confuse surrounding ships. Also keep an eye on NI’s AIS error reports webpage for continuous updates on the reliability of AIS.

Have you ever really considered why your workplace is lacking in some areas?  Or why, for example, individuals sometimes act unsafe even when they know the rules?

It’s easy to blame these issues on the managers in town, or the Captain, or the OIM, because they are in charge of that (supposedly) perfectly oiled machine of a company you work for.

So clearly it must be them.  Right?

Not necessarily.

All companies have issues and the Fleet Superintendent is not responsible for your job satisfaction.  It comes down to individuals being empowered to exercise personal initiative and leadership.  What are YOU doing to promote a safe-work culture?  What are YOU doing to promote personal initiative in your workplace?  What are YOU doing to improve the systems and procedures within your company?

One of the issues I saw when I worked offshore was that junior personnel were typically not encouraged to lead discussions at pre-tour meetings, yet as soon as they were promoted into a leadership position, it was assumed their new positional authority would translate directly to their ability to speak effectively in front of groups.

This was obviously not the case, and a culture of partially effective leadership was just the way it was in the offshore industry.

“That’s crap,” I thought.  And I’m going to figure out how to change it.

Being the new guy from New England, I figured I’d take a little risk and say a few things at each tour meeting that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with current operations, yet were in line with promoting leadership and teamwork.

I was standing on my soap box for a minute or two, and a few of the guys probably thought I was ridiculous, but everyone in that room appreciated the fact that I had the gumption to get up in front of a bunch of “country boys” and deliver a positive message before they started their day.

This process has since evolved to the point where junior personnel are the ones who now lead most pre-tour meetings and all associated training on board my former rig.

The vital behavior of promoting public speaking was the behavior I identified, and it was positively reinforced to the point where individuals in the crowd realized 1) they had the ability to get up there and speak, and 2) they had reasonable expectation that it would be positively reinforced by their peers.

Ability, and the question,“is it in my best interest?”, are the two reasons why people do anything in this world.

We are certainly capable of accomplishing almost anything we put our minds to, NASA is a good example of that.  In many cases however, we decide that inaction is a more favorable decision than taking that first risky step out of the “box”.  We view in our minds that the chance of someone negatively reinforcing our initiative is much greater than the chance of receiving praise for it.  And rightly-so considering the fact that most people are more comfortable pointing out errors than giving someone a pat on the back.

Effecting change however is rarely something that an individual can do on his or her own.  It’s also a matter of selling the idea to the social leaders within the group.  For example, A Roustabout on a drilling rig is not going to change the way the rest of the guys in his crew work anything unless he’s able to sell the idea to the senior Roustabout, and subsequently the Crane Operator.  The senior Roustabout provides the social backing required in order to get buy-in from the rest of the deck crew.

Finally, the identify the programs or method currently in place that support, or prevent, initiative in the workplace.  Besides financial rewards, are there other methods for rewarding your employees for a job well done.  How many different types of rewards can you identify that people use in your workplace?  Is positive reinforcement given in a timely manner?   Are correct behaviors reinforced, or correct results?

I encourage you to find answers to these questions and try to identify the vital behaviors required to effect change in your workplace.  Please comment in the forum if you would like to share success stories or failures.

For more insight into this topic, I recommend reading: Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler.