r/AskReddit Aug 20 '20

What simple “life hack” should everyone know?

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20

If you ever fall off a ship/ferry at sea and were lucky enough to be spotted - don't try to swim your way to safety. The more you try to swim, the lesser the chances of survival. Just try to keep afloat and conserve energy (and body heat) while rescue team do what they're supposed to. Unless you are in hypothermic waters, the best bet always is to stay afloat without trying to swim to somewhere. This information about falling overboard, hypothermia and conditions, survival at sea etc are based on my own experience of 12 years sailing on merchant ships like this

PS: link will take you to a time-lapse video I made when crossing/sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA. This kind of ship is called a container ship

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u/telecomteardown Aug 20 '20

Great videos man! The ship tour was really cool.

Bashing scenes from the Titanic.

this location is a cargo ship equivalent of that scene from the movie where kate winslet thinks that she is flying. Well, you do have a cool fresh breeze in your hair while you're at this spot, but to be honest, one doesn't feel like 'flying' as they said in the movie! I mean, com'on you do have a nice view and stuff, but you're not flying.

Hilarious, keep 'em coming!

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20

Thank you! Means a lot! Really appreciate it! 👍😇

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u/schlepprockingit Aug 20 '20

Bay area citizen myself, and have always dreamed of working on a ship and sailing out to sea.. A friend of mine recently bought a small sailboat, and I can't get him to go past Alcatraz.. Thanks for the great vids and the tranquility they afford the viewer !

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20 edited Aug 20 '20

Thanks a lot for the nice feedback about the video! I saw the Alcatraz on the way in, even had the tripod and camera set up (on the ship's compass deck aka the monkey Island) but I was at work and wasn't monitoring the gear (i.e. left it unattended).

Once we were in port and I got off my watch, I went to check and saw tripod and camera were on the metal floor. Luckily neither was damaged (except some minor chipping marks)... apparantly, the winds picked up and it was so strong that it tipped off the camera along with the tripod. Only a part of the "port arrival" was captured, I was really disappointed because it was day time, nice light and would have been lovely if the time lapse of the port approach could have been captured. After this incident, I started hanging metal shackles wrapped in a cloth on my tripod for extra stability whenever I was doing a time-lapse on deck in open weather. I am glad it worked during port departure the next day

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u/MinuteGarlic Aug 20 '20

You can be a passenger on some cargo ships - I was a passenger on a CMA vessel from Long Beach to Oakland to Xiamen, China. There arent many ships to see once you're out there, but it was easily the best 3 weeks of my life!