I am the captain of my dream.

"CPA stands for 'Closest Point of Approaching'," explained Captain Nils, "and this tugboat's CPA is only 0.7 nautical miles away from us. Starboard side, see that?"

My eye sight followed the direction where Capt. Nils pointed to. I saw a tiny point rocking in the rough sea, behind the tiny point was a bigger object. I could only saw them as a tugboat and a barge towed behind only by using a high power binocular. "Velvet II, I saw her name." I put down the binocular and responded to Capt. Nils.

My little assignment from Capt. Nils was to warn the tugboat to stay away from Atlantic Guardian, the vessel we're on, as he believed that the tugboat crew might not understand his warning in English after a few attempts.

"Tell them, In Malay, to stay away at least 1.0 nautical miles of CPA away from us, and let them know we're now having an operation and will sail toward their position soon... Do you know how to use a radio?" Capt. Nils handed me a phone -like radio, "press this one to talk and release it for the other side to respond." He instructed in his strong Norwegian accent.

I took the phone from him, nodded, looked at the monitor in front of me -- it showed that the 'identified target' was 0.6 nautical miles of CPA from us, and the time to closest point of approaching (TCPA) was 10.5 min. I composed my sentence in my mind, looking far to the rocking tiny point on the horizon, and pressed the release on the phone, "Velvet dua, Velvet dua, sini dari Atlantic Guardian......"

***************************************************

No, I do NOT make this up. It really happened TODAY, my 5th day on board of Atlantic Guardian. Even though we ended up got no response from Velvet II and we chose to avoid her eventually, but I could tell you that was one of the COOOLEST experience I had on board!!

Well I don't expect myself to repeat again what is 'my little sailing dream' about, I think I've put it in one of my post in this blog. This time round, the ship is certainly larger and also my vision to the other dream of myself. I mean, HOW ON EARTH I COULD IMAGINE MYSELF DOING WHAT A CAPTAIN DOES? Another thing is, this vessel is waaaaay too sophisticated compared to the dive boat I was on. Note the terminologies that I use here: I compare a VESSEL to a BOAT, period.

So, anything clinking your mind? There's a saying that I heard once upon a time from someone and I remember it well until today:

"Don't look for shortcuts to get what you dream for. Work your way step by step, live your life the fullest, and you'd never realize that your dreams is already on their way to look for you."

OK, I made the quote up.