Happy (?) New Year

As we all continue to grapple with a dysfunctional new normal, I extend to you my best wishes for the new year. Personally, 2020 was full of challenges, but not necessarily bad ones, and for that I realize how fortunate and grateful I am.

Some might wonder about my commitment to this project, Martin’s Marine Engineering Page – www.dieselduck.net, which would be a logical train of thought considering the frequency of updates and such. I have a great deal of “life” going on, taxing my resources, having an undeniable affect on this hobby, which it is. Regardless of this, I still expend resources to maintain these web spaces as I think them of great value to my professional brain elasticity, and hopefully yours as well.

Despite the breadth of knowledge somewhat made easy to access by Google, I find there is a lack of humanity and genuineness in those overwhelming search results; first hand experience, the local knowledge seems to disappear in the algorithmic information you are presented with.

All that to say I’ve always loved this project, now into its 22nd year online. That’s a long time in web years! The good part is that regulators are also stuck in the dark ages, so that makes my life as editor easy. It is also a very large resource of information and challenging to keep up to date, so keep that in mind. I do want to have correct and accurate information, so if you see something questionable, or think something should be focused on, let me know.

Welcome to another year, I’d like to say a year that recognizes seafarers for the tireless work they do, but alas, as our peers remains locked up at home or on the ship, borders close and ships abandoned, I don’t see any worthy recognition on the horizon. I will do my best to maintain a place where we can share our experience, challenges and successes with your peers around the world.

Thank you for participating in this project.