1st Term ~ Week 6. ⚓🚢

Well? Mhmm what has happened this week? I do not even recall…. Am I starting to get old? Or is this just routine coming in slowly? “Routine”…. Is there even such kind of thing on board a cargo vessel? I doubt it. No. Wait. I am pretty sure about it. Not one day has been the same since I came on board and, definitely not also when I compare my internship with these days…. I am pretty thankful to have my phone 📱 with me to go back into pictures!! Haha, smart eh? 😛

Ha yes! So… I was telling you about the corn! 🌽 The mais Waxi pro! Apparently very nutritious and also used for athletes training hard… Well…. The popcorn was a fail, unfortunately. Our cook tried to make some but only one popped. The others got burnt…. I am quite sad about it. I like popcorn. But I also know it was an experience so….. He then tried to boil it simply in water. And there it wasn’t too bad honestly! Well… the first batch was cooking for over an hour already and was still a bit crunchy but very tasty! Like… well. Corn. But corn with taste if you see what I mean? And the second batch cooked over two hours in water. And I thought was pretty lekker. So approved be Captain H. too.

I kept the full box I had thoroughly rinsed, labelled it and placed it in the food store… I shouldn’t forget to tell cookie about it so that we can have more! 🙂

We were three days in Hamburg 🇩🇪 but these were pretty busy days: day 1. Discharging + getting big provisions onboard 🛍 + all our fire equipment 🔥 needed to be checked by a company for the renewal of the certificates + and the ship had her internal audit. It was busy but we managed.

Moving bulkheads involves a lot of moving around with the hatches and the crane so it takes quite some time. You have to think ahead and it goes in a few steps. You cannot shift them directly to the aft. It is not difficult but it requires a bit of concentration to move to adjust cm by cm.

We were supposed to clean the hold and move the bulkheads back to their parking position directly after discharging but….. (luckily for us!) they were a bit slow in discharging so it took longer and one of the bridge we needed to pass through for loading our next cargo was broken so…. We got delayed one day…. So day 2. We did a good clean of the hold, moved the bulkheads, shifted berth twice to a waiting berth and then to our next loading berth.

Finally, we shifted berth again and started loading rapeseed meal from 3 river barges with a crane from ashore. It was the first time I was loading like that. It is quite fun!

I had some learning moments with that loading. Just with the fact of being alone on deck for some time, I could only refer to myself and because with the last scoops well… my plan ended up not being a good plan and good that the captain saved me from my mistake because we would have been sailing on the bow…. 🤦🏻‍♀️( only slightly… and when I say he “saved me” he didn’t come like riding a horse or so but more like…. Well, I felt like s*** for quite some hours after that… 😢 I am endlessly learning; yes about the ship, about the other people with me and mostly about myself, which is a good thing I presume🙇🏻‍♀️).

Oh well finally en route to Belfast 🇬🇧 where we arrived Sunday evening.
This was quite a great trip, to be honest: dolphins 🐬 in the Irish sea and we even spotted whales 🐳 ! We even had a helicopter 🚁 drill from Falmouth coastguard on our deck! 🙂 And of course A birthday 🎂 onboard…. Commando Captain was lucky to get a ⭐️ extra on his years and….

An original prototype of my new future toiletry bags hand made in sail cloth! Can you imagine that I had no idea if he would still be onboard for his birthday and I had been sitting on his gift 🎁 since 6 weeks, tempted so many time to offer it as I find giving hand made gift so valuable and exciting! I really had to be patient this time. He says he loves it. I hope it will last. Well I did also tell him lifetime guaranty which should be good enough for a Dutch right? I am not looking forward to seing him go home yet. We all go home at one point don’t we?

Till then, there are still some nautical miles ahead of us and at least one cargo; hopefully two? 🤞🏻 …..

Till Next week dear friends! Take care!
Sopietje xxxx ❤️ ⚓️ 🚢 ✌🏻
@ Hamburg, Germany