4th – 9th of May 2021

Yes! One week back on board and it feels good! Ok-well. To be honest I was exhausted these first days as I was getting back on track; back on “ship track” I mean…

I do not know for you all, but usually, the nights before I travel, especially before going back on board, I do not sleep much! I think it is because I tend to think about everything I haven’t done, still need to do, what I have forgotten… I am getting back into “ship mode”. I very often have the first flight to Paris available so my sleep is also very light as if I were afraid to miss my alarm. Thank God it never happened… Yet!

I like planes and airports. I do not mind them. Strolling along with all the (closed) shops, having a nice coffee, watching people around, imagining where they are traveling to and from, those that are on holiday, or business travel… Well as you can see not much to do other than read a book and wait. That is quite tiring in a way… Just “waiting”.

Then I arrived late on the ship and as we were alongside with no cargo operations for the night we enjoyed a bit of time altogether. Then I had to unpack (slightly!) and wake up early to open hatches the next day… Well, that makes 2 very short nights in a row with a busy first day getting things done and getting back into the routine… Do not get me wrong… I am not complaining.

The ship was loaded with limestone from Raynes Jetty (UK). Once discharged, we had to prepare the ship for our next cargo: feed phosphates in bulk and big bags. 2 different cargos. Which meant:

1. Clearing the hold very well and,

2. Moving the two bulkheads.

We had to put them in a good position. So quite some work to be done before we could depart in the evening. In the end, it was a good, long and satisfying day, with another short night before being on watch at 1 am. Captain H. gave me one-hour extra sleep to catch up and get into the ship’s life again which was very nice of him!

So there we were, off to Finland. Kokkola. It is a harbour situated in the bay of Bothnia… Quite North actually over the 62nd-degree latitude! I think I have never sailed that North before. I knew it would still be fresh up there, temperature-wise. I had already taken my winter overall out of the closet as we were close to 0° Celsius. In Stockvik I almost got a cold as the wind was blowing so much, through the collar of my jacket. When the evening came, I was cleaning the hold and “playing” with the water, it suddenly felt cold as the sun went down. In Kokkola, I didn’t want to start my term sick: so there I was with my winter overall. To be honest, as we were sailing, we still had ice patches on the sea! ~ I was not expecting that at all! ~ this comforted me with my choice of winter clothing mid-may. When you think that southern Europe is enjoying sunny warm weather, and in other parts, it is still a good winter temperature…It is quite funny when you think of it that way.

I remember last year when I joined the ship, it was also in May, in Rotterdam (NL) but it was very sunny weather; tee shirt and shorts! I hope it will soon be funny shorts weather onboard too, then I will be happy to set my woolen clothes aside till next year!

Kokkola: a new Finnish harbour to add to my list of visited ports. Oh, wait. I do not have such a list, maybe I should start making one. The problem with those lists is that I tend to forget to track them, it is then irrelevant in the end. I wish I could go ashore to visit but of course: no time. Next time maybe!

We arrived in the afternoon and after the ultrasonic test we started loading and carried on during the night. Feed phosphate is a very thin powder. A bit thicker than be flour and thinner than fertilizer. It is quite dense it so doesn’t reach totally till the height of the coming: you better take care to spread it nicely on the top and with not too big mountains of cargo.

As it is very thin, it is important to make sure you will not have leakages through the bulkheads: the sides should be properly covered with rubber and a tarpaulin with magnets and the entrances blocked with wood. For the small gaps, we use rags, ropes, and eventually tape in this case because it is so thin that it slides through any small hole. It was important during the loading to pay attention to any leakages. If we found one, we should stop loading, clean up and block as well as we can to avoid mixing cargo. Sometimes it happens.

As long as it can get fixed shortly without slowing down the loading then, I’d say it is fine. Otherwise, you have a bigger problem because you need to take the cargo out to fix the leak… And… That could eventually take time, time is money and also these are loading ports, not discharging ports… Cargo is not meant to be discharged so there are no facilities for that. Therefore, you would need to arrange something extra. Which you can understand: nobody wants.

The loading went quite fast: less than 24 hours later we were out sailing again. Interesting fact: this time we had two discharge harbors! Out of the 3300t of cargo, 1000t were fore Greenore (IE) and the rest Goole (UK).

For the stability of the ship, it is important to take that into account. The place where you take your cargo out, the ship should not end up too much on the bow or the stern. Of course, we have ballast tanks: you can play around to meet the trim you want. Another nice fact is that to enter the port of Goole, on the river Humber, there are very shallow waters and lots of sandbanks: you want to ~and even need to!~ have a good trim and be as even keel as possible. That will be important to keep in mind when discharging in Greenore.

Finally underway: hatches closed, ship washed down from all the dusty cargo, we are fresh to go for this nice 7 days sailing and enjoy the rhythm at sea… Starting with a good weekend!

Oh! I forgot to mention! We have at the moment a new cook onboard, A., you know how I am quite a sweet tooth right? Well… I told him it was my birthday coming up – as a joke – to get extra cake… well he made a carrot cake for me! That was so sweet and it was an excellent cake! I did have to tell him though that it wasn’t my birthday -yet- I thought he got the joke because Captain H. was teasing me. He says I say that it is my birthday every week… Which I denied… Just to eat cake every day!

Nice try Sophie! Haha.

See you next week my friends!

Happy sailing, and happy to be back on board!