2nd Term – Week 8. 🚢 ⚓️ ⭐️

And this week is over. Another one gone. But I am glad it is over. This week had its highlights and its tough moments. Moments when I just wanted to be home. I thought to myself that over one year onboard I had never felt the will to not be on the ship, yet, there is always a first time right? It happened this week. Yes. Indeed. A challenging week for me. And I should probably write a deeper post about my thoughts on this… one day perhaps… 😉

Always happy when it is good weather! But sometimes the smile is there to remind me to continue smiling…

But I am better now and have taken a bit of a tougher skin on my shoulders.

My original post had actually quite some extra paragraphs added. But I decided to not publish them again because it would only make harm. I was probably relieving some valves out there but this website is not made for personal anger towards specific people. I think I like sharing everyday situations because they could happen to all, and it is not because there is social media and a website that everything is always easy happy, and pretty. As a woman on board, and one year only in the shipping industry, life can sometimes be tough to be respected and accepted with the rest of the experience I have. You see, every day is a work in progress to becoming a better and more understandable person 😉

Ruyter moored in Delfzijl, at Wagenborg stevedoring quay.

In Delfzijl we loaded in the sea harbour plasterboards. It is a nice cargo: it tolerates a few drops of rain and the stevedores hoist in our hold 2 electrical bobcats: we only need a couple of hatches open in the center of the ship and there it goes! Keeping the ship with a good trim makes it easier for them: they load fore and aft and do not need much instruction from outside. Besides you cannot enter the hold once they have started because they load all the way to the top, so entrances are blocked. The personnel goes in and out by being hoisted in a cage. It is funny.

The basket to bring shore crew in the hold by crane

Plasterboards are quite fragile if you have heavy weather it is apparently not a nice cargo to have. We made them seafast with airbags as we do with wood pulp.

It took us three days to load. It could have been faster but they work from 8-16… it is okay, I do not mind.

It gave me time to quickly go to town a couple of times and get fresh air. Till I still can. Indeed, it has been announced that France will enter her second full lockdown; so when I will fly home, I will not be able to go around like I thought I would… it is okay. But I like shops too haha 😆.

Saturday evening I saw a witch 🧙🏻‍♀️ fly by while we were at sea… the next morning our crew mess had a spooky look: skeleton, rats, bats, spider nets…. 👻 🎃

If you like it or not, the Franse Heks (me) always likes a good reason for a special decoration!

We are heading to Inkoo, 🇫🇮, almost near Kotka where we were just coming from 🙂 kieler channel again and 4 days sailing. It will be nice.

In the Kiel Channel

I am soon at the end of my term, in a couple of days I go home, so this is most probably the last story for this second term… I hope you still enjoy reading my stories. Please let me know in comments below what you think!Time flies!

See you next term! Xxx Sophie 😘 ♥️

2nd Term ~ Week 2. 🚢 ⚓️ ⭐️

Oh, God. I am late again! I think my Mondays only start on Wednesdays…. Or let’s face it. I am either procrastinating or too busy to take 30 minutes before the end of the week to blabber up some lines🤦🏻‍♀️… But I am here! 💪🏻 And time actually does fly! I have the feeling I have just come back on board but I am over 2 weeks now and we have already had quite some miles in, a few cargos and also a crew change already! L., our Engineer flew home and A. came back! I am sure we will soon hear some funny stories from the islands during our meals! #fun

Such stillness before the storm hits us!

Last week we were sailing to Stockvik 🇸🇪 . We were indeed delayed because of the very strong winds we had to face. We had to slow down to not stop the vessel on every wave.

Sailing in the Baltic can sometimes be tough too… Ruyter on her way to the Bothnia sea 🌊

Upon arrival we were at anchor ⚓️for three days just in the bay it was amazing because very quiet and nice weather too. The wind slowed us down to be able to have a notice to readiness on the expected time. But actually, the harbour said their quay was in maintenance so we couldn’t moor yet. Therefore the anchor days. We haven’t seen any maintenance while we were there. Pity because apparently there are very nice hikes to do around Stockvik 🌳 . Instead, we had the chance to enjoy the fjord and the leaves of the trees starting to turn red 🍂 . It is amazing.

At anchor in Sundsvall, enjoying the view.

Time at anchor is ideal to do lots of maintenance jobs. I am really up to date which is nice because I can either enjoy the rest of the time or plan what could be improved. I like that. The days were nice and sunny ☀️ and the evenings so cold. We could feel we were up North there. But of course, we couldn’t resist a swim 🏊‍♀️ in the freezing cold water. I guess it was around 6-8 degrees 🥶 ! But it is nice and gives lots of energy. We challenged the trainee and also our Indonesian crew to swim! They all dared. Once. Except for the cook. I went twice 💪🏻👊🏻.

I really enjoy this cold water therapy. To be honest it is way colder than my very cold daily showers 🚿. You should try too! It is very healthy and good for the skin! 😜
After stockvik, I was hoping to go to Sundsval again ( same Fjord) and load wood pulp ( nice clean cargo!) to Spain ( nice sunny warm weather!) but nope. The order first went to Uusikaupunki ( just love these strange Finnish names!) to Sweden. Of course, as a Sophie, I directly made my voyage plans but hey, it would have been too easy: change of plan: we will be loading sugar beet pulp pellets in Liepaja 🇱🇻 . I am sure this was just a sign for me to practice my voyage plannings. But ok. I don’t mind. Just did them again. 🤓
So after tasting the salt, which was really salty; I am curious to taste our next cargo to see if it is very sweet or not. Apparently, it is used for food for animals…. I do not mind being a little crazy about that! 🤪

As I said at anchor, it is always nice to do jobs you do not have the time for. I love launching the MOB boat and going for a short ride. 🚣 I was alone this time but finally could drive at my own pace and sail around the ship for pictures 😉. We also had fun in the engine room 👩🏻‍🔧measuring the valve clearances of the Main Engine. It is always quite some fun. At least for me; and I know for Captain H. as well. Except for this time, our trainee didn’t really like a tiny joke of mine 🤭- wrong jokes happen ha! But when you know me, you know I only like to play around and have fun -so it didn’t end up as nice as I wanted 😂 . I had a nice Sophie moment and just went for another lonely job greasing the anchor winch on the foredeck. 🙄Nice and isolated. If people cannot handle my jokes…even though I wouldn’t kill a fly…. Well then…. I don’t know, they just do not handle them. I think they are funny. 😬I guess we keep on learning always and at all times right? That is my lesson: be aware of my (too) direct teasing. And for the others: just toughen up and do not be so sensitive. 😉 ( mhmm am I sometimes sensitive? 🤔Oh well… life onboard…. It makes us grow faster right? It is all good now.)

I am always trying to stay positive; happy selfies help me with that!

Monday is a new day and we will be discharging our 3k ton salt and heading directly to Liepaja. The sun is shining. Be happy. Don’t worry. I am just going for another cold swim. 🥴

Take care all of you!
2 weeks onboard, no symptoms. Corona free. I like that.

See you next week! Xxx Sophie 😘 ♥️
@ Stockvik

1st Term ~ Week 9. ⚓🚢

Here I am in Varberg 🇸🇪. We arrived Saturday afternoon. And we are not scheduled to load the vessel before Tuesday morning. And the weather is… very winding with quite some heavy rain from now and then.

Always happy- or as happy as I choose to be!

We left Sluiskil full of Fertilizer last Tuesday evening and headed directly to Rostock. A fast passage through the Kieler Kanal and two small days discharging. A fertilizer is a cargo that cannot get wet. Absolutely not. I was carefully checking the sky and the clouds for any small doubt of drops falling; ready to close the hatches. Luckily I only had to close them twice and only for 10 minutes or so. Sometimes it happens that you spend your time counting drops and opening-closing opening-closing. But we were lucky this time.

Were only told last minute in Rostock where our following voyage would be: Varberg to Aveiro in Portugal then Spain back to the Netherlands… niiice 🙂 a bit of summertime and nice weather! 👍🏻 ☀️ 🏖 🏊‍♀️
In Rostock, one of our ABs flew home to Indonesia 😞and we had to welcome a new crew to our team! 😊
But yeah I was then told I would probably disembark in Varberg! And there my quick calculations started in my 🧠 brains and … suddenly realized that I had less than 200nM to get ready: prepare the ship for a good handover, write it, make sure the maintenance was on schedule (of course it was… 😉 – not kidding it actually was! 💪🏻) but then flights were booked for mid-week. 😅 I had lots of spare time as everything was ready! 😂

Our new captain is very (still) nice. I asked myself several times if I wouldn’t/ couldn’t stay until Portugal, or maybe Spain?… and even said I could still cancel the flights as my relief officer wasn’t gone yet! I think I take it as a compliment. Right? I am probably not such a bad person after all and maybe I am also okay in my work too…

Sometimes I have periods of big doubts and this week was one of those. It was pretty tough. Pretty lonely. And difficult to reach out to the people that matter most to us. We are all busy in our routines and it feels sometimes pretty empty and tough and I just wondered if I am even good at my job and why I do this.

The sun always rises and sets. It gives you a new chance every day!

Sailing out of Rostock/ Warnemunde, I saw Tolkien one of the dutch tall ships alongside, then further Morgenster was sailing fully rigged ⛵️ and it was awesome to look at. And then again shivers. I miss my sails, my friends. What am I doing here again? Yes, it was a really tough and lonely week and not being able to get out of it just because I am a sophie and overthinking too much… are there any other Sophie’s out there? Or is this only me? 💔

Luckily Varberg was there and loading only planned for a few days. My maintenance done, handover done, I enjoyed a couple of good walks despite the strong wind and spars rain. Varberg has quite a few places to go out. I am too corona concerned to go in there. Hopefully, we will be back! They have a natural swimming pool in the sea, great! Swam 45 min doing laps in 9-degree water. Loved it. No one wanted to swim from the vessel with me. Eventually W. our trainee joined me later for a dip. 🙂 then cappuccino, cake and sweets with a chick-flick in my bed. Perfect Sunday! 🙂 ❤️

The vessel will be departing without me in a few days and it will feel very strange. But I am looking forward to seeing my family and the zoo at home.
Remember: keep your social distances people. It’s not over. Till then, see you next term!😉 😘
Sopietje ⚓️ ✌🏻

@ Varberg, Sweden

S O P H I E. T H E. S A I L O R.

Just another view of the world through Sophie’s eyes while working and traveling at sea

Tag: challenges

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S O P H I E. T H E. S A I L O R.

Just another view of the world through Sophie’s eyes while working and traveling at sea

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