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

1st Term ~ Week 5. ⚓🚢

Week 5.
Ok. 5 weeks onboard already. So I have done more than half of my term 😱 . Time really goes fast when you are busy and having fun! 😜

I do not even recall all the things we did this week. Oh yes. So we discharged in Pasajes 🇪🇸 then sailed to Bayonne 🇫🇷 but had to wait a day at anchor first ⚓️.Trust me that was not a problem to relax a little and of course…. Have a swim call just before the pilot came on board in the heat and ☀️ !

Once in Bayonne, it was a bit difficult to be so close to the beaches with such sunny weather because we were once again not allowed to go ashore. It is a bit frustrating but at least we also know we stay healthy!
The agent there was pretty nice. His English was not too bad at all; probably because he was also cheating being half danish… 😉

He brought me a big box of earth from his garden for my lupine forrest 🌱! So guess what I did this week…. Again a bit of gardening. From 1 bottle I am now at 8 bottles! Hopefully, they will enjoy having more space for their roots and more food in the earth… I should maybe start thinking of giving them away to the people around us 🤔.

Giving fresh earth to the Lupine forrest

I am not sure if captain H. likes all my experiments…. He said it was starting to become a farm in the bridge…. Let me explain…. In Bayonne, we loaded grain again. Corn. One of the best qualities ( Mais waxi pro) that is used for food ( jelly, Amidon, maïzena and else) as it is edible. We ate some. It is super tasty. Well, I picked up a full bucket of course and I wanted to wash the corn ( mind you that cargo is realllllly very dusty!!!) and try to boil it or even make popcorn of it – wait, do you think that by planting one single corn 🌽 I could get a plant of it? 🌾 I’d love to see what happens and if it is still good or not! If it is then I will continue washing the rest of the grains and make small pouches for the popcorn to eat in front of a movie in harbour our maybe to give to our cookie for meals!

Cleaning the corn. Hopefully, we can eat it and make popcorn from it!

Well yeah… He said it was a farm…. Well I disagree, I always clean up my mess and till now I do not see the pigs and cows yet… unless…. Where is that smell coming from? Who farted just now? … never mind 🤪🤭

Loading corn in Bayonne

Leaving Bayonne we had a four and a half-day sail to Hamburg to discharge. We had so much weather in the channel. For sure we were lucky to sail south and swim because the winds were increased on our stretch back north. On one of my watches, I had for a couple of hours 40+ knots established…. 💨 🌊 it was mostly downwind which made up fly and surf the big waves but when I think of it… I remember the times on the tall ships ⛵️ where you would steer outside with 4 layers under your foul weather gear, speeding 10 knots with a tiny storm sail…. That was some much fun. Hardcore. But fun. Here I can still enjoy my cup of coffee and the foam from the frothed milk doesn’t even blow away… #spoiled. Books do not slide from one side to the other, although I must say the vessel gets a bit more “nervous”…. Nothing to compare with though. This is a comfort I do really appreciate too. I am probably getting a bit older. (🤫chuuuut!)

In Hamburg, one of our ABs is flying back home to Indonesia 🇮🇩 …. And we are welcoming back our fresh and rested one. Crew changes are always nice and sad at the same time. A lot of mixed feelings. Next week it will be the turn of our captain too. I am not looking forward to so much change right now… Rules in Indonesia are pretty strict… after a COVID-19 test, even if negative, he will have to be in quarantine for two weeks in Jakarta then 2 weeks home before being able to finally enjoy his family after 6 months. I hope he has a good book and that is data bundle is big enough to…. We will see what happens next!

Hamburg 🇩🇪 will be busy: internal audits, annual safety checks, discharging, loading, ballasting, deballasting, changing berth, cleaning the cargo hold, moving the bulkheads… all in two days. But we are sailors. 🚢 🚢 ( I say that now, we will see next Sunday if I still say that haha)

Take care all of you! And especially to all the moms out there as it is in France Mother’s day. I love mine to the moon and back 💕 and I am the luckiest person alive to have her. Je t’aime maman ❤️ ❤️ ❤️.
Tchuuuusssss ✌🏻 Sopietje ⚓️ 🚢 ⭐️
@ Port de Bayonne

1st Term ~ Week 4. ⚓🚢

We have been the whole week underway from Sundsvall (Sweden) to Pasajes (Spain). This was a nice good sail: very good weather and very easy. We sailed via the Sound, North of Skagen, then the channel of course and 1,5 days in the Biscay. 🌊

I have been working quite a bit on trying to update all the chief officer’s marad job list. Indeed, There are quite a few « ghost » jobs or double jobs, or simply one job declined into several « steps » which makes it quite « overwhelming » (read very annoying😣) when you print your weekly worklist.

A nice crew moment enjoying the silence of the foredeck

Hopefully, there will soon be a more efficient and more applied to this vessel maintenance jobs.. 🙃. I like that. Maintenance programs are pretty frustrating because they tend to make our job more administrative and controlled by the office and still there are so many grey areas that do not always make sense or forgotten areas. Offices usually have no clue of all the work done by crew… let’s all admit it. If we even do not know what we are doing, how could they know ?!! 😂🤪 just kidding… I like efficiency. Doing things once but properly and good. Mhm, thinking 🤔 of it… it is probably laziness… 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Passing Ouessant, I had a premiere. Even though it wasn’t in my watch, captain Harry kind of forced me into reporting to Ouessant traffic…. just for fun. In French. Well, I don’t know how but I try my best Franch accent and they replied in French! How did they know?! This was the first time I was reporting in French and it was quite weird for me. I realized I didn’t know how to say « standing by channel 13-16 »… I know I know… I think the crew just wanted to hear my Fench. To be honest it was already a week we had been joking on their accent and the way the French coast guards contact the foreign vessels-in French- and no one understanding even their best English!! 😂 oh well…. I will not change myself. And I had fun too…. they will see who will be the one laughing when we are his week in Bayonne 🇫🇷 😍

The Biscay was amazingly flat with a wonderful blue sky. We saw soooo many dolphins 🐬 it was just great. We had to stop for a short refreshing dip session, hoping they’d come to swim close too but of course it didn’t happen. Only when we were 2 minutes underway again they came back…. I am certain it’s because of the guys. They kept on doing be splashes and bombs… you know just like kids while I was peacefully « granny-swimming » (trying not to wet my hair as I had just washed them…. didn’t work if course. Ended up jumping too. No bombing ;)). We were ahead of time so that was really enjoyable. No pictures though you know… no helmets, safety boots and all the protective equipment #safetyfirst …. but you can imagine how it is with 1174m of water below your tows… 😏😱 And it was Our super trainee’s birthday too which made it like a holiday too with 🎂 🍰 and coffee and all… you know… 😉 those are some of the enjoyable moments of life at sea. The biggest swimming pool ever and the company of just a few awesome people to laugh with. 👌🏻⭐️⭐️

Dolphins playing on the bow

The lupine forest 🌳 🌸 is still doing good. I did a bit of gardening and made a 4 bottled garden to give more space to the roots but I am still missing earth and.. ok ok bigger garden pots and all. They are still growing, not as fast though. I wonder now if it is because captain Harry is not taking care of them anymore … 🤔 ah men… one pot is oke to give water to and take care of but suddenly 4 pots are way too much right?! 😂

Preparing more pots for the Lupine flowers

This week went actually by so fast. It was finally nice to be sailing a week and getting into a routine. I loved the highlights that make out job probably one of the bests with sailing on the ocean, no noise, a huge sun and blue sky and just enjoying the wind 💨 on your face reminding yourself you are alive and that is great! 🙌🏻

I am halfway through my term and it feels like only two weeks… 😉 big hugs to you on land slowly enjoying some unlocking down processes 🙂

Sopietje ❤️ ⚓️ 🚢 ✌🏻. @ Pasajes, Spain

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: happiness

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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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