28th of February till 6th of March 2022

5th week onboard here I am! Almost 2/3d done! Can you imagine? I cannot…

We are in Hamina (Finland) and we will be loading timber from Brake and Bremen in Germany. But we were only planning to start on Tuesday which gave us enough time to prepare for the lashings and sort the lashing store completely.

Last summer in the shipyard, all the rubbers from our hatch covers were changed. And quite a few leftovers were just dumped in the lashing store. Also, I knew that we had a few deck items here and there in the lashing store that were not organised. And you know how I am…. I like that all the same equipment is together with the same equipment. I do not like to find rubbers in one place and two other different places onboard the vessel. How can you keep an inventory or track of what you have or do not have onboard? Besides, when things are just dumped over others with for only excuse « that there was no time because it was shipyard ». Well….. I do not like that. It is more that time was not made for it, to my opinion. But of course, I was not there right? Wo what could I say? nothing.

The previous Saturday afternoon, I had a look at what there was and where to give myself time to think of how I wanted to have things organised down there, and logically. I could think a bit better about how to use the spaces that were not as accessible once the slings were back in place. With the help of the trainee and the second officer we managed to sort and throw quite a lot of old items that we were never going to use again; because broken or too old. We managed to recoil and lash tight all the long rubbers from the hatches and to sort them and count them. Finally, I could have a proper inventory of what we had in stock regarding spare speed locks, wedges and corner rubbers!

We could store away all the extra tarpaulins we had for the timber cargo. Which would give us more space for the slings – hopefully. 

Our deck store is way too full of items we do not use that often either. We made space so that items would still be accessible also once the slings were back in for those spares too. Hopefully, the turn of the deck store would come soon….. I have big plans for that storage area! An extra small shelf for light items we use regularly ( gangway net, corner tarpaulins for bulk cargo….) and the rest we seldom use, stored in the forecastle! Hopefully, this will also soon become a neat space! Fingers crossed!

Anyways. It was a good Monday. Very productive.

Tuesday we started loading. I was ready for 5 am (there is one hour difference in Finland! So it is very early when we are here) to open all the hatches and have it all ready. The great thing with timber is that it is not weather-sensitive so I do not have to be afraid of not closing hatched on time. I can keep them open without worrying. They only started way after 5 am which was quite annoying for me. I like to be ready and on time for them to start working so, it is always a bit frustrating when they take their time. I mean, I know it does not change anything…. I just made myself a cup of coffee and it was all good you know. But a time is a time. Right?

Anyways (again). It took us 1,5 days to load. Which was a little more than 3 shifts before we could start doing the lashing on deck. The good thing is that it was still during the day so it was better and easier for us. 

With timber, you have to be very careful that the hold has to be as full as possible with the least holes possible between the packages. The more cubic meters that are in the hold the better for the stability and for the deck cargo that can come afterwards on deck. Unlike last year, all the packages had different sizes. Or at least it is what it seemed to me. It was such a Tetris game for the crane driver to set everything in a good spot. I am happy I was not in his shoes.

Once the hold is full then we have to close the hatches, speed locks and wedges. We also need to take the drafts and know what amount had been loaded to know the stowage factor of the timber and to be able to decide and calculate how much cargo we can finally take on deck. Timber is always a tricky cargo and to give extra points to consider, we are also in Ice so we absolutely need to remain within the ice drafts marks.

The ice drafts are there to indicate where the hull is most resistant to pressure and compression from the ice in the water. It is like the lordliness we must stay within. Especially in Finland; because if we happen to get stuck in ice and we are out of the ice marks, the icebreaker will not come and help us, or we get a pretty big fine…

Luckily this does not happen to us.

Once they had finished loading on deck, we set all the tarpaulins and fixed them over the cargo to protect it from water and ice. Then we positioned timber on top of the tarpaulins to prevent the wind from blowing in them, positioned all 84 lashings and heavy chains and started lashing down…. And it took for aaaages! You always think it will be faster but by the time you get back into figuring out how they work again and then slowly moving your way aft of the ship. Then suddenly it is 22:00 and the pilot is boarding and it is chop chop chop – gangway onboard – hatch crane is position – mooring lines stored inside – last two lashings on the aft (otherwise we cannot use the hatch crane…) and there we are off to bed as the watches start….

Trust me, after a few hours of lashing timber on deck with our equipment, you sleep like a baby! Better relax and stretch your muscles too, drink lots of water and massage your shoulders a bit! It is a full workout! Not only walking back and forth on the ship but climbing and jumping on and off the different heights of timber packages or down on the deck to fix something. I am really glad that at least it was not cold, windy, icy or snowy! We were lucky!

And of course, with timber cargo, you sleep so well! It is the total opposite movement from very heavy and dense cargo like steel coils for example. The ship just rocks like a baby. We were underway for the next three days in a calm baltic, before arriving at the locks for the Kiel Channel. And then it was only a short 12hours sail on the Elbe river to the Weser river leading to Brake. And of course! Guess what? We passed Kiel Channel on a Sunday!

We had to wait a few hours before passing actually. It was quite congested. They even said that we would only pass early morning instead of early evening as initially planned so we dropped anchor. And changed the schedule around so that the captain could be awake and fresh for both locks.

Luckily they called us two hours later telling us they had a pilot available for us so we could enter the locks and proceed from Holtenau on the Kieler Fjord to Brunsbüttel on the Elbe river. And that was another change of plan but to our advantage, as we would then arrive easily on Monday morning in Brake and have the full easy day to take all the lashings off and prepare for discharging on Tuesday morning only.

Perfect! That made us all happy!

I hope your week was good and productive like mine. Let me know in the comments!

Big hugs and see you next week for the following adventures!

Sophie 🙂