1st Term ~ Week 3. ⚓🚢

1st Term ~ Week 3. ⚓🚢

Of course! If I publish my week 2 almost at the end of week 3 there will be a slight timing problem right?…. and you wouldn’t want me to overload you with my stories and pictures two days in a row…..

End of week 3. Good news is that the engineer and I that both joined at the same time have not brought any unfriendly 🦠 onboard. No symptoms within the crew, this is so relieving🥳 Whatever comes now is not from our ship family but from stevedores or other people that might come on board. In harbours, we are not allowed to go ashore for a walk even if we do not present any symptoms and obviously do not carry it. How do we know is the stevedores have the same restrictions like us. How can we know if they have the same sanitary and social distancing? They do not wear a mask 😷 or respect social distancing… how can We know if we are still safe leaving the harbour?… 🦠 🦠 as if we were the ones bringing little covid-19 with us everywhere we go. Grr, 😖 it’s so frustrating. Oh well…

We stayed 5 days in Sundsvall 🇸🇪, but it was a good stay as we managed to do a lot of good maintenance: a lot of greasing actually, I felt like I was the grease monkey, a job we would usually get as a green hand on tall ships… but such an important task as the wear and tear can become terrible on moving parts and watertight rubbers. We took time to grind, wire brush, clean and regrease aaalllll moving parts we could see: all threads and nipples. This became a pretty big job but also necessary as we found out that some moving parts didn’t have nipples and therefore were not greased… the answer « it has always been like that so greasing is not necessary » is not always the correct answer. When you know who did the maintenance if the ship before she came into captain Harry’s hands… you would probably doubt everything you see around you. I do miss my tall ships though… you can probably tell by the picture in the mast… any opportunity to climb up I take… not even afraid. ⛵️ 😊
I like it when you have time to repair and cross jobs of the list, it is so satisfying. But 5 days in harbour, we were ready to go!

Another cold swim 🥶 🏊‍♀️ -just because we can- a nice sail in the MOB boat 🚣‍♀️-just for the good testing of the crane- and the oars… (no comment) – 3151 tons of wood pulp in the hold and a lot of fun with the crew lashing with airbags (big bags fill with the air compressor to avoid the cargo from moving or falling and getting damaged while at sea) the cargo.

We have two different kinds of wood pulp one seems to be in sheets very compact and the second one is more fluffy and gets damaged easily. They do diapers, masks, tampons and stuff like that with it. It is interesting to be part of the production line when you think of it 🤔

Every day passes and everyday small improvements and big fun. This is how it is supposed to be. And I live it. There is not one day I have woken up wondering why I came here. 🤪crazy Sophie.

Our lupine forest 🌱 🌸 🌳 is getting bigger and bigger and it is obvious now to be that we need to do something: over 38 seeds potentially growing up to 1,20m each in half a plastic bottle… yeah 🤦🏻‍♀️…

Off we sail to Pasajes 🇪🇸
Take care on land ❤️ Sopietje ⚓️ ❤️ 🚢

1st Term ~ Week 2. ⚓🚢

1st Term ~ Week 2. ⚓🚢

Week 2! Already!
Oh god! These days really fly by so fast that I do not get the time to post anything… ok ok, I probably do not take the time either. 😇
We discharged in Klaipeda and Riga and that went pretty fast: harbour in, alongside, discharge 2000t, harbour out, sail 20 hours, habour in, alongside, discharge the rest of the soja bean meal 1000t, harbour out. This is what usually happens. And it keeps you nicely busy 🙂

Early summer morning sunrise at sea

I am glad I think I came quickly back into ship routine, getting used to the marad jobs (maintenance program) and anticipating the routes and voyage plannings as far as I can.. which means pretty much a couple of days only before arriving into the harbour – if we are lucky. 😉 And as you know I really do not like to be caught up and stressed last minute… Most probably because I was well trained the past years with « whatever I can do at sea I do at sea » not to have more time for unforeseen jobs in the harbour but mainly to enjoy as much as possible « time in the harbour »…

Sunsets at sea are always beautiful

Well, I can tell you right now that « time in the harbour » on a sailing vessel in the Caribbean and on a general cargo vessel in the Baltic is not exactly the same…. Unfortunately, corona times do not make it easier when you would want to stretch your legs for an hour walk ashore…. anyways you gotta make yourself a reason: there is never time enough for it.
This is why sails or no sails, I would still rather do as much as possible at sea than in harbour to enjoy the view or the only crew moments when we are all together.
And trust me the swim calls are still worth it! The freakin’ cold water (3degrees Celsius in the bay of Bothnia! -yes yes we did go for a swim in Sundsvall. Sweden 🇸🇪 ! 🥶) makes you feel alive and kicking and I love that! 🙂
It is nice to be back on board and there has not been a day yet in which I didn’t have fun✌🏻Everything can become a party 🎉 if you make it such!

Nothing better than a cold water swim!

Our Lupine seeds turn out to be growing by the day. Sometimes I have the feeling I see the leaves growing when staring at them 🌱 it is turning out into a Lupine Forrest! 🙂 and should probably be soon thinking of changing the pot to a bigger one for all 50 seeds….

Our lupine seeds forest is growing slowly

The highlight of our arrival in Sundsvall… we didn’t need a pilot or linesmen so he captain decided to train us in mooring the vessel alongside, between to other vessels!! It was super cool! So there we were; the engineer, trainee, one of the AB’s who also wanted and myself bringin the vessel alongside and back out for the next on! It was a great moment! And no… I didn’t crash as expected 😜Captain Harry also left me in the bridge and took my place for the actual mooring. That was a great experience and made me so happy! 🤩 an awesome way of ending this second week onboard! Thank you!!

First time mooring the vessel
Future captain Sophie


I hope you are doing well on land, take care and see you next week!!
Sopietje 💚💙✌🏻⚓️🚢

1st Term ~ Week 1. ⚓🚢

1st Term ~ Week 1. ⚓🚢

Week 1 back onboard Ruyter!

And there I am, back onboard the Ruyter again for my first official term with Wagenborg!

It feels strange but really nice at the same time! Everything went so fast yet so slow due to our little virus friend not so friend…🦠

Traveling during covid-19 times and full lockdown…

Passed all my exams in February, passed them all, received my diploma in March and was scheduled to be onboard mid-April, but finally, all crew changes got postponed till 1st of May. I was lucky enough to spend a lot of lockdown time with my parents and brother at home. There hasn’t been one dull day between sorting ♻️ , arranging, fixing 🛠 , creating 🧵 , working out 🏋️ , walking the dogs 🐕 and baking 🍰 . And I really miss their presence and I am looking forward to seeing them in two months, safe and healthy 💚💙.

My welcome committee

After a long travel day, I joined the vessel in Rotterdam and got a welcome committee waiting for me as I was arriving by a small boat. It was a few months and to be honest very difficult not to give a hug to this second family, and keep the so-called social distance. Smiles and happy faces. This is what I like. 😃 I missed them and they obviously missed me too. It is good to be back; and not as trainee anymore but a chief officer. Let the fun begin! 🥳

Practising my welding skill…

I just needed a new overall and new gloves to be ready to go: back on the job, still learning and progressing in my welding skills ✌🏻 and already trying to have a good start and scrapping off jobs from the list… this is how we like it right? Chop chop! 💪🏻 it is nice to come with full new and fresh energy and just getting things done ✅ ✅ ✅

A hold full of Lupine seeds
And…. A small experience to see if they will actually grow!

We discharged lupine seeds 🌸🌿…. imagine a cargo fuuuuulll of flower seeds… well ko need to tell me what to do with those that were collected from the sweeping…. 😉 giving a try to a onboard small garden behind the sink in the Bridge…. just to make sure the captain wouldn’t throw my homemade garden pot made from half a bottle onto the blue shelve, I included him…. he probably thinks it is now his garden…;) good. Hopefully, he will not forget to water them either…. he is dutch after all right? 😉 And I am terrible at growing plants! 🌱 😂
…. @ Paris – Gare de Lyon

Nice weather sailing
Heavier weather sailing… To get sea legs back…