Tag: life at sea

3d Term, Week 6 🤩⚓️

22nd – 28th of February 2021

Riga!!!! Discharging the nice fertilizer loaded in Sluiskil! After a couple of days sailing in the Baltic, we arrived in Riga. It was an interesting trip for me because when entering the Gulf of Riga, we were regularly checking the ice maps for the ice situation. And it seem it was all clear for us till Riga, which was good. Maybe a bit more ice close to the coast. But then this happened: During my night watch, I found it strange that a ship ahead of me suddenly slowed down and almost stopped. That vessel was of course quite a few miles ahead of me, and there were also other vessels behind me and we had probably all checked the same ice charts that evening but….. As I saw the vessel strongly slowing down and only doing 2-3 knots of speed; I paid a little more attention to the horizon to try and figure out what was happening. Indeed, my route was not too far from hers so I didn’t want to be on a collision course with her but wanted to leave enough space in case she had some troubles and was drifting. But suddenly on the horizon, I could distinguish in the deep night so blurry greyish cover on the horizon. And there was a huge ice patch there and it was not mentioned on the ice charts!

Perfect conditions for discharging in Riga
The quayside in Riga still full of snow
Ruyter alongside in Riga, discharging fertilizer, the fog came up.

We did not have much choice to go through, but luckily Ruyter is an Ice class A vessel so she handles it well. Of course, the inevitable noise of ice scratching the hull surprised quite a few that night. Normal: they had expected a peaceful non-icy night and they suddenly felt as if we were stuck in ice again. Almost. I mean. It was a surprise for us. And also for the other vessels. The one ahead of us and… the ones behind us! The only thing you have to do is slow down the ship and enter slowly to not have any unwanted damages. Because of the ship ahead we knew the patch was not that big; but big enough to last a couple of hours pushing away the patch. It reminded me of when we would go on unchartered areas in Antarctica on board Bark Europa… slowly pushing and making sure everything was fine. Well; that happened and it was fun. It was my little story of the night, haha and I shall remember it well! « The unchartered big patch of ice in the Gulf of Riga ».

So there we were back in ice in the harbour. A nice blue sky the morning, all hatches open, but nice and fresh (read cold haha…) air outside. Good. I do not mind the cold anymore, right? All these cold showers are supposed to toughen me up, and after my experience at -17° in Finland… any temperature around the 0° should be warm too, is that not correct? There was also still snow on the quaysides! Amazing! It is funny how in these last posts, I have the feeling I have been only talking about timber cargo, ice and snow. But to be honest it is probably the only thing we talk about onboard: how cold it is going to be outside for cargo and mooring operations and what we have to do on deck for the lashings! Haha. Oh well.

the view from the porthole in my cabin

I was saying that the day started with a great blue sky so I opened up all hatches for discharging. But later during the day, it started to become foggy. I do not really like it when it is foggy because I never know what to expect. I know that in theory there is no rain with fog, but to my eyes, fog is only damp air; thus wet air and it is not that I get nervous with sensitive cargo, but I do find myself checking outside way more often than with blue sky. Fertilizer dissolves very fast with water, and would not want to have it on my hands that the cargo gets damaged because of me. Luckily it did not happen and we were discharged very smoothly.

Underway to Hamina , following the icebreaker

From Riga, we sailed in ballast to Hamina again to do our second timber voyage to Brake. Unlike Riga, Hamina was still completely covered in ice. There was so much ice that we actually got stuck in the ice! Yes yes! We tried pushing a bit but we were not going anywhere really. And if the pushing method works for smaller and already a bit broken ice; it doesn’t work at all for big thick unbroken patches. We had to call the ice breaker. Captain H. Called them and as they were not too far from us, they came directly to « rescue » us. I mean it is not a rescue in the literal sense; they are there to assist us. And that is what they did! They flew in to help us and passed next to us quite close to break the ice and create a waterway for us. It seems for them that it was normal sailing: no ice no nothing. Can you imagine the power they have? As you cannot move forward they just sail close by to help you out and create a gap so that you can sail through? It was pretty cool to see! We had to be fast to captain H. Directly followed him because otherwise the ice just closes back behind the ice-breaker and we are stuck again. We could almost sail our normal speed again….

Sailing in the ice
The bulb passing the ice when sailing

And we loaded in the same conditions as two weeks ago. Except that this time we did not have a full weekend waiting in the harbour. Oh and also the weather was not as nice with big sun and blue skies. We loaded directly the day after we arrived. This time I was more at ease. More at ease because I knew the cargo, I knew the plan as I had already seen it in action once and simply because I knew what was expected. As simple as that.

Alongside in Hamina, Finland

The sun of course only came out as we were sailing out of the harbour. I would not say it often happens like that but… yeah. The good thing about sailing in winter, compared to autumn for example; is that there are more high-pressure systems so the majority of the time it is blue skies and correct winds. While in autumn it can be horrible weather with very strong winds and depressions passing over the Baltic Sea one after the other. And that is very tiring.

Loading timber in Hamina

This time what was tiring was the lashing of the deck cargo; once again. But not the weather. As it was the second time we were doing it, we managed to get in a good rhythm and found a few tricks to make our lives easier. Working with the watch crane a bit more to lift the heavy parts for example. But it seems that there is no way to end up not making so many steps and back and forth to carry the slings and hooks and chains from one part to another of the ship. Unless having to storages, one fore and one aft; but it is not the case. We just put our « just do it » mentality on and… just did it; calmly but well. It is very important to double-check the lashing on deck because if it is not tight enough, cargo can fall and it becomes a big problem for the stability of the ship.

Departing Hamina in icy water

The lashing took place during the daytime and we easily sailed out in the middle of the afternoon for Brake. We managed to have a beautiful sunset too. I admit I do not get tired of sunsets at sea. I have a lot of pictures of them. When I see one I take a picture. It is always the same but different. Different colours, different clouds; but always as beautiful as the previous one.

Beautiful sunset underway to Brake with Timber deck cargo

It was a fully efficient and hard working day. It was time for me to get some rest before my night watch at midnight.

We were back on track for a few days sailing before Kiel Channel again and Brake. Would this become our routine for the next voyage? Mhm… we shall see next week!

Take care and have a good rest my friends!

Xxx Sophie

3d Term, Week 5 🤩 ⚓️

15th- 21st of February 2021

Hello! And… another week in Sophie’s adventures onboard Ruyter! Yeah! So as you guessed most probably with my hint from last week, our « promised « Hamina-Brake » trips lasted for 1 trip for now! We were indeed sent to Sluiskil to load fertilizer to Riga! For a change! Maybe from Riga, we would be going back to Hamina…. Hopefully. I honestly kind of liked that all icy timber loadings and…. Not that I am getting « hooked » to it yet, I like to have a cold and freezing winter and a nice and warm summer. So that our trips differ from summer to winter. Indeed. As we are sailing in the same waters all year long, I like to have a few differences in the scenery. It makes a known place look oh so different when it is cold and covered in ice and snow, or when it is all green and sunny glasses are required…. Do you follow what I mean?

Discharging timber cargo in Brake, Germany

Or maybe it was the idea of having to clean the cargo hold again after fertilizer. And let’s admit it. With timber you only need a good sweep because it is clean cargo, and washing the hold in winter is a hell of a lot of work because it doesn’t dry as fast as in the summer: you really need to use the squiggly very well, and mop the tank top as good as you can so that hopefully with the air dryer it will all be ready for hold inspection in the next harbour.

Ruyter alongside in Brake, Germany

But it is ok. Fertilizer it is. Washing the cargo hold is fun, and is also part of the job. At least it is not paperwork…. Although I do not really mind paperwork.

Ok so here we are on a busy busy Monday in Brake: finishing the discharge of the timber, cleaning the hold and preparing it for the next cargo (angle tarpaulins to prevent the cargo to come behind the bulkheads, giving it a good wash for the inspectors and closing everything (speed locks and wedges) for the ultrasonic test we would get.

Oh and of course, as it usually happens when we are close to The Netherlands: food delivery! We get our food and ship provisions from Ship2supply in Delfzijl and after a few years we got to know them well and it is always a pleasure to see their truck parking close by to our gangway… ok ok. Not only for the good food, fresh fruits and vegetables we are getting on board but mainly for the crate of cookies! Haha joking. It is always nice to see familiar faces coming on board.

Always happy to see our friends from Ship2Supply!

I was very glad we had our good walk the day before because Monday was quite rainy: happy we were discharging timber, so not a weather-sensitive cargo! It seemed that the rain kept following us for the next days after that.

On the north sea all the way to Sluiskil, where we had to wait a few days alongside without being able to load due to «conjecture»…. Because of the rain of course. Everything seems to stop with rain. I can understand but yeah. A bit frustrating, also when you cannot go ashore. But that is the way it is.

On our way south in the north sea; it was pretty cool: during dinner (why does everything tend to happen during dinner or coffee breaks right?), I had a helicopter call on VHF 16. It often happens that they want to practice boarding a ship so they call us to ask permission to train on our ship. Up to now, I have never had a captain saying he didn’t allow it which is quite cool. It feels like «something is happening onboard» when they are there.

Helicopter drill in the North Sea!
Helicopter drill in the North Sea!

I like helicopters in general. Also on land, if there is a military show with helicopters, tankers and all sorts of cool stuff, I am always one of the first ones asking if I can have a look inside and If I can sit in the pilot’s chair…. Are you not? I always think that what is unusual and not so common can be fun and interesting.

So there was the helicopter drill onboard the ship. Finally a bit of « cooler » on this grey and wet winter day. It was almost dark outside and quite windy too so I suppose it must have been good training for them!

After rain always comes the sun… sunsets at sea!

Passing the locks in Terneuzen, weren’t alongside directly after the locks on the waiting berth to have the hold inspection done: Ultrasound test, an inspection of the hold and the bilge. All good. As usual.

Ballasting at the waiting berth in Terneuzen!

They say the hold surveyors from the yard are tough ones and that they are always picky. I have had only once some discussions with some about our rubbers and a speed lock they found was not tight enough for them… ( really?) All the other times it went smoothly. But I still sometimes have that knot in the stomach thinking: will it also pass this time? And it does. I should not worry. I am a Sophie so I do: in my opinion, if it doesn’t pass it is because I was not precise enough in my job and in cleaning and supervision the end result …

The Yara surveyors preparing for the Ultra sonic test on board
This device stays in the hold during the Ultra Sonic test.

They also say that they will be less picky if they have a lot of ships waiting and conjecture; and pickier if their cargo is not ready…. That is the game in shipping: trying to win time for who will be paying what in the end. If they say the ship is not ready and the hold was not accepted, then the ship cannot issue the notice of readiness and the timer doesn’t start…. Do you get it?

The way an ultrasound works is by having all the hatches closed, speed locks on and wedges too. One of the surveyors put a box in the middle of the hold and another one goes around all the hatches with a headset and a tool that looks like an antenna. This way they measure by the number of frequencies passing through the rubbers if there is a « leak » or not. If they aren’t any leaks: all good; if some are found then we need to fix them. simple. 

As soon as the ship that was still in our berth left, we shifted to the Zijkanal C where we would be loading. Luckily we did not have to wait as long as predicting and that same evening we started loading; hatches by hatches has it was still quite grey and cloudy outside…

Ruyter alongside at the Yara terminal in Sluiskil.

It is important to keep in mind the time that it takes you to open or close the hatches; the loading process: if it is by truck, by belt, by crane because this means you cannot decide directly if you want to close the hatches, you might need to wait until the belt is empty which can take a few minutes sometimes…. The cranes are usually the easiest in case of bad weather because they go grab by grab and you can pass in-between and start closing in some places where the hatch cover crane is for example. And the other thing you need to be very aware of is your trim: you cannot use the hatch cover crane in all situations. If your trim is too big it can become very dangerous to drive and let’s say there is slippery cargo on the rails…. It doesn’t help at all.

Loading Fertiliser in Sluiskil, with only one hatch open.

The even hatches at the top hatches, the uneven ones at the bottom hatches. This means that we cannot open the bottom hatches before the top ones. For cargo operations, this implies that we can have either 1 hatch open or 3 in case of bad weather, but not « just two »….( except for hatches 1 and 2 and hatches 8 and 9 😉 )

Sometimes the equipment they use for loading can handle with just one hatch open: very handy like that we do not have to stop all the time, and it is opened and closed way faster. We are there to load right? 

I always find it interesting to see different points of view of the ship…

This time they had a pipe that could turn around quite well so with only one hatch open we could reach under half of the other two hatches next to the open one. And the rate was also fast so it is nice too. You do not have the impression that nothing is happening!

Less than 24 hours later we were out at sea again: through the locks in Terneuzen and off with the pilot in front of Flushing and out in the North Sea. Great! I like it when it managed to stay dry just the time we need to load. The harbour because touch and go. I like being long at sea; I like also being a few days in harbour, but only when we can go sightseeing and for a walk so…. This time we couldn’t better sail again! Haha

A little over 24hours we were already at the locks in Brunsbüttel. Again a bit of luck to have currents with and some easy times for the locks and pilot changes on the channel. Usually, it is always in the middle of the night and some always have to stay longer for the locks or have to come up earlier for the pilot change. It rarely happens that it is similar to our watch system… but yeah we have to go through anyways right?

In the locks in Brunsbüttel, before entering the Kiel Channel

And finally, finally, we got our routine schedule back sailing all the way to Riga fully loaded with fertilizer.

Sometimes I wonder…. Yara is Finnish, but there is also fertilizer in Russia or almost every harbour in Finland…. Why bring it all the way from The Netherlands? I mean I know they are not all the same fertilizers…. But I find it strange sometimes that cargo goes back and forth… imagine how pointless it would be to bring back and forth the same cargo right? I say that, but I am certain it actually does happen with steel coils or wood or wood pulp too! I wouldn’t be surprised!

Underway to Riga…

But okay… I am not sure and I think I would rather not know. It would make my job a bit pointless.

I am glad we could finally catch up on some sleep and some rest with these few easy sailing days. Because after Riga we would probably go back for the timber (so hard work with lashing again) or have short icy trips in the baltic…. We do not know yet!

Let’s dream of another easy sailing trip…. And I will see you next week!

Checking the drafts in Sluiskil: always with a smile of course!

Ciao ciao!!

Sophie xxx

3d Term, Week 3 🤩⚓️

1st-7th of February 2021

Another couple of days sailing in the Baltic Sea, enjoying the calm sailing and the view from the foredeck. This always brings me so much joy to be out there. I know I have mentioned earlier already that it reminds me of the good old times on board sailing ships. There you are always outside in the wind and sun or cold and rain! Have you ever been all the way out on the bowsprit a big tall ship? Either just for the view or to go for a real sail? Well, it gives you a feeling of freedom and awe that is incomparable. You have the feeling you possess the world yes really! If you have not tried yet, you’d better find the closest tall ship nearby and book a trip to try! I should make this a sort of promise to myself to go there way more often than I do now that would be good for me!… even more fun to go there with more crew!

So here we are in Hamina! Ready to discharge the rails and it is indeed frozen everywhere! I had been waiting and expecting ice already since the Swedish coast! But nothing. Then there! In the binoculars, I could finally see a little bit of ice! So it was indeed true! There was ice in the Baltic! We had to wait until later in the evening to see more ice while sailing. We were already close enough to shore and the ice was not too dense, despite fact that it was thick. An ice breaker had broken the way for us to be able to enter the harbour. It was a bit noisy inside the ship due to the ice scratching along the hull and ice blocs going through the propeller. But it didn’t last too long. And I was also coming on watch so I could enjoy the view from the bridge together with the captain and pilot that was onboard then. It was quite new for me of course so I was looking everywhere and just enjoying every bit of it.

Arrival in Hamina by night.

I was trying to finally meet pictures and real scenery. All the stories and explanations the crew onboard were talking about. Of course Captain H. loves ice sailing and the cold so everything from his point of view is the best thing ever. The Indonesian crew have different stories and if the heater is full-on in their cabins and accommodation corridor, they do show themselves brave enough to not complain once were working and waiting on deck. This is not their climate. But they do also get used to it too.

When getting ready to moor the ship in the middle of the night: ice and snow everywhere!

We will have a crew change here in Hamina: one Ab is going home and another one coming and the engineers are also swapping. Imagine for a second the difference of temperature they will be facing! Coming in over -10°c with warm blood! We, onboard, have had time to adjust, but not them yet!

The first thing we do when we arrive and are fast alongside is to put the gangway in position so that the pilot can disembark, then we directly prepare the ship to be ready to discharge: open speed-locks and wedges, prepare the hatch crane… This time, we also had to check the ice situation on deck. The last 10 hours we had some spray on our port side now, not much, but just enough to cover the ship with ice. In some parts, we had 4cm of ice and in others, it was a few mm only. This is important to know because it can be very dangerous for the stability of the vessel to have much ice on deck. It creates an extra unwanted weight that sometimes cannot be removed easily.

Ruyter alongside in Hamina, the next morning..
Hammering the ice off from the hatches to make the ship ready for discharge.

For that, we have big wooden hammers and we make sure that the hatches can open and that the hatch crane can rail everywhere without being blocked by the ice. This time we just made it ready to discharge and prepared everything then went to bed. We wouldn’t start discharging till the next day, but in case of a change of plan in the schedule, we should always be open ready hatches. Later in the morning and afternoon, we hammered and scooped away the snow that had accumulated.

It was not too bad actually, I enjoyed it quite a bit as it gives you a good workout and keeps you warm. The hammering part. Not the shovelling part. Our first 4 hatches have brand new paint coating which makes it too slippery for my taste.

Captain H. and AB J. hammering and shovelling the iced hatches.

I do not know how the guys do it. I have the feeling I am like in a circus or cartoon with soap under my feet walking like a grandma and lowering myself down on the knees to crawl like a baby and avoid falling! We had a good laugh and lots of fun..

Lots of blocs of ice in the water!

In Finland, they have a full day of work from 06:00 till 23:00 but we have a 1-hour difference as we stay in ship time. So that meant that they would start discharging at 05:00 my time. I need a little less than to 30min open all the hatches safely with no pressure. Usually, I take a quick 10 min to prepare myself, and then once the ship is ready outside I make myself a nice cup of coffee and start my day. This time I was quite anxious about the amount of snow that would have probably fallen during the night. I woke up the whole night to check through my porthole. I was awake early every day, in the freezing cold. I could not feel my hands in my gloves anymore. All that time I was thinking that cold was only a piece of information to and trying to be a female version of Wim Hof with not much success- my hands were so cold! I am glad they did not fall off!

Anyways. Ice sailing is fun even though it requires more effort and work I guess. I do not mind. Not only because I like to feel the fresh air face but I also like to have a difference in seasons: in the winter nice and cold with snow and ice and winter overalls and not feeling your fingers anymore when driving the hatch crane and in the summer shorts and tee shirts not so many layers and enjoying the sun tanning your skin, longer days and the warm breeze at sea. The next day we discharged in one day and shifted berth to load timber.

Timber! My first timber cargo. I must say I was a little anxious about it because I have heard a lot of times that timber was a “difficult ” cargo. Because it required a lot of work for the lashing on deck. We would be sailing to Brake, on the Weser river, in Germany. When we arrived at our new berth we heard that we would not load during the weekend. Finish stevedores in this harbour do not work on weekends. To be honest, I was quite happy because I had never really had the opportunity to walk around ashore in Finland. I actually think that it was my first time too.

Our walk from the ship to Hamina in Finland
Proof that I have been to Hamina, Finland!

So we had a quiet weekend and went for a long walk to Hamina, 6 km back and 6 km forth. It was really freezing cold outside: up to -17°c! Finally had the opportunity to buy my first postcards while being onboard Ruyter! This is also a challenge to get some cards while working here! The walk was great! I was afraid to be a bit cold as I only left with my thin jeans on my legs, I had a few woollen layers on my upper body. But I was ok. Walking really heats you up.

Hamina is a tiny city. With corona, not much was really open. But probably also because we have a one hour time difference with them and we were there in the late afternoon in town. We were looking for a place to have a nice coffee but couldn’t find one, so ended up asking, and found ourselves sitting at a small food cafe inside the tiny ” shopping mall” it was just what we needed a coffee and a small bite before returning to the ship. We had decided this time to take the ice way back aka walk all the way back on the ice, where normally ships would it be passing! Was quite a fun experience!

The next day we went again to Hamina but this time back and forth on the ice directly. It was a shortcut… But this time found bars open! So we sat in a pub for a Sunday beer together… thinking of our friends back home who could not enjoy a beer in a bar because all restaurants and pubs were closed till further notice. Well. Most of the times sailors do not have time off but this time – for once- we were the lucky ones!

Engineer A., Captain H., Duschi the dog (you only see the leach!) and myself enjoying the second walk to town.

Talking about relaxing and cold weather! I have had my very first dip in freezing ice-cold water too! It was -14°c outside and we were just alongside. The AB’s put the pilot ladder out and we (captain H. and I put our swimsuits on and went in the water! There was ice everywhere of course! To be honest the water did not feel that cold! It was more my hands. Hurting and starting to “stick” to the iced ladder so I came out.

Going in to the ice cold water while it is -14 degrees outside! 💪🏻

Thanks to my cold daily showers this was very enjoyable and I own looking forward to more ice swimming! What a great week this was, with so many highlights!

Happy chief officer Sophie, all wrapped up for the cold!

Looking forward to next week and the timber!

xxx ciao for now! Sophie