22nd – 28th of November 2021

Hello all! Will this be my last week onboard? We are not sure yet! Maybe we still make it for the weekend in The Netherlands, but honestly, I do not think so! For the first time, I might start a week 10 onboard while I am under contract!! As a trainee, I had 13 weeks to do and stayed a little longer but…. For the past 2 years, I was always home within 9 weeks. There is always a first for everything right? 😉

And here we are in Uusikaupunki in Finland. I am slowly figuring out that in Finland it is almost always nice weather when we are there. Or at least the lights, the skies and the colours are always so amazing! Sunrises and sunsets are so beautiful! I think I would not mind having a holiday house here in these areas somewhere in between the trees and the snow and where I would be able to go for long daily walks in the snow and have a small wooden house with a beautiful bay wind to enjoy the sunsets with a fireplace and a warm drink on the couch with a woollen blanket… Well yes, pretty much that picture! But yes that is daydreaming because it is now just cold enough but there is no snow yet and no ice in the water so it is just my imagination…. But I mean it is still very pretty.

Ok now having said that, the next day we were there it was snowing very hard so probably God up there heard my dream request haha; or it is just winter coming. I like to believe it is both. So yes Quite a bit of snow in the morning but then it finally cleared up and we could start discharging. The crane was there and the trucks started coming too. What I like about this harbour, is that it is just « easy ». That quay is easy, the foreman is not difficult, he is also following the weather forecast and tries to work with you with planning and possibilities and shares his forecast with you to compare. I like that. In some harbours, trust me, the foreman and stevedores do not care at all what they are doing and if you close because of rain they get upset and start shouting at you so you really have to learn how to shout back!

Well that being said, we had our first snow in Uusikaupunki, which I thought was pretty exciting!

Oh, the other exciting thing I had was a friend in the water with me all morning! Yes as I was doing so deck jobs there was a seal in the water on the port side. It was staring at me and I was staring back and was trying to talk to him and make sounds… it was pretty cool. But of course, the moment I wanted to take a good picture, he was gone. Do you ever have that too? The moment you want to immortalise a moment, then it is gone and only belongs in your head?

Well, then I continued doing my deck jobs of course. 

Then I got distracted a second time with climbing up the aft mast to check if all was in good order still…. And as you know my history with climbing masts and working at heights. I probably stayed there a couple of minutes more than necessary just to enjoy the fresh air and the view!

Ok, the cargo deck is probably – for sure- not as pretty as a tall ship’s wooden deck, right? But I got to appreciate it, knowing all the time the ABs spent scraping off the old paint, grinding sand and repainting very nicely the hatches. And also the various colours you can see: the shore crane, the cargo, etc…. Well you know it is just appreciation of all the small things around 🙂 I just think it is cool. And I hope you enjoy it too haha!

Once the cargo discharge was complete we sailed to Dalsbruk through the inshore waters of Finland! That was actually a pretty cool trip. All the way we had a pilot on board and halfway changed for another. It was a pity that it was during the night because of course it was pitch dark and you could only see the buoys around. And it was a lot of bearings too. I guess the Finnish pilots know these routes and shortcuts like the back of their hands but for us, it was pretty interesting. Also to know that even though you are taking pilots all the way which costs quite a bit, taking the inside water is way shorter so fewer miles and less fuel burnt so, in the end, it compensates well. Just a pity it was all by night. I think I would have very much enjoyed seeing the scenery!

Anyways. Dalsbruk was a very small harbour. It is known in the summer as it is full of sailing vessels. The quayside for the cargo ships was very short and we barely made it ;-). We did but it was short let’s say: so sticking out forward and backwards. It was the first time that they were going to load wet sand on such a vessel as ours. And also the first time they were having a ship transporting it back to The Netherlands. Interesting… Second time in this term that we are a « first-timer ».

The nice thing with wet sand is that the cargo hold also did not need to be dry which saved us some crazy mopping work. It was very clean though, as usual. We loaded like we load fertiliser or other types of stones or sand. 4 piles of approximately 750 tons each and a little more closer to the aft. The grab could barely reach aft and forward… Actually, he was probably a little lazy to move his machine… but in the end, he had to because we complained that he was just throwing the cargo in the hold… which was not good for two reasons: heavy weight falling on the tank top (it damages the steel) and wrong positioning of the cargo in the hold (stability issues). Instead of having specific piles and amounts of weight, we would have a splattered area of sand. In the end, it was all good. It is also nice to be in such a small harbour: easy people, no extra safety measures like in some ports where we almost have to call in to be accompanied to check our drafts otherwise we get problems…

Here, they were pretty chatty and asking me where I was coming from and telling us what we could do in Dalsbruk and inviting us to come back in the summer when it was « the place to be » from all of the places in Finland… of course? You know, when we are doing some cargo operations, we do not go off in town. We also wait until either the operations stop for the night to have a beer. And for sure when it was a busy earlier day and night well, to be honest, we do not want to go to town so late haha. Or maybe I am just getting old.

That evening, I had one of the best sunsets ever. I do not know why the lights are so pretty and the colours so orange-red and almost purple every single time during sunsets in Finland. I always tend to take a lot of different pictures of them because the moment vanishes so fast and every couple of minutes it seems different and prettier. Do you get what I mean by that?

Anyways during the night we finished loading and headed the next morning out with the Pilot onboard. They are only two pilots for that area which seems very little to me. What if one is on holiday or sick? What if more vessels come in? It is really that you have to wait your turn and pick the good timing.

On our way southwest the weather was still pretty windy outside; but luckily not as much as the previous voyages. A couple of big waves here and there and some rain of course. Sometimes sunshine which is nice because it reminds you that behind all the greyness there is still some blue sky somewhere… and indeed I saw a couple of really big and beautiful rainbows on the way. 

That is enjoyable at sea because there is no interference so you can sometimes see both ends of the rainbow!. Although it never fits in the picture it is nice to see in real-time and to just enjoy the moment. As usual right? 😉

We passed the Kiel Channel again and headed towards the North Sea where there was still quite some swell left from earlier stronger winds. We rolled quite a bit but nothing dramatic or unbearable. Rain, drizzle, sunshine, clouds, big waves and rolls. Yep normal North Sea weather in winter times… Oh well, I prefer when it is all shiny and bright. Sometimes it reminds me that in the past years I would spend winter in the Caribbean with lovely warm and sunny weather. I guess my skin should be covered up a bit more right? Fewer wrinkles, less sun damage, less whatever… I do miss the sun kisses highlights in my hair and the light tan tough….

We were all ready to arrive in The Netherlands the next morning. With a new beginning of the week that was not showing great help weather-wise: a lot of wind and rain. Of course. Just for my last trip right?

Oh well, lets see next week!

Xxx

Sophie