7th till 13th of March 2022

Here we arrived in Brake in the morning. This is perfect because it gives us time to prepare for discharging: we need to take all the timber lashing for the deck cargo and the tarpaulins off. This takes quite some time – but luckily less than when we make them tight! haha!

We took the afternoon to roll all the lashings and the tarpaulins that were no more in use. We would then store them the next day in the lashing store as we had time to do it during the discharging. Only a part of our cargo would go to Brake and the other part to Bremen. Obviously, the deck cargo and the top part of the cargo that was in the hold were for the first harbour and the rest for the second harbour. Just saying. It can be logical for some but not for others. When we load, first the second harbour comes in first then the second. We also need to make sure that we can keep a nice trim once we are partially discharged. Often that can be slightly corrected with a part of the ballast already in….

Anyways. Tuesday Morning I woke up early to be on deck as they started discharging in the morning. I did not have to open hatches yet as there was still cargo on top of it. Also, We would first have to take the bottom tarpaulins off before being able to reach the speed locks. After an hour or a little more, I woke the deck crew up to help me with the tarpaulins. We needed to fold them nicely and neatly and store them again. It is not difficult to do but it is faster with a few people of course. And if there is a bit of wind then the sail just blows away very easily. Also, we do not want the crane to wait on us for discharging, so we have to always be a little bit ahead of time and clean up, to be ready to open as soon as possible for the discharge to go as smoothly as possible. Remember? It is always all about money and time and time and money… I work for the ship, so I have to make sure that I do everything in my power to not have the ship lose money…. Let’s say I am here to make the ship win money by transporting cargo in name of the company right?

Well, then this is what I also try to do then! Haha. So here we are myself and the ABs and the trainee, folding the tarpaulins on deck and waiting in the beautiful sun. It was not so cold and there was no pressure, just good moments and a lot of laughing. I like days like that. I like to be working outside. I like laughter and a good atmosphere. We were happy. Probably still enjoying as much as we could before the hard work would come when putting back the chains and the slings. In the lashing store haha.

It was a 2 hours sail to Bremen and we wanted to make sure that we would sail before the end of the afternoon to not have so much night work for nothing.

The morning gang from Brake was quite a fast crew. They discharged most of the packages before they left for their crew change. If not all of them. We were ready with our hatches closed when the other crew arrived. The problem was that all our slings were still ashore and we needed them to give them back to us with their crane.

Also. They probably did not really like each other between morning and afternoon crew because they had left all the timber ashore directly on the floor with our slings around them still; and not in an organised manner at all! It was a pure mess and the forklifts could not access some of the packs of timber without moving others around it was difficult because they were directly on the ground without space for them to insert the fork and lift them…

Besides that, 8 people were watching two forklifts work…. And those were not the best: as we were all waiting on the hatches looking at them, they were moving around packages that were already without slings while we were waiting and waiting….

Our engine was even on already!

After one hour, Trust me, I told the captain I would go out and scream at them a little hoping would accelerate the pace. Luckily it did. I do not always like screaming, but sometimes you do need to. Otherwise, nothing happens. And unfortunately, as a woman, I need to scream a little harder otherwise the men ashore just look at me and laugh. So there I was…. from the top of the hatches telling the shore team to speed up; telling them it was one hour already that we were waiting and that our engine was on and that we were waiting on them and that nothing was happening. They were all a bit confused. In reality, it did not happen exactly like that… a couple of them started staring at me and laughing -probably thinking I was crazy- so I threw in a few rude words that touched their ego…. And then it started moving a bit faster too.

I was laughing because of captain H.: he was telling me by VHF to tell them that even his grandmother of 98 was faster than them!

Oh well, that was a good laugh. 20 minutes later we were finally casting off our lines and sailing in direction of Bremen further on the river.

The next morning we discharged the rest of the timber and that lasted the full day.

While the ABs were collecting all the slings as they came and directly putting them in the lashing store, we would after that have to put the chains in and the « timber job » would be closed till…..next time.

The nice thing is that we managed to repaint the lashing store on that voyage and make it nice again. All the slings were stored in the lashing store and non in the bow thruster room. I must say I was very happy about it. We made smaller packages of slings: by 10, they were way lighter and easier to handle of course than by packs of 25….. and we could also squeeze them more easily in small corners which was perfect. I was quite proud of the result. The lashing store is slowly getting organised, finally! And we even have an extra shelf there as an extension of the deck store in the aft; this way we can keep only the things we use regularly at hand reach and once in a while get things out from the forecastle or the lashing store.

The next trip was loading would pulp in Brake again…. 

In the late evening we sailed back to Brake and the next morning we loaded wood pulp. I was just hoping we would not get the same afternoon shore crew back…. You know…. Those on which I said rude things to get them to work faster …. And surprise yes! It was the same team! Like « oepsies ». Well, the good thing is that there was not the whole team again; just the crane driver. And you know what? I was not ashamed… we were a bit in our right to scream at them to go faster because they were wasting our time and that was not correct….

Anyways. Loading wood pulp took a little longer than planned as their crane broke down for a couple of hours…. We were sailing back to the icy area: Kotka! I sometimes find it funny to see how cargo goes from one place to another: close to Kotka there is a wood pulp factory; why on earth do we bring wood pulp back there? Of course, there are different qualities and different trees to make cellulose. Usually, the one we load in Belgium or The Netherlands comes from Brazil and is made of Eucalyptus.

In the evening we completed loading and sailed up to the Kiel Channel again… And yes, Kiel Channel on a Sunday; of course. Lucky not at night, but it is usually either one or the other! Haha.

And there was our week gone!

The highlight was my manoeuvring! Yes, you heard it! In Bremen, I manoeuvred the vessel to put her alongside! I was so happy and proud it made my day! You will hear more from me about that every time I manoeuvre! I just love that!

Anyways…. I wish you a great Sunday and see you on the other side of the Kiel Canal tomorrow!

XXXX Sophie