Tag: new life

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 8 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 8 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻


Week 8… week 8??!! Wow. And again wow wow. Where are these days going?
I am more than halfway through my internship on board and I do not even realize how far we have already come!

A happy trainee having fun cleaning under the hatch covers together with the engineer

This week was very busy with loading and discharging. Discharging our RDF (garbage bills) deep cleaning the hold with apple 🍏 chemicals, leaving Norrköping to Jättersön, also Sweden 🇸🇪, to load wood pulp for Rauma Finland 🇫🇮 and then direction Kotka 🇫🇮…. a few touches and goes with 6-8 hours in the harbour and of course arrivals and departures usually in the middle of the night or during meal times… all seafarers know it usually happens this way 😂.

Washing the cargo hold with strong soap and a high-pressure cleaner

Pretty proud of saying i was in charge of all these cargo operations, ballasting included 💪🏻 and that it went pretty well indeed! It was a lot of fun and even what I thought would be challenging: the weather getting colder and colder here 🥶, I am still playing “onion” with layers and haven’t taken out the big winter coverall…. at 5 am with 30knots of wind 💨 opening hatches are not that fun but it just reminds me I have spent two seasons in Antarctica and good old memories of furling sails up in a frozen rigging were the coolest thing ever. 😎. Burning fingers and ears and runny sniffy nose is soon going to be my daily state. Just a good preparation for skiing season right? 🎿

Sunrise in Jätterson, Sweden
Filling airbags with compressed air

This week workwise was pretty interesting: the cargo we transport (what do companies do with wood pulp: pretty cool and super clean and lots of fun inflating air cushions to seafasten the blocks!) the new places I have never been too: Sweden and the first time in Finland! Ok well so… I have only seen the coast right, but it is as if… ok I really miss exploring new places I admit. I am lucky I don’t even have time to think of it though. One day I will travel more. I know. It is in my blood.

The sea fastening of wood pulp blocks with airbags

And well ending the week with a day at anchor out of Kotka to recharge and call my MOM ♥️ yeah…. that is what I call recharging… I hope you don’t always read in these posts that everything seems so easy for me to achieve…. being a “trainee with experience” is not always the easiest position and letting go is something I am working hard on. My parents are the only people on this 🌍 to whom i can sometimes empty all those feelings i keep for myself and they will not change there opinion on me and i love them to death for that ♥️!

Early morning in Rauma, Finland

So there went week 8 a spooky 👻 week but a good week on the move! I shall remind myself a bit more often to take a daily happy picture again because I am having fun despite me 📚!
The good thing is that challenges can always be overcome with help from up there 🌟 , love and trust! ✌🏻

It is often long days in the harbour but it is also fun

Take care all! Lots of love Sophie xx✌🏻 ⚓️ ♥️ @ Rauma, Finland

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 6 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 6 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

Yet another challenging week went by.

We visited two harbours: Warrenpoint in Northern Ireland to discharge, the soja bean meal we had from Russia and with full ballast, sailed to Limerick in Ireland 🇮🇪. It was funny to see how they hoisted a bobcat in the hold to scoop everything! It looks like a fun toy to play with and from the deck like a little lego car! 😂 We said goodbye to our chief officer too.

Entering the river to Limerick with no wind

My first challenge was (and might still be! ) showing who I am and getting used to the new one. I find it difficult to get used to people. I do not share and do not want to because I know it is not going to last long and I do not want to get hurt by sharing, caring, and then leaving again. It always seems like it is all for nothing. Especially the ones I do care for, I can get really deeply attached to people which makes my heart feel sometimes so heavy when I think of them or miss them.

Such a beautiful sunset on the river

Also working wise, once again I have to show that no, I am not like a normal trainee and that I actually have experience… it feels like starting all over again.

There is always a rainbow showing up where there is rain and sun

The other challenge was that I got from school that I still had to do a few reports. Good that I asked. If I hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have known…😑🔫grrr. Always something to do on top of it. And of course, these need to be done before the last month I am onboard so…. for soon haha 😆 but I know I’ll get it done. It’s just… frustrating.

Then, when in Limerick, I was in charge of the loading: like a big girl, emptying all the ballast by myself, loading at the same time, the books, the draughts, and the voyage planning, the hatches….

My first loading operation. : RDF

Well, I had fun in the engine room again with the captain while the others were grocery shopping for the vessel… I learned a lot and even though it wasn’t difficult, and as I am a Sophie, I just want everything to be good from the first time… putting my self-pressure! 😉 but… it went more than good. A good example of my new job!✌🏻

Happy deballasting in the engine room

The last challenge is that I got a year older….. and I am not so sure I like that. I feel young so I am still young. Age. Is. A. Number. 😱 but I got a great 🎂 🙂 ♥️ and I am so grateful for all the messages. 🙂

Happy Birthday ”Sopie”… Where my nickname started…

Now off to Sweden! ✌🏻♥️⚓ @ Limerick, Ireland

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 5 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 5 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

Oh. My. God. This week went SO fast. I have no idea where it went!

We are underway to Ireland 🇮🇪 with a cargo hold full of Soja bean meel…. as you can see, the ship was filled by a sort of grain blower in the hold… it is pretty funny to see.

The trainee checking out the loading process

It took us a bit long to load in Kaliningrad because of the weather. As it is sensitive, the hatches were closed as soon as there were drops of rain…. so on gangway watch we spent time counting drops… part of the job.. I guess! ☔️

Only a few hatched open to be fast in case of rain

The last days in Russia 🇷🇺 were pretty long waiting for customs and clearance to come onboard and when they finally did they were 13 searching the vessel ! Its Crazy.

Svetly harbour by night

We had to go through a facecheck again and the officer looked at me and my seamans’s book: « so… you are French? » … well yes! 🤔 I was glad he could at read! But just wondered why he doubted I knew I was French haha! 😂

I am glad we are now underway. It is good to go sailing and leave the craziness of harbour behind get some rythm and rest: homework 📚 of course but also sleep 💤…. It is pretty interesting to see the vessel going through 30knots of wind and I then remember how it can also be fun on a sailing vessel ⛵️ but again pretty wet.. I will not be complaining for the few big waves that hig the vessel…. I still slept like a baby! 🌊

Big waves on the bow

The sunset this evening by the south Orkney islands was amazing 🙌🏻. The sky and clouds offered impressive colours! Thank you 🌎 ♥️. This is a good reminder that life can also just « be » sometimes ;).

Calm seas through the Orkneys

This is my last week before being on the dark side of age… I wish i could still postpone it for a bit. 😆 once again it will happen on a ship. I wish sometimes I could stop time. And just transport myself towards the people I want to be with … hmmhmh … 💭 😆 Hopefully no buckets of water or firehoses this time 😉 🚿

A trainee that needs to concentrate on her school reports…

No worries, I am happy onboard and the crew I share my days with are really fun. I am glad I have met them! 🙂 even though I do miss my family and loved ones at home and over the pond(s) ♥️⚓️ 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🐕 🐈 🦜 please know that I do not forget you. Ever. And I do care about you deeply!

♥️ xxx 😃 @ Kirkwall