Tag: new life

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 4. 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 4. 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

We are still in Russia 🇷🇺! Probably only for the next couple of days…. we will soon be loading and heading to Ireland 🇮🇪:)

Are you sure youet the trainee do it? 😉

This week was another week in drydock with again some new stuff: playing on the main engine 🙌🏻 or hide and seek in the double bottom tanks… (kidding… ~ i was just checking out 😉 )

Checking double bottom ballast water tanks

The ship is nicely and freshly painted: all nice and shiny but we now still have quite some work on deck to do to make it shiny there too ;).

The drydock crew in Kaliningrad

We had the chance to go to town again which was nice but studies came over rolling as a tough reminder that I am a student again and trying to fit a full two years study in 6 month 💪🏻 well…. can be a bit of pressure when you are a Sophie! 📚

A future officer checking the hull in drydock

I had my first tough challenge in the middle of the week: cumulation of not enough sleep, a bit of pressure and the hard feeling of beeing a “cadet” or just a trainee when i am so used to being responsible and running things… it is not always easy to hear people telling you they are being patient explaining you things that you already know and that they are your superior… Yes 😑… kind reminder to myself that when I cannot be a normal 200% and just a 50% then people apparently start worrying 🙇🏻‍♀️when I just need to be me and let me be…

I am now missing one happy picture in my daily challenge (because of the challenging day) but I am now back on track. People actually care and that make me happy to see. Thank you ♥️.

Ruyter in drydock

Drydock 👩🏻‍🔧is now over and lets get the fun going again : soya bean meel and sailing, back into normal ship routine, I wonder what is coming up this week! 🤪

Happy trainee

Make space. Here i come! @ Калининград

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 3 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 3 🚢 ⚓️✌🏻

One week in Russia 🇷🇺 already! As you can notice I am never too far from tall ships…

STV Sedov moored ahead of us on our waiting berth in Kaliningrad

Here in Kaliningrad not only we were moored astern of Sedov but, other tall ships are everywhere to be seen …. 😉

Ruyter is out of the water now and ready for a huge sand blast. Pretty cool for her to get a lift but for us, a closed ventilation is not so nice… but we still do the jobs! 😉

A good team work for changing the rubbers of the hatches on sunny days and overhauling generators and oil seperators on rainy days… 🌧 it is still pretty cool onboard!

We had the chance to go downtown and found a few cool spots! World heritage cathedral and old unused buildings from the soviet time…. its either poor or rich which makes a funny combination when all mixed together … no real harmony ~say my architecture eyes 👀 ~ but still nice to walk quite a bit! 🙂

No need to say that all the shipyard workers are coming to « check the female crew out » that we kind of had to say the captain was our father and the engineer our brother to warn them 😆… its pretty funny. They are offering us appointments in beauty salons for our black oily nails… well sorry we are not the type wearing guess sweatpants, long fake nails, gucci socks and huge sunglasses and half a centimeter make up on the face… but thank you for the offer! 😉
👄 💅🏻vs🔩🛠⚙️

A lot of learning in the engine room this week and was really surprised to realize I knew way more than what I thought… and the captain seems pretty happy about that! Apparently some come onboard and do not know how to hold a screwdriver…!! 😮

So happy that not even at week 3 out of my 13 weeks internship, he offered me the chief officer’s position if I wanted… 🙂 like wow! What on earth is happening here????!!! What have I done here? Super surprised and also a bit proud…. i must say! Well i am really looking forward to do more here!
Even though i miss quite some people and the dogs back home too! i am thinking of special people I havent seen or heard from in too long.♥️
I am almost done of the mini Reese peanut butter cups I had and i am trying to save them till my birthday but i guess I’ll have to find some new ones soon…⚓️

@ Калининград

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 2. 🚢 ⚓️ ✌🏻

INTERNSHIP ~ Week 2. 🚢 ⚓️ ✌🏻

And then flew by the second week onboard…
I am soooo gratefull for one of the best surprises this week…

After a heavy rolling night with a good northerly 7bft in the german bight, I woke up for a nice calm kieler kanal. I love this channel for the people cycling along 🚴‍♀️ and the smell of grass and countryside. It just makes me happy.

Calm day on the Kiel Channel

I was already wondering who I’d see in Holteneau when I saw some of my precious friends and previous collegues of mine pass by while sailing on Hendrika Barthelds, alsonkn the channel! They came back to shake hands with me! ♥️ it made my day.

Collegues and friends from my sailing world meeting uo in the kiel channel

Still quite a few firsts with my first time in Poland 🇵🇱 (Gdynia) to discharge our nice and heavy steel coils… no more heavy rolling for a while… 🙏 Unfortunatly- I knew it before hand though- there are no times off in harbour to go sight seeing…. so my view for the day was pretty much the quayside and the cranes loading other vessels 😂 !

My view when I cannot go ashore

The funny thing is that as we had an annual survey and as I had experience/ was the officer awake (hum hum trainee ~ excuse me!) I had to do a few things for the surveyor ! But I am just new onboard haha and not 100% familiar with all emergency systems yet of course! But happily it went pretty smoothly which made me content of myself! 💪🏻;)

Alongside in Poland

And another a first to Russia 🇷🇺! Where we will be staying in Kaliningrad for approx 10 days… I hope that we will get some time to go out one evening to the city! I really would like to experience some…. vodka! 🤪

We also have to do a strict gangway watch here… and I was glad to end up my freezing cold watch (ok not freezing but still felt like it..) 🥶 with my first russian sunrise 🌅

Early sunrise while the trainee (me) is on gangway watch

We had immigration and customs 🛃 onboard (normal) and they were not very friendly it felt like we were the bad guys in a prison… a bit strange to not be alowed to get out of your cabin, holding your seamans book till they facecheck you, check your room and the dog 🐕 sniffs everywhere… I hope I didnt forget to declare anything! 🥴funny enough the lady with the dog and the drugs stopped and asked me if i spoke russian (LOL ~ of course…. not!) and asked me about a laundry soap tablet and my multivitamines!! 😂 errrre- are you sure you are looking for what you are supposed to search for?!

Xxx♥️⚓️ @ Nord Ostsee Kanal Fähre Fischerhütte