1st Term ~ Week 4. ⚓🚢

1st Term ~ Week 4. ⚓🚢

We have been the whole week underway from Sundsvall (Sweden) to Pasajes (Spain). This was a nice good sail: very good weather and very easy. We sailed via the Sound, North of Skagen, then the channel of course and 1,5 days in the Biscay. 🌊

Ruyter spotted by a colleague!

I have been working quite a bit on trying to update all the chief officer’s marad job list. Indeed, There are quite a few « ghost » jobs or double jobs, or simply one job declined into several « steps » which makes it quite « overwhelming » (read very annoying😣) when you print your weekly worklist.

A nice crew moment enjoying the silence of the foredeck

Hopefully, there will soon be a more efficient and more applied to this vessel maintenance jobs.. 🙃. I like that. Maintenance programs are pretty frustrating because they tend to make our job more administrative and controlled by the office and still there are so many grey areas that do not always make sense or forgotten areas. Offices usually have no clue of all the work done by crew… let’s all admit it. If we even do not know what we are doing, how could they know ?!! 😂🤪 just kidding… I like efficiency. Doing things once but properly and good. Mhm, thinking 🤔 of it… it is probably laziness… 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Beautiful day for sailing on the Biscay

Passing Ouessant, I had a premiere. Even though it wasn’t in my watch, captain Harry kind of forced me into reporting to Ouessant traffic…. just for fun. In French. Well, I don’t know how but I try my best Franch accent and they replied in French! How did they know?! This was the first time I was reporting in French and it was quite weird for me. I realized I didn’t know how to say « standing by channel 13-16 »… I know I know… I think the crew just wanted to hear my Fench. To be honest it was already a week we had been joking on their accent and the way the French coast guards contact the foreign vessels-in French- and no one understanding even their best English!! 😂 oh well…. I will not change myself. And I had fun too…. they will see who will be the one laughing when we are his week in Bayonne 🇫🇷 😍

Dolphins swimming next to the ship

The Biscay was amazingly flat with a wonderful blue sky. We saw soooo many dolphins 🐬 it was just great. We had to stop for a short refreshing dip session, hoping they’d come to swim close too but of course it didn’t happen. Only when we were 2 minutes underway again they came back…. I am certain it’s because of the guys. They kept on doing be splashes and bombs… you know just like kids while I was peacefully « granny-swimming » (trying not to wet my hair as I had just washed them…. didn’t work if course. Ended up jumping too. No bombing ;)). We were ahead of time so that was really enjoyable. No pictures though you know… no helmets, safety boots and all the protective equipment #safetyfirst …. but you can imagine how it is with 1174m of water below your tows… 😏😱 And it was Our super trainee’s birthday too which made it like a holiday too with 🎂 🍰 and coffee and all… you know… 😉 those are some of the enjoyable moments of life at sea. The biggest swimming pool ever and the company of just a few awesome people to laugh with. 👌🏻⭐️⭐️

Dolphins playing on the bow

The lupine forest 🌳 🌸 is still doing good. I did a bit of gardening and made a 4 bottled garden to give more space to the roots but I am still missing earth and.. ok ok bigger garden pots and all. They are still growing, not as fast though. I wonder now if it is because captain Harry is not taking care of them anymore … 🤔 ah men… one pot is oke to give water to and take care of but suddenly 4 pots are way too much right?! 😂

Preparing more pots for the Lupine flowers
The lupine forrestbis growing bigger!

This week went actually by so fast. It was finally nice to be sailing a week and getting into a routine. I loved the highlights that make out job probably one of the bests with sailing on the ocean, no noise, a huge sun and blue sky and just enjoying the wind 💨 on your face reminding yourself you are alive and that is great! 🙌🏻

Ruyter alongside in Pasajes

I am halfway through my term and it feels like only two weeks… 😉 big hugs to you on land slowly enjoying some unlocking down processes 🙂

Our view in Pasajes
Colourful houses in Pasajes

Sopietje ❤️ ⚓️ 🚢 ✌🏻. @ Pasajes, Spain

1st Term ~ Week 3. ⚓🚢

1st Term ~ Week 3. ⚓🚢

Of course! If I publish my week 2 almost at the end of week 3 there will be a slight timing problem right?…. and you wouldn’t want me to overload you with my stories and pictures two days in a row…..

End of week 3. Good news is that the engineer and I that both joined at the same time have not brought any unfriendly 🦠 onboard. No symptoms within the crew, this is so relieving🥳 Whatever comes now is not from our ship family but from stevedores or other people that might come on board. In harbours, we are not allowed to go ashore for a walk even if we do not present any symptoms and obviously do not carry it. How do we know is the stevedores have the same restrictions like us. How can we know if they have the same sanitary and social distancing? They do not wear a mask 😷 or respect social distancing… how can We know if we are still safe leaving the harbour?… 🦠 🦠 as if we were the ones bringing little covid-19 with us everywhere we go. Grr, 😖 it’s so frustrating. Oh well…

We stayed 5 days in Sundsvall 🇸🇪, but it was a good stay as we managed to do a lot of good maintenance: a lot of greasing actually, I felt like I was the grease monkey, a job we would usually get as a green hand on tall ships… but such an important task as the wear and tear can become terrible on moving parts and watertight rubbers. We took time to grind, wire brush, clean and regrease aaalllll moving parts we could see: all threads and nipples. This became a pretty big job but also necessary as we found out that some moving parts didn’t have nipples and therefore were not greased… the answer « it has always been like that so greasing is not necessary » is not always the correct answer. When you know who did the maintenance if the ship before she came into captain Harry’s hands… you would probably doubt everything you see around you. I do miss my tall ships though… you can probably tell by the picture in the mast… any opportunity to climb up I take… not even afraid. ⛵️ 😊
I like it when you have time to repair and cross jobs of the list, it is so satisfying. But 5 days in harbour, we were ready to go!

Another cold swim 🥶 🏊‍♀️ -just because we can- a nice sail in the MOB boat 🚣‍♀️-just for the good testing of the crane- and the oars… (no comment) – 3151 tons of wood pulp in the hold and a lot of fun with the crew lashing with airbags (big bags fill with the air compressor to avoid the cargo from moving or falling and getting damaged while at sea) the cargo.

We have two different kinds of wood pulp one seems to be in sheets very compact and the second one is more fluffy and gets damaged easily. They do diapers, masks, tampons and stuff like that with it. It is interesting to be part of the production line when you think of it 🤔

Every day passes and everyday small improvements and big fun. This is how it is supposed to be. And I live it. There is not one day I have woken up wondering why I came here. 🤪crazy Sophie.

Our lupine forest 🌱 🌸 🌳 is getting bigger and bigger and it is obvious now to be that we need to do something: over 38 seeds potentially growing up to 1,20m each in half a plastic bottle… yeah 🤦🏻‍♀️…

Off we sail to Pasajes 🇪🇸
Take care on land ❤️ Sopietje ⚓️ ❤️ 🚢

1st Term ~ Week 2. ⚓🚢

1st Term ~ Week 2. ⚓🚢

Week 2! Already!
Oh god! These days really fly by so fast that I do not get the time to post anything… ok ok, I probably do not take the time either. 😇
We discharged in Klaipeda and Riga and that went pretty fast: harbour in, alongside, discharge 2000t, harbour out, sail 20 hours, habour in, alongside, discharge the rest of the soja bean meal 1000t, harbour out. This is what usually happens. And it keeps you nicely busy 🙂

Early summer morning sunrise at sea

I am glad I think I came quickly back into ship routine, getting used to the marad jobs (maintenance program) and anticipating the routes and voyage plannings as far as I can.. which means pretty much a couple of days only before arriving into the harbour – if we are lucky. 😉 And as you know I really do not like to be caught up and stressed last minute… Most probably because I was well trained the past years with « whatever I can do at sea I do at sea » not to have more time for unforeseen jobs in the harbour but mainly to enjoy as much as possible « time in the harbour »…

Sunsets at sea are always beautiful

Well, I can tell you right now that « time in the harbour » on a sailing vessel in the Caribbean and on a general cargo vessel in the Baltic is not exactly the same…. Unfortunately, corona times do not make it easier when you would want to stretch your legs for an hour walk ashore…. anyways you gotta make yourself a reason: there is never time enough for it.
This is why sails or no sails, I would still rather do as much as possible at sea than in harbour to enjoy the view or the only crew moments when we are all together.
And trust me the swim calls are still worth it! The freakin’ cold water (3degrees Celsius in the bay of Bothnia! -yes yes we did go for a swim in Sundsvall. Sweden 🇸🇪 ! 🥶) makes you feel alive and kicking and I love that! 🙂
It is nice to be back on board and there has not been a day yet in which I didn’t have fun✌🏻Everything can become a party 🎉 if you make it such!

Nothing better than a cold water swim!

Our Lupine seeds turn out to be growing by the day. Sometimes I have the feeling I see the leaves growing when staring at them 🌱 it is turning out into a Lupine Forrest! 🙂 and should probably be soon thinking of changing the pot to a bigger one for all 50 seeds….

Our lupine seeds forest is growing slowly

The highlight of our arrival in Sundsvall… we didn’t need a pilot or linesmen so he captain decided to train us in mooring the vessel alongside, between to other vessels!! It was super cool! So there we were; the engineer, trainee, one of the AB’s who also wanted and myself bringin the vessel alongside and back out for the next on! It was a great moment! And no… I didn’t crash as expected 😜Captain Harry also left me in the bridge and took my place for the actual mooring. That was a great experience and made me so happy! 🤩 an awesome way of ending this second week onboard! Thank you!!

First time mooring the vessel
Future captain Sophie


I hope you are doing well on land, take care and see you next week!!
Sopietje 💚💙✌🏻⚓️🚢