Tag: sailing stories

5th term, week 4 🌊❤️

18th – 24th of October 2021

The situation: cargo hold loaded with Fertilizer from Yara in Uusikaupunki and underway to Klaipeda, Lithuania. The very same port I joined almost one month ago. It is funny to be back in the same place a few times in a row. It sometimes feels like we « own » the place. Like we know what the city looks like, and how the cool places look like too. It is probably because for once I joined a day earlier so I had time to walk around in the city and get the vibe out there. And the first weekend I was onboard the harbour was closed due to bad weather so we « had to » stay in and enjoyed a great Saturday night out clubbing and dancing. Lucky me. It usually doesn’t happen like that. You join the vessel and go go go!

So yes. We owned the place. Or the harbour. Or probably only our thoughts on the city, but not much more in the end.

The moon with a reflection of the skies in the bridge windows!

Leaving Uusikaupunki I was hoping we would be in town and we could celebrate my birthday but that didn’t happen of course. In the Bothnia Sea, the first 6 hours after departure, the wind was still quite strong and even though the ship had good stability, it did not feel so comfortable on the bridge: a bit of pitching here and there. Luckily, as soon as we headed south the waves and wind angles were slightly better. 

I had prepared your cookie and reminded him that it was soon my birthday. We had just had a crew change and our previous cook A. Would easily bake cakes. I think he likes it: carrot cake, tiramisu, or other cakes he fancied. With cook M. It is not the same. He is more of a « chef » and likes to cut out deco for the nice presentation of the salads and dishes. He is not such a baking person. But it didn’t matter to me. 2 years ago, he was our cookie when I was first trainee on board and I knew he could bake a birthday cake because I had already had one from him! This year I was just hoping I would not get grated cheese on it as decoration. I think it is an Indonesian thing. It tastes…. Different. 

Funny fact. My brother lives in Indonesia too and as I was having him on the phone for my birthday he asked me how my birthday cake was and if I had cheese on it too. I laughed. I thought it was just the imagination of our cookies for innovative cake decoration, but it seems to be a « thing » there too! 

Second fun fact: it is because of this cook that I got my nickname onboard « Sopie »; without the « H ». Because he spelt my name wrong on the cake and since captain H. Has been calling me Sopie or sopietje and the others have followed. I do understand that the « F » sound is not so common in their language; I just find it funny, and I do not mind at all. On the opposite!

My delicious birthday cake!

Well, this time, I anticipated, I asked him if he could bake a cake for me and he said « but I do not have « room butter »! » ; to which I replied but you are a cookie you know how to bake a cake without butter right? Just replace it with oil!. I think I saw his face turning blank as he did not seem to understand that it was also possible to bake a bake without butter…. I for sure did not wish to have a remade cake: powder in which you just have to add water or milk, mix and put in the over. So I asked him if he knew how to bake a carrot cake… « carrots? In a cake? But miss Sopie! »…. Ok. History repeats. I will teach this cookie too how to bake my favourite carrot cake… even better than the one from Starbucks! Yes. true. So I printed a recipe and although he wanted me to help him; when I came to the galley to do so, he had already mixed it all and it was in the oven. Perfect! 🙂

Anyways. Third fun fact: I do not know why but Indonesian cooks never like to keep the surprise of how the birthday cake looks. They always bring you to the galley and open the fridge to show you. And I always like to keep it as a surprise. They spent time making it and decorating it so it is always nice that it is a surprise, don’t you think? So this time as he was showing me the cake and I was thinking « oh well, it doesn’t matter, it is still a surprise for me » I saw the cake and it was written « happy 40th » … 40???!! Like whaaaat? I am not 40 yet! He got so confused! And said the captain said it was 40… I said not 37! He quickly changed it for me. But It was funny to see the captain making a prank on me ( yes this is how it goes on ships like this! Always joking around. No harm) and discovering that I knew about it… haha

Anyways. Cookie’s first carrot cake was delicious.

Hatches are just open, and no one to be seen yet in Klaipeda

So In Klaipeda, the discharging of the fertilizer went quite fast and we had our next destination already: Liepaja to Portbury. Liepaja was only 70 nautical miles away so we had to be quick to clean the hold and have it as ready as possible. The good thing about fertilizer is that it is an easy cargo to clean, not like grain or pellets that tend to absorb all the water. Fertilizer dissolves very easily.

Early morning sun rise during discharging operations, in Stettin

The only thing is that the winds were increasing in the baltic and they were saying that harbours would maybe close. But we were lucky; our agent said he could find a waiting berth for us in Liepaja….. which… did not happen of course! We left Klaipeda very fast and 6 hours later at the pilot boarding station in front of Liepaja; the harbour closed and we could not enter anymore. The weather forecasted was SW wind force 8-9 Beaufort. Impossible to anchor in front of the harbour and wait. Impossible to sail back to Klaipeda: it was not possible to stay there before we left, so also not after we left. So we sailed in ballast to Sweden to drop anchor and shelter behind Gotland. These were probably my worst 12 hours ever onboard Ruyter. It was horrible how we were literally in a washing machine. The Baltic can have very short and steep waves when the wind increases drastically like that. I think the whole crew suffered too.

The view from my porthole in rough seas

When we arrived at anchor we were all so relieved the ship was not moving as much, and that the waves were way less. I am not so sure anyone was happy about the thought of sailing the 12 hours back to the harbour a couple of days later…. Just the thought of it made me tired and started to re-seafasten everything I would touch. At anchor, sheltered behind the island, we faced over 40 knots of wind! I am really glad we were not in the middle where over 8-9 Beaufort were expected and the waves were still present.

In between cargoes, we always wash the cargo hold!

We stayed like this at anchor doing inside jobs till we heard the harbour would open again. We heaved up and started making way again as we had 12 hours ahead of us. The winds were still very strong but they had veered a little making it slightly more favourable for us. But of course, as if this whole voyage was not the luckiest, when we arrived in front of Liepaja the harbour was still closed and remained closed for another 24 hours. We waited drifting back in forth waiting for our turn to get the pilot on board and enter the port. What a trip! 4 days to do 70 nm! Crazy. Anyways. We arrived there safely and ready to load sugar beet pulp pellet.

Horizons such as these are always amazing to my opinion!

I had already been there. SBPP is for animal food: horses, cows… I tasted it, it was very hard. But when it is wet is because all smoshie. The quayside in Liepaja is not the nicest: there is a lot of cargo and mud and is a bit stinky there too. Every time we go and check the drafts we have to clean our boots on deck otherwise we bring dirt everywhere on the ship. There was still a bit of wind and quite a few showers. So it was not an easy loading. Two cranes but less than 150t per hour… for the two cranes together! I thought we would never end this. It seemed like it took ages. And it did. Between the rain showers, the brakes, the truck drivers break, and the crew changes…. It took us over 2 days to load the ship…. Again on departure, there was too much wind and the harbour was closed so we were delayed 6 hours again.

This is what sugar beat pellets look like; when wet, they expand like weetabix!

Honestly, I just think that they planned it for the pilot to come early in the morning and not in the middle of the night… just to get a normal night’s sleep. I do not know. But yes. Finally, we left the place with of course headwinds, but not as strong so we made our way to England. We had a nice long trip: 6 days before we would reach Portbury, via Kiel Channel. And we also had in the locks in Kiel the captain change. B. Was going home and captain H. Coming back from a well-deserved 2-month leave.

I was very much looking forward to having him back on board because work-wise, I would get a direct response on what we could or couldn’t do with the ship. He is the manager so all the shipping or improvements or worklists are approved by him, and social wise because he is fun and brings energy to the ship and he would of course bring Duschi his dog…. So that was a good thing to be looking forward to.

Loading sugar beet pellets

For now, the cargo loading was completed in the middle of the night Sunday and Monday early morning we departed for sea.

What a week! Not much happened but it was physically straining…. Hopefully, a full week of sailing and routine would able us to catch up on some rest here and there!

See you next week for new adventures! 

Xxx Sophie

5th term, week 3 🌊❤️

11th – 17th of October 2021

So I woke up this morning to a nice sailing in the Baltic. I enjoy it a lot when it is smooth sailing and of course, it is never promised when it is the autumn season and all the strong winds are being blown just on top of Europe and do not seem to want to leave. Okay, the skies are not as blue as I would like them to be but I cannot have it all right? Clouds are good enough too.

We are on our way to Uusikaupunki with soja bean meal. And finally, after a slow loading in Kaliningrad, we have 2-3 days sailing and hopefully, I will be able to catch up on some rest before getting out of routine again.

Soya Bean Meal!

I enjoy the watch on the bridge and sailing up North because the sunlight is different up there. Just… lower and warmer if it makes any sense. Finally, at sea, I managed to have a beautiful sunset and those colours! My God, for sure no filters were needed! And this is where the colour of the sea because nice and blue and the clouds take their various aspects of different shades of grey and the light just seems it is passing straight through the clouds. It is marvellous and I am always very pleased to view this spectacle.

I must also say that although we are mid-October, the cold has not begun yet. I remember my internship when after the shipyard in Kaliningrad we also loaded soja bean meal in Svettly, our night watches were freezing cold and I had to keep moving to see my body warm. I had heard in September already people talking about what is called in French an « été Indien »; an Indian summer. I have absolutely no idea if the expression translates itself into English as well. But it is that the warmer temperatures come back in October for a couple of weeks and even till the end of October. I must admit that at our latitudes and being at this time of the year; temperatures around 15 degrees celsius are quite enjoyable.

We arrived in a quiet Uusikaupunki on a large and clean quayside. I think I had never been to that part of Uusikaupunki yet. Only at the Yara factory. This time we were way closer to town. The day we discharged, I must say we were quite lucky weather-wise. There were still quite some clouds but we only had a couple of showers so we managed to discharge pretty fast in two days. Luckily I did not have to play the « open-close » game too long and as the trucks were coming and going I could easily move around with the hatch crane choosing the areas to be discharged without pressure from the weather or the big crane from shore. 

Ruyter alongside in Uusikaupunki, Finland

And….. Well because of the winds increasing outside and because of the regular rain showers they had our next cargo loading operations slightly delayed. Also, they wanted to load a huge vessel before us which would take days…. But at the same time, the wind was increasing outside and two days later as we were still alongside, gusts of wind were about 35-40 knots. We were just on standby to know if they would let us pass before the big vessel, or after; or if they would decide to temporary bring that other vessel at anchor – pilotage and weather permitting- so that we could load in between….

Zoom in on the grab ready for discharging in Uusikaupunki
Discharging the soya bean meal in Uusikaupunki

These are the port « calculations ». As they were indeed « late » (we had given our notice of readiness); they have to calculate and find what would cost them less…

This gave us time to thoroughly clean the hold as we normally do after each cargo, and make ready for the next cargo to come. At the Yara terminal, we know they always come for a hold inspection and an ultrasonic test, so it had to be ready for that.

The crane in Uusikaupunki, and Ruyter in ballast behind. Waiting for the berth in the next loading berth
Hold cleaning time!

The nice thing about having a few days in the harbour without cargo operations is that you can take time to do some maintenance jobs together with other crew members. If we were at anchor, we would have to do some anchor watches and some rotation of course to always have the bridge manned which also means that there is always someone sleeping and we then try to avoid noisy jobs onboard. In the harbour, as we are all on day watch; we can be more efficient in our maintenance or bigger projects. And we can make more noise! It is really a win-win situation. (although I like my night watches at anchor because I have then more time to work on my website and these stories right? Haha!)

The crew working together on the maintenance of the hatch crane!
Cleaning up and fixing new hydraulic connections in the workshop

This time, we worked on some painting jobs – in between drops- and some hydraulic couplings that needed to be renewed in the hatch crane. A nice (not so nice) job because it is impossible to keep a clean working area with oil splashing and dripping everywhere. But nice because different from the normal jobs; and it is also part of a bigger project: every time changing a few and in the end, it is like having a brand new hatch crane! Besides, it is always nice to change an old rusty piece for a nice new one too. It is quite satisfying to clean up metal, dearest, change gaskets and put the whole puzzle together again and add the usual layers of primer and paint!. Yes quite satisfying indeed to know that hopefully, this will last for another couple of years ahead. It was funny because I guess we all have those moments – not laziness- but more when you know ahead it will be a long dirty job and you are not looking forward to it; well I think that day captain B. Had that moment. Haha. We started opening some couplings and were ready with our buckets to catch the dripping oil and after two full buckets and as it was not slowing down he started losing faith and motivation. I was glad at that moment that I said: opportunities like this do not show up so often that we have time to have this « surgical operation » on the crane with no loading operations…. And it was not cold cold weather either that we could stay outside to work. But we started on the Starboard side and the wind was blowing so strong that the oil was being blown out directly from the pipes to the deck. And well… It was a bit… too much. But I told him instead of quitting for the day that we could go on the protéide: less wind and especially because the job still needed to be done in the end. Now, in a couple of weeks or months; the job remained so it was better to just go for it and have it done.

Tool selfie!

I am glad I said that. I must have sounded convincing because we closed it all up and moved to Portside…. Even though I also really didn’t want to be in the wind with my hands full of hydraulic oil, sometimes, what needs to be done, needs to be done.

And we did it.

A beautiful rainbow although the weather was getting worse!
View from my porthole when in Uusikaupunki

Finally, We got a call from the agent that we would be shifting berth to the Yara terminal on Saturday late afternoon. I just had the time to enjoy a great walk ashore: my first time in the small town of Uusikaupunki. It was good to step off the vessel for a longer stroll than to just check the fore and aft drafts. Even if the city was only 20 minutes away; walking clears your mind and I am always in seek of new architectural sights. I always enjoy checking out how the cities are made and how the houses are built in different places of the world. I know for sure it is because of my architecture studies. Or maybe just because I am curious. For sure; I should start a page on the blog with the places I have visited… I would fore sure because a bit of a Travel blog haha. The little town was cute but not much was happening for a Saturday afternoon. It seems that there, everything is closed all ready for the weekend; and I only met on my way a few people also walking like me for an afternoon walk. Hopefully next time I will have the chance to go there again on a normal day: I saw a second-hand shop and would have liked to have a look inside for sure! Maybe find some cool Finnish woollen garments as a souvenir! Anyways, for sure, Uusikaupunki was not a very touristy place, nevertheless, cute enough to fulfil my curiosity.

We shifted berth to Yara in the late afternoon and we could enjoy a very nice Golden hour moment from the fore deck with the trainee and one of the ABs. Really beautiful. And it is not the first time that such sunsets happen there! We successfully passed the hold inspection and the ultrasound test of course. We were ready to load.

In less than 18 hours we would be underway again, bringing the fertilizer to Klaipeda, Lithuania.

Hopefully, we would also be there on time for my birthday on the 19th. And then we could go ashore for a drink or two to celebrate it. I know it usually never happens like that on birthdays…. But I could always keep my hope up … right? We would probably still be at sea anyways. And Klaipeda is a 24-hour working harbour so, chances are very few. But you never know what our next sail will be and maybe we had to wait in the harbour for 1 or 2 days! And then… all the possibilities are open right?

Besides I always like to find a good excuse to celebrate. The crew is nice and happy, we are going on well, the trainee seems also fun so far and he listens to what I say or ask him to do. And when there are eventually small tensions from living together on a ship, it is always nice to release the pressure with a good beer ashore. It usually lightens up the atmosphere. Not the alcohol drinking part; but just the time off in the harbour together.

The Golden Hour during mooring operations in Uusikaupunki

Soon we would have a change of maroff ( engineer) so it is nice to spend some quality time with those that are still on before they go home. Anyways. We are not there yet. First, we had to finish the loading operations and sail south again.

This was a satisfying week

Enjoy your Sunday and see you next week!

Xxx Sophie

5th term, week 2 🌊❤️

4th – 10th of October

We left Uusikaupunki for Szczecin in Poland with a cargo hold full of NPK fertilizer.

As you can remember we really had lovely weather in Finland but as soon as we started sailing south, the wind increased and of course was coming from the south. Have you not noticed that the wind usually comes from where you have to go? Maybe it is me but….

When sailing on Europa or Gulden Leeuw, you have to use the wind if you want to sail so it is probably one of the only things that take all your focus: wind direction and strength to anticipate sail area and manoeuvres and try to reach your destination only using the wind only. Since I sail on cargo ships, I tend to check the weather forecast less. We do not download a grib file every 4 hours, but keep an eye on the general picture to know what to expect when sailing out of the harbour of course. But We still go with winds against, and with wind 6 or 8 Bft. It doesn’t mean it is always nice, but as long as it is safe (which it is for our type of vessels!) then we go!

Most of the time we will reduce the engine reps and accept to be slower than what we would like ( I mean….it is not like if we are a super fast vessel either….). Sometimes we also have to adjust slightly our course too. We want to avoid having big waves hitting the bow because they only make damage and stop the ship every time she wants to move forward!

This time sailing south, was not such heavy heavy weather, but was a good 35 knots of wind for a good day and increasing to 40 knots now and then. There were waves and wind and rain. Everything to please me.

To be honest, when arriving in Szczecin, I thought the rain would still be there but no! The front had passed and it was clear!

To sail to Szczecin, you first have a 4-hour river voyage under pilotage: we must have a pilot on board. Most of the time they are happy with steering themselves so we can just enjoy the ride – and be there for serving coffee haha – oh yes and of course be responsible on the bridge, in case the autopilot fails for example or reducing speed etc… The pilot is not familiarized with the ship itself so we do always need to be on the bridge with him ( or her – I think I have never been with a woman pilot onboard yet…. But I know they are out there!!)

From my porthole, I could see the pilot boat!

In the morning when opening the hatches at 5 am, I was pretty glad it was clear with stars and dry. I knew we were probably going to discharge with two cranes so I opened forward and aft only a few hatches just to make sure I « controlled » where they would grab the cargo from. Sometimes crane drivers just pick from where ever because they do not listen to you and it is quite annoying because you have to be able to adjust with filling the ballast tanks too.

While you discharge you take « weight » out of the ship and it needs to be replaced by another “weight” for the ship to keep her stability while entirely discharged. Otherwise, you would risk capsizing and if not, simply putting the whole vessel in danger.

Alongside in Stettin, discharging fertilizer

Most of the Yara loading ports cover their fertilizer with plastic. I had already discharged steel coils in another quay in Szczecin, but never fertilizer yet. The cranes usually just grab the plastic out of the ship and put it on the quay somewhere aside. This time, for the first time I saw the workers taking the same plastic and fixing it from the side of our railing toward the quay. This way if cargo came to fall off from the grab ( which usually happens a bit) then it would not fall in the water but the plastic. I was quite surprised to see that and thought it was very good. Very often as sailors we can get pretty frustrated because, on board, we have to label and sort all our garbage and washing water and not pump overboard; everything should be retained and in the meantime you sea the harbours just spraying off the quays with a big hose or rinsing the grabs in the harbour water like if it were normal. I am often surprised how rules are not the same for ports and ships….

Anyways. Plastics out, hatches open, no rain expected and there I thought we would be out within the end of the day. But nope. I was wrong. The fertilizer was directly put into bags and forklifts were bringing them into some parts of the harbour. It was like a mini-industry on the quay. But because of that, it was going slow. We are used to trucks being loaded and that they come and go and most of the time by the end of the day we can already have the bobcat in and start sweeping.

Not this time.

We were still there this whole next day. But hey. What can we do right? No danger? No rain? Everything going smoothly? Perfect. On the second day, I was a bit nervous because after opening all the hatches there was so much fog for a couple of hours. I could barely see the foremast. Fertilizer is a sensitive cargo and it should not get wet; any droplets, droplets, drops or signs of water, I should be closing the hatches. But it was only the visibility that was gone. The air was dry, I stayed outside to make sure I would be in time to close. But no rain. As soon as the sun came out, it was beautiful again.

Last few grabs of fertilizer to be taken out, with the bobcat in the hold, then sweeping time!

I must say that I enjoy a lot the sunsets and early mornings. When everything is still quiet and all are sleeping, slowly the world starts up and the sun comes out, it is quiet and then because busy. It gives me time to enjoy the moment: a cup of coffee and just be there outside for the cargo. Just the cargo and only the cargo. It is my « only » important duty in the harbour: the cargo operations. Things can go wrong very fast if you do not pay attention.

Always a happy crew even when working hard on cleaning the tanktop in the hold! Getting ready for the next cargo!
An this is how the cargo hold looks when it is nice, clean and dry!

The fertilizer was finally discharged by the end of the next morning and we could take time to clean the hold again for our next cargo. The very cool thing was that with hatches open, the hold dries very fast. It was still a nice 18 degrees outside so perfect weather. In the wintertime it is way more difficult to dry the hold: you really need time between the two cargoes to put on the air dryer when necessary; otherwise, it is impossible to be ready for the next harbour.

And our next harbour was…. Svetlyy! Close to Kaliningrad in Russia!

It was just a big day sailing there so the next day we arrived at the channel entrance and it was perfect timing to get the pilot on board and be in the inbound convey. That is how it works there: convey in, convey out, during the day or the night. Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not and you have to wait for the next convey. It is a bit annoying because Ethen they put you on a waiting berth, then you need a pilot for that ( of course) and there is the Russian administration, with the face check so if you are sleeping because you were on night watch then it is just inconvenient…

Loading Soya bean meal in Kaliningrad

But again. What can you do? It is the Russian administration take it or leave it. We took it – or were asked to take it – I believe no one is happy to go to Russia: no roaming, gangway watch, crazy immigration and customs paperwork, language barrier…

It was perfect weather: dry, sunny, no wind!
And the sunsets there are really amazing!
As you can see they get better and better through the evening…

Last year around the same time we were also there to load the same cargo for the same destination port: Uusikaupunki (again). Although there was a lot of shifting berth this time, I must say it went quite smoothly: arriving on the waiting berth, waiting 10 hours, shifting to the loading berth, waiting 5 hours, starting loading (great weather all hatches open – perfect conditions – we could do some good maintenance because of that!), loading very slowly for 24hours, shifting to the waiting berth and finally waiting 5 hours for immigration to come…. The pilot was already all morning onboard. But we made it for the outbound convey so…. Just in time! 😉 That was an easy Sunday half in harbour, half at sea, but all ready to go.

In kaliningrad, we have to wait for the pilot, so here was the view from my porthole, at the waiting berth

I like weeks like this. It keeps you busy in a good way. I like being productive without being in a hurry. The only thing is that I would like to have a bit longer trips because these are all short trips that knock you out because you do not get into a rhythm and your sleeping schedule is ruined…. So if anyone out there could do something about it, please?

Just kidding. It is fine… for the moment.

Now I am looking forward to a nice Uusikaupunki discharging… hopefully with good weather again. It really helps!

And off we sail to the next harbour!

Fingers crossed! See you next week!! 

Xxx Sophie