I am catching up! Yeah! 🙂 -not- week 3 has finally passed by. Also as quick as it arrived. Discharged the salt in Stockvik and headed directly to Liepaja to load the Sugar beet Pulp Pellets (SBPP). Well…. It doesn’t look like sugar at all! And it absolutely doesn’t taste like it at all! 🤢It looks like black little Weetabix beans.

And taste like old, dry, compact, mouldy Weetabix…. Without any sweetener. They say it is for animals. Well, I tried. I gave some to the ship’s dog, Duschi. She didn’t like it. I mean she ate one, not the others. I was surprised because she is a little bit of a round Jack Russel… probably from not walking as much as she used to (corona times…. Right?), and eating all the leftover meat and sausages the cooks onboard give her… So food for animals, maybe; not for dogs. Apparently.

When the SBPP are wet, they expand absorbing all the water; like Weetabix would do with milk, but then it stinks like rotten grain or pig excrements….🤮

Okay enough describing. It was really good weather in Liepaja when we loaded: over 20 degrees, short and teeshirt time, enjoying the last bits of summer taste. I hope that when we discharge in Brugge 🇧🇪 in a few days, we will avoid the rainy windy times Belgium tends to have; and hopefully, the quays will smell better there too.

From Liepaja to Brugge, we knew we were going to have another couple of heavy sailing days 💨🌊. The west coast of Europe was going to face very strong N- NNW winds – again – and I was not looking forward to that. Not that I get seasick (although when I am tired, I get a bit more sleepy…) but because of the waves smashing on the ship and when heading into the wind, it is not so nice to sleep either. NNW, when sailing out of the Elbe, with strong currents… oh my God, my colleagues will all know that Around Cuxhaven and in the German Bight it then because a nightmare.
I think we were lucky because the wind veered a little to N then NNE, which was then perfect for us – or let’s say better than expected! At least we keep the speed in the vessel.

Because this is also something very interesting 🧐 : We have to be on time for our next harbour. Ha! You would probably reply to me: “Duh! Obvious!” 🙄. Well yes, indeed obvious. But sometimes it is a kind of “game” between parties: in case of delay, who was ready and waiting first. Most of the times it goes totally fine. But sometimes, you have to make sure that the vessel is not “faulty”: as per contract, she agreed on being in a certain place at a certain time. Heavy weather can slow us down, and even if it is not our fault and there is not much we can do about it, the shore party waiting to receive the cargo is ready and waiting for us so they can claim that we are delayed.
In the same way, heavy weather was this time in our favour: due to the very heavy seas and winds, all pilotage was suspended in the Wandelaar area ( the approaches of Zeebrugge). It is compulsory in that area to have a pilot on board to enter Zeebrugge up to the locks. In this case, all the vessels needed to wait at anchor ( not nice in this weather, trust me! – that is why we didn’t we kept drifting around…). And then it is a “first come first take” when the Pilots can board vessels again…. The idea was that we were there as early as possible to show we did all we could to be on time, despite the bad weather, and that the fact that Pilots or locks are not on schedule is not our fault, so we can edit a notice of readiness from that point (an official notice to say the ship was ready and on time). Usually, this notice is edited when we are alongside and in harbour, speed locks and wedges open and the crane ready to proceed with the opening of the hatches. Sometimes it is slightly different, like this time.

It was very nice to sail through the Kieler Kanal 🇩🇪 again. I know everybody hates that channel: boring, they say, we need to wake up the crew for the pilot change and to handle the huge unhandy pilot ladder, we need to go through the locks and wait…. I find that channel quite relaxing: people cycling all along, waving at you, trees, the smell of the countryside, Yes! Something you forget about when you are a lot at sea or in the harbour! Well, the Kiel channel often makes me smile, I do not mind it…. If the pilots steer all the way 😉 ! This time we had our trainee… he needed steering time for his task book. 👌🏻
Oh well. Sailor’s life right? But I enjoy it. And the people I work with too. 🤪 we are crazy 😏
Well off I go! Over and out.

See you next week! Xxx Sophie 😘 ♥️. @ Stockvik