7th till 14th of February 2022

Ok so here we are in Inkoo. We were lucky enough to have a nice Sunday in the harbour and enjoyed an ice-cold swim and a long walk in the snow. And then, of course, Monday mornings are always a tough call…. Especially in Finland where I have to wake up one hour earlier because of the time difference…. As the stevedores start at 6 am their time, it is 5 am for me; which means I need to be ready, hatches open etc by that time… and because we are in winter and there could be ice, snow, frozen and slippery rails etc, I always tend to give myself a quarter of an hour extra to not have stress and be late. So there I was alone, on the bridge and deck with a pitch dark surrounding and only a few lights on the ship and quay…. It to them quite some time to prepare the crane, the quayside ( taking away snow and adding salt or small stones …) have forklifts ready etc….It took them probably one hour before they started discharging.

In these scenarios, I am always a bit upset thinking I could have slept longer, but in the end better this way than being late and not ready. It gave me time to have a look at emails and do a bit of paperwork in the calm. And with a cup of coffee! 😉 

Besides, as soon as the sun is rising then I am never upset anymore. The more North you go, the most beautiful colours you see. I very much enjoy these moments where indeed nobody is around and the world is waking up slowly. Sunrises in Finland are full of pink and purple skies. It is marvellous. And in these moments I take the time to enjoy. And ok add those 10-20 photos on my camera roll: all the same but with a different point of view – just in case, and to use on my social media later …maybe.

Finally, they were ready and started discharging the ship from the plasterboards loaded in Delfzijl.

Apparently, the stevedores in the Finnish harbours were on strike movement for having more breaks during their working days. So it seemed to me that as soon as they started working they took a half-hour break and the morning went so slowly. And from one break to another it took them two full days to discharge the hold. 

Anyways. There was nothing really we could do about it. I took advantage of the fact that it was slow and not too cold to do some things on deck: safety checks, a bit of greasing and just being around. 

In the evening Captain H. did a crazy challenge. He wanted to prove to himself that he could stay 15 minutes in the ice-cold water! So there we went outside before dinner with L. the engineer and myself to check out on him and talk with him while he was in the water. He managed ) of course as he would say- but for sure as much as I enjoy the cold showers every day and once in a while swimming in the ice cold water, 15 minutes is definitely too long. But he manages and that was pretty cool. He came to the bridge after his shower as he was slightly shivering to ask me for a warm drink. I remember he came barefoot and his hair still damp from the shower. The first thing I did was to get him his favourite woollen socks he keeps on talking about and his merino wool beanie. Shivering is a normal reaction after such an experience: the body is working hard to heat up again. There is a lot of breathing involved and mind control. But never forget the basics that heat escape from the extremities and the head…. He was fine do not worry. But also never do this experiment at home or on your own! It was fun but I am also glad he is trained with breathing and very cold showers daily and regular ice baths. It does make a difference!

The next day we departed in the evening for Hamina which was only a short 12-hour -ish sail. So we were back into sea watches and the ABs would be cleaning and sweeping the tank top in the hold underway so that it would be ready for the next morning. We would be loading paper rolls to Terneuzen.

My first paper rolls cargo! I have heard so much about it. That it is a great cargo to transport, very expensive but also very fragile: no smell, very weather sensitive so as soon as there is one drop the hatches must close. Upon arrival the weather was clear and I opened fully all the hatches. The stevedores prepared timber for on the tank top on which the rolls would be stacked on. Two by two they were positioned in the hold. It takes quite some volume compared to the weight. With 2100t the hold was pretty much full. But of course, the rolls are cylinders so there is also a loss of space in between them…

We had mainly three tiers and they fitted perfectly underneath the hatches. When I say perfectly, we did not have more than 5 cm spare there which was perfect!

With paper rolls you need to make sure there is absolutely no damage at all on the cargo: no water or snow, no tears in the wrapping and definitely not see paper through the wrapping. As I said earlier it is a very expensive cargo and we cannot have any damage to it. Eventually, stevedores can tape up some wrapping here and there; but it is not ideal. There was one roll in the end that I did not accept as there was a tear in the wrapping and therefore in the paper too behind.

I was a bit nervous loading as I found myself a little bit alone to load the cargo. The loading was not a problem but the weather was to my eyes and I was not sure about how the lashing would be in the end and if we would have enough airbags to stow it correctly. 

The thing is that we were getting a new engineer onboard and Captain H. Was busy with him and paperwork so he did not have time to come and check on deck. I had to rely on myself and somehow trust the stevedores who of course do this every day for years already so they are quite experienced of course. But you know, you always get told that it is the ship that decides and not the foreman…. And there was the snow that was announced for 20:00 LT that arrived a fair bit earlier so I was constantly checking around and in the sky for any sign of a snowflake. We probably had only 2 hours left of loading so it was a pity to stop earlier. But then we would have still needed to lash and put airbags everywhere so, in the end, it was not too bad that the snow arrived earlier. It is easier during day time. Besides, we still needed to bunker for which we had to shift berth so, in the end, it was all fine.

The next morning it was dry and we completed the loading and lashing. Shifted berth, bunkered water and as soon as the pilot was onboard we sailed out following the icebreaker.

It was cool to see some ice around again… I had missed it the previous morning upon arrival in Hamina. It reminded me of last year when we went walking over the ice to the city. That was really cool. Now the icebreaker was in front of us. The wind had pushed the ice in some areas making it thicker and more compact therefore more difficult for us to sail through. The good thing is that behind the icebreaker you make better speed because you follow his open track before it closes again!

Then we had a couple of days sailing in the Baltic to join the Kiel Channel again and reach the North Sea where we were expected to have a lot of wind. Difficult with such cargo to have a lot of wind and rock and roll everywhere. That would totally damage the cargo. We had to slow down if that were the case and adjust our course if necessary. Sailing in the Baltic was actually not too bad. Especially in these times of the year when there is ice, all the vessels that are not ice class are not sailing there so it is quite calm and not busy at all. But of course, as soon as you pass near the sound and approach Kiel it is busier and busier. And that Sunday when we passed Kiel Channel we had to wait quite a few times to let so bigger and less manoeuvrable ships pass. The channel was busy. I did most of it actually because we entered slightly before noon and as my watch is from noon to 18:00 during the day, I had a big part of it. It is fine. The first pilot was quite chatty and nice but he did not steer so I did a small part of it until Captain H. Wanted our new engineer to practice steering with Ruyter too and he then took over from me. The second pilot was less chatty and wanted to steer himself.

It is always the big question on the Kiel Channel… « are we going to be steering or not? » Normally the pilot should not be steering. The crew should. But I guess some enjoy doing it or just find it easier rather be checking always what the helmsman is doing…. Sometimes I like steering, sometimes I have some things to do and find it a great opportunity to be more concentrated on the computer and do some administration for a while…. This time was nice. I did a bit of both 😉

It was a good Sunday and a good week! And just like that, it was already 2 weeks gone, which is one-quarter of my term! Impressive how fast it goes! I better get myself a to-do list of all the things I would like to have done before I leave otherwise it will all be last minute…. I am not so much a fanatic of the last minute! 😉

Anyways…. Thanks for reading once again! Next week we will see if our cargo is still in shape 😉

Xxx