Tag: travelling by sea

3d term, Week 4 🤩 ⚓️

8th-14th of February 2021

We started the week ready to load timber. As I said. First-time timber so I was a bit curious and anxious. But to be honest, the idea is quite « easy »: it is to have the cargo hold as full as possible, as packed as possible with the least “empty space” in the hold, then the more cubics you will be able to take on deck. 

Now… for the less easy part. All packages do not have the same size. That is the difficult part because of course, they do not all come ” by size” they come out of the shed in what I would think is a total disorganized way. 

And did I mention also that the stability of the ship with timber has to be very very well anticipated and calculated to avoid the disaster of capsizing?… you should never underestimate the weight of the cargo you store on deck: it can get wet and the wood absorbs the extra humidity and therefore weighs more! You also have to be aware of the snow and ice. yeah. Told you … the «idea» is simple and easy but the reality demands quite some « on top of it » matter…

There is a bit of preparation to do before loading timber. Besides opening the hatches, we have to take all the hundreds of slings out of the forecastle where they are stored; but also all the tarpaulines, the heavy hooks and chains…. We have everything ready for the crane to take them ashore in the morning for the shore team to use. We take everything out with the hatch crane and the winch we have on the foremast.

All slings ready on the hatches, to be piucked up my the crane for the shore team.

The crane driver, together with a stevedore on the ship work together for getting the most of it. My job is to make sure they follow the loading plan accordingly so that I can empty my ballast tanks following a plan, but also to make sure they do their job correctly in avoiding big gaps and unwanted lost space, or extra unwanted layers of snow on top of the cargo because it takes space then melts. Once I see that they do it correctly I go and do some other maintenance jobs or administration, always keeping in mind that the cargo operation goes prior to any other job I might want to do. It is highly important to keep the ship safe and keep an eye on the trim so that I can close the hatches at any time and that I simply know what is happening at all times. The idea is that they are loading, of course, so I cannot ask them to discharge and load again. If I see something wrong, I should say it immediately otherwise it is too late. Eventually, I can ask them to “fix” things and tell them I am not so happy and that they have to do better.

Loading timber with 2 cranes.

The nice thing about timber cargo is that it is not dirty cargo. It is not dusty, not sticky. On the opposite, it really smells fresh like the woods! Also, because it is timber, it does not matter if it is raining or snowing. The packages are sort of protected by plastic wrapping you only have to watch out that they take off all the snow on the top of the packs before they put another tier. Snow takes place and it will eventually melt. So it creates a loss of space. 

In Finland, there is one hour difference between the ship. So it is a very early wake-up. When it is cold and frozen, everything seems somehow slower: it takes me more time to open hatches and my finger does not follow as fast… Or probably the hydraulic oil of the hatch crane is just not totally warmed up either! Anyhow it is early. At 4am, I usually head towards my bunk and not on deck! But I have my routine once the hatches are open I either speak with the foreman or I quickly make myself a nice cup of coffee in the bridge. Usually, I have coffee just after because even if I am on time in the morning, I want to make sure there is no problem with the opening of the hatches. Sometimes the shore team is not there yet and is not ready, but at least I am.

The loading went very smoothly: with two cranes it is indeed quite fast. Once the cargo hold is full, that is when the tricky part starts. We close the hatches, speed locks and wedges, and while the deck crew prepares all the side tarpaulins, we take the drafts to make sure to calculate how much cargo we can take on deck. We will for sure have some ballast with timber, for stability. This is where most accidents happen with ships carrying timber cargo. The IMO has a whole recommendation book about it! Ships need to be certified to carry it.

The aft crane and the shore team in Hamina

Another thing with cargo timber… Is the lashing as I mentionned in the beginning of this story. Oh-my-god! There are the tarpaulins (glad that we have the light version:), the slings (single and double) the chains the hooks the side slings, the shackles, the timber for on top of the tarpaulins, the chain blocks to tighten the chains… Well… All his equipment is very heavy. And this is not a 2-hour job. The whole crew is on deck working. Even the Captain! (Well Captain H. is anyways always on deck!) but the cook too! It is a hard job, but fun, because we make it fun, of course. In the end, we are really tired, hungry too, but happy to go to bed. I am really glad that despite the cold, we did not have wind or snow or ice falling from the sky. This would have made this job extremely difficult and terrible. We got it finally done and I must say my poor muscles were already aching from having to store everything back three days later. We were told we would be doing a few runs between Finland and Brake (Germany) with timber… I better get used to it fast right? Good that it is not a weather-sensitive cargo: it can be loaded during rain. Indeed, it is stored outside on the quays in Finland so… no changes when we load. But luckily we were not disturbed by any rain that week. It was indeed quite nice weather: no wind, no snow, no ice droplets…. Cold – very cold! – but clear. I wouldn’t imagine being outside in a snowstorm during loading and lashing! When you have to take off your gloves to make tiny knots with the tarpaulins protecting the cargo…. Brr…

The deck lashing requires tarpaulins to protect a minimum from water so that the timber stays as dry as possible ( as I said earlier, it avoids extra unwanted water/ ice weight on deck), then we have a few timbers positioned on top of the tarpaulins, this prevents the wind from blowing in them. Then we have a lot of very big and long slings on each portside and starboard side that is fixed from the side of the coamings ( so directly to the ship’s structure) and brought on top of the cargo. These two slings are joined by two chains fixed and tightened by a locking hook. Trust me all these equipment are heavy (as much as heavy duty!) and you have to bring them around the deck back and forth and manipulate them. It takes hours to put everything in position and to fix and tighten everything. By the end of the lashing, your muscles are literally burning, and you cannot wait to go directly to bed. Well, at least that is what I thought. To fix the hooks and chains you need a small chain block; that tool is also heavy. In the first step of the procedure, you tighten it as much as possible by hand then with the chain which goes way faster. You always need two persons to do that as it requires some strength to hold the hooks in a good position and direction. Besides the thousands of steps and sweat in your back, you are also going up and down climbing on the cargo. Trust me, when I say it was a great workout, it really was. But imagine doing that in the winter with a few layers of warm clothing and winter overall…. You sometimes feel as Bibendum working his way through the ship…. Again, I am glad we had good weather and that we only had to fight the cold…. Suddenly the -17°C did not feel as cold anymore!

Short coffee brake before proceeding with the lashing on deck!

This was for most of the crew a first in timber deck cargo, for others, it had been years, so the lashing took quite some time, but we ended up finding our way through and getting better at it. I can imagine that if you do this every second week, it goes faster and faster because you end up finding tips and tricks to make your life easier. I was surprised and happy that we worked really well as a crew then to « just get it done » and do the work. I like teamwork. It reminds me of my times on the tall ships: if you didn’t pull on a line as a team, you would never get that sail high enough or sheeted in enough…. It’s all timing and working together to keep up the efficiency.

Ok, so there we were ready to leave Hamina – finally – and sadly (I started to enjoy the cold and the icy view here!) for Brake in Germany. I first got a bit tired of all the work it would request us but thought it was fine, that we just had to go for it. It is funny how your mind gets a bit troubled, or one-sided when colleagues of your say stuff as «  oh so much lashing work for only 3 days sailing », ” it is so much work is not worth it”, “it is not nice”, blah blah blah… well; once you have that in mind, it is hard to get it out. I just thought « ok this is a first let’s give it a try and we will see » right? Although my sore muscles were telling me I didn’t like it at all, I tried very hard to fight my « devil brains » haha.

Departure late afternoon from Hamina

Ok, we are underway. Baltic Sea, Kiel Channel, North Sea and direction brake. It seemed colder there than in Finland actually… But it was only -5°C! Leaving Hamina was quite nice: at 17:00 it was already dark outside of the course and it was still icy. I really enjoyed the view. It seems that I am getting used to the ice and the freezing temperatures up here! We sailed to the Kiel Channel and most of the ice melted on deck as we were getting closer to the 0°C. The stability of the ship was very low which means that we were rolling like babies in our bunks. The total opposite of steel coils! The Kiel Channel was nice: peaceful. I had the second part and the second lock in Brunsbüttel: still cold but sunny weather: perfect to start ( or end in my case ) my day!

I would head to bed to be ready for mooring in Brake. The next morning early was beautiful! The river was amazing when the sun started rising because there was a lot of fog: probably the difference between the air and water temperatures! I really enjoy these small peaceful moments! The nice thing is that we arrived on a weekend and they were not discharging on Sundays! So there it was: my happiness of a Sunday in the harbour where we were allowed to go ashore too! A Sunday with a long walk, just to smoothen out the muscles, get the legs walking for over 100 meters in a row: perfect.

Foggy but beautiful sunrise in Brake
Early morning discharging in Brake

Brake was quite an interesting little city. Captain H, duschi the dog and I went for the grand tour through the city, then on the riversides. Lovely weather, nice architecture, nice company, good talks. I even got « upgraded » by the dog! Indeed she usually really hates me, except when I give her some pieces of my orange or when there are rough seas. But then this happened: I had to enter a hotel to ask if I could use their bathroom ( after over 2 hours walking… yes yes) and apparently Duschi was staring at the door and whining waiting for me! And when I came out she seemed all happy and captain H. said she had been waiting for me as if I was « part of her group » now…. Well not so fast Sophie. Remember it is still Duschi, the dog that hates other women because she is always so jealous that then talk to her property-master-owner-king-captain or whatever you name it. But it felt nice to be finally accepted by the dog – for that day! 

We returned to the ship and had a good evening: the discharging would proceed early the next day and I would have to wake up very early again to open hatches…. So better get some more sleep and rest again!

Always ready on the foredeck!

See you next week! Will we be going as planned to Hamina again? Suspense suspense… I shall not say more!

Take care, my friends!

Xxx Sophie

3d Term, Week 3 🤩⚓️

1st-7th of February 2021

Another couple of days sailing in the Baltic Sea, enjoying the calm sailing and the view from the foredeck. This always brings me so much joy to be out there. I know I have mentioned earlier already that it reminds me of the good old times on board sailing ships. There you are always outside in the wind and sun or cold and rain! Have you ever been all the way out on the bowsprit a big tall ship? Either just for the view or to go for a real sail? Well, it gives you a feeling of freedom and awe that is incomparable. You have the feeling you possess the world yes really! If you have not tried yet, you’d better find the closest tall ship nearby and book a trip to try! I should make this a sort of promise to myself to go there way more often than I do now that would be good for me!… even more fun to go there with more crew!

So here we are in Hamina! Ready to discharge the rails and it is indeed frozen everywhere! I had been waiting and expecting ice already since the Swedish coast! But nothing. Then there! In the binoculars, I could finally see a little bit of ice! So it was indeed true! There was ice in the Baltic! We had to wait until later in the evening to see more ice while sailing. We were already close enough to shore and the ice was not too dense, despite fact that it was thick. An ice breaker had broken the way for us to be able to enter the harbour. It was a bit noisy inside the ship due to the ice scratching along the hull and ice blocs going through the propeller. But it didn’t last too long. And I was also coming on watch so I could enjoy the view from the bridge together with the captain and pilot that was onboard then. It was quite new for me of course so I was looking everywhere and just enjoying every bit of it.

Arrival in Hamina by night.

I was trying to finally meet pictures and real scenery. All the stories and explanations the crew onboard were talking about. Of course Captain H. loves ice sailing and the cold so everything from his point of view is the best thing ever. The Indonesian crew have different stories and if the heater is full-on in their cabins and accommodation corridor, they do show themselves brave enough to not complain once were working and waiting on deck. This is not their climate. But they do also get used to it too.

When getting ready to moor the ship in the middle of the night: ice and snow everywhere!

We will have a crew change here in Hamina: one Ab is going home and another one coming and the engineers are also swapping. Imagine for a second the difference of temperature they will be facing! Coming in over -10°c with warm blood! We, onboard, have had time to adjust, but not them yet!

The first thing we do when we arrive and are fast alongside is to put the gangway in position so that the pilot can disembark, then we directly prepare the ship to be ready to discharge: open speed-locks and wedges, prepare the hatch crane… This time, we also had to check the ice situation on deck. The last 10 hours we had some spray on our port side now, not much, but just enough to cover the ship with ice. In some parts, we had 4cm of ice and in others, it was a few mm only. This is important to know because it can be very dangerous for the stability of the vessel to have much ice on deck. It creates an extra unwanted weight that sometimes cannot be removed easily.

Ruyter alongside in Hamina, the next morning..
Hammering the ice off from the hatches to make the ship ready for discharge.

For that, we have big wooden hammers and we make sure that the hatches can open and that the hatch crane can rail everywhere without being blocked by the ice. This time we just made it ready to discharge and prepared everything then went to bed. We wouldn’t start discharging till the next day, but in case of a change of plan in the schedule, we should always be open ready hatches. Later in the morning and afternoon, we hammered and scooped away the snow that had accumulated.

It was not too bad actually, I enjoyed it quite a bit as it gives you a good workout and keeps you warm. The hammering part. Not the shovelling part. Our first 4 hatches have brand new paint coating which makes it too slippery for my taste.

Captain H. and AB J. hammering and shovelling the iced hatches.

I do not know how the guys do it. I have the feeling I am like in a circus or cartoon with soap under my feet walking like a grandma and lowering myself down on the knees to crawl like a baby and avoid falling! We had a good laugh and lots of fun..

Lots of blocs of ice in the water!

In Finland, they have a full day of work from 06:00 till 23:00 but we have a 1-hour difference as we stay in ship time. So that meant that they would start discharging at 05:00 my time. I need a little less than to 30min open all the hatches safely with no pressure. Usually, I take a quick 10 min to prepare myself, and then once the ship is ready outside I make myself a nice cup of coffee and start my day. This time I was quite anxious about the amount of snow that would have probably fallen during the night. I woke up the whole night to check through my porthole. I was awake early every day, in the freezing cold. I could not feel my hands in my gloves anymore. All that time I was thinking that cold was only a piece of information to and trying to be a female version of Wim Hof with not much success- my hands were so cold! I am glad they did not fall off!

Anyways. Ice sailing is fun even though it requires more effort and work I guess. I do not mind. Not only because I like to feel the fresh air face but I also like to have a difference in seasons: in the winter nice and cold with snow and ice and winter overalls and not feeling your fingers anymore when driving the hatch crane and in the summer shorts and tee shirts not so many layers and enjoying the sun tanning your skin, longer days and the warm breeze at sea. The next day we discharged in one day and shifted berth to load timber.

Timber! My first timber cargo. I must say I was a little anxious about it because I have heard a lot of times that timber was a “difficult ” cargo. Because it required a lot of work for the lashing on deck. We would be sailing to Brake, on the Weser river, in Germany. When we arrived at our new berth we heard that we would not load during the weekend. Finish stevedores in this harbour do not work on weekends. To be honest, I was quite happy because I had never really had the opportunity to walk around ashore in Finland. I actually think that it was my first time too.

Our walk from the ship to Hamina in Finland
Proof that I have been to Hamina, Finland!

So we had a quiet weekend and went for a long walk to Hamina, 6 km back and 6 km forth. It was really freezing cold outside: up to -17°c! Finally had the opportunity to buy my first postcards while being onboard Ruyter! This is also a challenge to get some cards while working here! The walk was great! I was afraid to be a bit cold as I only left with my thin jeans on my legs, I had a few woollen layers on my upper body. But I was ok. Walking really heats you up.

Hamina is a tiny city. With corona, not much was really open. But probably also because we have a one hour time difference with them and we were there in the late afternoon in town. We were looking for a place to have a nice coffee but couldn’t find one, so ended up asking, and found ourselves sitting at a small food cafe inside the tiny ” shopping mall” it was just what we needed a coffee and a small bite before returning to the ship. We had decided this time to take the ice way back aka walk all the way back on the ice, where normally ships would it be passing! Was quite a fun experience!

The next day we went again to Hamina but this time back and forth on the ice directly. It was a shortcut… But this time found bars open! So we sat in a pub for a Sunday beer together… thinking of our friends back home who could not enjoy a beer in a bar because all restaurants and pubs were closed till further notice. Well. Most of the times sailors do not have time off but this time – for once- we were the lucky ones!

Engineer A., Captain H., Duschi the dog (you only see the leach!) and myself enjoying the second walk to town.

Talking about relaxing and cold weather! I have had my very first dip in freezing ice-cold water too! It was -14°c outside and we were just alongside. The AB’s put the pilot ladder out and we (captain H. and I put our swimsuits on and went in the water! There was ice everywhere of course! To be honest the water did not feel that cold! It was more my hands. Hurting and starting to “stick” to the iced ladder so I came out.

Going in to the ice cold water while it is -14 degrees outside! 💪🏻

Thanks to my cold daily showers this was very enjoyable and I own looking forward to more ice swimming! What a great week this was, with so many highlights!

Happy chief officer Sophie, all wrapped up for the cold!

Looking forward to next week and the timber!

xxx ciao for now! Sophie

3d term, Week 2 🤩⚓️

25th-31st of January 2021

So… we arrived in Goole (UK) Sunday but did not go ashore there. We arrived a little earlier and we were hoping to be able to be alongside for the night but they (the authorities) decided otherwise. So we had to stay at anchor in the deepwater area and wake up early early to heave up anchor and get the pilot onboard that would sail with us on the river up to our berth.

On our way to Goole

When these kinds of changes happen, I am usually not called in the morning to heave up the anchor. I usually stay on my normal anchor watch routine or swap with the engineer or captain so that not all of us are exhausted the next morning.

Indeed, as the deck officer, I am responsible for opening the hatches open on time in the morning. So there I was at 6 am ship’s time with all hatches open, ready for discharging while the others could take a wee nap. First thing as soon as discharging starts is ballasting the vessel. I usually really need to be awake and fit then, because times like this are only about “go go go” moments. I start early and finish late. It is quite rare that I get to go back to sleep for a short nap. I just try to keep my mind focused on the job: hatches and weather and not think too much. Usually, it is not a problem. I know I will be able to rest later at sea for example, but sometimes on the spot, it can be quite tough. This time as soon as discharging was done, we had to wash the cargo hold and move bulkheads again. The pilot would come onboard in the middle of the night and we would have a short 2-hour sail up the river to another berth in Goole.

Moored on the Humber River

There, we were supposed to start a new loading in the darling morning. But, as it often happens in the shipping world: change of plan! We would not start the discharge. Only the day after. So we had an easy day that day because we were all quite wrecked from the nights before of course. That is the nice thing when some change of plans happen! And it is nice to know that changes are not always for the bad either. It gave us time to breathe and have a look at the maintenance jobs to be done onboard.

Sunset? Or sunrise? What would you say?

One year ago we had Port state control onboard (PSC): is an official inspection of the ship that can only be done in a foreign country. Your flag state cannot inspect you (unless an annual inspection for example – but not a surprise one let’s say). This inspection is officially recorded on the Paris-MOU website with all the eventual deficiencies that have been found. The deficiencies are available to any person who looks up your vessel. Of course, the worst-case scenario is that the vessel is “chained” or detained and cannot sail out. That usually happens if there are too many deficiencies or important items to be solved. The goal of course is to have the least possible deficiencies which mean that the vessel is well taken care of and is in good condition. Usually, after 1 year, the vessel comes up on the top of the “to be inspected” list and is “due” to re-inspection. This is how we know that we can expect PSC onboard. If the ship is well maintained and in good order – which means: ” if you did your job well”, then there is nothing to be afraid or worry about. It should go just fine. But you never know. If inspectors have had a bad day, it could be that they will be searching for a small thing you never know. And of course, we are humans so sometimes small things can also be forgotten! All this to say that well, we were expecting a PSC inspection anytime soon so I was glad to have that extra calm time to make sure the paperwork was in order but also the deck and its safety equipment.

Well. They didn’t come, and we also didn’t start loading till the afternoon of the next day! haha

Our next cargo was an interesting one! Railways for trains that we would bring to Hamina in Finland!

Railways: an interesting cargo!

I have never transported such cargo. It is in steel and very heavy for a very little volume. This means that most of the weight (centre of gravity) of the cargo would be at the bottom of the ship. I was now just keeping my fingers crossed that we would not get any heavy weather towards Finland because with such cargo, the ship starts rolling a lot and becomes quite “nervous” and it makes sleeping less nice and you sometimes need to hold on to things a little more. Life at sea!

Loadingvtge railways with two cranes

The rails were 50 meters long so I had to open all the hatches to load.

Two cranes were manipulating the rails together to put them in the hold. It seemed like quite a tricky job to do!

The nice thing I am experiencing about this job is that so far I have found it quite diverse regarding destinations and cargo it seems that I am always learning something new on every trip, so that is quite nice. I hope it will stay like that and that I will not get tired of too many of the same trips in the future.

Train railways! Isn’t that cool? The way they made them fast at the end was also interesting. The last layer was fairly lashed with a strap and partly with timber that was hammered in between the rails.

Another nice thing about railways that I discovered, is that I actually find them very photogenic and artistic! Coming from an architecture background – did you know I am an architect and studied the full courses at the university in Paris? It is a big part with these about lines and shapes. I must say I very much enjoy taking “artistic” pictures! or at least I try to call them “artistic”!

Moored in Goole, ready to load steel!

The harbour of Goole is very interesting we were inside the docks and had to pass through a narrow lock, then very narrow spaces with quite a lot of bends to reach either our berthing place or the locks. I was then on the foredeck guiding the captain in his manoeuvre giving him the distances we had ahead of us. I like doing such things because it “spices” up our everyday routine.

Underway from Goole to Hamina of course we sailed again through the Kiel Channel. And again at night making some slight changes in the watches so that they would correspond to the moments we enter the locks in Brunsbüttel and Holtenau. And also for the pilot change that occurs midway through the channel. Despite what other people think, I enjoy the channel, it is usually peaceful and quiet and there is always something different: the weather – sun, rain or fog-, the time of the day people walk, cycle – or not – on the quays. Sometimes the pilots want to steer so we are happy to let them do, sometimes we have to steer all the way through. I do not mind. Well, I also do not have the choice as it is also my job right? Anyways.

All frozen on the foredeck!

Fun fact about the time we passed the locks in Brunsbüttel: I had my first frozen mooring line experience! It was -9°c when we entered the locks and in 1 hour outside, the lines were frozen as sticks. In the freezing areas in the winter, we take time to store all our lines either in the paint-store forward or in the workshop aft so that we do not have that problem when arriving in the harbour and preparing for mooring. I better get used to it as when we look at the ice charts in the Gulf of Finland, it will be cold there!

Always happy, or trying to be of course! 🙂

I am looking forward to some ice experiences of course it reminds me of when I was sailing in Antarctica. Except that I house the feeling that summer in Antarctica was warmer than winter in the Baltic! We will see!

I will let you know next week what happens! 🙂