4th Term, Week 6 ⛴⛴

7th-13th of June 2021

So… here we are again, a new week and a new little blurb on what I have learnt this week…. I ended last Sunday at see between Heroya and Uusikaupunki with a beautiful sail: sunny, no wind, relaxed, all up to date, perfect. Just like it should be. I very much enjoy those times on the bridge when I can just enjoy the navigation part and looking outside at the sea and even enjoying a cup of coffee in the sun. A little bit of vitamin D always makes my day!

Sometimes days in harbour are tough and very demanding. I know that and I accept that even though my lack of sleep can make me (bit) lazy and probably a bit grumpy too. I often think of how mental strength makes things easier and have-ing a good mindset or the kind of one that « just gets it done » make all the difference. But to be honest, I sometimes also need a pull or push to stay in that mind set too…When I was on the sail training ships one of my motos were:

« If you sit they lay down, if you stand they sit, if you walk they stand, if you run they walk »

The idea was that you always had to be one step ahead of the people you were training, or those you were leading…. It feel the same here. Not that I am ahead or leading anybody but as we are only 6 onboard, if we do not get the good dynamic for working – and happily working- well the jobs suddenly get more heavy to do.

Doing a short tour on deck while sailing: my happy silent place…

Sometimes I wonder if I still have that strength in me but then I think: wait Sophie these are totally two different jobs! Indeed, what I now find the most disruptive is my lack of sleep; but because it can sometimes be so random and over a week never have the same pattern: sleeping at times when I would normally be fully away and vice versa and also not having a same day following the other. And I found that that was my weakness. So as soon as I can I try to get my rest to keep it up. But of course the body doesn’t really understand what is going on: has to sleep, doesn’t have to sleep? How long? Two hours? Six hours? Well to be honest it happened that I sometimes had the chance to have a 2 hours nap or a 6 hour sleep and couldn’t close my eyes even though I was exhausted…. There was absolutely nothing I could do but toss and turn in bed. The body just doesn’t always follow…. But then surprisingly, when things need to happen, there is no problem anymore.

Luckily I had now a few days where I could rest and catch up. And that was great!

Just smile and be happy, in the end it will all be fine

Another nice thing about sailing up north was that days became longer of course so at the end of my watch I could really enjoy the sun rising again and I simply love those moments. They are magical and peaceful. I feel that I do not have enough of those moments anymore: no sun sets, no sunrises…. Like if the job of the chief officer onboard cargo vessels was the « filling in position ». The captain having the watches that are the most « normal » ones (besides when we need to come in the harbour or leave in the afternoons… of course that is tough. And the other officer has also mostly a « day job » starting at 4 am in the bridge and the afternoon in the engine room, with a long 10hour rest at night. Well. On the other hand, if you do not sleep well one night you are ruined for the rest of the day, in my watch hours, I know I can eventually go back to bed at a maximum of 6 hours later…. That is also nice.

The sun rising at the end of my watch… Just amazing!

Oh well, I am of course not complaining! I like my watch, it is fine for me, but explained sometimes that I get quite disorientated when I normally go to bed at 4 am and sometimes I have to get up at that very same time!

When we arrived in Uusikaupunki a few days later, we found the Leonie again. Actually we never really lost her: she had to bunker so we catch up on her until dropping anchor close by in Uusikaupunki only 1,5 hours after her! Funny! There was « congestion » in the harbour, so we had to wait…. Of course. So again, had time to put all my administration in order and up to date and enjoy a very nice, calm and beautiful time at anchor.

Along side in Uusikapunki, astern of Leonie

Luckily we did not have to wait long before we could sail into the harbour and start discharging, moored ahead of Leonie. We finished discharging very early in the morning and off we were to our next harbour in Finland: Kotka.

In Kotka, we would load fertilizer and sail to Delfzijl. We know that trip, we have done it a few times already. It was the famous trip where our engine « exploded* » (* did not really explode but you get the idea!) in Brunsbüttel 1,5 years ago when I was trainee onboard.

In Delfzijl there is a draft restriction, we have to be even keel and not over 5,00m otherwise we hit the ground…. And we do not really want that. I like training for even keel because it makes the loading a bit more interesting – not that it is not interesting- but more that you have to be in control of how much and where you load. Of course, although it is always the Captain’s plan – and it is always the same way we are loading almost every cargo… -… I applied it well – or as best as I could- because I pretty much was the only one up during loading….

Indeed, you remember how I said that all our schedules were blown away when we had short trips and fast loadings? Well this is exactly one of those situations….

I would never want to miss this… Yet I do miss my 4-8 watches on sailing vessels…

We arrived in the end of the afternoon in Kotka. They load quite fast here, so we know that we will be out again in 6-8 hours. As we need a pilot, and of course need to maneuver the ship, the captain has to be on watch then. So he is the one finishing with the loading plan and starting up the engine; then he wakes up the ABs and an officer. In this case the other officer. Because the loading is my department (deck officer), the engine officer comes on deck for cargo operations usually only if we are loading 24hours. So there we were: basically the captain and I swopped watches so that he could get some sleep before departing again, which he did.

In the meantime just another cup of coffee in the sun… #happysocks ready to go in work boots…

In Kotka, the loading goes really fast, usually around 600-700t per hour. I like it when it is fast. I had per instructions to wake up the captain when we were at average draft 4,5m. Remember, we could only load up to 5,00m, so we still had 50cm to go. On our ship, it is approximatly 1cm= 10tons midships, and closer to 1ton per cm fore and aft while loading in those areas.

Regularly I check the drafts marks to have an average draft so that I am able to calculate how much cargo is already in the hold. The first time, after approximately one hour, I had already 900 tons in! I had to recalculate thinking like « wow this is going fast! ». Then I reminded myself that the stevedore said they would put two big tractors to load the belt so it indeed goes way faster. I did a quick calculation… if in 1 hour we had 900t, how long would it take to reach the target of 3000 t? Well 3×900 = 2700… I think captain would only have a short rest before I’d have to wake him up again!

So there I was, an hour later: 1800t. I like it when it goes fast. It was also nice because I was then very busy deballasting all the tanks and striping them via the ejector to make sure there was no water left inside. It is easy to do, but it takes time because you have to do one tank at a time and the ejector is quite a slow system – even though very efficient. It was a busy watch, and I am glad the weather was good and no rain was forecasted otherwise I would have really been busy. The only thing was that the wind was picking up so I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to take the drafts later for the draft survey.

We did a draft survey before starting loading and we had to do another one after loading so that we knew how much cargo we had. The idea is to take the drafts fore and aft but also midships on the Portside and starboard side. Then with trim corrections, ships various weights and the amount of ballast before and after, we can calculate how much cargo we have in our hold. For school of course, you would have to do this by hand, but we have a excel sheet program that a previous captain sailing onboard Ruyter did very nicely by locking the fields we couldn’t touch and enabling only the cells where we had to enter information. Perfect tool!

I finally checked the drafts marks and we were getting closer to the average of 4,50m -where I had to wake Captain H. up. Only 5 cm to go, which meant 50 tons. I was loading in the stern of the ship and as you recall, we had to be even keel for Delfzijl. I had the instruction to not go over 5,10m on the stern draft. And it was getting really closer so I decided to wake up captain because it would not be long before we were done with loading! 50cm is 500t, which is a big half hour! I think we were not really expecting to be as quick in this harbour, but perfect!

The only thing that made me a bit nervous was that by the time I got back out on the stern, we were already at 5,00m! Oh no! I ran to the stevedore controlling the belt and told him to move forward – which he acknowledged. But it was going too slow to me taste and I could see the water coming to 5,15m! I shouted at him to stop which still took too long to my eyes…. But eventually it happened…. And I was at 5,20m!!! Ahhh 😨 my heart was beating quite fast…had I just ruined the whole loading plan?

I asked the stevedore to load as far forward as possible to get back even keel as quick as possible. And there it happened. Yes! IT happened! You might be thinking right now: what? What Sophie tell us! What happened?

Well….. we had just 20 minutes of loading to be done till completion and there was a fault on the last belt. So they had to stop to fix it. That did not take long. What took long was that the previous belts did not stop during the last belt’s fault and… the cargo accumulated on them so the mechanics couldn’t restart them because there was too much cargo on them! Yes I know…. Silly right?

It literally took them over two hours to get that fixed…. In the mean time the Captain was wake – of course, I called him because we were supposed to be almost at the end of our loading process!- I felt sorry for him because he was missing out of two night good hours of sleep, but yeah. I didn’t really plan that, and honestly, he didn’t say anything either about it. He was just happy and ok to be there! We just laughed at how we thought we were so unlucky these past few trips with losing time on events that were not our fault: loss of time waiting for bunkering, loss of time at anchor because of moving sandbanks on the Humber river, now this….

Oh well, there was nothing we could do about it so we took a cup of coffee. I think the cup of coffee is for seamen what the cup of tea is for British people… haha

Once the belts were running again we could load forward again. The ship came up right perfectly! We even added slowly slowly till we were perfectly on the draft marks. For that we had to stop the loading process to empty what was left on the belt: approximately 30 tons of cargo and then they could in the shed add grab per grab. 1 grab is approximately 6,4tons. So captain decided to add 2 grabs forward and three aft and see again what our drafts were. This way he could really control and choose where to position these last bits of cargo: more or less aft to be even keel.

I was standing on the hatch crane and checking if he was not heeling on one side or the other. Indeed you want a balanced ship because if you heel 1-2 degrees, for example, the bottom side of our hull is approximately 6 meters more outboard so for sure you are not on 5,00m anymore, and you may touch the ground in Delfzijl. Does that make sense to you? 😉

So. Finally loaded, draft survey done, waiting for the pilot I closed the hatches and made as ready as possible before I was sent to bed. Yep, I realized as exciting this day had been, I was quite tired and needed so rest, that was sure! The ABs and another officer would come half an hour later to take the lines in and sail home to The Netherlands. I was glad I could finally close my eyes! We were heading for a nice 4 day sail to The Netherlands and we could get back into a normal rhythm again: perfect: Saturday and Sunday at sea, no bad weather in the baltic but maybe some stronger winds in the north sea… we are not there yet. First things first: sleep, the rest will come next week!

Oh wait!

Did I mention we had a special birthday onboard this week? No? Yes? Well it was Captain’s H. Birthday!!! Of course, I prepared a nice deco for the bridge and managed to get a picture of him in it, and of course, we had a delicious chocolate cake! He is « 39+ » but I am sure he feel like he is still in his 20’s! I always like birthdays on board…. Or maybe I like cakes. Or just both, could be. Anyways! Happy Birthday again Capatin H.!

Take care and big hugs!

Sophie

4th Term, Week 5 ⛴⛴

31st-6th of June 2021

Ok. So here we are having left Hamburg last week-end and sailed through Sunday to Hvide Sande where we arrived very early on Monday morning. When we arrive in harbours like this very early; I am usually still sleeping as I have had the night watch till 4 am. When I came up around noon for my watch, the discharging had started already and it was beautiful sunny weather. It seemed that finally, we had entered summer. What a nice feeling! Hvide Sande is a small fishing harbour on the west coast of Danemark, North of Esbjerg. I remember now from last time that they have a couple of speakers on the quay with bird sounds to frighten the « real » seagulls so that they wouldn’t eat the cargo. It was quite surprising the first time…. Because I couldn’t figure out where it would come from. It made me smile because I realized that being at sea we tend to forget a few smells and sounds. Onboard of course, systems are constantly running and the ventilation is also always on; so there is almost constantly a background sound. If you go out on the foredeck you clearly hear the difference with only the sound of the water against the hull.

Captain H. and I always making some kind of fun somewhere… Here in the hold!

Last time we were here in September 2020 we took time to have a really nice long walk on the beach. The Danish coast on that side is quite « empty »: long dunes, kilometres of sandy beaches and all seem to be in the same tones: grey sea, grey-beige sand and grey-white sky. You got me. But it is still beautiful 🙂 This time, after we stopped discharging for the day and after dinner, we went for a nice walk on the city side: a few shops, a lot of fishing industry and…. The beach again. I would not say it is a cute little harbour, but it was nice and calm and all closed – of course – after dinner time, usually most of the places are closed. I was impressed by the fact that there was even a small place where people could fix their bicycles themselves: a fixed pump for the tires, a fixed pal to hoist it with a few tools on a cable to use! I find it great to have a small town where you can put some equipment at disposal of the inhabitants and it stays there, nobody takes it!

The next day, the cargo hold was empty by the end of the morning. Unfortunately we had placed some tarpaulins wrong on the openings of the bulkheads that were stored in the aft, so I wanted to take the time to move them slightly to remove the cargo from behind. Indeed last year I made some custom made tarpaulins with very strong magnets that could be places against the wood closing the openings when we have thin cargo in bulk. These are very strong magnets and the tarpaulins prevents leakages of the cargo which is very handy. This time they were positioned against the bulkhead and because of how the cargo was poured in the hold, it was not 100% efficient. Luckily it was very little cargo, but I like good cleanses and not half jobs. While the bobcat was still gathering the rest of the cargo in the forward part, we could easily take the time to move around bulkheads in the aft and make a pile before completion for the bobcat to pick up; which happened. The hold was cleaned after lunch in less than two hours and we headed to Heroya in Normay by mid afternoon. A less than 24hours sail. An easy sail. We all like that. When it is easy I mean. I think we probably all prefer to have long sails to stay in a routine of course. Although being a few days in harbour is also nice because we can then work more efficiently during the day and get more jobs done rather than having a crew split through the day.

The fjord leading to Heroya was very nice. Not the nicest I had seen in Norway: the west coast is beautiful with the tall mountains surrounding the fjords. This time there were no mountains. The houses were nice, but it wasn’t as nice as around Arendal or Kristiansand. It was « just » nice because it was different and there was something to see. In anywise, I enjoyed the view, and thought every minute how beautiful it was. We were going to be at anchor for a couple of days due to congestion in the harbour. Indeed, another vessel – sister ship of RUYTER- LEONIE, was there for more than 10 days already waiting for the same cargo as us. They would also be sailing to Finland after that. I was very much looking forward to being at anchor because usually we make time for a swim call …. And I really wanted to swim especially now that sunny days were finally showing up!

The anchorage was not at all as expected, nor the sight we had. It felt like Heroya harbour was actually an industrial harbour, just the Yara fertilizer factory. There were quite a few other vessels also at anchor, and some tankers big enough to be more than twice our size too. They seemed to be heading to the other side of the fjord where there was another big industry. Not at all what I had imagined, especially after all those years sailing on tall ships and racing and visiting Norwegian harbours from the west coast!. But because of the sun and the very calm waters, it somehow still felt nicer than our previous experience out of the Humber river!

We had finally planned a swim call on a late afternoon when Captain H received a phone call from the agent that a pilot would come onboard for us to precede to a waiting berth, opposite of Leonie: next morning we would get our hold inspection. So change of plan and no swimming but that is the way it goes here. You have to be flexible and not so disappointed when changes happen, otherwise, it doesn’t make you happy. You have to try to find the positive: no swim call, but no night watch either and a full night sleep!

Doing some maintenance waiting for our turn to load…

To be honest, I was so tired from the previous shifts And changes in my sleeping schedule that I preferred to head to bed instead of meeting up with the crew from Leonie that evening. Sometimes, it is also nice to chill in your cabin, read or watch a bit of a movie; to cut your self a bit from the rest. The next morning, I still had to wake up earlier together with the captain for the ultrasound test. I would have time later to meet them….. It didn’t take long before they came to us…. Apparently having a « woman on board » makes the vessel suddenly very interesting…. And people come with « excuses » with the whole crew to « checkup on the woman officer »…..

Rewind.

Friday morning we had our hold inspection and ultrasonic test. We usually never have a problem because the hatches are water tight and our hold is in good condition. Therefore when inspectors start marking things down, we know that it is usually because they have problems with their cargo and want to blame us for not being ready so that we cannot start our notice of readiness…. It is all about business and money in this case. If we are not ready, they do not have to pay for the lost time and we would have to pay for a second inspection…. Anyhow. Money and power kind of rules these situations. That morning, we knew of course that there was no cargo because of Leonie. Duh. And the moment the inspectors stepped on deck, we knew what was going to happen. They started bye talking down to me and finding tiny « wiggles » in speed locks and ordered me to tighten them. No please, no kind words…. I was a bit annoyed. Then they started marking with chalk measurements from the ultrasonic test…. Like if our hold was leaking everywhere. What?! Not possible. I was asked our previous last 3 cargos by one of the inspectors. A few minutes later the other inspector asked me and I replied « oh I told your colleague already »…. What hadn’t I said! I promise I said it nicely! But they started telling me I had to cooperate otherwise they would leave the ship. What?! I just replied that I had told the colleague and because he couldn’t remember it was my fault? So I just repeated with calm: soya bean meal, feed phosphate and limestone… and the older inspector really started becoming irritating and talking down to me. So Captain H. Of course told them that they were not allowed to talk to me like that and that I was not their dog and he mentioned to them that it was very surprising that as there was no cargo, suddenly our hatches were not good… right…. And then we started arguing because they were saying we were not cooperating. Well They ended up leaving the ship. Ok. What just happened here?

No problem, we took materials to replace parts of the rubber, and to check first is they actually needed to be changed…. It is not a complicated job, but not always so easy because you are working but upside down and the rubbers are tough and you need to squeeze them in metal rails and hammer them in.

After a few phone calls to the office, we surprisly saw the inspectors coming back to the ship, all sweet to us. They said they could check our rubbers by lifting the hatches individually and see which ones needed replacement to their opinion. Ok. So this is what we did: replaced a couple for them (sarcastic remark from me: not at all the same corners indicated by the ultrasonic test….. hum hum). Apparently this is very common: when there is no cargo replace a couple of rubbers to make everyone happy and when there is lots of cargo, of course, everything is always fine.

So there we were with a couple new rubbers when our neighbors and colleagues from Leonie all three officers show up to our gangway with a small invention of theirs (I must say it was pretty simple and a good idea to win time! L.. took a picture so that he could make such tool because in dry dock it is already planned that we will replace all our rubbers!); but then they were suddenly not so discreetly staring at me. Haha. Gotcha. Once they were gone, captain H was looking at me saying that had come for me. To check me out. Naaaa not true I replied. He said yes. This is how men do. They come with a lame excuse to the ship just to see « the woman ». Haha. Oh well. 😉

Anyways. They were nice, they came later on for a coffee. They would be loading end of the afternoon and we would be shifting to their berth directly after and racing them to Uusikaupunki, Finland.

Captain H. Driving the hatch crane, me: commenting …

And that is how the week ended: fast shift of berth, fast loading, smooth and easy, no rain, like we like it. And off to Finland with a nice easy Sunday sail: beautiful sunny weather, 25 degrees, not one ripple in the Skagerrak. Perfect. Hopefully it will stay like this for a while now :-).

Ready to close hatches! The fertilizer is covered with plastic

I am very glad I had the chance to speak with my father for his birthday Saturday and a nice chat with my parents is always welcome! And with my sister on Sunday for her birthday too! I feel I never call enough and should definitely too it more often! I like my family. I am lucky!

Have a nice Sunday and see you next week!

Big hugs, Sophie 🙂

3d Term, Week 9 🤩⚓️

15th of March till I fly home on the 22nd!

There we were Monday morning still in Szczecin, Poland, finishing the discharge of the steel coils. There was not much left but enough to take up half a day and wait for the pilot to board so that we could proceed to Riga. This gave us time to prepare the hod, sweep it well, and make sure there were no remaining from the previous cargo in it: bits and pieces of plastic, lashing steel, etc. It goes fast and if you do not pay attention the guys working in our hold would also leave their crap behind that we would have to pick up and clean up for them: wraps of snacks, sweets, papers, empty cans, and bottles of water…. It is often like that. But I am never so happy with it and I often cannot keep my mouth shut for this type of things and I make sure that they pick up all their trash before they finish. Sometimes it is a bit of a fight. But I am right: before the cargo, the hold is clean and ready and after the cargo, the hold should be as clean as possible. Maybe because I am a woman they try to have me there, but I know my voice can sound louder from time to time, and trust me; I do know how to use the sound system when necessary!

Moored in Szczecin, Poland. Grey and rainy.

It is important to make sure everything come out of the hold at the end…

A nice and clean hold, ready for the next cargo

We were finally underway to Riga in Ballast. It was a 2-day sail and we would load Sun Flower meal pellets. It looks very much like sugar beet pulp pellets, but it is not the same ;-). We would bring this cargo to Gent in Belgium, which meant a nice few days sailing. Even if we had to pass via the Kiel Channel once again; if we were lucky enough it would not bother us too much in our watch schedules and resting hours. Fingers crossed!

I think this was my first time with this type of cargo…. Let me check. Yes, indeed it was my first time! Now you must be thinking how I checked so fast into my memories for that right? Well, I have a secret. I do not have any memory for such things: cargos, places I have been to, distances, events… No brains at all so I write it down! I have a note on my phone and I write down on each of the trips the distances and cargos we have been transporting…. 😉 especially when onboard Ruyter we tend to go several times to the same harbors and also a few times in the same term! And a few times in the same harbors but not with the same cargo either! Yep. As you can see I can easily get myself confused after a while, so I write it down. To be as precise as I can.

The loading in Riga went quite fast. It was a touch-and-go harbour which is nice because I could easily prepare my handover and take care of the last-minute things. There are always last-minute things to arrange when you come closer to a Dutch or Belgium harbour: deliveries, technical orders…. This time it was our gangway. We were going to receive a new gangway in Gent with a new platform! How cool right? We were all so happy about it because our platforms always got stuck with the gangway. But the reason we would get a new one was not so nice of course… it broke. Well to be more precise, it got literally destroyed by the crane driver in Szczecin…. He did not look where he was driving and ran over it like if it were butter. But it was not as if we had quickly moved our gangway just on his path by surprise right…. I mean, you get it. Shit happens and no one got hurt.

On our way back to Gent, we of course passed via the Kiel Channel and I enjoyed being once again in the locks. It felt like these locks were becoming our familiar second place to be with the ship. I do not mind they do not take long, and I usually try to make fun on the foredeck taking selfies or showing my life on Instagram or just chit-chatting with the AB on deck with me at that time. There are a lot of things to talk about: the way the germans through their heaving line, the way the gangway is set, if we need to take freshwater or not…. Always something to talk about indeed.

How can you not love sunsets at sea? Never bored of it…

I felt like this time the channel was quite busy with more vessels than usual. But I must admit that we were this time in a sort of convey so there were always vessels ahead of us and behind! And perhaps the last times I didn’t see the other vessels because of the darkness of the night… just kidding 🙂 even when it is dark we still see the other ships 🙂

Does it happen to you too that when you know you are going home; I mean obviously I always knew it would be the case; but I mean the moment you have a fixed date, then suddenly everything becomes somehow « lighter » or more « cheerful ». You enjoy way more small things that you do onboard: mooring, cargo, watches…. Like a new you. The same happens when you just join the ship. You are fresh from leave so full of energy if you did not have a bad long travel day. At the end of your term, you are re-energized because you know you will get enough rest once home again so you are not trying to save on some rest or sleep.

Happy officer on the forecheck during mooring operations!

Anyways. Kiel Channel and arrival in Gent went quite smoothly. If you do not count the long waiting and drifting at Steenbank; then the locks in Terneuzen… The pilots always seem to postpone the boarding times and the locks always seem to be congested. Every single time. I can understand it is a busy area and if you have bad weather or infrastructure work in the locks, everything is slowed down. Do you have the same?

And then there it was suddenly the end of 9 weeks onboard. And my 3d term turns a page for new shore adventures… till I will join again in 8 weeks.

And say bye to the ship for the next 8 weeks!

I hope you still enjoy reading all my adventures and I am looking forward to my next term! But for now, rest is well deserved! Thank you all my dear friends and see you soon!

Xxx Sophie

S O P H I E. T H E. S A I L O R.

Just another view of the world through Sophie’s eyes while working and traveling at sea

Tag: travelling the ocean

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S O P H I E. T H E. S A I L O R.

Just another view of the world through Sophie’s eyes while working and traveling at sea

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