Tag: United Kingdom

4th Term, Week 4 ⛴⛴

24th-30th of may 2021

Goole. Feed Phosphates. 2000t remaining to discharge. Weather predicted: rain.

Oh, God. I woke up early on Monday. The stevedores work from 6 am to 5 pm; which is one hour later for us as we stay on ship’s time – at all times. I prefer it when it is this way around rather than in Finland when we are one hour ahead…. It makes me wake up at 4:15 in the morning: it is because they also start cargo operations there (in Finland) very very early: at 5! In the UK, it is a normal time and for me, it ends up being only one hour earlier than the rest of the crew: easier for the rest of the day as I will not end up too much like a zombie around dinner time!

From the monkey deck, you can have a good overview of the cargo operations
An amazing view on the countryside
Always happy when I am at heights, never without a selfie either!

As there were some rain showers predicted, it was decided to open as few hatches as possible to close them quickly in case of drops. Feed phosphate does not tolerate any drop of rain and even with very light drizzle, the hatches need to be closed to protect the cargo from getting humid or worse, wet.

No need to say that my only job at that point was to stay outside when the hatches were open to be ready for action…. And count drops. The big bags were out of the hold quite fast and were taken away by forklift to another shed. Then Hold 2 was next to be discharged but….. the truck was not there yet and was late so we had to wait over 1 hour for that, which seemed like ages to me. Finally it came and slowly slowly, grab per grab hold two was empty by lunch time.

Finally we started discharging from hold 1 and then it started raining…. And there started my job to count drops …. Count drops to be ready to open hatches as soon as it was dry enough to discharge. That is the open-close-open-close game that starts. Oh, I didn’t mention that during the discharging, other trucks would come and load during our time so all the process of discharging the ship would have to be paused and it would take approx 30 minutes per truck. OK. How many trucks a day? 4 to 7. Yes you heard. We managed to discharge a bit more before calling it a day. That was nice to have a just longer evening than planned even though they wouldn’t have stopped too late.

Discharging hold 1

The next morning, it was dry. Perfect. I opened the hatches. But…. By the time I came back up to the bridge to switch the coffee machine on, I saw raindrops falling and run directly back down to the hatch crane to close. And…. Of course; British weather. 10 minutes later it was dry. And. That was till 10 am and then rain for the whole day. Great. We were just halfway through the discharging and the following forecast was not better. Luckily in the afternoon, we got a short window of sunshine and while we managed to continue discharging until trucks came, we had to pause. And…. The electrical cable of the belt got damaged by the trucks driving on it… Yes how unlucky! So we decided to shift some of the cargo from under hatch 10 to hatch 7-6 which would make it easier and faster for the grab to put on the belt. And… the crane broke down! Really? yes. We really thought everything was against us on this trip. The first discharge in Greenore was overtime or we would lose 3days; then the days at anchor because of the new survey in the river, and the rain, then the belt and finally the crane!…

Ended up having my morning coffee on deck!

Technicians spent a few hours preparing the crane in the night and the belt was repaired the next morning. Next rainy morning. Just to make it clear. We really had the feeling we would never get out of Goole and move on to the next harbour.

L. Sweeping the coming of hold 3

Finally, finally, we got a good slot after lunch and took the risk of opening up the hatches. And slowly slowly we managed to open everything and continue discharging; keeping the trucks out of the way while discharging. It seemed that for once, the stevedores also wanted us to move on. Well. In reality, they had other jobs to do around the harbour and they had a long national holiday coming on and did not want to do some overtime during the weekend. Obviously. Luckily, the winds had turned and they worked overtime of 2 to 3 hours making it possible for us to complete that evening and make it ready to sail out.

The sun finally came out… It’s all about perspective onboard😁
Hold 3 getting more and more empty

That meant: cleaning the hold and coamings and putting the bulkheads back in position for our next cargo.

We only knew in that same afternoon where we would be sailing to next. Not The Netherlands like we wished; but Hamburg in Germany.

That was good for our big food and ship’s stores delivery and also for some of the life Saving appliances that needed their renewal of certificates. Oh. And we would get our external audit in Hamburg too. Had I mentioned that already?

Ruyter alongside in Goole before discharging started…

Needless to say that this was going to be a long night, a short sail and long days in Hamburg.

I felt sad for Captain H. Because he was really looking forward to get his little dog Duschi back onboard. It had been almost 5 weeks that she was at home while he was sailing. Normally they are always together. But Hamburg was too far for someone to bring her on board. I am not admitting as loud as L., but the ship is way more silent without her…. Yes. We miss her. But shout, do not let Captain H. Know! We are still pretending it is way better without the dog that barks at anything that moves around. Haha. I know how much we can miss furry animals. I have the same with Maara and Ouschi, my parents’ two border collies. So I can imagine how he must feel without his warm little body dog following him everywhere. He just calls her a cuddle dog.

So there we were with a clean hold, a very short sleep and two pilots on board again to sail out of tiny tight Goole. Again a nice time-lapse, again very nice manoeuvring compliments for Captain H. And off we were to Hamburg!

We arrived at the waiting berth in Hamburg Friday in the beginning of the evening . As we had very little time, the external audit started directly upon arrival. It was long , but « okay ». I will never say and audit is nice. It is not. But we try to make the best of it. On Saturday we also had the delivery from Ship2supply coming straight from Delfzijl . 5 pallets! 5! And two technician checking all of our safety equipment: Self Contained Breathing Apparatus, medical oxygen, immersion suits, inflatable life jackets, fire extinguishers…. Etc etc etc a lot of things happening here indeed!

It seemed that the day never ended. In the middle of the night Saturday we shifted berth to go to the loading berth. Hopefully, we could be early enough to load and complete and still be on time to sail out with 3000t of soya bean meal to Hvide Sande in Denmark…… before the tide was too low for us to stay at the loading berth ….

Loading soya bean meal in Hamburg

Trust me we all wanted was a rest day. Or let’s say, a normal routine day; but we also all wanted to get back at sea! Get out of the hectic day and head towards a small calm danish harbour. And we made it out on time!

Finally a chill watch in the bridge…

This is how we spent our Sunday at sea. An easy Sunday. An easy sail. Just enjoy the good weather that was finally getting better and warmer.

Thank you for reading me dear friends, see you next week! Xxx Sopietje

4th Term, Week 3 ⛴⛴

17th-23th of May 2021

Ok, so remember how I said” how cool to have a few discharge harbors cargo?” well it happened that it took us 3 small days to arrive at the entrance of the Humber River we were quite happy because all along we had good currents and we could even arrive at anchor earlier. That was a good thing for us because actually, the harbor was not ready for us so we could start “counting our time” at anchorage. On paper it was a good plan. In the reality, it did not happen that way.

The day before we arrived we got an email from the agent saying that they had done new surveys on the river and that the depth chart had slightly changed. It is indeed common that on such a river with moving sand banks that there are changes in depth; it happens. The only thing is that it wasn’t really in our favor! Haha It was already two weeks that we were receiving the updates of the chartered depth from the agent and of course, leaving Kokkola, we planned the whole stowage of the cargo holds in such way that it would be good for Goole after discharging in Greenore. It was a great puzzle for the captain – but he likes challenges so that was fine-. So it resulted in the ship being too deep to enter as planned.

It is interesting to see the fact that as a cargo ship, you want to take « as much cargo as possible »; because, it is often the income of the ship; let’s say the freight is payed on the tonnage we carry most of the times. So according to the information we had from our final destination (which was the tricky one with the Humber river and the maximum drafts the ship could have to enter), we made a stowage plan. For that you take in account the fuel you have onboard and the consumption you will make of it, and also going from fresh water to sea water ( in which you will be floating « higher » – meaning slightly less draft- because of the density of the water!). So when you have a perfect plan to start your notice of readiness as soon as you drop anchor so that the demiurge can also start as soon as possible….

Welcome to British weather….. haha; a helicopter is checking the platform here
Very cloudy and windy atmosphere at the anchorage

Well it is quite irritating to have a whole perfect plan falling out because of a river survey. We had to wait for a bigger tide to proceed towards Goole. In that case, I am not 100% sure but, it means that the time cannot start counting because the ship cannot enter. So we have to patiently wait at anchor. Of course, you know captain H. Now…. Lots of phone calls to see if we can arrange to discharge two trucks in a port closer to sea and then proceed; but nope. Not possible. Pity; but no choice.

It seemed like a full week at anchor just laying there.

Oh and. Of course, to top it up, we were at the deep sea anchorage. Let’s say that the network connection wasn’t the best and as we were further off the coast, the view wasn’t exceptional either. Too much current to do a swim call and the weather was not great for deck jobs. The AB’s were needle gunnuning and painting hatch cover number 6 between showers and I managed to do a bit of greasing on deck until « extreme wind gale force 9 to 10 » was announced on the radio….. We wanted to change anchorage position to go more inland to be more sheltered….. you know the funny thing is that we needed a pilot to go to that anchorage. But in bad weather the pilot cannot board so we are allowed to proceed without pilotage… Strange don’t you think? Good weather pilotage compulsory; heavy heather, pilotage not compulsory. Well; we waited for more wind and for the pilot boarding position to change and asked again to change anchorage position. Luckily our request was approved.

A few hours sailing upstream gives us time to do some maintenance on the foremast!

There was our manoeuvre of the week!! Yeah! « What did you do this week? -Oh I heaved up anchor and dropped it again 1 hour later » haha. I am glad we did it because there was a loooot of wind. Network coverage was slightly better, but at least we were more sheltered.

At the end of the week, we could finally proceed towards Goole with enough water under the keel. A pilot was organized in the middle of the night. Great. Friday 11 PM. Again, just a phone call to the agent asking to push it to the next tide as there was no hurry to arrive. The discharging would only start on Monday so no need to wake up everyone so early on a « weekend » – ha! As if we had weekends….- but true. At anchor only one person is up: the officer of the watch so that the ABs can proceed with maintenance jobs during the day. It is more efficient.

The ship always looks strange with the mast down!
We should always try to make fun whenever we can right? 🙂

So off we were in the early afternoon to Goole. 4-5 hours on the river before entering the tiny locks and tiny harbour of Goole. We had two Pilots onboard: a « real one » and a trainee. They were nice. The older one had sailed quite a long time as captain and wanted to spend more time with his family so became a pilot. He was originally from Portugal. And wanted to study theology when he had the chance to become a chaplain for seafarers. Or for prisoners. Because of the loneliness. I thought it was very nice and interesting talking with him.I like it when people want to give their time to accompany other people and make sur ether have someone that can listen well.

Underway, L. and I had some fun lowering the foremast to make a few checks: hoisting cable, search light, and navigation lights. It was fun. At one point we had to reach a light that was too high so I ended up climbing on the mast and just sitting on it. Crazy. Any opportunity is there to make a job fun right?

The dark clouds and the bright lights made it a beautiful view of the river!

The pilots told captain H. That they had never seen such a happy crew. I just think we are normal. This is how we do it here. But oh gosh, I then thought that the other ships are probably all sad and boring people if they think that we are happy! The good thing is that happiness is driven by happiness right? So when you see someone smiling and laughing it is natural to want and smile too. Don’t you think? The opposite is also true. This is why it is very important to my eyes to try to not bring the atmosphere down. Being negative can be so easy, trust me! I know a whole bunch about that! But being happy is way more fun so. The choice is easily made; even though it does require efforts and maintenance too like our fore mast! ;).

The entrance of Goole was a tight manoeuvre that captain H. Nailed perfectly. I found a new purpose to the ship’s phone: making time lapses. Of course I made one entering! A short quay but perfectly fitted for us. Ready to -finally-discharge Monday morning!

Ready for locks and mooring operations!
Yes, indeed, that is the tiny lock we are sailing into!
Finally moored!

It was nice to enjoy a good long sleep on Sunday with apple tart and a nice long walk on Sunday afternoon. I couldn’t resist taking pictures of all the flowers on our way and to light the day by swinging like a child on a random tree found in the field. Spring is a beautiful season – when it is not raining!. It was long that I hadn’t really seen trees and grass and the view from the bridge on the river Humber was just stunning with the sunset! A perfect way to end the week. Hopefully next week will be dry and we will have a nice next destination.

Happy chief officer! well done guys!

Take care!

Xxx Sopietje

A well deserved long walk where I found this swing…. never too young for some fun!