21st till 27th of February 2022

4 weeks onboard!! Already! It goes so fast! I have the feeling I came back on board not so long ago…. And there it is already halfway through my term!

As a reminder, we are sailing to Sweden with wood pulp in our hold. Not a full cargo; but very easy cargo. It was funny during the loading I thought to myself that the cargo seems in really bad shape. But you know the thing is that it has already been handled quite a few times as this wood pulp comes from South America somewhere. Can you imagine that we bring wood pulp back and forth between some countries? It is quite strange when you think of it to buy something from the other side of Europe or of the world will there is plenty next door!

Anyways. We are out of the Kiel Channel now. And as it happens most of the time- or at least it seems to me…- I had the longest watch in the channel…. Ok not fair for the others. Of course, Captain H. always stays up for entering the locks and mooring operations. So he is also early and late but usually managed to have 7-8 hours of sleep in between. This time, I woke up for my watch and we were still outside Brunsbüttel waiting for the pilot and a free space in the locks. There was so much wind that everything was congested.

A couple of hours later the pilot even told me that they had stopped entries in the locks because of too high waters…. We were facing some gusts over 40 knots on the channel. We had to wait q few times on the channel for other categories of vessels crossing us. Once even for 1hour! Usually, it is 20-30 minutes…. It was not the easiest on the channel but luckily the wind was pushing us on the dolphins in the waiting areas.

Once out of the Kiel Channel, there was still some wind but no more waves so it was actually quite a nice sailing up to Sweden!

The further northeast we were sailing, the colder the water was and I could really feel the difference in my morning shower! As you know I only take a cold shower and well it was almost freezing cold just before arriving in Norrsundet! I even challenged myself to stay for 3 minutes underneath and there was no problem at all. I loved it it was very … refreshing! From Kiel to Norrsundet it was still 3 days sailing so it gets more and more North. And there would still be some ice closer to the coast further on the Swedish coast.

I had never been to Norrsundet. It was a very small harbour on the east coast of Sweden (I checked it out even! 1003 inhabitants!), just at the entrance of the Bothnia Bay North of Gävle. There was not so much Ice before arriving, but in the entrance channel and the harbour, a little. Just enough that the ship had to break the ice to access the quay. The small ice breaker tugs should have passed to break the channel and crush the ice before our arrival, but they hadn’t even though it was requested!

The linesman was also the foreman of the harbour and she was very upset; captain H. Too! It took one hour to finally berth.

The next morning we were ready to discharge the wood pulp. I woke up quite early to be ready to check the weather and open all hatches up. But once on the bridge, although it was dry and clear when I checked the weather forecast, it showed rain just around the time the discharge should begin. So I kept everything closed except mine hatch – just to say I was there and ready- and made myself a cup of coffee. 

It was very quiet all around the ship and in the harbour. It was a very small harbour with only two quays. One where we were and another one, longer where you could see that various cargoes could be discharged.

Finally, shortly before 7 am, the stevedores came to the ship. The crane was not even there yet. I went to say hello and explained why the hatches were still closed. And we waited a bit then suddenly it was pouring rain for 20 minutes. Like it came out of nowhere. And there I looked at the stevedores and we nodded: this was what we were expecting and it came. After that, I opened all hatches and we could finally discharge the entire rest of the day. Woodpulp is a weather-sensitive cargo and it should not get wet at all. As we did not have a full cargo; the discharge rate was 200t per hour so we could expect to finish within the day which was great news. Our next harbour was Hamina in Finland and it was a little less than 2 days of sailing. The next cargo was timber so the hold only needed to be swept well but not washed. So that could easily be done underway.

The arrival in Hamina was easy in the morning. It was nice to sail in ice for a couple of hours again. It is like a real change of scenery. And even if it was not as cold as last year at the same time when it was -14 degrees Celsius outside and now only 0 degrees…. Well, the ice was still there and everywhere in the harbour and the icebreaker and tugs still needed to break the water for us.

We arrived on Saturday morning which gave us a lot of time to take all the timber lashings out of the lashing store. Trust me it is a lot of slings that we carry down there! They are all organised in bundles of 25 so that it is easier to handle around when on deck. But we have more than 2500! If not 3000…! Then it is also all the chains, slings for the deck lashing and tarpaulins to take out.

Suddenly the lashing store seemed very empty! It was good because I could do some sorting there and some throwing away.

A ship is a little like a house. You tend to keep everything « just in case »… and even if it is old, broken or… well you know. This was going to be a perfect opportunity for me to check what we had onboard and sort a bit…. And mostly throw what was not needed anymore.

We were also welcoming a second officer onboard that weekend. Normally we do not have a second officer and we had to free our spare cabin that was used for various spares onboard and make it ready for him. I would have to do another full familiarisation for him on deck as I did for the engineer that joined us a few weeks ago. That is how it goes I guess….

Luckily they would only start loading on the following Tuesday so we had a fun Sunday in the harbour to…; sleep in, and swim in the Ice cold water! Yeahhhhh!!! Of course, you would not think for one second that captain H. And I would let this opportunity pass by right? This time my challenge was to stay for more than 3 minutes at least in the freezing ice water. And I was aiming for 5 minutes. And you know what? It felt way easier than last time. My core was warmer. And I felt more relaxed. Except for my extremities ( toes and fingers) while I was going back to the vessel…. It was really exciting!

In the afternoon we went for a walk on the ice to the city of Hamina. It is a nice 1,5-hour walk on the ice directly to the city. We went for a beer (I took a cider) and we had lots of fun.

I enjoy Sundays in the harbour like that whether is no cargo operation. It is really one of the nice things to visit around and walk longer than the length of the ship. Besides, I do enjoy the ice and Finland. It makes it special.

And I do not know when we will be there next so…. One day at a time and I try to enjoy it as much as I can.

I hope your Sunday was also nice.

See you next week with the sorting of the lashing store and the loading of timber!

Xxx

Sopietje