Whale Of A Time

Terrible title, but I couldn’t resist.

 

Last Sunday (yes, it’s been a long time since I managed to update blog last) I happened to be on the Bridge, just as four whales were swimming in couples just off the starboard bow.  After spending so much time surrounded by cold steel it was a welcome sighting, and very much made my day.  I was looking straight at them through the binoculars – any closer and I would have had to put them down.  They swam with us for about five minutes, before rounding the bow and heading off south (we were heading almost due West).

 

Latest development has been getting skype sorted on the laptop, and I’ve managed to speak with Ally and Dad so far.  My plans to speak to Emily got scuppered by an earlier exit from Spain than predicted though, which was frustrating.   

 

This has been a tiring week, as I’ve done all the manoeuvring with the Chief.  One involved waking up at 3:30am for getting into the port of Bayonne, France, and then leaving it late night the same day.  I didn’t get to bed until after midnight that day, but luckily when we finished the first manoeuvring at about 5:15am I could sleep up until 10am to top up. 

 

Then, on Friday morning it was get up at 5:40am for manoeuvring.  Once we’d arrived in La Coruna, we bunkered twenty five tonnes of MGO straight away, so no rest for the wicked as we had to prepare the bunker station etc.  I ate breakfast finally at 9am, then worked the whole day and we left again at 5:30pm.  So, my day finally ended at about 7pm. 

 

The weekend hasn’t been too bad, as we dropped anchor yesterday at about 5pm (Saturday 23^rd).  However, the original plan was to go into Bayonne port for the weekend and get loaded up with steel on Monday, but I think there was no berth for us.  So, we’ve been rolling around at anchor for the weekend. 

 

Winds today (with rain) of Force 8 – which is classified as “Gale”.  When I was up on the bridge we had about 33-34 knots gusting to over 40 knots, on the port bow.  The most I saw was 44 knots.  So, as a result of this lovely weather, we’ve been rolling around constantly.  The rolling is felt most on the Bridge due to the height.  My cabin’s a floor below, so reasonably wild.  This force 8 though isn’t that extreme though, and I’m sure we’ll  experience something larger before I leave in December.

 

I’ve attached a few recent photos.  I’ve been using silhouettes a bit with these ones.  We had a spectacular sunset when we were in Bayonne on Wednesday.  I took quite a few photos incorporating the ship and/or the cranes and steel works equipment.  I think the mix of machinery and the natural sunset are photographically very interesting.  Ray, prepared to be bored.  Light sensitivity isn’t great as I don’t have the Nikon with me, so forgive the quality.  I’ve had to reduce them in size a lot.  I have high res versions if anyone wants. 

 

One more thing.  The 20^th October marked the half way point for my sea phase.

 

 

Grey weather, photo stream, and good weather

Today (Saturday 9th) it has been a very grey day, with the wind and rain driving at us while we took bunkers.

I have borrowed Raj's internet usb stick so while I still have signal I thought I'd upload a few photos.

 Another nice one of the rescue man from the helicopter drill

 I've managed to find coke (sin cafeina) here.  UK?

Just like the average day at home - stopping to fill up with diesel...

 

This is just the leg part of crane in Bayonne - you can only just see me as it's so huge.

Raj and I in Bayonne, just going to Seamen's Club

Seamen's Club

Rough weather in Bayonne - the river was fairly wild.  Unfortunately photo doesn't really show much except the white horses.

Rocker covers off on disel generator for resetting tappets

Tightening up exhaust valve main nuts.  Last time I did this with Cristi, and they have to be torqued to 650Nm!

The only climbing I get to do here...

I've managed to get photos of some of the crew too.

This is Rocha - He's from Cape Verde, used to be in the army and can do a lot of martial arts.  He's very quick!  We speak in a mixture of pigeon English and Spanish.  He's been on six months already, and leaves the ship at beginning of December.

Marius on the left and Rocha on the right.  Marius is the Second Mate and is from Romania.  He is tired and overworked today!

Jose on the left, Kumar in the middle, and Rocha on the right.

Jose is from Cape Verde too, and speaks very good English.  He's worked for Carisbrooke for ten years now and does nine or ten months on ship at a time. Kumar is from India, he's one of the two Kumars we have on board!  The photo shows lunch on Carbonara day.  It's the best meal on ship.

Preetam on the left and Raj on the right.  Preetam is the second Kumar on the ship.  He's working as a deck cadet at the moment, but he has a ticket.  He did it a while ago, then didn't use it so he's refreshing before getting a job as Second or Third Mate.

As I lost internet shortly after I started writing this it has now been a few days and we're just about to leave La Coruna again bound for Bayonne.  The weather is sunny and hot, not like the UK I expect.  We had bunkers this morning and had a delivery of oil for the diesel generators too, so we've been able to enjoy a few minutes in the sun today.  Hopefully it won't get that cold in winter here. 

A few more photos below then I've got to post - signal is dying on the internet - again!

Dinner last night.  You're probably thinking, 'where is the veg'?  So am I...

Suez Canal Search Light that I restored to action - second one I've done now.  Needed stripping completely and rewiring, new sealing to stop it leaking etc etc

This morning in Port when we took bunkers.

 My cabin, post clean of course.  I'm not sure if Emily has emailed these to some of you already or not.

Using crane to get our diesel generator engine oil on board this afternoon.

Oh, and regarding the internet usb key I mentioned at the start.  The Chief Engineer and I now own 50% shares each in this.  As Raj is leaving soon he sold it to us, and so Chief and I have internet for each month for 17.50 euros each, with a 2gb limit.  Not too bad considering we’re on ship.