The Heat Is On

It’s difficult to remember to update this blog now, as I have a diary I have to keep for the Merchant Navy Training Board Training Record Book (MNTB TRB) – The TRB is the book with lots of work activities in which all have to be signed off to get my 3^rd Engineering Officer ticket come 2012.  Once I’ve written in that every day it feels like I’ve done the blog entry. 

 

So what’s happened since Thursday of note?...

Well I guess you could call the weekend a fairly major event.  Saturday I had a half day only, so the morning was spent going round the ship testing the emergency equipment batteries such as Emergency Generator, GMDSS, Rescue Boat, Life Boat etc.  I also had to sit in my seat in the free fall life boat and adjust the seat belts to fit me – then if there’s an emergency my seat is already ready for me to buckle up.  This lifeboat has a scary setup, as it is about three decks up, and it is on rails held on by a big chain.  In an emergency everybody would get in and strap into their pre allotted seats, shut the door, then release the arm linking us to the chain.  We would slide off the rails and plummet about fifty feet then hitting the water.  You are strapped in facing backwards and have a Velcro strap attached to the seat that attaches your head to the seat – I think otherwise you would break your neck because of the whiplash when you hit the water.  I’ve put a photo below of me sitting in the raft all strapped in.  Hopefully we’ll never have to use the life boat.  For the remainder of the morning I just had to attend to normal duties like assisting the second engineer in what he does.

 

For Saturday afternoon I went ashore with Raj and Preetam (Raj is the motorman and works with me every day, and Preetam is the deck cadet on board).  It was good just to do regular activities like walking along a street and crossing at traffic lights.  I had forgotten about cars and traffic, and other people!  It was bizarre to see women as well as men.  I’m exaggerating somewhat, but it was strange and great to be on dry land for a change; to sit down without swaying from side to side.  At one point, we stopped in a café, and I watched the world go by for a bit while Raj and Preetam ordered some food.  A bought a few luxuries in town too:  1) Manchego – even better here than in the UK (it is Spanish, so not really surprising). 2) An apple – great to have extra fruit. 3) An avocado – unfortunately I cut this open yesterday and it was way over ripe – had to cut out the small amount that was edible and throw the rest away.  Must buff up skills on judging avocado ripeness.  If you have any tips, do email.  Having just a few things I’d eat at home was a good feeling. 

 

Sunday was not exactly inspirational.  There isn’t anything to do really on board the ship if you have a day off and we’re en route to somewhere.  I mostly slept (to catch up from some bad nights sleeping), ate and watched a few things on DVD and Spanish TV.  We watched “How To Lose Friends And Alienate People” starring Simon Pegg and Kirsten Dunst. It was a good film, although not amazing  at the beginning.  Apart from these basic activities I did a bit of work, reading through activities I have to do on board and updating the never ending diary for the TRB. 

 

 

Monday – Today I got to assist the Second Engineer service our Generator number 1 (for anybody who doesn’t know what they are - generators just provide power for everything on board).  After this the Chief set me a task – the fire extinguisher in the galley was falling off the wall as the bracket was not holding properly.  I had to fix this.  The problem is that the wall is very thin metal with a kind of foam behind it.  Therefore it wasn’t surprising that it was falling off.  I fixed it and he was happy.  The only other excitement of the day was dismantling the spare fuel pump with the Second Engineer and cleaning it.  Dismantling was slightly exciting – I can’t say the same for the cleaning. 

 

In the evening I spent about an hour and a half talking through activities I will have to do for my TRB with the Chief Engineer.  This was really helpful, and something he didn’t have to do, so I really appreciated that.  I’ve already got a few things signed off completely and others at the progressing stage.  He also offered to do a couple of the activities with me on Tuesday so I could get them progressing – one of which was routine maintenance and testing to an electric motor.  I also noticed a thermometer on the top floor of the engine room.  We were in port at the time so we only had one generator going and the main engine shut down – It was 34 degrees centigrade.  Add the humidity to that and it feels pretty hot in a thick boiler suit and boots. 

 

 

Tuesday – Today we are on route from Bayonne to La Coruna so we have the main engine running.  It reads 40 degrees centigrade on the engine room thermometer!  We will arrive at about 1am on September 15^th (Happy birthday Ally!).  I will be up with the Chief and Second Engineers learning how to put the main engine to bed.  Then I’ll get some sleep ready for the normal 8am start.  Today I did the routine testing of the electric motor used for the sludge pump – for this you use a special kind of multimeter which simulates the high voltage the motor will run on in this ship ( ours is 440V @ 65Hz), and you test the resistance.  You have to make sure the system is tagged out – i.e. nobody can kill you by turning it on while you are working on it.  Tomorrow we will be pumping some sludge ashore, so a relevant pump to be testing I guess.   I also performed the boiler, hot well and main engine jacket water cooling water tests today.  As the Nitrite levels was a bit more than last time I checked thoroughly by doing the test three times.  When the Second Engineer looked at the results he explained that I was quite correct – he’d topped up the amount in there, but didn’t want to tell me so it didn’t influence how I judged the tests.  Doing these tests reminds me of testing the levels in the aquarium!

 

What will the rest of the week hold?  I have no idea really.  All I know is that our current Chief Engineer is leaving tomorrow as the usual man Greg (from Poland) is back from holiday.  Hopefully he’ll be as friendly and helpful as the current Chief has been to me.