The Worst Day Yet!

A dramatic title, and I’m not sure whether it was worse than the first day or not.  In some ways it was a lot worse, but in others it wasn’t nearly as bad.  Like the tabloids though, it’s all in the headline…

 

Why was it a bad day?  Well, it started off fairly well.  I was working with the Chief and the Second Engineer and we were changing over the fuel pump on Main Engine cylinder 1.  Alongside this, the fuel rack shock absorber needed to be replaced too (as we were having more fuel leaking than we should have).  The chief asked me to take this off – and said to cut a container to put underneath to contain any spillage.  I cut a container that would fit underneath (as very limited space) and the chief seemed happy.  I loosened all the bolts and pulled the shock absorber away slightly – a little fuel oil came out but only a tiny amount.  So, I took the bolts off and drew away the shock absorber a little further.  Then fuel oil came gushing out, and a lot of it; far too much for the container to hold.  So I shouted to the second to get his attention (as all I could do was to try to hold the shock absorber against the pipe to limit flow, while  holding the overflowing container in place, and grabbing many rags to try and contain the spillage) and he looked fairly panicked at the prospect of so much fuel spilling out – he ran and got buckets etc but really it was not going to help as fuel was running down the side of the engine and below the lower floor of the engine room.  The Chief was ok about it and said “Shit happens”.

 

As a result we had to have a lot of the floor boards up on the bottom floor of the engine room to clean under there.  Of course, with the maze of piping underneath it’s not easy to clean up, especially as at room temperature this heavy fuel oil is like thick black treacle.  After the floor was eventually clear, the side of the engine had to have the same treatment.  Basically, it took about half a day to clean it all up.  Although, one positive is that you wouldn’t know it ever happened as it’s been cleaned up so well.

 

The  high point of the day was after lunch, when we had another drill. The emergency alarm sounded (very loud) and we all went to the muster station, donning lifejackets and checking we were all present.  Then we were told that this one was the rescue boat drill.  One of the main reasons we would have to launch the rescue boat is if one of us went overboard, or if there was a man overboard from another ship and we were assisting. 

 

For this drill we actually had three men in the boat (one of the deck crew, the Chief Officer, and the Chief Engineer) while it was lowered by our crane down from the deck of the ship into the water.  (While the rescue boat was being lowered we were lowering the emergency boarding ladder down the side of the ship – very heavy as rope and wooden rung construction plus about 50ft long).  Once the rescue boat was in the water they started up the outboard motor and checked it was all ok, then sped around Carina port for a few minutes to practice manoeuvring the boat.  I think the Chief enjoyed being in control of the outboard.  Then they came back and we used the crane again to hoist them back out the water.  It was useful to practice this, rather than just thinking you’ll be able to do it smoothly on the night, so to speak. 

 

I’ve attached photos of the rescue boat off the ship.  Incidentally, Cariña is a beautiful port; really picturesque.  It has cliffs with woodland and one very steep farmers field on one side.  In the centre you have the beach and population of buildings behind the beach (with hills rolling upwards behind).  On the right it has the port.  There’s also a wind farm you can see in the distance on the hill tops (centre left). You can see a glimpse of the hills in one of the photos below.

 

At 4:30 Raj and I had to go ashore to get a few things we needed for the ship.  It was great to be able to see this small but beautiful place.  Again, good practice for some tourist Spanish as the locals spoke almost no English.  There were quite a few fishing boats on the port with men checking over the nets and sorting them out on the boats, while some women were sitting at the side hand stitching repairs into the nets. 

 

Straight after dinner I went down to the Engine Room again for manoeuvring.  Then, once I’d finally finished for the day I took a few photos of the back off the ship as we departed this beautiful port.  I’ve put one of the photos below. 

 

 

Tuesday

 

Today, we took bunkers again.  This time we took on 75 tonnes of Heavy fuel oil.  It was quite quick.  There are quite a few preparations that have to be gone through in case of spillage or fire etc (like having a whole fire hose rigged up and ready to go), so it is quite a painfully boring process, but all necessary.  I’m getting better at coiling large fire hoses alone by the week!

 

In the afternoon, Raj and I had to go into cargo hold 1 (at the front of the ship) to fix the non return valve in the starboard side aft bilge well.  This drains water out of the bottom of the cargo hold, but was blocked so we were called in to fix the problem.  The strainer wasn’t on the elbow pipe, so various rocks had worked their way into the non return valve, putting it out of action.  It took a while to get it unbolted, and very much reminded me of working on the car, as all the bolts were well rusted, making removing the nuts very hard work.  Once we had the valve and elbow off we hoisted them up to the top of the ladder using a rope (my sailing knot skills were very useful) then climbed up and out to take them  to the workshop.  We cleared the valve and gave it a good clean, cut new gaskets, cleaned up the bolts, replaced the nuts with new ones, and greased nuts and bolts.  The strainers for both the bilge wells in the cargo holds were broken, however, the chief said main priority was to get the valve fixed and put back – the strainers could wait until another day (as they would need a new hinge welding on and they were not top priority).  I was keen to get them fixed though as not having the strainer on there had caused this problem, and I wouldn’t be too chuffed if I were to be taking if off again next week.

 

So, I had a MacGyver moment and told the chief I had an idea for a quick fix on the strainers that would enable us to get them back on this afternoon, and that the fix should last a while  – not just some botched job.  He allowed me to go ahead.  I used soft thin metal wire and weaved it along the broken hinged side part of the strainer (as strainer is two halves of a circle that hinge together) to hold them together.  It worked, and they are still strong plus hinge as normal.  Then, the chief found a pin that would slide into the locking part on the opposite side and made it fit.  I finished it off by using the grinder to take a bit off the edge so the sides married up evenly.  So, job’s a good ‘un.  We fitted the valve and strainer back on after that – with new nuts, new gaskets and everything greased this was far easier than removal.  I’ve put a photo below of the cargo hold (boring I know)

 

Tomorrow we need to do the same to cargo hold number two I hear.  I don’t think they’re blocked, but need servicing.