The Day Has Come

This was written as I was leaving Greta C...

Well it's time to leave Greta C now after only seven days on board.  I now have enough sea time accrued to apply for a date when I can take my Marine Engineer Licence, or 'ticket' as it's widely known.  At some point in my final training at the academy I will send in my 'Notice of Elegibility' or 'N.O.E' and then a date will be booked for the oral exam.  

My cabin on greta

The seven days on board Greta C started off mildly and ended up pretty full on, with a thirteen and a half hour day for the penultimate day due to some reasonably major main engine work (unexpected).  

As I mentioned before, my first impressions of the ship (compared to the Chinese ones I had been on previously) were that it appeared better built, but more clinical and less beauty there.  The ER (Engine Room) was split into many different mezzanine type levels and it looked pretty old fashioned compared to Nomadic Milde.  Nomadic Milde's ER layout was great as there was quite a bit of open space between machinery and it all looked great - Greta C's layout was probably appropriate for someone less than five foot tall (so easy to whack your head in so many parts) and it all seemed rather more shoehorned in.  Despite the ship being a 2009 build the Japanese equipment looks a bit old fashioned, and in terms of control equipment in the ECR (engine control room) it seemed fairly antiquated.  Nomadic Milde's control systems are a lot more sophisticated and modern.  However, while I was on board we did have very few alarms go off, and I think that this was partly down to the general build quality of all the Jap equipment being superior, and also testament to the good standard of Engineering provided by the Russian Chief Engineer and Lithuanian Second Engineer.  

The first couple of days on board were spent doing familiarisation and some work with the electrician on board sorting out a problem with the automatic back flushing on the fuel booster unit filters.  We had Port State Control on board on the Sunday and they got us to demonstrate various machinery worked properly.  They were satisfied with what they saw and we didn't get any deficiencies listed, which was good.  

On Monday 9th Jan we manoeuvred out of Hamburg headed for Antwerp.  This was fairly long, from 6pm until 2am.   We were told the manoeuvring into Antwerp would be longer, around 8 hours - a long time to be on standby in the Engine room for, considering it was likely that it would fall outside normal UMS (unmanned system) work hours.  The passage to Antwerp was around thirty hours, and on Tuesday we were just doing various engine room maintenance tasks - we also did a performance test on the main engine which involves measuring all the peak cylinder pressures and injection timing etc.  On the Carisbrooke ships they have a great system called 'Dr Diesel' which takes the readings.  You plug it into a sensor pickup box and then attach the pressure probe onto each cylinder in turn and take readings.  You then download the information onto the computer program and enter the other engine parameters at the time (pressures, temperatures, fuel pump rack positions etc).  It then produces a graph where you can look at how each cylinder's pressures and injection pressures and timings compare against each other i.e. how good the balance is.  Looking at this graph you can see whether there are any problems, and what the problems are potentially.  This also enables you to work out the indicated power of the engine.  It's a modern version of what they used to have to work out indicated power, and is brilliant (in my opinion).  The data is recorded each month and sent to the Superintendent and another technical person.  They view it and give feedback to the Chief Engineer mentioning any potential problems they see and or checks/adjustments that could be made.

Tuesday night manoeuvring started around midnight and didn't finish until around 0830 on Wednesday, with us arriving in Antwerp.  Wednesday was far from restful with the generator engines' lubricating oil purifier needing stripping down due to a problem. This was one of many things going on, as we had two surveyors from our Classification Society on board ('class' as they are referred to.  A classification society is basically an organisation that initiates and maintains the technical standards for the ship from the initial build and throughout its life - each ship has a classification society it is party to, and cannot be insured without being 'in class'.  'In class' means it is following and maintaining the classification society's rules; if a ship is not, then it is considered to be 'out of class' = bad news, as it will then be uninsured).  They were keeping us on our toes, and we had to demonstrate a comprehensive range of equipment was in satisfactory condition; this included demonstrating various trips designed to stop machinery when running out of safe parameters.  We had to open up equipment like the exhaust gas fired heater for the thermal oil system, so he could inspect  the condition of the tubes where the heat exchange takes place.   We had to strip down machines such as the Oily Water Separator (very messy job) so he could inspect the interior.  

 The ECR - Chief Engineer in white, 2/E in Orange

The Main Engine

The Filipino oiler, Reinie

 One of the three auxiliary generators

2/E and I

  

 Inside the oily water separator

Remind anyone of atheroma?

Oily water separator inside after cleaning 

The inspections continued on Thursday and during a Main Engine scavenge space inspection it was found that three piston rings on cylinder three were broken, and one on cylinder two.  With three piston rings broken on cylinder three this was an undesirable and potentially dangerous situation as this could mean blow by from cylinder three to the scavenge space, and lead to a scavenge fire during engine running - a dangerous and potentially damaging situation.  

Viewing piston rings through scavenge ports - within circle you can see missing bits

Broken pieces of piston ring in bottom of scavenge space

So, suddenly we were into discussions as to when the soonest these problems could be rectified, which as the port stay in Antwerp was long enough, was immediately!  After checking we had the spares in stock we began the job, at about four or five in the afternoon.  By 9:30pm we had the piston out and had already put new rings on it, ready to be replaced in the engine.  To preserve everybody's sanity, it was replaced and finished the next day.  

Lifting cylinder head off

Lifting piston with piston rod and stuffing box attached

Breaks in piston ring circled in red.

New piston rings on

That was the end of my time on Greta C.  It was short, but a very good experience and a good refresher on two stroke slow speed engines - useful as I had originally been with a two stroke on Andrea Anon, but that was on my initial sea phase (Nomadic Milde has a medium speed four stroke engine).  And it was great as you always learn something new.  

Anyway, back home now and preparing to go back for the final part at the academy, which begins on the 30th Jan.

One last question/comment:  Does anybody understand how to use a perhaps Japanese coat hanger which is only about 15cm long?  Photo below - answers anyone?