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[nevernown]

Got the call just now, heading off to the harbor of gent (belgium)
First destination after that: Denmark!

excited?
not me, at least, not notably...
Just hoping I can take along my drawing gear and my laptop!
'cuz it seems I'm going to have lots of free time at sea

[nevernown]

Day 1,

the Emuna is not a ship that would make you say "WOW". I have seen ships like this one before, on the merwede (river), about 100 meters in length. in case of the Emuna - to be exact - it is 90 meters in length and 15.25 meters in width. Once on board it seems to be a nice ship. Especially sturdy and safe, so safe. First thing the first officer tells me is the placing and workings of nearly EVERY security-measure on board. And while I'm at it, I also have the opportunity to learn about the dangers of making port and about how to and how NOT to save a "man overboard".
After dinner the First officer is going to have a nap, and so I'm happy to tag along with the engineer. Perfect timing to help out with a problem (replace a clogged heavy-oil pipe)
Then I get a nice lesson about the functionality of different engines and circuits. Turns out that a ship has enough machines to support a small village, except for this isn't a village but a ship.

Later on I find out that the Captain got me a booklet with questions. This booklet show what I should know (at least at the end of this journey) but if that's gonna go well?

Day 2,

Saturday is a free day, rise at 9 in the morning to start cleaning the ship, but after 12... Freedom, complete utter freedom.
Cleaning goes smoothly, just like at the MacDonalds, but this ship is cleaner than that to begin with. Meanwhile I also learned this 'n that about different kinds of cargo that can be shipped.
I exchanged movies with Mike, one of the other sailors. Sherlock Holmes is a neat addition to my library.

Seasickness hasn't gotten me yet. The worst I had up till now was a lingering feeling of vertigo and some irritation to all the ship's movements. My stomach tried to loose it's food once, but I taught it a lesson. One does not simply discard tasty food.

So, stomach had no say in this, I kept my food inside.
Another irritation is sleeping, the rocking of the ship is not what you call a "soothing lullaby"...

All in all an easy second day aboard.

This evening we're going to "anchor" for the sunday. Immedeatly I learn a lot of new things:
Anchor straight down? You wanna kill us?
Yeah, of course we have to pour water over the anchor before we lower it, otherwise it'll be scared.
And last, but not least:
Never gulp down wodka in one go!
Even though this Kingston stuff was totally worth it!

Day 3,

Sunday we aren't going to move, not every vessel will do this, but the Emuna does.
Not that it's a weird or unwise move, a break from all the stress is good. Indeed, sleeping patterns with 0 to 4 hours of rest are not the healthiest patterns you can achieve. So instead of learning by tagging along with someone, I listen to stories of the crew.

Some of the things I learn are about Maritime rules and about Pilots (ship-guides). So now I know that pilot is an empty job. You're being paid to make sure nothing goes wrong on a certain reach of water (sea, canal, etc...), and in order to do that, you'll board the ship to guide it trough the water. BUT! when thing go bad, it's never your fault but the first officer's or the captain's. 
All in all not a really logic job, and neither a job that teaches you responsibility. (oh no, things go bad! oh wait, relax, it's not my ship)

Day 4,

The first full workday I am expiriencing on this trip, and working is what I do. Starting eight in the morning with sailor Mike, toghether we're going to remove the ice from both sidewalks on the ship. After coffee-time I'm going with sailor Arthur (Nickname "King Arthur") to do some cooking, the cooking goes with a lot of rice. half of the crew is from the Philipines (sailors Arthur, Mike and Rogel), they really like the rice.

Then in the noon we have to repaint the shutters of the cargo bay. Pre-cleaning with water is nice and all, but the warm water gets freezing cold in the icey wind that's blowing. But that's only one part of the process. The other part is the actual painting. With this, the main point is using up all the paint, because Arthur managed to make too much of it.

Writing this, it seems as some easy tasks. But believe it or not, these menial tasks took about six hours. in this span of time I also got to know that I'm the only Dutch person that the Philipine sailors know, that does read the same comics as they do. (Manga!)

Day 5,

(Tuesday 12 Februar)

I overslept, my uncle (the First Engineer) is the one who wakes me. We've arrived in Frederiksveark, Denmark. It's a steelharbour/workshop set up by king Frederik (Frederiksveark = frederik his work/workshop). But once I'm present on deck, it seems as though I didn't miss a lot. the workers in the harbour are a bunch of slowpokes (no joke, I can prove it!) Well, for me there's not much to do right then, since we can only continue our work once our cargo bay is emptied. So that forces me to help out with cooking again.

In the early noon I tag along with the captain's son to the town itself, 'tis not a big town... but it is a cute place to be. just like the average Dutch town, some malls and a bunch of supermarkets, a turk-to-go that also sells pizza, etc...

later on, once the first half of the cargo bay is empty, we start with positioning the wheat screens. This because the next destination (tomorrow 1100) is east-germany, we'll pick up a freight of wheat. And to protect the ship against rolling over, we divide the cargo using two screens (metal walls). This way we create three separate cargo bays. The one in the middle will be completely filled so that the load can't shift, the other two will hold the remainder.

So, the harbour-workers promised us that they would've finished loading at 1600. Around 1700 they were almost done (See, SEE, slowpokes). After that we had to change the way we were attached to the land so that we could get away without help from outside later. The sailors then had the task to close the cargo bay, so I got the task to cook dinner. They really liked it! (Maybe because I used three times as much veggies with the rice as they did?)

Day 6,

Today we take port in Wolgast (not sure about the name), this is where we will take in wheat. Wolgast itself is a cute german town with a lot of restaurants, an old church and even remainders of a real city wall. There's little people out on the streets, but that changes once it gets dark. Also, the boarding of the cargo is a weird happening. We're right next to a (navy-)shipyard, but the facilities in the civil part of the harbour aren't... optimal. The wheat is taken aboard with the help of two moving rubber bands (forgot the english word, no dictionary available here), these bands get the wheat directly fron the truck. These trucks, in turn, come driving from a place about an hour away. As I said, not ideal...

But what actually is ideal, is that I can go on leave to tag along with Remco (captain's son) to Wolgast. looking around is really fun, but we have to take care of some stuff too. Remco has to leave by train the next day, via Berlin to Utrecht. So we head to - While pillaging te stores in town - the train-station. Halfway we meet some of the local youth. that's not weird, Until you realize that the girls -hidden beneath a layer of paint - are about 14 years old... *Old-man voice* The kids of today... Now back in my day we had...

But the best part is at the train-station, the lady that sells the tickets doesn't speak english (Poor remco) and she doesn't want to listen to my weird grammar either (hey now, please give me some time to consider the right sentence!). Nope, instead of her patience, we get a phone in our hands with a english-speaking lady on the othe side of the line. That's great and all, but I'd rather had her patience to try my german some more... ohwel.

That night I'm tagging along with Remco and the captain to get some food (you see, the schnitzel with fries is only 5 euro's each). Sadly enough, that one is alreaddy closed. The chinese restaurant is still open (15 euro each) but really expensive. So we end up in a coffeeshop close to the harbour, where the ale flows like water. I order a white beer, and what I get is half a liter of bubbly gold! The choice to chuck it down in one go was entirely my descision... But I slept well!

Day 7,

TRANSLATING EVERYTHING IS A HASSLE!
But I do it all, for you guys... So show me some love too!
(Yeah, the original text is in Dutch)

In the morning I have to help with the beam on the front of the ship (forgot the proper english word). The mast is attached to the ship with a metal "pen", three metal cables and a turning point (again, forgot the neglish word). this point has to be greased, that's why we have to topple it over. I'm doing this together with Johan (First officer) and Rogel. So yeah, as I said, topple over the front beam. It's easier done than it seems, especially when there's three people working on it. It didn't cost us more than ten minutes.

After that I help out Mike and Arthur with the grinding (?), cleaning and painting of the front two hatches. Or rather, they grind it, and I clean it afterwards. this because I need to get some expirience before I touch them nasty tools. that, however, doesn't mean that I'm lazing about, Metallic dust spreads everywhere and makes breathing irritating and it's cold too.

Something else I learn today is the order of the crew. I first thought that Rogel (Pronounce: Roghil) was a normal sailor, but no, he's the third officer (we got a first and a third, but not a second). And even though Johan is first officer on paper, he's a MarOff (Maritime Officer), meaning that he's also capable of operating the engine in case of emergency. The first engineer however is only engineer.

That noon I have to escort Remco to the station. Well, Have to? Not really, but the captain thinks it's better if I do. On the way back of this mission accomplished, I attend a local bank, the banking machine tells me "unable to authorize". This makes me suspect that my Account is blocked in germany, that should not be the case. It could also be a way of telling me "no money, piss off". Such a shame, I wanted to buy a Sovjet Russia wodka-hipflask.

Once back aboard the ship there's little to do, so Johan tells me stories about the possibilities of ships. The amount of cargo we can hold is 4300t (4300000 Kg), that's about 2200 Cars or 150 fully loaded trucks. That fact teaches me some respect, because we can ship in one go what goes with 150 trucks over the road. And still this ship is small and lean enough to reach mid-France or mid-Spain. Later on johan has to pick fetch a shovel someone dropped in the cargo and after that is called by the captain. Then I turn towards the booklet I mentioned earlier, since I got some new answers. Daymark "I can't move": Two black spheres, nightmark: two red lights. One black sphere means "Anchored" three black spheres means "I'm stupid" because three black spheres equals one cilinder (wich means: Drag, I can only manouver in deep water).

that night I'm gonna help the enginneer with assembling a ladder. Like this:
"Why do you want to move it?"
"Because it's in the way"
"Was that the original placing?"
"Yes, but I didn't like it"
"Ohwel, your party, not mine."
So we move the ladder, and after that I have done too much for my poor head to contain. Thus I head to bed, with the knowledge of two days, acquired in one day... My poor head has to remember all of it -.-'

Day 8,

Today begins peaceful, I quietly proceed with filling in the booklet. A lot of the answers come to me naturally while asking regular questions about interesting things on board. Just watching and asking is enough for about three quarters of the answers. Then the fun aprt starts: Hunting for answers that I couldn't casually find. Sometimes the questions are easy but the answers hard, and sometimes the questions are tricky but the eventual answer is too easy. A good example is the question "what kinds of lubrication oil do we know?". This question seems easy, understandable even. The answer shouldn't be harder than just getting a list or a booklet from the engine room. Oh no, too easy. Turns out that there's about as much oils as there are engine-parts and engines. Oils are often developed alongside new engines.

Fun questions indeed, but with the help of the engineer I manage to get most of them down. The engineer also gives me a complete course on the working of engines, that course takes about half a day. Now you could think of this as boring, or maybe you think "anybody knows how an engine works". If so, then you didn't encounter a naval engineer ever before in your life. These engines aren't the small ones you find in cars, only the rough base is the same. Well, enough about the engines, all the explanation I got leaves me with enough knowledge to give you a seminar. Let's just stick with some hard numbers you'll find in this engine (Like: 300 Bar, 1000 degrees celcius, 1100 HorsePower per Head).

At night we're finally done with taking the cargo, over 24 hours too late. The next morning we will head for the Hull, a big city in the United Kingdom. The reason that we don't depart immediatly is the fact that we're too heavily loaded (4300t, as mentioned earlier) to navigate trough shallow water at night. So that's about it for today.

Day 9,

Waking up early is a must if you want to watch how the engine starts. Last night I asked the engineer if he could wake me before he's going to start the engine, so that I could have a look. That's why I wake before half past eight and head to the engine room. The engine will be started using compressed air (8 Bar), but there's more - as I learn later on - to it, to make the engine start and keep it running.

But that isn't today's main subject (and no, I propably cannot properly explain the starting of the engine). Today's main subject is the cleaning of the deck. That is, of course, after it first has been littered with wheat and dust, next up barraged with carbon-particles and then walked over spo that everything has been mixed. Cleaning we do with all means neccesary, those "means" being the firefighters system on board directly using the surrounding water, can't be easier i'd say. Can't be wetter too. After three hours of cleaning the deck prhaps is clean, but I'm almost washed away.

But end well, all well. This was the last real work to be done (It's saturday, that's a leisure day). The only thing left for me is more techings about engines and other technical stuff on board the ship. Very interesting, but I'm too lazy to write all of it down.

Day 10 and 11,

These days weren't really exciting when the sun was out (especially sunday, as day off), but the night between these days (sunday 17 and monday 18) is a busy night. Not only do we pass two locks in the ciel-canal, we also get more provisions. the provisions mainly consist of beer and chicken, we clearly had a shortage of that...

We arrived at the first lock at 0300, an hour later then what the captain had anticipated and hoped for. in the lock we have about 10 minutes to get everything aboard. While we're trying to fasten the ship, I get the first surprise, I'm helping Rogel with pulling the rope. But the rope doesn't want to comply and it jumps anfd flicks in my hands and I have to let it go (Not my fault, that rope is pulled tighter than anything). It hurts, but I don't complain and move on because there's no use is sulking. We're already moving again when everything is aboard, whereafter we put the stuff away. At 0400 we're finally finished, I try t pull trough a watch (up till 0600) but I fail and lay asleep at 0530.

that afternoon (monday) I get some tips about how to read the weather. Wind is 3 Bft now, the weather service said it would be 7 Bft, what the...

Day 12,

Today I'll  be helping out in the engine room the whole day. The oil-separator had a clogged pipe again, not a clear reason why. It's something like this:

The fuel for the engine is, like I said before, heavy oil. Well, if you don't yet know, this substance is almost as hard as "astfalt" (the stuff used for highways... someone hand me a dictionary?). This is being heated because it won't flow otherwise. After that it's being separated so that the parts of oil that don't want to melt, will be cast out.

What happens now instead of the normal process, is a malfuntioning centrifuge (pressure fail probably), pieces of good oil get into the pipe with water (used for the process). These pieces cool down, harden and clog the pipe. I can't be more precize because I didn't see the centrifuge working, and the engineer wasn't sure how to explain.

Anyways, the drain was clogged and we spent 8 hours cleaning and repairing.

[nevernown]

Day 13,

Most of you already know, but this day I was in the city Hull itself. That morning I was helping in the engine room, but sirectly after lunchtime I depart to Hull. One hour and a half of walking, and I find myself in the city center, add half an hour to that and I find myself a working ATM, and then - after a total of two and a half hours - I be relaxing at the starbucks, enjoying half a liter of chocolate milk. And the waitress is good looking too... XD

Okay, this needs more detail. Around half past twelve I depart from the docks, turn a fleft and head straight on for an hour past a whole lot of take-away restaurants and obscured, little stores. Then I cross a road on the left, turn right again and walk another twenty minutes. Now, following the road, I find "the deep" on my left hand, A deep-sea aquarium. But I won't head in there, no matter how much fun it can be, because I'm more or less looking for a good shopping mall and the city center (not in that order per se).

The first thing I find, however, is the old harbour. A beautiful piece of history between broken buildings, it almost got me depresed. But that changes when I turn a corner, cross a bridge and find myself on the verge of walking into the city center. Beautifuul buildings (the city council houses in one of those roman "masterpieces"). But I didn't take any pictures, why not? Simple, I like rembembering and imagining. And neither do I want to walk there as a tourist, but as a local. That's how I think you can best look at a city.

Well then, why am I looking for a mall? Don't get sentimental, but that's for you (all readers), I want to e-mail and update my blog! And it's for me too, because 12 days worth of diary is difficult to upload with the iPod I took along. Well, the other option - taking along my laptop - seems a freebee for the first pushover pickpocket that sees me...

Ohwell, there's a lot to see in this city: Private school kids, Little Bars, Little Stores and a complete shopping mall. near the last one I find (among onthers) a McDonald's and a Starbucks. The Mac doesn't seem to have WiFi, So Starbucks it is (And because of wuality, duh, starbucks is always best quality!) And from there I sent all mails and Updated this blog. The waitress - I said this before I think - was a nice young lady (and cute long hair), I gotta grant her that at least! (why's there so much girls working at starbucks??)

Everything goed smoothly, on the way back I get myself lost one time, buy a hamburger (burnt, dislodged... Yup, that's McDonald's). And I get myself aboard the ship, exactly in time for dinner.

Day 14,

Today is another busy day, in the morning there's the last of me helping with the fuel-separator. It has to do a test-run or two, see if there's no leaks and if there's no fuel in the water-pipes. Once we set up the test, we're heading for some coffee. Just before we leave I mention to the engineer: "Is everything secured? Else you'll get back and find a mess". Engineer sais that it's gonna be okay. So, us getting some coffee, coming back to the engine room... Heavy oil all over, the engineer forgot to attach one measly hose.

So next up is cleaning, using a set of different detergents, a painting brush and a sweeper we get pretty far. The device that produced the oil only goes trough this phase every hour so it will not pose any danger for about another 55 minutes. So that's enough time to replace the little hose without further accidents.

we also find (I saw it first!) a leak in the main engine, one of the rectangular hatches on the first cilinder doesn't isolate properly and leaks some oil. When I ask the engineer if we have to replace it, he answers no. We apparently don't have any spare parts for this kind of situation. So now we need to be a little bit more creative. The engineer is a little quicker than me with the same solution. We assemble the hatch upside-down so that the oil can't drip down. (in other words: The worn-out part is now up top). The oil will now only leak if there's high pressure on it.

While we're working with the engine, I get a unique view into the workings of this engine. [insert translation for: Zuigerstang, Nokkenas, Brandstofpomp] and a lot more. I am beginning to think that MarOff-engineer might actually be my calling (I mean, what other job offers half a year on, half a year off). I could use my time at the shore for some more studying! (and more studying, and more studying).

ohewll, that's for later thinkings, in the meantime we've arrived at lunch. It is then that the captain suggests I send this blog to the people who made the booklet I have to fill out.  This so that other folks like me can read it too (you guys tell me: Is it good enough??). I myself like this thought, lemme try it, no? If this works out, then I know I have even more reason to become a writer (Besides my other job I mean), and that I can do more blogs about more stuffs...

Then, in the early noon it's just some rummaging in the engine room. The engineer also asks me if I'm heading for Hull again, but I answer him no. Why? Well, it's unfair towards the rest of the crew that has to work non-stop. Also, it's not sure when the ship will depart, so it's better for me to stay aboard.

From 1500 onwards I have to help in the cargo bay, all the loose wheat needs to be sweeped so that the crane-operator can pick it up. This lasts up to about 2000, by that time everyone is meking extra hours while running on coffee, sugar and pure power of will. We have to finish in time to get to a cargo consisting of wind-turbine-poles in Kolding (denmark) and deliver those to Coole (just a little further up the river), meaning that I've been trough ciel-canal four times once we're done.

Around 2400 (0000) o'clock I head to the engine room once again to watch the process of staring up, by chance the engine is leaking again (apparently someone already turned the hatch upside-down once). So that's a little more cleaning before we start. At 0100 o'clock we've left the harbour, but there's still more to be done. Fortunately I can go to sleep and mike takes over, he just had his beauty-nap.

What I write here are just headlines, by the way, more thing happen. I'm just too lazy to write it down.

Day 15 and 16,

Today is cleaning again. This will normally take place on saturday, but this time we will be "bunkering" (taking in fuel) saturday and hence we are doing the cleaning today. It's not a lot of work, and afterwards there's only some menial tasks left. More interesting is the night between day 15 and 16 (Hence them being under one headline). I'll be attending the night's watch from 2400 (0000) to 0600. I've spent a lot of time in the engine room and learned a good deal of stuff, but now it's time for me to get to know the role of the first officer better.

The watch starts off easy, we're at the north sea just above the Netherlands and we've got a good wind (4 bft). Now I learn more about navigating. Different Buois (Buoyant Devices? Dictionairy please) tell us different things. The ones that I learn to recognize are the danger-buois, the mid-water-buois and the navigation-buois (wich include code-buois). 

I also learn to work with sight-map-RADAR combinations. The first officer also - firmly - tells me that sight is the first and truest device for navigation. Don't trust your RADAR nor your map. Trust your sight, and then check out the map and RADAR for the fine details. A good example is when I saw a random buoi, about a mile from the ship, but I couldn't find it on the map. What to do?

Well, the first officer gives me a hint by telling that the map is the less trustable thing on board. This indeed seems the case if we look at the signal it gives. Two short, one long. The long one I can forget about for some vague reason (has another meaning), this means we get two short. This also happens within a given range of time. Appears that the map (GPS-electronic map) has placed the buoi too far west. A good time to figure out how that's with the other buois.

Also, on a watch you talk about a lot of stuffs. Some ships do lone watches, this one usually doesn't. Seems better to me because this'll keep you awake. I'm also an extra man, so we're at the bridge with three people (about half of the crew). One also eats "breakfast" at a watch like this. So about 0300 o'clock we get some soup-noodles (japanese: Ramen!).

It's suprising that the third officer tells me that it's good that I talk so (too) much: "it's good you talk, it gets rid of bad spirit of no social, we have that a lot on board". So yes, there's more people like me, who think silence can be killing... Ohwell, they also make me sing, "Where the streets have no name" by U2. One of the best songs ever written by anyone!

And yes, they think I sing well

Night's almost over when we contact the pilot-ship situated at ciel-canal. With some more communication-problems, but in the end we succeed in getting our messages trough. Then I head to bed to take a good nap, wake the next morning at 1000 o'clock, as blue as chewing gum. We're already "bunkering" by then.

Not that it's awesome like I hoped, there's only a hose connected with some screws and with a need to be looked after. We also take some of the fuel ito a plastic bag to send to a lab, for checking the quality.



Day 17,

Notice that every day i write seems to be longer. So, today a short summary.
Sunday, day off. Done little, food was good.

[Diablock]

Wowow nevy!!! hahaha..such a journeyy........


I am stunned

Edited by chihiro, 05 March 2013 - 10:27 AM.

[nevernown]

There's more, sadly not much people seem to read this -.-
Uploading later today, I'm back home again.

[nevernown]

Day 18,

Today we take another kind of cargo aboard. The Wind-turbine-poles I talked about before. In weight they're nothing compared to the wheat (just 200t), but the way we take it is more complicated. The wheat was just dumped into the cargo bay, but this... this is different shit. Four of the largest pillars go into the cargo bay, are tied up with chains and secured with a construction being assembled on the spot and welded to the ship itself. This process repeats itself ON TOP of the cargo bay (On top of the hatches). Sounds easy, but here's where I say: easier written then done.

About eight hours of work at least. When we're done the ship looks bigger, and I feel smaller. That last fact can also be because I almost fell into the freezing cold water (That's deadly within a minute) during the welding.

Once I slip out of the crowd and head to the town (Kolding) itself buy some stuff. A book is nice, and of course ingredients to make some good soup... Will taste different than when I make it at home, but I hope the crew will enjoy it.

Day 19,

'Tis day 19 already, in two days, I'll have been here for three weeks. I'm out of smooth sentences to start with, so lemme get a few facts. As a first I now know that I will only be passing the ciel-canal three times in total. Change of plans makes the ship head over north denmark on the way back. The second thing is that I'll be getting home in about two weeks. That's when new crew will get on and I'll be taking up space (I'm already in the smallest compartment)

*Waiting a little to get some silence again, I know that some people are rejocing right now*

Yes, as I said, getting home. Maybe even by plane (that's fun except that I got too many dubious liquids on me, long story) could be a problem. Ohwell, that's all a matter of later on, not now.

Today I'm not helping out the crew (like I try normally) but in the engine room, captains suggestion. I get the feeling that the captain and the engineer have had some talk about this before because, this feeling's because I immediatly get an - awesome - task when I get there. I'm gonna test the health of all the large batteries on board. Meaning that I read out every battery on voltage and density. It's a bit dangerous with the acid. Now I'm glad that I paid attention to chemistry in middle school, I actually always was, but it's good to see application on the subjects I learned about.

After lunch I can't find the engineer and thus I take myself to the bridge. Here I learn to test the MF/HF (Mid-Frequence/High-Frequence) sender/reciever. (And hence I also learn using it completely because it's all the same idea). I also seek out some more facts in maps. Always a pleasure to see how efficient you can be by cross-checking visuals against maps.

Day 20,

Disgusting, just disgusting. that's the only term I can find to describe my main duty today. Clean the bilge-water. Rid it of all impurities (Impurities being growing wheat). before that there's another job, getting fresh drinking water. But still, the foresight of this job and the smell...

I will not talk about the cruel details, but let me assure you that this isn't something you do for fun. Normally we would use the water-vacuum-cleaner, but that one's broken. when we try to turn it on, it begins to smoke like aminiature volcano. And the smell... THE SMELL! all that burnt plastic.

Later on I take it to the engine room for repairs, and I immediatly get the chance to help build a new holder where we can place the life-jackets. Appears that all engineers made their own changes to the ship. For example: the emergency-generator is now also an auxillery engine, the electrical wiring has been redone completely, the life-jackets have been moved (twice) and so are some of the ladders.

Why? because there's always room for improvement.

Day 21,

gettin the wind-turbine-poles from the ship takes longer than I expected, almost as long as getting them on board. When we got them on board it took long because we needed to weld the cargo to the ship. When discharging it takes about just as long because we need to undo all the welds. But it doesn't take terribly long so that in the end there's still time left to go shopping with the wheelbarrow. And free time, in wich I go and buy chips (the cold saltys, not the warm food) with english flavours.

But before that I have to do "firewatch", meaning that I have to watch out when the engineer is burning the previous made welds. Also means I get a good deal of metal sparks over me... But 'twas fun to do, chance to see how hard burning welds really is! (really friggen hard).

I forget to tell about the morning in wich I help with rerouting some pipelines for fresh water. An evil genius plan of what I never understood what the purose was.

And thus the mysteries increase. Especially with the story about the wind-turbine-poles that we delivered, how they aren't welcome. Someone's now stuck with no money, no buyers and a S***load of wind-turbines. That's what I call "misjudging the market". But we still get money for shipping.

day 22,

Rising early to expirience some "leaving the harbour". Pilot is just aboard and this time I'll be at the bridge all the way. Awesome conversations between pilot, captain and me. The pilot with a distinguished british accent, Captain quick of wit and me talking along at the right pace. After all, I'm also writing this one blog in english, so building some self-confidence is always good. (Like I didn't have that already, Self-absorbed piece of...)

That takes until noon, then the pilot has to leave and I have to work in the engine room. Cleaning on my own this time, and that gets me a compliment! After wich I get at least three still dirty spots pointed out -.-

With two compliments on me, I also get to know that there's np cargo for us to get and also that I maybe have to leave wednesday. Tomorrow and sunday we'll be in a port in englandto wait for a cargo we can take monday, after wich we go to Amsterdam.

And yes, the pieces I write get shorter. I'm too busy to get busy with this~

Day 23,

In the morning I start with cleaning, just like every saturday. The difference is that this time I'm alone, the others are outside cleaning the cargo bay. But there's someone needed for the inside too. I don't mind, inside is warm and I can listen music while working, since there's no-one to talk to me!

After that there's a surprise. After i'm done cleaning, I help out the engineer a bit with cleaning some devices. Then the first officer enters the engine room to tell me that everyone is free to go ashore. Rogel has gone home already, so there's four of us that go ashore. Arthur, Mike, Johan and Me. In search of food, A lot of drinks and "chicks" (well, that's mike's idea, and he failed )

Once at the McDonalds, my past comes back to haunt me to pain me in my inner self. Not really, no, but the others think it's totally hillarious that I almost reach out to put some faces into the mess some people made. Leaving garbage just 'cuz can, blurgh, sometimes people are just like pigs... But fortunately the food was edible at this one McDonalds, and who sais no to a good quarterpounder?

After that, we leave in search of a pub, one that doesn't overflow with people, but a good, peaceful one. We find one at the corner of a street, Inside it's indeed peaceful and cozy. For us four there's beer to start with, but not really. Because when I say that something british would be nice, we get some Ale in front of us, Jolly good stuff! I also wind up in a conversation with A very special scottish person, Gordon. Gordon is a wise man who knows why he's drunk. His wife died of cancer, exactly three years ago. But we also have a good conversation about music, and I get a compliment about my choice of music from his time (Eric Clapton). Now let's hope that he made it safely to his next destination (to buy some kebab)

Gordon would be back alter, but then I already left with the others to find another pub, closer to the docks. here I get a really good story from Mike about how, in the philinines, the McDonalds sells rice and spagetthi (and chicken legs) And how the rice is sold more often than the fries. Rice appears to be the base of everything there! Awesome! Of course we also do some drinking, I go for a few classics like an iced Jack Daniels (Mediocre quality at best -.- ), a Bloody Mary (I fell in love with that one, so good!), a disaronno-coke and so on.

All in all a good night, but I got hungry in the end...

Day 24,

Sunday 3 march, another day off. This time with a suprise. A guy by the name of Keith comes to the docks to take people to church. Captain thinks of this as a good idea. Hence captain, first officer and me visit a baptist church in the evening. It appears to happen quite often, in more places. People who like to take seafarers ashore and to church. This man, Keith, is married to a dutch woman - Hence the interest in our ship - and has a book full of names of people that have visited before, a large quantity of these names are known by the captain too!

Day 25,

The morning starts good as I oversleep. Twenty minutes after breakfast I wake up and prepare. I head to the engine room - lucky guess - and I find some work I can help with. The engine has to be taken apart a bit and after that we need to take some measurements inside. My job consists here of unscrewing and removing panels on starboard, and turning the engine by hand.

There's some panicking done when the engineer drops his measuring-device into the heavy oil, but fortunately we find it again eventually. After that we almost forget to check one set of measurements, but in the end everything gets done.

then, starting at 1000 o'clock I need to stand guard. The harbour wants someone to stand guard at the gangway, period. Even without security breaches and such. The first officer encourages me to think about my choice of study while standing guard. At four o'clock I'm done with standing guard (yes I had some food in between) and now I'm sure of two things. I'll never be a biology teach and I'll never get a "normal" 9-5 job. being Seaman seems not so bad!

Day 26,

After rising in the morn I have to stand guard immediatly, some clercks are apparently very paranoid. Not that I mind, but a small downside is the lack of music. I stand guard for about five hours in total, with one break. In this time I choose to let two people pass and block none: The Pilot and the Agent. Nothing much to say about standing guard.

After this we'll depart for Amsterdam, from where I possibly have to go to home. If not, then spain is most probably the next destination.

Day 27,

Because I had night's watch last night, I sleep over somewhat longer. But not too long, the Captain needs me awake. I'll have to prepare the ropes for the lock so that Arthur can oversleep some more. (He had a full night's watch, I a half). So that makes that I'm present at the deck at 1000 o'clock (slept 0400 to 1000) to prepare the ropes for the lock of Ijmuiden.

We still have to go further, once we're on the inside of the lock, for Amsterdam. The guys there have a "pleasant" surprise for us: We are not allowed to stay docked after discharging our wheat, even though the law says we can. They "Just don't want" us staying in the harbour where we'll get a new cargo for spain, on tuesday. Captain becomes agitated, but the solution is found at the "oranjewerf". We can stay there at least until saturday.

Once we're discharging we also get two new people aboard lester and Wessel. lester is the new philipino guy who's here in Rogel's stead. Wessel is a Dutch apprentice. For me this means moving to the smallest cabin on board so that they can stay in the better ones. With that, there's also the dilemma of staying on board or not.

And that concludes my life as a sailor, general discussion about this is welcome.

[You]

I've only read up to Day 13 (there's so much to read o.o) and so far I've it's been an interesting read, very descriptive ^__^

[OchaMeido❣]

...... O.O......

I am up to the second half xDD......let me finish this before I comment farther.. *continues to read Day 18*...

[Frost]

My Goodness, definitely sounds like an adventure. I haven't gotten very far but don't worry I'll be caught up on your journey soon enough.

[nevernown]

Thanks for being here all of you

While being on the journey, I also drew, made music and wrote a part of a story
But i'm happy to be back too!