MONDAY 24TH APRIL, 2006
We had one of those nights of broken sleep. You all know the feeling when you have to be awake in time for something; hence forth you wake up at odd times all night. We knew the pilot was not due until 5am, but we woke several times prior to this. Oh well, we should be used to this by now, but it will take its toll before the day is out, for sure. We wanted to see our arrival in Genoa, Italy, and there was no way a lack of sleep was going to stop us.
At 4.45am we headed for the bridge, and were in “our seats” before the pilot boarded. It was an interesting harbour to enter, with lots of turns to get to our berth. We were treated to views of many ships and boats at the various marinas and berths that we passed. It would have been nice to have entered in daylight, but with any luck we will exit in the light of day and get to see the reverse journey. We were tied up by 6am, so we headed back to bed for an hours sleep before the adventure started ashore today.
Well the adventure was not to be ashore today. At breakfast the captain started the morning with “What are we going to do with you two today?”, and when we asked why, his reply was “We will be leaving at 1200 today”. The ships agent had told him that as we were only loading two boats onto the upper deck, we would only be in port until midday. This didn’t afford us enough time to see the sights of Genoa, so we decided to stay onboard and watch the loading of the cargo. We did go onto the wharf and walked around the different berths for an hour or so. We sat on a stack of timber and watched while the stevedores slung and lifted an 83 foot long luxury fiberglass motor yacht, weighing 68 tonnes, onto our ship. They used a combination of lifting beams connected to one of the wharf cranes. It was quite a sight. I would guess it would have to be valued at around $2-3 million AUD, so the recipient in Hong Kong is not a caravan park operator, that’s for sure!
We had a feeling that things would not go as planned, and likewise the captain. Sure enough this was the case. The next boat to be loaded was another much larger fiberglass motor yacht that was 98 foot long, and weighed 85 tonnes. Also bound for Hong Kong, this one was superb, and it would have to be valued at $3-4 million AUD I guess. It blew me away when I saw it had a spa bath built into its upper deck, what opulence! It was sailed up to the ships port side, and the stevedoring company had two underwater divers standing by to assist in positioning the slings under the boat so as to lift it up and on to our deck. The problem was somebody forgot to tell our crew that they needed steel slings fitted to one of the ships heavy lifting beams. These in turn would connect to the nylon sling that would be positioned towards the stern of the boat to be lifted. The forward lifting beam easily cleared the deck of the motor yacht, but the aft beam needed extension slings to avoid fouling the fly bridge/upper deck of the boat. Now you would think that this was not such a big problem, just get longer slings and the jobs right. Wrong, not that easy! The heavy lift slings are kept below deck under the forecastle, and 50 tonne slings can’t be moved around by hand. The crew had to open access hatches and use our forward number 1 crane to drag the slings onto the deck. This was followed by a transfer to the number 2 crane and then to the lifting beam attached to the number 3 crane. Two hours later the boat was lifted to our deck. What a joke, and the blame shifted between the stevedores and supercargo as to why the right information was not passed onto our crew to get the slings and lifting beam ready. I spoke to the supercargo later in the day, and he blamed the late departure from Antwerp, Belgium, for not having enough time to get the slings out of the rope locker. Funny how onus is never easy for some one to accept when there is a stuff up!
By now the two boats had grown to three, and we now had a second hand boat, about 75ft long, to lift from the water on the port side. This one weighed 29 tonnes, and was bound for Masan in Korea. By now you will have worked out that the midday departure didn’t eventuate. The latest estimate was now for 5pm! The stevedores had problems with this lift as well, as the boat had to be turned 90° and placed on the main deck just forward of the superstructure. There was very little room to maneuver and it took about an hour to get it out of the water and safely sitting on a cradle on our deck. Whilst the first boat loaded from the wharf was already sitting snuggly in a cradle when it was lifted aboard our ship, the second boat and this last boat had to be positioned on cradles and chocked to the shapes of their respective hulls. Rickmers had sent two carpenters from Germany to do this job, and together with this, they had to ensure that all three cradles were lashed to the decks, and that the boats were then separately lashed to the decks as well. They certainly worked for there money today.
We finally departed at 6pm, and whilst we didn’t get ashore beyond the wharf area, the views of Genoa from the port were quite stunning. It is such hilly terrain, and much of the area was visible from the ship. At least we got to see the departure in daylight. We got to see the main seafront as we passed along it on our way out of the inner harbour, and, as Genoa is a large port, there were lots of ferries, cruise boats, and other smaller pleasure vessels to look at as we sailed out. We have put this town on the list of places to return to one day, I guess time will tell if that comes to fruition.
We had dinner and went to bed reasonably early.
TUESDAY 25TH APRIL, 2006
Today is Anzac Day in Australia, so I guess most people will have the day off. That is most except those in the services like Stretton, I know he will be up before dawn carrying out his army duties.
I went down for breakfast, but Judy was not all that hungry, so she stayed in our cabin with her nose stuck in a book. As I finished eating I spoke to the Chief Officer and we agreed that Judy and I should meet him at 10.15am and he would give us the guided tour of the places we still had not seen on the ship. I should say “in” the ship, because it was into the bowels of the vessel that he took us!
When, as a normal landlubber, you look at a ship, it is not evident what is below the decks. In the case of this ship, we were able to walk through a void space that is located along both sides of the ship for almost its entire length. This space is like a second hull, and is made up of segments separated by water tight doors and bulkheads. It was fascinating to see the dents made in the hull by thumping against the wharves over time. In one spot you could see where a tug boat had, at some time in the past, almost caved the outer hull in. We were below the water level outside the vessel, so these damage sites are never visible unless the ship is in dry dock. In another section there was evidence of welding and strengthening having been carried out to the inside of the hull to repair one particularly severe section of damage. The C/O took us to the door that lead down to the main fire fighting pumps. The ladder was vertical, and consisted of two sections of around 5 metres each. This was not a Judy thing, and her fear of heights, which I add she has on many occasions overcome on this voyage, wasn’t going to let her enjoy exploring this part of the ship. I followed the C/O down the ladders, and was rewarded by the sight of a small, very stuffy room, that contained two very large electric pumps and associated connecting pipes. These pumps are for use in case there is a fire on board the ship, and they immediately pressurize the sprinkler and hydrant service pipe work around the ship, if switched into action.
After this visits, we went to the forward lower forecastle area, and once again had to contend with vertical ladders that lead to the bow thruster room. Judy reneged on this tour as well, and it was not without reason. There was an additional ladder to descend, and when the C/O and I reached the bottom, we were right at the bottom of the ship. This was a fascinating area for me, as although I knew that many ships had bow thrusters to assist in docking and other tight maneuvers, I had no idea how the system worked. It was actually a large pipe welded into the hull of the ship, positioned just aft of the point of the bow and transiting from the port to the starboard side. I could see it was around 1.5 metres in diameter, and the C/O told me it contained a propeller that pushed the sea water either to port or starboard, depending on the direction the ships master wanted the bow to go when maneuvering. It had an electric motor mounted directly above the centre, and the propeller was connected to this via a geared drive. As you can imagine, this set up was massive, and really opened up my eyes to the magnitude of things that are required to operate a ship such as this.
Next stop was the chain locker, and both Judy and I were in awe at the size of the chain held in this. There were two lockers, and when you think that the ship carries about 330 metres of chain in each locker, that is a lot of chain. From here we went to the stern via the tunnel, ending up in the engine room. We saw the ships electrician and fitters, and engineer’s workshops. We followed this with a look at the crew’s laundry and a rope locker, and then we looked at various change rooms for crew and engineers. All in all, we had a great time this morning, and we are both grateful to the C/O for giving up his time to show us around these parts of the vessel.
As it was almost lunch time, I did a quick visit to the bridge to check on our location and expected ETA in Taranto, Italy. After lunch we tried a deck walk, but it was windy and cold and we had come out without coats. I went back to the bridge to check on when we would reach the “Straits of Messina” as we both didn’t want to miss this passage between Sicily and Calabria. I did a bit of reading until dinner, and as soon as we had dined, we both went to the bridge to watch the pilot guide us through this narrow passage. It was about a mile wide, but absolutely alive with vessels going in all directions. The sight of Sicily was a real tempter, and this place was also added to the places to return to list.
We stayed on the bridge until we were well clear of the straits, and then headed for bed about 9pm. We had an early night as once again we were due for an early pilot tomorrow, and we did not want to miss the arrival to berth in Taranto.
WEDNESDAY 26TH APRIL, 2006
Went to bridge to see the pilot’s arrival at 5.45am, and stayed until we berthed at 6.30am. We went to breakfast and then tried to get our passports so as we could go into the town. No chance of this happening for a while, the local “Polizia” was being a little stubborn, but this, as we have learnt, is not uncommon in Italy.
We both made a few work related telephone calls, whilst I had success with my calls; Judy had to speak to one of the managers a couple of times to sort out a few issues. Judy was really annoyed when she got off the telephone the second time, but if I know Judy, her revenge will be sweet and all encompassing. God help those who try to spoil her days off or holidays! Lucky I am the amiable one.
Eventually we got permission to leave the vessel, and whilst the agent asked me to give him a call about 5.30pm to see when the ship would be loaded, he did say that we would not expect to leave port before the early morning, and could safely stay in a hotel in Taranto for the night.
We started walking towards the city centre, but spotted a cab and got the drivers recommendation for the best hotel in town. He was booked for a pick up, but radioed for another cab and told them to take us to the Hotel Europa. We have found that cab drivers generally know which the best hotel in town is, and the fellow said this one was only marginally second to the best in town; its location was to die for. He was spot on, and we found ourselves standing on a balcony overlooking the canal access to the “Mar Grande”, a very large sea lake that housed the fishing fleet of Taranto, the naval training academy, numerous naval ships, and thousands of shell fish beds. It was spectacular, and right next to the central city area, and the other side of the canal was the very old original town with its extremely old buildings.
We went for a walk, starting in the old area, and there we saw buildings dating back to 700 AC. Some of these, I guess about a third, were still occupied to this day. Some were even undergoing restoration and one can only hope that the entire area is restored to its former state for all to cast their eyes upon.
We headed back into the central area, for some lunch, at an outdoor café. This was followed by a walk around a few blocks of shops and apartments, but by about 1.30pm we realized that the number of people in the streets was gradually lessening. We had forgotten about the “Siesta” tradition that is adopted in this part of the world. Most businesses close from approximately1pm to 4pm, so we decided we should try this idea out ourselves, so headed back to the hotel for our own siesta.
We headed back out around 4pm, but as it was raining and we had left the umbrellas on the ship, Judy asked the receptionist if we could borrow one from the hotel. We had our small plastic emergency raincoats, but these pieces of apparel don’t breathe, and I think we got wetter wearing them than if we had gone “au naturelle”. During the afternoon I rang the agent, and it seemed we now had until noon tomorrow to be back on ship, so we had plenty of time to explore now. We ended up back in the city centre, and found a terrific café. In Judy’s eyes they make the best cappuccino in the world in Italy, and when you have coffees as good as they make here, together with the richest cakes ever, we were in seventh heaven. We had an early dinner of pizza, cake and coffee, and headed back to the hotel brandishing beautiful home made ice creams. Judy watched TV while I enjoyed a bottle of red while reading a UK newspaper we had managed to buy at a news
stand.
THURSDAY 27TH APRIL, 2006
After a good sleep and a nice continental breakfast, we once again headed off to walk the parts of the town we were yet to discover. It was such a lovely place to walk about in. You could really feel how the locals lived, with each apartment building abutting the next, and the entry doors of each was directly on the sidewalk. Many had been renovated, but the character of the area was not changed at all. As could be expected, we ended up back at another café, and the great coffee and cakes saw us sated again.
We got a call from captain, and we now had until 3pm to be back aboard. This was just perfect for us, so we walked until 12.30pm, then found a lovely restaurant over looking the canal, and dined on the best home made Italian pasta (Judy had a meat and tomato sauce, and I had the local specialty, mussels), Italian sausage, desert cake, and coffee. Of course I had to enjoy a red with the meal, and true to form, they had a local red that was absolutely perfect.
We picked up our bag from the hotel, and with the rain coming down, decided to hoof it back to the ship. We walked back through the parts of the historic area we hadn’t seen yesterday, and whilst we have been absolutely amazed by the sights we have seen on our travels before, this area took our breath away. We found streets so narrow that motor scooters just managed to travel down them. We walked among occupied buildings 600 and 700 years old, and we listened to people living their daily lives jammed against their neighbors. Alleys, stairs, corners, steps, curves, balconies, paved walkways, squares, on and on we walked and more and more we found that stunned us. Words will never fittingly describe what we saw or felt, but when we got back to the ship, a little wet from the rain, we couldn’t stop talking about what we had just experienced. I don’t think we ever will.
We had loaded an entire wind farm for Singapore delivery. Who knows where to next, maybe OZ. There were 27 complete nacelles, which weighed 23.5 tonnes each, and contained the turbines, and 27 crates of blades weighing 11.3 tonnes each. They were all packaged and ready to go when we arrived, so loading was not all that difficult.
As usual there were last minute stuff ups, and we didn’t let go our lines until 6pm. We stayed at the stern, on the poop deck, to watch the crew cast off our lines, and by the time we had cleared the port, it was dinner and bed for these two weary travelers.
FRIDAY 28TH APRIL, 2006
We slept well and missed breakfast. Didn’t really matter as the fridge held a few yoghurts and some juice, and I brewed some coffee in the machine to go with these. We had a lazy day, with a deck walk and bridge visit filling in the morning.
Judy wasn’t feeling all that flash, so decided on an afternoon nap. A few hours later she surfaced just in time to see Crete slide by our port side. I had filled in the afternoon watching movies while she slept. We had another deck walk, and while sitting on the seat in the bow area, Judy asked me where we were now. At first I didn’t get her drift, but eventually managed to point out to her that we were between Turkey in continental Europe, and Egypt, in Africa. That’s good she said, because that’s where we are going for your birthday in September. I thought she had lost her marbles as we still had more than two weeks to go on this four month holiday, and she was now talking about the next one. Well she hadn’t lost her marbles, and told me that before we had left Australia she had booked a “Captains Choice” tour called “Cape Town to Cairo” departing around 14th September for about a month. All of the kids in Melbourne knew, as well as Jayden in Japan, but no-one let on to me. The buggers! I think the birthday bit was just an excuse because we had talked about this particular tour for a couple of years, but time never seemed available back then. Well I am told it is booked and deposits are paid, so we are off again about 4 months after we get home from this escapade. I was rapt; I really wanted to do this trip with this company. We have traveled with them before, and whilst they are expensive, you get what you pay for. The entire experience with them is first class or better, most times better, and I would recommend there tours to anyone.
Well this news called for a celebration, so vodka and orange for Judy, and a Tsingtao beer for me took up our time until dinner. Dinner was enhanced with a bottle of South Australian chardonnay that I had managed to acquire in Germany, and both the captain and the chief engineer thought it was great wine.
A double dose of “American Chopper” on DVD saw us both headed for bed and asleep at a reasonable hour.
SATURDAY 29TH APRIL, 2006
We slept well enough to be awake in time for breaky down in the mess. A quick shower, and we were off and running. I remarked to Judy, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have pancakes for breaky?” and it must have been the old ESP thingy again, because as we got to the mess we went to check out what the crew had had, and here was Louis, the AB, eating pancakes! Don’t ask me how I knew, but they were delicious, and the cook even found some maple syrup to pour over them.
We went to the bridge to check things out, and then headed for our cabin to try and catch up on this blogger. It only takes a day or two to get behind, and when so much is going on, the blogger gets left until later. I worked until lunch, and then straight after our meal, we did the deck walk thingy again.
A bridge visit was next, and we were on schedule to arrive at Port Said, the entrance of the Suez Canal, at 6pm. We had been sailing in reduced visibility, due to fog, for all of today, and at best the bridge could only see about 5 miles. As the day wore on, this reduced even further, and you begin to wonder how mariners got by before radar and GPS were introduced to ships. It was getting worse, and we were heading for one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes.
Back in the cabin, Judy started a jig-saw, and I kept typing away on the blogger. At around 4.45pm we headed for the bridge again as we knew things would start to heat up, up there, with our imminent arrival at Port Said. Visibility was now down to about 1.5miles, and the fog seemed to be getting thicker as the day went on. We were now in contact with the port authority and were proceeding at about 16 knots to the pilot station. We watched and listened for a while, and at 5.55pm headed for the mess to get our dinner before the action really heated up. It was a good call, as by the time we got back to the bridge, we were surrounded by all sorts of vessels. Some were at anchor waiting canal passage. Some were heading out of the canal, and some, like us were heading for the canal pilot and the start of the canal transit. We were assigned the number one position in the convoy, and basically this meant we would enter the breakwater prior to the start of the canal, and anchor and tie to mooring buoys until our convoy got under way. This was scheduled for somewhere around midnight, but was not a definite until it actually happened.
The pilots (2) arrived and boarded at about 6.20pm, and we decided that we would go to the bow and watch the antics there when we tied up. It was the right choice, and really provided us with an insight to a seaman’s job that we had not seen before. It was unbelievably hectic, with lines being passed to mooring boats to take, and place on floating buoys, and at the same time we were dropping anchor. The noise was incredible, and not just from the machinery. The captain on the bridge was yelling instructions to the 2nd and 3rd officers who were positioned forward and aft of the vessel at the winches. The 2nd and 3rd officers were yelling at the crew operating the winches. The crew was just yelling for the sake of it I am sure. It was hilarious, but oh so serious.
We decided that we were probably going to be in the way down at the bow, so we headed back to the bridge via the stern just to see if the pandemonium we observed at the bow, and as was evident there. Sure was, but as these crew were not doing much work at present, except for watching their end of the ship slip towards the rock wall, we decided the best place to be was back on the bridge.
We had a strong wind coming from the starboard side, and it was hitting the ship broadside and pushing it towards a breakwater. A tug was using all of its might to keep us away from the rocks, and the orders to take in slack, or let out slack, on the various lines that had been attached to the floating buoys, were increasing in tempo. Somewhere along the way, we had a disaster with one of the forward lines, and it got entangled in the chain of the anchor. This in turn meant that the line dropped below the top of the floating buoy, and became caught on the buoys anchor chain. As a consequence, they could not heave that line and we drifted ever so close to the breakwater. The tug moved forward and gave us a push away from the rocks while the crew and the canals mooring boatmen in their little boats desperately tried to sort out the tangle. While all of this was going on, the stern decided it would head for the rocks as it swung on the loose lines created by the slackening of the forward lines.
Obviously the tug now had to race to the stern and push from there again. Absolute pandemonium reigned. The captain was now yelling at the pilot and telling him that until things were sorted out, the tug would have to stay with us and keep us off the rocks. The 2nd and 3rd officers were now yelling to the captain to tell him how bad things were looking at both ends of the ship. The crew was still just yelling for the sake of it, but by now Judy and I didn’t know where to look, or if we should even be on the bridge.
Eventually things got under control, and we were safely at anchor at 8.30pm. This should have been by 7.00pm, so tempers were a little frayed all round. After the captain paid off the pilots with a carton of cigarettes each, the tug boat with a carton of cigarettes, and the two mooring boats with a carton of cigarettes each, there was only him, the C/O, and ourselves left on the bridge. He walked towards the helm and let out a loud “BULLS**T”, but immediately apologized for his language. This was the last straw for all of us, and we all cracked up laughing.
We headed for our cabin and tried for a little rest before we knew we had to be up there again for the start of the transit.
SUNDAY 30TH APRIL, 2006
I woke just before midnight and went up to the bridge to find out the latest news about the transit. Nobody was on the bridge, but a note on the chart table said “POB 200”. I knew this to mean pilot on board at 2.00am, so back to bed for another 2 hours. At 1.50am both of us headed for the bridge, in time for the pilot. Well we were on time; he was not on board until about 2.15am. From here on, the description I am about to give you can never do justice to the actual events. The next 1½ hours will remain with us forever. I know I have used these words in this blogger before, but this was just the most incredible series of events, with the most incredible characters, and in an environment that few ever get the chance to experience.
The passage of any vessel through the Suez Canal is a complex event. As you will read, there are many segments to the passage, and in each segment, there are different players. There are pilots for the entire passage, but they do have allocated sections e.g.: harbour, berthing and canal. There are tug boat captains for mooring when in the start of the canal and waiting for your position in a convoy of ships. There are mooring boatmen to place and retrieve our mooring ropes, and these fellows stay onboard throughout the passage in case we need to moor along the canal. Their boats are lifted aboard our ship as soon as we let go our lines at the start of the passage, and remain until we complete the entire canal. There is a Suez Canal electrician to man the search light (our own!) that is required to be installed at our bow for the passage. And of course there is an agent who organizes the passage. Each and I emphasize “each” player is expecting some form of payment other than what his employer grants him. In other words, bribes are the common and expected course to the entire passage. The most favoured bribe is a carton of cigarettes, and consequently the Suez Canal is known to seafarers as “Marlboro Country”. Now it’s not limited to cigarettes, the pilots are in a situation to entice further goods, and they do just that. Every loose item on the deck is stowed away including the motor off the small lifeboat, every door to the superstructure is locked, and crew is on watch at several sections of the ship for the entire passage. Simply put, any thing of value can, and does get stolen if not locked away. It’s a way of life for these people, and whilst Judy and I abhorred the whole idea, it is expected and accepted by the canal users. So now that I have made this part of the passage clear, I can get on with the story.
As I closed the bridge episode last night, you will remember that we were safely anchored. That was the case, and we were in the same place this morning. The problem was, we weren’t going anywhere for quite a while. One of the forward mooring buoys had passed under our bow during the berthing, and it had a slack mooring line from our ship attached to its top. This line, whilst secured when heaved last night, was now snagged below the buoy and under our anchor chain. To make matters worse, our anchor chain was now caught around the buoys chain. Now it’s 2.30am and dark, so nobody could even imagine what was about to unfold when the order came from the pilot to “let go stern lines’, soon after followed by “let go forward lines”. The pilot and captain had control of the ship by using our bow thruster and main engine, so all seemed normal at this stage. When the crew tried to heave the rogue forward line, it stayed put. So here we are all lines unattached to the mooring buoys, one forward line stuck around the anchor chains of the buoy and the ship, and still no real drama. The pilot gave the command to raise the anchor, and about now was when the whole picture fell into place. The snagged mooring buoy chain is being dragged towards our ship, and the anchor is obviously not going to come up. The mooring line is still caught around both chains, and is obviously not going to come in. The captain is really agitated as we are now at risk of grounding on the rock wall, and he is powerless to do much to stop it as we have no forward movement. Meanwhile, the pilot is running backwards and forwards from the radio in the console at the helm, to the port bridge wing, i.e.: from almost one side of the bridge to another, inside to outside. For some really strange reason, the pilot arrived on our ship without a two way radio which they always carry so as to give directions to tugs and mooring boats. The port bridge wing was the best place to observe what was happening with the ship during this maneuver, but unfortunately for the pilot was the furthest part of the bridge from the fixed radio he needed to use.
Pandemonium broke out very rapidly, and as it did the voices of all involved got louder and louder. We were in a real spot of bother, and now were in real danger of grounding the vessel. The captain was yelling to the pilot to get tug boats. The pilot was yelling back to him and saying that he would have to pay for them. The pilot was still running to the radio and yelling at the boatmen to untangle the lines. The officers were yelling to the captain that the anchor would not come free. And the crew was yelling at everybody just for the sake of it! The boatmen would not get back on the mooring buoy for fear of it tipping them into the water, and subsequently they would not try and untangle the forward line. Eventually two tug boats arrived, and with them both pushing on our port side, one forward and one aft, the danger of grounding was lessened. It really seemed that all of the players had lost the plot, particularly the pilot who was more worried about the mooring buoy than the ship. Now I mentioned bribes earlier, but can you believe that during this extremely difficult and dangerous happening, the boatmen were demanding “cigarette, cigarette” because they believed they were doing more than they had to do! Somehow the tug pushing forward managed to work out a way to move the buoy and release the snagged anchor, and as soon as this happened, the crew was able to retrieve both our anchor and the mooring line. The whole exercise took almost 1½ hours, and should have taken about 15 minutes. Cartons of cigarettes were thrown to the tug boats, cartons given to the boatmen, and two cartons given to the pilot. We got under way and joined a convoy for the passage, and as soon as we approached the canal, we changed pilots. The pilot said goodbye to all on the bridge, us included, and then started down the stairs. He had not gone more than four steps when he turned and came back up, calling to the captain, “captain, captain, would you have some of those tins of biscuits that I could have?”, We all took a double take, here is a fellow who really wasn’t prepared for nor did he handle a tricky situation, and he was now having the audacity to seek further bribes for his services. The captain nearly exploded! Needless to say no biscuits were forthcoming for this pilot. The whole episode was one of those things that you had to see and hear to believe, but it will stay with all of us on this ship for a long, long time.
Once we were in the canal, there was very little to see. It was very dark and not much was evident in the banks. We decided to have a short sleep and return to the bridge when the sun was up. We slept until 7.30am, and then went down for breakfast. We headed to the bridge until around 10am, and then we went to the bow of the ship to watch the crew drop the anchor. As the canal is in two sections, separated by a large lake, our convoy, heading west to east had to drop anchor and wait until the convoy heading east to west passed. This lay over gave us a chance to have a shower and try for an hours sleep, but we were that hyped up with the passage, sleep didn’t come. Lunch followed, and before we had finished eating we were on our way again. We chatted to some of the crew who were wandering around the deck keeping an eye on things, and the antics from early this morning was the main topic. They told us that the boatmen had said if they don’t get cigarettes, mooring ropes mysteriously get cut! The boatmen were now unloading all sorts of goods to sell from their boats on our deck. They had souvenirs, T-shirts, leather bags and purses, tools, perfumes, clocks, fishing rods, and can you believe it, cigarettes!
The word from the crew was to wait until the last hour before the boatmen had to leave the ship, and then the prices would drop dramatically. Spot on, we managed to buy a clock for our Townsville house, a leather back pack, a leather purse and two leather belts for US$58.00. This was real cheap, and we were quite happy with our bargaining abilities.
Back to the bridge to observe the rest of the passage, and once again we weren’t disappointed with what we saw. This part of Egypt is so desolate, and as far as the eye could see there was only sandy desert. The immediate river banks were dotted with very green oasis type areas, but generally it was just sand and more sand. One bank had a very high sand dune that appeared to be the result of the canal dredging; the other side seemed to be generally natural hills and dunes. The military deployments along the canal were a bit of a surprise. Every kilometer or so there was a soldier in a small structure atop the sand dune, eyeing the area around him, and accompanied by a very large machine gun. There were more army tanks and armored personnel carriers than could be counted. We passed two massive military parade grounds situated in the sparsest of desert area, but complete with sealed parade areas and massive grandstands for viewing the show. All along the canal, the army was fabricating floating bridges on the banks. It seemed that they were getting ready for a massive deployment from one side of the canal to the other as at each work site there was very tight security including tanks and machine guns. We saw the Suez Canal 1914-1918 war memorial, complete with missile and tank protection. At some stage in its history it had been the subject of attack, and the damage from shots or shrapnel was very obvious.
The mooring boatmen climbed aboard their boats, and our crane dropped them into the canal while we were still traveling. This was a sight to see, and whilst it might sound dangerous, the way they carry out this maneuver seemed quite safe and well rehearsed. At a bit after 4pm we were clear of the canal and the last of the pilots had gone, but I need to tell about one pilot who took us from our canal entry to our anchor in the lake. He was given 2 cartons of cigarettes, and when his breakfast was brought up to him by the steward, the 1 liter carton of orange juice and the two cans of sardines went straight into his bag with the fags. When he climbed down the ladder to the pilot vessel to leave, he could barely carry his bulging bag, so he had quite obviously managed to acquire more gifts during the trip that we hadn’t witnessed.
We went to the bow to see our crew remove and stow the searchlight, and then just relaxed until dinner. The captain seemed relieved that the canal passage was over, so the red wine was flowing at the dinner table, and we all over stayed to imbibe.
We had a phone call from both Jayden and Briony during the course of the day. Jayden to say he was still enjoying Japan, and had made a lot of friends. He told us that later this month he was going to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for a week or so to see his girlfriend, Chrysann. She was to come to Japan to see him, but unfortunately her brother is very ill and will be hospitalized, so she needs to be at home with him and her family then. Briony told us she has got scarlet fever, is covered with a rash, and that it has been diagnosed as dormant in her body ever since she was in Year 10 at school. Hope it clears up soon for her.
A great and unforgettable day again for us, sleep came easy tonight.
MONDAY 1ST MAY, 2006
For most of the world, today is a public holiday. For the crew on board this ship it is optional, not so the officers, every day is a Monday for them! Those amongst the crew who wished to work got paid overtime, and about ½ did just that.
I went for breakfast on my own, Judy more intent on staying in bed and reading her book. We took the usual deck walk mid morning, but there was very little to see. No ships, fish or birds. Oh well, it can change so quick we will just have to wait and see what the rest of the day brings.
And the day didn’t bring much at all, in fact we only saw a couple of ships for the day, and 6 birds. Funny how little things break up the days, you would think we should have adapted to seeing very little, but you keep a sharp eye out for anything different than just the sight of the rolling sea and swell.
At dinner tonight the discussion of different styles and types of cooks and foods they prepare came up. We all thought that our cook was really trying to please all tastes, and while some of his efforts weren’t “cordon bleu” they were genuine attempts at keeping us all sated with lots of variety. The chief engineer told us that some of the ships he has been on, the cooks wouldn’t make a desert at all, and the crew was quite upset because of it. Tonight the cook had made an apple strudel for desert, and whilst it was alright, the captain said he would show him a better way next time. He then went on to say that he would go into the kitchen and make an apple pie for us in the few days. What with him and the chief engineer doing some of the cooking, I think our cook might even get a half day of at this rate!
After dinner we went for another walk around the deck. It was still about 25°C, and quite pleasant at the bow, but as it was nearly dark we had to go back inside. We are not permitted to be on the main deck area at night, for obvious safety reasons. We came back to our cabin, watched the usual movie, and headed for bed. We did have a discussion about the whole freighter experience before we dropped off to sleep. I was happy to sail on forever; I was enjoying it so much. On the other hand, Judy said whilst she was still having a ball, she was happy to jump ship in Singapore and return home. She did add “if they add a few more ports, I can handle that easily”. Not likely unfortunately, we are at full speed heading for Singapore.
TUESDAY 2ND MAY, 2006
We woke up in time for breakfast, and lucky us, cookie had a mix ready for pancakes. We loved our breaky today, but had to go for a long deck walk to burn some of it off!
A bridge visit followed, and we could see by the charts that we were well into the Red Sea now, off the coast of Sudan and Saudi Arabia. A little later in the day we would be between Eritrea and Yemen. Such a buzz for us, you read about these places and never really connect with where they are, and here we are right in the middle of them.
We decided on skipping lunch in the mess today, and we opted for a picnic lunch together on the pilot deck. We made a couple of salad sandwiches in the galley, cut up some cheese and put it on a plate with some olives. A bottle of water, some sliced cantaloupe, and we were in our own little heaven. We stayed up there reading in the fresh air for about an hour, but it got a bit hot for Judy and she headed for the cabin to read her book. Actually that was what she said she would do, but I knew she was really going for a nap! I kept reading until some of the bosun and a crew member arrived with some new deck chairs. Evidently the captain had discovered these chairs in a store and told the boys to put them out and to get rid of the broken ones that were lying around. I gave them a hand to assemble the chairs, and then set tidying up the bar area. There were now more chairs in there than could possibly be used at one time, so a bit of stacking and reorganizing, and I had the place “ship shape”. While I was up on the pilot deck, three navy vessels were sailing near by on patrol. They were part of the Coalition keeping an eye on these waters. So glad we don’t live in areas of conflict like this.
Later in the afternoon, I asked the chief officer if the pool was going to be filled today as it had been cleaned in the morning when the crew had hosed all of the deck areas. “Of course”, he said, “if you want it I will do it now”, and true to his word, when I went down from the bridge after talking to him, the fire hose was in and running and I knew I would be swimming in the Red Sea today.
We went for dinner at 6pm, but I had the foresight to put my swimming shorts on. Straight after dinner I was in the saltiest water I had ever swum in, but it was really warm, about 27°C and really refreshing. Tomorrow they will drain the pool again and refill it with fresh sea water as soon as I ask. I love this life!
Before we left the mess, we organized for the cook to give us the makings for hot dogs for our lunch tomorrow. He talked us into letting him make us a submarine roll instead, and I guess tomorrow’s lunch will be another delight for us. I also guess it will be beside the pool.
We headed back to our cabin after my swim, and a quick shower preceded another bridge visit. We were told of increased security for tonight. Due to pirate activity in this area, we would have crew members standing watch on deck all night. This sounds a bit surreal in this day and age, but after reading the advisory that came on the telex from the Royal Navy Commander for the area, we knew the threat was real.
We read for a while, and then sleep took over for the day.
WEDNESDAY 3RD MAY, 2006
Today started off like most others, up in time for breaky…….Oh hang on, I am the only one out of bed, Judy must have a good book!
I went down for my morning feed, and introduced the chief engineer to good old porridge. It is not a staple in Croatia, but Petar appeared to like it and I would think he will become a regular user. I tried to drink my coffee on the main deck, but the wind was blowing pretty strong so I gulped it down back inside and headed up to see if Judy was going to grace us with her presence yet. She was up and mobile, but when I told her the wind was so strong, she decided that her book was good company again. I couldn’t agree more, so we both stuck our heads in to a good read for a couple of hours.
I decided that we needed to have deck chairs down at the swimming pool on “B” deck, so up to “E” deck for the chairs I went. It had been so humid overnight that walking outside of the super structure was extremely difficult. It was really wet, and because of the salt, seemed quite slippery. It took me four trips between the decks to get two chairs and cushions set up, and I had even found a banana box to upturn and use as a table for our lunch. By 11am all was in order, and we were ready to hit the pool!
The water was terrific, just as it was last night. It had been drained and refilled before we got down there, and I think it may have even been a little warmer than yesterday. We swam until noon, and then headed for the “A” deck exterior galley door. Cookie was waiting for us, and we were presented with a huge French breadstick, filled with all sorts of salad and meats, then cut in half with each piece individually wrapped in plastic, and served on a big silver tray. Gee they spoil us, and we love it.
We ate, read, then swam again, but by 2.30pm the sun had come over to the aft of the ship and it became to hot to stay at the pool. We headed back to our cabin for a shower, and Judy decided she needed a small nap again. Gee I think this is a habit she is really starting to enjoy.
THURSDAY 4TH MAY, 2006
We did the usual breakfast thing today, and we both actually made it to the mess to eat.
We were still in the Red Sea, and didn’t have much planned for the day, but swimming seemed like starting favourite. As it was rather warm, the pool was being refilled each day for us and the crew, and we were going to make the most of it.
Actually we were delayed in getting into the pool today, because as they were filling it the fire hose that they use blew out of the pool and was flooding the deck. I happened to walk up from the main deck to the Poop deck at the stern. Arnul, one of the OS was painting some grills, and I asked him what was all the water cascading over the side from above him. He replied that it was probably from the swimming pool overflowing. I can’t understand why he didn’t walk up the stairs near him to A Deck, and check it out, but anyway, I did just that. WOW! Water was pouring down the stairs from B Deck where the pool is located, and as the fire hydrant was at the head of these stairs, I couldn’t get to it without getting washed off the stairs. It was a raging torrent, and it had to be stopped. I headed for the internal stairs and got out onto B Deck from these, and with a bit of a dousing that left me soaked to the skin, I was able to shut the hydrant off. I replaced the fire hose into the pool and tried to fill the pool again. No good, out it came again, and the chairs and covers, together with the towel I had left their earlier, were all soaked. Oh well, its hot so they will dry pretty quickly. I climbed into the pool and secured the hose with a rope, and this averted any further floods, and I had the pool full by the time Judy arrived with a lunch of toasted sandwiches we had arranged for the cook to make for us.
During one of today’s bridge visits, the C/O mentioned that at 0420 this morning, an unidentified small vessel was near our ship, without lights, and did not show up on the radar screen. As we got closer to it, it turned its lights on. The C/O and the A/B on watch have no idea what it was doing out in the middle of the ocean, but sometimes they come across small boats full of refugee’s and this may have been what it was. This is made all the more intriguing when you realize that we are now in a known pirate area. He also said that Rickmers is looking to increase crew numbers on board, so they will probably not be taking passengers again. I guess it becomes an economic decision in the end, but those who haven’t experienced this mode of holiday, and intend too, will find the options greatly reduced if this company abandons paying passengers on their ships.
We didn’t do much more worth noting today, just the usual reading and movie watching.
FRIDAY 5TH MAY, 2006
As we didn’t have anything planned again, we both skipped going down to the mess this morning, and we just had a light breakfast in our cabin. Thank you again Jon and Pat, the coffee is terrific thanks to your gift to us.
While swimming this morning, we suddenly realized that as the pool was refilled daily, we were swimming in sea water from different seas or areas each day. We started swimming in the Red Sea, then the Gulf of Aden, now the Arabian Sea. The life of a high seas traveler is sooooooo good!
We hadn’t seen much activity beyond the ship for a few days, but today rewarded us with three schools of dolphins, and countless flying fish. I managed to photograph a single dolphin jumping out the water about 100 metres from the ship, but most of the others were a bit beyond the range of the camera to take good shots. Still, they look awesome when you watch them jumping and diving so naturally. The flying fish are always a sight to see as they leap out of the water and fly away from the bow or sides of the ship.
I went down to the crew mess after they had finished afternoon tea to see what I could steal for us. Cookie would make us anything we wanted for a snack, but it is more fun this way. We don’t really need more food, but the swimming and walking in the heat and high humidity makes us very peckish.
We went to the bow of the ship to watch whatever we saw floating, flying or just passing by, but as it was hot, I left Judy there to muse over her surroundings while I headed back to the pool for another swim. Judy doesn’t use the pool at anytime that she thinks the crew might want to use it. They are so polite around her; they would not intrude and swim while she is in the area, so she tries to return the gesture as often as possible.
Dinner, accompanied by a good red wine of course, and we were back in our cabin for an early night. Well that is after a movie and a few more pages of the latest reading matter we were both into.
SATURDAY 6TH MAY, 2006
Really lazy today, we both stayed in bed reading, obviously with a fresh brew of coffee to keep us awake until we could bother with breaky.
We went to see what was happening on the deck, and found some of the crew painting (so unusual!), and others washing and cleaning the stern A Deck for the bbq tonight. While we were wandering, we discussed the first moment we boarded the ship in Singapore, oh so long ago. We had no idea of where to go or who to speak to, and compared to what we usually travel on, this was so different. It was a bit scary for both of us for the first few hours, but now when we reminisce, the crew and officers couldn’t have been more obliging or friendly to us, it was just our fears about what we were doing on the ship that made us a bit apprehensive.
It was very hot standing at the bow of the ship, so we headed to the stern to watch tonight’s culinary offering, one small piglet, being stuffed and secured to the spit. Judy headed back to our cabin and her book, and I stayed to watch the goings on to get things set up for tonight’s party. Judy and I had decided that as all onboard were so good to us, we would pay for tonight’s liquid refreshments for all of them. As it turned out, we are so glad the booze is at duty free prices because the crew doing the cooking on the spit started on the beers at 1pm, and there was still a long way to go.
The spit and bbq was a real fitting finale for us, with every one getting into the spirit of things. The captain had said that the crew needed a break from their tasks, so all of them were relaxing around the deck and pool by 3pm. By the time we had eaten, around 7pm, all throats were well lubricated and the music and song was wafting over the waves. Rain threatened to disrupt the gathering, but our quick thinking captain called the officer on watch in the bridge, and asked him to avoid the rain at all costs. We turned one way, then the other, then back again, several times over. Not a drop of rain fell on the “Rickmers Jakarta” this day.
Around 1am, Judy persuaded me that it was time for an old partygoer like me to retire for the day, so being the obedient fellow that I am, I took her advice (and guiding hand) and we headed to bed.
SUNDAY 7th MAY, 2006
A very slow start for me today, in fact I stayed in bed until late morning to try and catch some sleep. Well that was my story to Judy anyway, but I am sure she saw through my subterfuge and knew that my health was suffering.
As it had been decided by the chief officer that it would be a late start today, the crew didn’t finish partying until long after we went to bed. I think some of them made it through until 4am.
We were now leaving the Arabian Sea, and entering the Indian Ocean near the Maldive Islands. We added this too the different waters we had swum in this afternoon.
The crew fired up after lunch, although some were running on fewer cylinders than they should have been, and by mid afternoon the clean up of the A Deck was done, only trace of last nights frivolity was a few sick heads.
We spent the remainder of the day reading in our cabin, and following dinner and a movie, sleep beckoned us both.
MONDAY 8TH MAY, 2006
Around 1.30am, as we neared the land mass of one of the Maldive Islands, my mobile telephone started sounding the “message received” tone. It went for ages, so curiosity got the better of me and I got out of bed to check what had been sent to my phone. Two messages from Jon Taylor telling me how well his “Magpies” were playing, and how bad my “Lions” were going, one message from my brother, Mick, to reiterate how bad the Lions were, and six from Telstra telling me to enjoy my trip abroad. I went back to bed thinking my trip is nearly over, “why am I getting so many of these messages from Telstra?”
When I got up for breakfast, and yes, it was only me who got up, Judy had her head in a book again; I checked my mobile phone again. I had turned it to silent at 1.40am so it wouldn’t wake either of us again during the night, and luckily I did as I had six more of the same messages from Telstra! Ahhhhhh!
When the steward arrived to clean our room at 10.30am, Judy was still in her bed reading. I had to give her a real shove to get her into her dressing gown so he could change our linen. I don’t think it worried her at all; she still had her head in the book when the steward had finished.
We made it into a lazy day (another!) all around. Swam before lunch, and again in the afternoon. We could now add the Bay of Bengal to our swimming spots.
After our PM swim, I grabbed a handful of our business cards, together with some small Aussie koala souvenirs, and I attached one of each to the door handle of all the crew and officers on board. When some of them came in for afternoon tea, they immediately sourced us and thanked us for them. I told each of them they were welcome to telephone us if they ever came to OZ on a ship, and either us or our great kids would take them from the ship and show them the sights. They have all been so good to us this is the least that we could do for them if they were lucky enough to have a trip to OZ.
Late in the afternoon we got an email back from our travel agent in Sydney, confirming our return flight from Singapore for Friday. The captain said he didn’t care if we stayed on board until Shanghai or beyond, he wasn’t going to kick us off the vessel.
The rest of the day was just filled with the mundane things like, deck walk x2, reading, dinner, movie, bed.
