August 2010
Sunday 15 th
of August 2010
and we were still anchored outside Rotterdam when I woke up. The
Yes, a request via e-mail to put our Pump Man on today's daily picture.
Jaja Lisen, jag får väl lägga ut ett foto. Men d ska inte bli nåt jävla RING SÅ SPELAR VI!!!
weather left a lot to wish for. Strong winds and grey skies. The autumn arrived early this year.
I received an e-mail from our previous Cook on Ek-River. She wanted me to change our 3rd Engineer for our Pump Man for one day.
She have told Pump Man's wife about my web page so I guess they expect a picture of our Pump Man. And who am I to say no?
So I got a picture of our Pump Man when I went to the work shop in the engine to check the progress with our ballast pipe this very morning
Our crew put back the first ballast pipe before lunch and they will remove the second pipe after lunch. Our Pump Man was a wee bit concerned.
- Can we call you when we're going to heave up the pipe? Pump Man asked me.
- What about our OS?
Obviously they preferred to rely on me when it came to get the pipe up from the pump room. So I
went down to the pump room after lunch to see what was going on.
The first pipe was back in place and our Pump man and AB was
busy removing the bolts from the last pipe under the grating.
Didn't take long before the pipe was loose and we lifted up the pipe and put it on top of the grating with the help of a chain block.
Now it was the hard part, to get the darn pipe up from the pump room.
But as I told the guys.
- No need to be alarmed! Papa Daddy is here.
Didn't take long before we had the pipe out of the pump room. Luckily enough this pipe was smaller than the other pipe so it went pretty quick. So let's see if the crew can get it back tomorrow morning.
Our Pump Man was busy welding in the engine work shop while I was enjoying my morning tea.
I went to check on the progress when I finished my tea and I also took the opportunity to get a
few pictures of the action down in the engine work shop.
Nice to have a few pictures of the engine department
kicking behinds. Otherwise people can get the impression that it is only the deck department doing all the arse kicking.
Hmm, I wish we could get a few pictures of me kicking
behinds. Most of you must think that I'm only taking pictures all day long.
I skipped my Thai books during lunch and I got one
hour of sleep
instead. And it was really nice with a power nap, I had been tired all morning. Maybe I have slept badly due to some rolling during the night.
I meet our Chief Engineer in the duty mess after lunch and we went to the work shop to check the ballast pipe. Our Pump Man was welding the last on the pipe and at 13:30 they started to bring it down to the pump room.
I was taking the pictures, yes, someone has to do it and today it was me! 
When the pipe was on the deck they took it on a pallet lifter to our mooring winches forward of the superstructure. From there they lifted it down o tank deck and then they lifted it by hand in to the pump room. Now it's only 10 meters down to the bottom of the pump room. 
When the pipe was mounted I opened the valves to see if the pipe was tight. Starboard side was
OK, but still a tiny leak, almost nothing on Port side so they had to bring down the pipe to the work shop again for some welding.
So the guys brought down the pipe in the engine room after the coffee break and our Pump Man finished the pipe 10 minutes late for dinner.
My “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ® was waiting for me when I came to the mess room 10 minutes past 5. A big cup of tea to wash it down and I was content at 5 thirty when I went to my cabin for some alone time. At 7 o'clock the pipe was tested and no leaks, at least not what we could found. So this ballast pipe adventure had come to an end and I brought a can of diet drink to my cabin for a few words on my web page.
OK, they wanted pictures of our Pump Man so here we go. Lisen, just to start the slide show and beg for mercy!!!
I know, I have not forgotten our daily 3rd Engineer Special. But, hmm, I'm a nice guy. Well, at least I try to be nice. So I could not say no to Lisen's request about a Pump Man Special. But as you understand I cannot continue like this.
I will end up with nothing but DAILY SPECIALS. And right now I'm looking at my watch, almost midnight and I also have other stuff to do. Sounds unbelievable, but it's true.
expect from October and it had pretty much been like this since I joined the ship 25th of July in Stockholm.
Well, never mind the weather, I had to go on deck to get to the pump room. Cleaning was in progress after the repairs in the pump room. Our Pump man was removing 2 pipes that needed some welding. But these two pipes are only very small so he can do it alone.
Thing seemed to work out well so I returned to my
office. I found our Electrician and we tested our remote gas detectors for the pump room and pipe trunk. I had to adjust sensor #4 and 6 and we were ready with the testing in about 20 minutes.
After lunch, (yes, I read my Thai books during lunch), I and our Electrician checked our thermometers. He had a machine, an ingenious little machine and we could set the desired temp and we could compare with our thermometers. Quite clever!
Well, I managed to spend the time until the coffee break without getting bored. Now I only wait
for the good weather so I can continue with my evening constitutionals.
We also got a new voyage, loading in Gdansk for
Rotterdam. Very good! No need to wait for cargo at Gothenburg anchorage. Just a quick stop to get onboard a service man for our server.
We will drop anchor this afternoon and then we will try to restart the server. If it works we don't need the service man and we can continue towards Gdansk.
Arriving to the anchorage and my internet kicked in. Finally I can download the French Hip Hop I had been listening to at my friend's apartment in the middle of the night. So let's hope they are as good as they were when I was a wee bit tipsy.
I don't want to down load the music via our satellite internet, which will take quite some time. But
when we dropped our anchor I got connected to 3G and I went to the store. First thing was that they asked about the info for my AMEX.
- Hmm, never happened before.
Well, I filled up my info and I started to download the music. Lo and behold, after 3 tunes we turned with the current and I lost my connection. Darn!
We didn't stay long at Gothenburg anchorage. The server worked after the restart so we continued our voyage towards Gdansk in Poland.
Gdansk to Rotterdam.
Well, I discovered a Danish group playing NU Jazz/ Jazz Hop / Hip Hop (Yes, it's hard to put a label on music)
yesterday while down loading my French Hip Hop. EXCELLENT!
Our server was working and I discovered that I had 2 (TWO) different e-mail addresses onboard. Who the
has come up with this stupid
idea? I discovered an e-mail from Captain on Ek-River that he sent the 6th of August.
“Mission Completed” with a picture attached. At first I did not understand what theit was. But I was soon realising that it was our votes for the election going with the Agent.
I guess that he was inspired by the "MISSION COMPLETED" picture I sent to him when I left Ek-River in Gothenburg.
OK, so I have to send him a second "MISSION COMPLETED" e-mail with the picture of the
votes going away with the Agent on my web page.
Well, it was a terrible weather with a black sky and rain. It doesn't look like it will be any constitutionaltoday either. Darn, 3 or 4 days without my
constitutional now and I get abstinence.
All our pipes were repaired and as our server was working again the crew could get started with our computer based maintenance.
I finished my loading plans, I will make the final adjustments when I have a density and temp of the cargo. And of course, I need to know how much we're going to load. But this will take me 5 minutes to do when we're coming alongside.
And as it looks now we will not go alongside until Friday night or Saturday morning. August will almost have come to an end when we're finished in Rotterdam. September will be a quick one and I'm out of here in October.
And well, the French Hip Hop, turned out to be a waste of money. Most of the tunes went straight
to the garbage bin. Never run away
to buy music you thought was EXCELLENT when you were drunk
and in a good
mood 4 o'clock in the morning.
Det var en skitrolig slide-show!
Gilberts fru tycket det hela var jättekul, och att se honom med en pony-tail var visst mycket uppskattat! Barnen tycket oxå att det var roligt att se bilder från pappas jobb, så jag tror det var en stor suxsé!
dead than alive when my alarm went off this morning. I
spent the whole night tossin' and turnin' in bed.
Well, a hot shower and the fact that I discovered a kind of nice weather when I looked out my window made me feel a little better.
No rain and parts of the sky was blue so I had the crew to start the day with painting. Better take the cance to try to get the painting ready.
Our Pump Man was checking our tank cleaning machines so I went out to see how the work was proceeding.
- My wife and children saw me on your page!
- Yes
- They never saw me with long hair like this before.
When I came down after lunch I saw our Mess Man in the mess room. He was having his lunch and
I thought I recognised what he had on the plate.
- What is that?
- It's tuna.
- AH! It looks just like my “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ®!
I told him that he had to pay me for each meal if he was stealing my idea.
Well, I made myself a cup of tea and I returned to my office for some important paper work.
Our server had been down for a while so there was plenty to do in our Onboard Maintenance Program. Among other things, to inspect our deck crane. And the crew were busy greasing, a somewhat sunny morning had turned in to a rainy afternoon. So I hope they can get the last layer of paint within a few days, Or the work had been a waste.
But it doesn't look good, it has been raining and blowing the last month. And the forecast warns for freezing temperatures in the North of Sweden, in August!!!
hopefully
finish the painting today. Then there is only the review to do. Walking
around with a sander and a pot of paint to get the last few spots.
We will get our Pilot at 9 o'clock tonight, perfect time. We will be (Hopefully) up and running with the loading until 2 o'clock. Can't be better, well, of course that depends on if I manage to get some sleep after lunch. If I can it will be no problem to stay up until early morning. But if I don't manage to catch some sleep it will be another story.
Lunch, spinach, onion and green peas. Our Cook and I, inspired by my success. Yes, only one more 
hole to go and I will have to change to a smaller belt.
And I don't mean a bigger belt.
We came up with the following diet, to be followed strictly. Our Cook has to give me 100US every time he asks if I want any cookies or some other bad stuff.
• Breakfast: 3 slices of rayed bread with cheese (Pumpernickel on order)
• Lunch: Spinach, onion and green peas
• Dinner: “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ®
And luckily enough I managed to fall asleep, 2 or 3 hours of power nap and I woke up just in time for my “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ® for dinner.
I brought my diner and a big cup of tea to wash it down with to the CCR. Our OS and I tested the high level alarms while I had my dinner.
Yes, it was a beautiful evening and I got my evening constitutionalafter several days of bad weather. And it was very nice to hear “Lille Rapper” again. Must be enjoyed at full blast so I'm not bothering in my office. My equipment falls short. But I'm enjoying my Danish NU Jazz/ Jazz Hop / Hip Hop (Yes, it's hard to put a label on music) in my office.
And they are pushing a full 10, almost.
I went to take a shower after my constitutional and I could hear the main engine running, so I will
go to the bridge at 9 o'clock when the Pilot comes onboard. Nice with some action again.
Pilot came onboard 30 minutes earlier and I went on bridge 5 minutes after 9 when we approached the breakwaters. I'm impressed by the line up here in Gdansk. Laydays starts at 21st of August and they
take us in so we can start in time. Impressive preplanning. Our Surveyor and Loading Master came onboard 20 minutes past 10 o'clock.
And the loading has been working out very well every time in Gdansk.
No guess work as it is in
most of the West European refineries and terminals.
As I told the Loading Master: “Here you know how long time it will take to load 12600MT”
- I'm glad to hear that!
We were doing paper work when I heard a crack and I found our Loading Master on the floor on the other side of the table. He was flat on his back and I wanted to take a picture, but it would have been too embarrassing.
I left the CCR for a while and when I came back the Loading Master told me that the Surveyor wanted to try some of my snus
. I had a few cans lying around on my desk.
- No problem, but he is not going to drive a car or operate any heavy machinery? 
I told him to help himself hand he poured some snus in his hand.
. Shall I eat it?
- Whoa whoa!! Let Papa Daddy help you or you will get sick!
We started to load at 22:30 and we expect to be ready tomorrow afternoon. Nice, I might make it
in time to get my evening constitutional. I will soon be the most handsome guy in the world.
- Hmm, if it wasn't for my baldness. DARN!!
Well, I got an e-mail today and obviously the manager
at the badminton place had been asking for me. So I will soon be back playing badminton and I will go FAT TO FLAT in a jiff.
I'm hungry now, but I will wait until my rayed bread tomorrow morning. But the hunger won't make it any easier to fall asleep. My SLEEPING IN THE AFTERNOON plan had backfired on me. We were up and loading much quicker than expected so I guess there will be some tossin' and turnin' before I manage to fall asleep.
4 o'clock in the morning. A shower and a look out of my window improved my move. Seems like the summer is back.
It was a beautiful morning and it was nice to get on deck again, for the first time in a long time.
Our new Captain came onboard while I was eating my lunch spinach in my office. He gave me his hand.
- We're way passed the hand shake. Give me a hug!
Luckily enough the 3rd Officer was close by so he could take our picture.
Our Agent Surveyor called and he asked what time we would
be ready with the loading.
- Around 3 o'clock with the present rate, I said.
- OK, I will be there in 1 and a half hour.
When he came onboard the rate was down to 500m³/h and now it look like we're going to finish loading around 5 or 6 o'clock. Departure in the middle of the night and I will miss my evening constitutional.
Our Surveyor had his computer with him so he was killing time playing computer games. I was bored to death. Nothing special to do so I went to write a few stupid words on my web page in my cabin.
I had contact with the CCR via our OS on the manifold and at 17:35 we had 8,59 meters amidships
and I told our OS to give the stop signal to the CCR.
When it was stop I went to check the draft forward. On the way back aft I asked our Os if he knew how to check the draft. I asked him to come on the jetty and we went aft to check the aft draft.
Paper work and calculations was ready around 18:45 and I returned to my cabin. Time for a few words on my web page before the Pilot arrives so we can leave for Rotterdam
And we know that we will go back
to load in Gothenburg after discharging in Rotterdam. Good, when we're finished with that
voyage it's already september. Time has really turned quick, now it is 3 months since I left a burning FUNKY TOWN. Now it's
the rainy season and this will be coming to an end by the time I'm back home. So this is something I'm looking forward to, but we also have fun onboard so I'm in no hurry to get home.
I was in my cabin writing on my web page when they called me. Our Pilot was onboard just before 8 o'clock in the evening and it was time for us to leave. Nice!
Regulations require one tug boat at departure. Talk about day light robbery. One tug boat connected with a slack line. First they required ship's line. But we use our lines so they had to use their own. Yeah, I could see how disappointed they were that they had to do some work on the tug boat.
We were connected for a few minutes and we let go the tug boat and they charged us handsomely for this service. And of course, they are running a big engine so the operation was a setback for the environment as well. But someone is making money so they are happy.
We left Gdansk behind and we sat course for Rotterdam via Skagen. The passage through the Kiel Canal was cancelled so that made me happy. I spent the evening in my cabin finishing today's adventure on my web page and then I was off to bed for some well needed beauty sleep.
I was just about to go on deck for my evening constitutional when it started to rain. Well, it had been gloomy and grey all day long with passing showers. So I was disappointed when I returned to my cabin. 30 minutes later it looked better so I took a chance and I went on deck.
I got one hour on deck before I returned to my cabin. It was quite windy and now when I have lost so much weight my shirt has become so much bigger. So it was like walking with a parachute after me when walking against the wind. Of course, when I turned around I got the wind in from my back and it was like sailing down the deck.
ropes on our winches to nark them with our new labels. The loose ropes was marked a few day s ago and we only have the ropes on the winches to do.
Our OS had opened the manholes to
our cofferdams on the cranes and masts this morning so I checked the cofferdams while the crew did the ropes. OK, the manhole in the FWD mast
was too small for me so I had to send in my best guy.
We tested the remote controls to the winches when I was ready with the cofferdams and everything was ready in time for lunch. 
Our pump Man will sign off on Rotterdam so it will be nice to finish off a few of our outstanding jobs. Finished with the mooring ropes and winches and it was not just to go sit down relax. 
After lunch, that I spent reading my Thai books it was time to do some ballast inspection. The
inspection is not due until september/ October. But I want to start now so I can spread the inspections. It would kill us to check all tanks in one day. So we will check 4 or 5 tanks today.
I entered the first tank 5 minutes before 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
- What the??!! 55 Minutes' after the lunch break was over!!??
- Yeah, slow start after the lunch break.
And I was running in to a queue when getting out of my cabin!
No, it was due to paper work. A cubic ton of paper work to do before entering any tanks.
And I had to do a PRE ENTRY test of our gas detectors. When all this was ready I could enter the tanks. 
I started with HEELING tank STB and when I was ready in this tank we moved over to HEELING
tank on the port side.
The tanks looked good and when I was
finished in the HEELING tanks we were going down to double bottom U6. U as in U shaped, no bulkhead in the tank so we can go down on Port side and come up on Starboard side.
Yes, a U shaped ballast tank and who thehad come up with that stupid idea?
This time I brought our Pump Man with me. It was no problem for me to
pass through the manholes in the HEELING tanks. But just in case I brought our Pump Man, if I had to turn around half way he could continue the inspection and come up on starboard side.
Obviously I have been whuppin' arse with my diet because I passed
through the manholes like a cat. Our Pump Man was impressed by my athletic and agile moves.
Well, we moved further in to the tank and suddenly it was stop for porky. The
ballast line passing through the ballast tank stopped me.
I returned back up on deck and our Pump Man continued to
starboard side. We completed just in time for the coffee break and the guys went for a quick cuppa and I went to my cabin to check out my pictures.
We decided to make 2 more tanks before we were going to
run a test of our ODME.
I was in my office making the necessary paper work with my music on full blast. Pump Man and the AB were waiting for me to be
ready and our AB was dancing
on the floor enjoying my music.
- If you had music like this on the Philippines you would have been the f@cking king of Manila, I said.
When we finished the paper work we went on deck and Pump Man went down DB 5 starboard. Then we went to the port side, last tank for today and we could start with the ODME. We were passing Skagen and suddenly the weather turned from nice to bad. It became gloomy and grey within seconds. The wind picked up and it became cold. what's wrong with this summer? Russia is burning up and Poland was under water.
So I decided to cancel the test of the ODME. Better to check our cargo tanks for H2S before we get bad weather that makes it impossible to be on deck.
I finished the gas measuring 5 minutes before dinner, and we had between 3 and 98 ppm of H2S in
our tanks. Good, I returned my gas detector to the CCR and I went to pick up my “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE
”
® in the kitchen. A bucket of tea with the “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE
”
® and I was off to my office to have my dinner.
Well, it will not be any evening constitutional tonight. The weather deteriorates by the minute so I guess I will have to spend the time writing on my web page.
And maybe not even that, when the clock turned 8 I could feel that the ship started to roll and when I looked out my window the wind had picked up.
Damn, we had better weather last winter when I was on Ek-River. Cold, but the weather was nice. Sunshine and no wind
So maybe I will be better off in bed. Not very nice trying to write when I have to hold on to something sturdy and keep my computer at place at the same time.
We started the day with a test run of our ODME. According to the forecast the weather should
improve during the day. Well, I don't know who makes these forecast but the weather deteriorated and the crew could not be on deck. Well, we finished the test run of the ODME and that was good.
Otherwise the 24th of August in the year of our GOOD lord 2010 will go down the history as a wasted day.
Nothing for the crew to do and I did some paper work and tank inspection reports, and of course the discharge plan.
While sitting in my office we had a big wave coming over deck hitting my windows with a big bang.
So the crew were better off staying inside.
Our OS on the 4 to 8 watch was on the bridge keeping a look
out. I was not his normalhimself, no asking about “arm wrestling” and no “flexing” of his muscles.
- Hey! What's the matter with you?
- Nothing.
He looked like he was in a bad state hanging over the sofa.
- No arm wrestling today?
He did a half assed try to do some shadow
boxing trying to be his old cocky himself before he dashed off to the toilet. 
I returned to my cabin and there would obviously not be any evening constitutional tonight. And not much was written on my web page. The ship is moving and I have no desire to sit on a flimsy built wooden Chinese armchair.
Never know, suddenly I might find myself on the floor so I'm better off lying on top off my bed.
I stayed in bed for a while and suddenly the time was 8 thirty in the evening: I don't think I dozed off. But I was bored to death so I went to my “Work room” and I took seat on the flimsy Chinese chair. The chair was squeaking and wimping but I managed to get a few words on my web page before I went to bed again.
- What’s happening?
- We will arrive to the jetty in about 45 minutes'
I had time for my morning tea and to fill up the temp log before I went to the bridge. we had all fast at VOPAK #1 West at 08:35.
And as usually, as soon as we had all fast it was like they dropped a cubic ton of work on my shoulders. But, well, someone has to take it.
Our Pump Man, Motorman and one of our 3rd Officers are signing off today. They had to leave immediately or they would have missed their plane.
So they were in a hurry to leave and when I came in to Captain's office I ran in to a hug. Off signing Pump Man and Captain.
- What theare you two up to? What about me? 
Well, I also ran in to our Engine Cadet. He was coming from the kitchen with a plate of freshly made cookies. Would be nice if I could send some of my work load with the cookies.
But them we might risk running in to a mutiny. 
We got a representative from Legay onboard to make an initial inventory of our hospital. We will
change to Legay and then they will take care of everything and they have to make the initial inventory to be able to keep track of expiry dates and stock in our hospital.
I went to collect the first aid kit in the Engine Control Room and, well, I can't say that I was surprised to discover that the cookies were almost finished.
I did not get away for my lunch until way past 1 o'clock and I was in my cabin studying Thai when
it knocked on my door. I cracked open the door and it was our new 2nd
Officer. He gave me a bag through the chink.
- A gift for you
- THAT'S THE SPIRIT!
I don't know if it's good for my diet, but it was
2 bags of dried mangoes.
- Yummy!!
But how does he know that I like mango? Well, anyway, our Loading Master came onboard and I went down to the CCR. Original
plan was of course to discharge all cargo here in on go. Then it was changed to 4500MT and now it was changed back to all cargo again. Good! No need to Scooby Doo around with anchoring, waiting and shifting berth. Andhopefully we can finish discharging before midnight or around midnight so we can get theout of here before early morning so I can be in bed by then.
I could not believe my eyes when I ran in to our Engine Cadet with a second plate of cookies for the day. This time he tried to run away but I was after him with the camera.
- What are you up to down there?
Hmm, maybe I should send down my guys with more chairs and a bigger table.
We finished first parcel at 17:25 and I had expected them to resume discharging right on. Well, waiting for Surveyor and only God knows when we can start and we're looking at some middle of the night adventure, yet again.
Well, I was off to my cabin for some Thai studies and a few words on my web page while waiting.
They called me in my cabin at 7 o'clock.
- The Surveyor is onboard
- Good, I'm coming so we can start to kick arse!
I was in my office in 2 steps and one of the Surveyors tole me that we would start. The other Surveyor was talking on the phone. While they were talking the other Surveyor listened and he told me that there was just a delay for 2 or 3 hours.
- OK, then I hope they are delayed by 5 hours so we don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to complete the discharging.
discharging around 5 o'clock. We resumed discharging at 22:35
yesterday evening, a few hours too early so we completed in
the middle of the night.
The weather,it's like in December. Gloom and grey as
long as I can see and rain all the time. This summer
must be going down the history books as the worst
in a very long time.
Pilot was onboard at 8 o'clock and 20 minutes
later we had all our ropes onboard and we
could leave for Gothenburg. And it was
very nice to leave Rotterdam behind.
First they told us that the pilot
was ordered for 6 o'clock, then
it was changed to 7 thirthy.
And when our Agent came
onboard it was suddenly
changed to 7 and it, yeah, 8 o'clock was the final boarding time. We were delayed by a few minutes on top of that, when it was time to remove the shore gangway they had some trouble and Technicians were called for.
When they arrived they needed a few minutes to fix the problem and we could leave. 
At 1 o'clock our 2nd Officer was ready with his lunch so we started with some good ol' manual cargo calculations. Then he practised to load the ship on the computer. I explained how to use the computer and we were soon ready to start with a
“LIVE” example. Loading in Gothenburg, full draft.
I gave him a step by step introduction to the cargo planning.
1) Remove 40 tons of bunker, that's how much we use to get us to Finland.
2) Enter the expected water density in Finland, 1.002MT/m³
3) Load the ship to draft 8.59m, even keel or with a trim of 5 cm by stern.
Now he was ready, this is how much he can load the ship to arrive with maximum draft 8.59m, more or less even keel. Simple!
But wait a minute, we're not ready yet.
4) Add the 40 tonnes of bunker and you know what trim you will have when leaving Gothenburg.
5) Enter the expected water density in Gothenburg. 1.006 MT/m³
Now we got a trim of 15cm and a draft of 8,53m. So now he knows what trim and draft he shall have at departure from Gothenburg. And of course, he has to check the dock water density when
we're loading
in Gothenburg.
- Hmm, maybe something for me to document with my camera!!
Our 2nd Officer was happy when he was ready. I could see that he thought that this was easy so I had to give him an advice.
- Be careful now!! Don't run away become a Chief Officer right yet!! Your wife might never want to
see you again. If you send her half a million Peso every month she might think it's a better idea to have you staying on the ship.
- Well, tell her that you make 20 US per month and you will be just great, I suggested. But this was easy, right?
- Yeah, this was not hard!
- OK, so now you load the ship as per loading instructions in the e-mail.
- What is this? 2 discharge ports? 9-10kT in Helsinki and the balance in Hamina?
- And they want empty tanks in each discharge ports!
He came up with a new loading plan, almost 10000 in Helsinki and leaving cargo tanks 1 and 4P/S to Hamina.
- How will it look after discharging in Helsinki? I asked.
- looking good!
- OK, how will it look when you discharge 1P/S in Hamina.
- What the!!?? We will have a trip of 1 million meter.
- Yes, any you cannot compensate with ballast until the tanks are empty.
- What to do?
- You have to find another solution!
We had a safety meeting after the coffee break. Captain was reading from news flashes and
incident reports and the crew were listening carefully. It was about Engineers falling and
tripping. Over flow of oil while bunkering and stuff. Of course, not from this company, but
I could not help myself. I just had to ask:
- Where do they find the time for all these accidents? They must be running from coffee break right in to an accident, bouncing back to the coffee table and then right back in to a new mishap!
I passed our electrician's cabin after dinner. Our Electrician and our Deck Cadet was on one of those pages we remember from Bro Promotion.
Yes, the very same page I joined this Scooby Doo page to meet some beautiful girls when on our way to Africa. No, not beautiful African girls.
The only contact I got was with our Motorman one deck below and a few girls with insufficient
proficiency in the English language. So it was a Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii and that was pretty much it.
Our electrician wrote to two girls from Bangkok
and when I checked in on him last time there had been exactly ZERO replies.
I was back in my cabin for a few words on my web page. And as usual, I'm spending too much time on this already. I'm in progress to make a few pages about my time in school. I have spent 6 to 8 hours per day writing and I'm not in bed until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. But this willhopefully be ready in a week or so.
Damn! I was just about to forget about our 3rd Engineer again. This is not good enough!!
save our ship yet again. Good to have this guy onboard.
I started the day by some cargo planning, but it turned out that we might tale 200MT of bunker in Gothenburg so it was pretty pointless to continue until I knew for sure.
Our Chief Engineer and the new Chief Engineer came to my office. Yes, we have 2 Chief Engineers onboard, we got a new one in Rotterdam and he will be onboard with our old Chief Engineer until Helsinki to learn the ship.
They were going to check the FRAMO system and they needed to turn off our Jockey pump.
- Don't be surprised when you get alarms, they told me.
They left for the FRAMO power packs under the fo'c's'le and our Electrician came in to my office.
- I got replay from the girl in Bangkok yesterday!!!
Now he wanted me to give him a few tip of what to write to her.
- NO BAD STUFF!!!
I gave him a few pointers and he told me that she would go check out my web page. I wrote to her yesterday in our Electrician's name asking her to go check out “MY FRIEND'S” web page in hope that she would discover that I was much more handsome than our Electrician. 
Our Electrician left and he went forward to check out the progress on our FRAMO
machinery forward. There is a cooler for the hydraulic oil and they
need to check the anodes.
They had to drain the cooler, well, a heat exchanger, but this time the hydraulic oil heats the water and thus cooling down. I took a few pictures of the guys while they were kickin' behinds under the fo'c's'le.
It didn't take long before I grew bored and I returned to my office. I
had one thing high on my wish list. To get rid of all the cargo documents and stuff lying around all over the ship. My cabin is full, the day room and the owner’s cabin.
I had discussed it with Captain and we decided that we should call the company. So I called them when I got back to my office. Yes, better to make sure. And they start work at 8 o'clock in the office so they should be there to answer.
And of course, by calling early in the morning I show them that we're on top of things even in the morning. Taking every opportunity to show how good we are.
- Yo! How long do we need to keep the cargo documents onboard?
- 1 year should be enough. We have all the papers in our office.
- Good, I have papers her from 1999 so I throw it all away.
- Call the owner first and double check!
I called the owner and we agreed on 2 years. Good, I can keep 2 years of paper work in my office. And I can keep track of the papers. Now we have from 1999 and even if we need to find some documents it would have been next to impossible.
As no surprise I ran in to our Engine Cadet bringing cookies to the Engine Control Room.
- Is that enough? I asked.
He was embarrassed and tried to hide the plate when I
brought out my camera.
- The more cookies you have the longer you can have the coffee break and thus slimming down the risk of running in to any mishaps, I said.
I brought the OS to help me and we started in my cabin after the coffee break. The first thing we found was an old TV and I asked our OS if he
wanted the TV. And yes he wanted the TV so I got rid of the darn thing.
We emptied my cabin and then we continued with our dayroom. We
threw away several bags and boxes with old documents.
But there is plenty more in the owner’s cabin. But our New Chief Engineer is living there until the old Chief Engineer is going home so we wait until after Finland with these papers. And of course, there are enough documents for the crew to take to the garbage container in Gothenburg as it is. We don't want to break any backs.
We finished all the paper work before lunch and I had time for some Thai studies before I
returned to my office. we will take 175MT bunker in Gothenburg so I had to redo my cargo plan.
Our 2nd officer came for some practice and he put his calculator on my desk.
- No calculators in my office. Here we do it in our
heads!
I finished my cargo planning and the narrative part of the plan in time for our Coffee break. After coffee we meet on the bridge for a pep talk before the drills.
Of course, as you can see above I managed to get a picture of the whole crew.
When we were ready on the bridge the fire alarm went off. Fire in the laundry room, one man missing. WE NEED OUR BEST GUYS, ON THE
DOUBLE!!!!
TEAM #1 entered the accommodation while TEAM #2 was stand-by outside. Ready to assist if the need should arise. TEAM #1 extinguished the fire and the found our missing
guy. We rescued him through the emergency exit in the gymnasium and we brought him to safety on our stretcher.
We should have an oil drill on top of the fire fighting extravaganza. Our Pump Man had prepared deck with water and we were going to use our oil spill pump.
Water on deck, the pump is lined up and it’s just to pull the plug to
our drain tank and start the pump from the drain tank to slop tank. I wanted our Engine Cadet to take charge. When he failed to pull the plug I sent ourSTRONG guy, the OS.
MOTHERF@CKER, they were really fighting with the plug in vain. Our hero, the Chief Officer had to move in to solve the problem.
We pumped up the oil spill (water prepared by Pump Man) and I took the crew and we checked out what kind of oil spill equipment we had onboard.
I managed to get yet another group picture before we finished
the drills and I went to my office to write the drill reports.
Latest news is that we will get Pilot at arrival and that is around 19:30 tonight. About 1 hour to jetty 511 in Skarvikshamnen andhopefully we will get a few cases of diet drinks and 20 rolls of snus. 
It was a beautiful day, typical, arrival in the middle of my planned constitutional. Well, I'm in the
last hole in my belt so I was in a pretty good mood anyway. Soon time to change belt. I bought 2 sizes last time in Stanlow and now it's soon time to
change to the,
I was just about to write “the small size”. But there is nothing small over it, but it's smaller than the huge belt.
Well, anyway, I'm looking forward to my evening constitutionalson our way to Finland.
OK, I can as well tell you. I took a quick break from the writing to test my “Not so big” belt and it was a wee bit too small. But a few days more......
Well, almost 19:30 and I hear them slow down so I guess our Pilot is about to board us. So I'm out of here, plenty pre arrival tests to perform before we can start the loading.
We arrived to Skarvikshamnen jetty 511 just before 8 o'clock in the evening and we had all fast 20 minutes' after 9 o'clock. We have had sunshine all day long but just after passing Trubaduren L/H the rain started. Luckily enough just for a minute or two and the sun started to shine again.
We did the paper work and they told me that they would start loading around 23:30. Well, at midnight there was no sign of them starting the loading.
at 01:30 and we started loading 7 minutes later.
I woke up at 9:30 and when I came down to my office I discovered that we had got new gas detectors onboard. So I needed to test all of them before sending ashore our old detectors. I should normally have been in a good mood, but WHERE THEARE MY DIET DRINKS?
Our provision arrived after lunch and I meet the ship chandler outside my office.
- Is it the right diet drinks?
He checked his papers and he said that they had delivered Diet Max and not the Scooby drinks.
- Or you have to bring them back, I said.
He was ready to leave when all the papers were signed and I asked him to stay until we were 100% sure it was the right stuff.
- You have to wait until the stuff is onboard so I can check the diet drinks!
- It's already on deck.
- What the??!!
I was on deck in 2 steps and the ship chandler had
problem to keep up. Yes, it was the right stuff and I popped open a drink right there on deck.
Swedish diet drinks and it was very important that I confirmed that I wanted the drinks before we made the order. The drink were wee bit more expensive in Sweden, but as I use to say: “Quality has to cost a little extra” Better to have 5 cases of expensive diet drinks that you can drink than 100 cases of cheap shit that you have to throw away.
- They are almost 1 US$ more per can than when we order at other places.
- Who cares? It's not a poor pensioner ordering the stuff. Just bring it onboard!
I was in my cabin writing on my web page drinking diet drinks when they called me at 6 o'clock.
- Terminal say that we're ready in 1 hour.
- OK, I'm coming
I had a shower and I finished my diet drink before I went down to the CCR. According to our figures we would load about 400 tonnes more and that means that we would be ready after 7 o'clock.
I went on the jetty to check our draft and we compared with the computer. It was the same so I returned to the 2nd Officer in the CCR.
Now it was just to load so we had between 10 to 15 cm trim by stern and we would arrive to Finland on even keel.
We finished loading 15 minutes after 7 o'clock and they could start to take samples. Our Surveyor
came onboard at 19:35 and we finished ullage and calculations at 19:50.
Our Surveyor left and he told me that he would be back around 10 o'clock with the papers.
- There will be no Loading Master coming. I will do all the paper work.
- Good, see you at 10
I took a picture of our Surveyor before he left and he asked for the address for my web page.
- I will check out my picture
At 10 o'clock they called me in my cabin. Surveyor onboard with he papers and I was down in my office in 2 steps.
But obviously they had planned to do the paper work in Captain's office.
-Ugh, if I knew this I would have dressed a little better, I said.
Our Surveyor told us that he had checked out my web page.
- What the??!! Here we have been waiting for you while you have scratched your behind surfing the internet!!
- I only took a quick glimpse!
Our paper work was finished 20 minutes past 10 and I had time for a few word on my web page before the pilot was supposed to come onboard at 11 o'clock.
They called me in my cabin 10 minutes before 11 o'clock. The Pilot was on the way onboard. I went
to the bridge and we started to single up 5
minutes before 11.
Our Pilot recognised me from back when we were at navigation school. He was at the last year when I started school and
he remembered me from when we
were at Vinterspelen in Härnösand back in February or March 1986.
When the crew were ready on deck our 2nd Officer came up on the bridge and I was back in my cabin a few minutes after that. I few words on my web page and surprisingly enough I felt a sleep without too much tossin' and turnin' in my bed.
our temp log, the temp had decreased by almost 1°C since departure and that's even though we started the heating at 90°C right after departure.
Well, I cranked up the heating to 110°C and at lunch O lowered the setting to 100°C. Plenty to do for our Hero the Chief Officer.
We knew that we had plenty of old documents in the owner's cabin and we will take care of them when our Chief Engineer moves out. I was planning the operation with Captain when we discovered an additional 2m³ of paper under the sofa in the ship's office. Can't wait to get rid of those documents.
We approached the Great Belt Bridge before lunch and we have about 48 hours from here to Helsinki. Good, maybe we can inspect some ballast tanks tomorrow. Weather permitted!
No worries, they are not yet due for quite some time, but it's always good to be one step ahead of a “CUBIC TON” of work on my shoulders. Yes, that's how we operate onboard Ek-Star.
Slop chest at 3 o'clock so I was foresighted to get my toothbrush and paste after lunch. Everything to eliminate the risk of running in to any temptations. So it's easy to understand my disappointment
and anger when, after dinner, 17:30 some of the guys needs stuff from the slop chest and I'm running in to a pen door to the slop chest.
I had to take one Schweizernöt and one chocolate with Daim. DARN! Then I took a CD, my first since I joined the ship, and I went to my cabin to watch a movie while munching on my chocolate.
2 chocolate bars I bought yesterday. Very stupid and I could feel that there were something wrong with my blood sugar when I woke up. I'm too old to eat 400g of chocolate before bed time.
I was disappointed at our Captain and I was going to make sure that he knew. As he told me yesterday:
- You need energy if you're going down the ballast tanks tomorrow.
Like telling an Alcoholic that “One beer is good for you”
- Yeah, you're right, I said quickly to disappear in to my cabin to rip open the chocolate.
Well, I started my day by doing the paper work for the tank entries and I checked our gas detectors and we went down in the Fore Peak after the coffee break. I gave my camera to our Pump Man and I instructed him how to take pictures of me entering through the man hole. Shoulder up was not necessary this time as we can see.
I entered the fore Peak and when I had come down a few steps our Pump Man handed me the
camera again. first platform and everything looked good.
I had asked our Pump Man if he had been down to the FP before. He had been there several times and I asked him if he thought that there would be any problem for me to enter.
- Maybe through the holes between the platforms.
- No problem. I have been in the other tanks and the problem was the ballast pipe. And there is no ballast pipe in the Fore Peak, I said.
Well, going down to the second platform and I got stuck in the hole. I took out my flash light and walkie talkie from my back pockets. I could not even make it then so I had to call on our Pump Man.
He came down to me in the Fore Peak and as you can see on the pictures below he just manage to get through the hole, and he is a small guy.
Well, our Pump Man continued down in the Fore peak and I returned up to the AB under the
fo'c's'le. He was recording entry and exit times from the Fore Peak on the Entry Permit. He was also taking notes of the inspection down in the tank.
I use to call him from the tank if I found anything and thus I don't have to memorise everything with the risk of forgetting it when it's time to write the report.
So we were waiting for the Pump Man to return and we
took notes of his reports via the walkie talkie. And of course, I was up when our Pump Man returned from the Fore Peak so I could get a picture of him coming up from the tank.
When we were finished in the Fore peak we continued down on tank deck. I already knew that there was no use for me to go down the double bottom due to the ballast pipe. So our Pump Man went down the tanks while I was taking notes on deck and our AB was watching the tank hatch. 
We were ready just in time for lunch, and man! Did I run in to a gloomy Electrician in the mess
room. I asked how it worked out with the girl from Bangkok.
- No reply!
- Well, must be hard. Especially when all the messages was questions
about moi! But don't give up!
I had a quick spinach and I was off to my cabin for some serious Thai studies and I also had time to check out my pictures from the adventures in our ballast tanks earlier
this very morning. I'm under a lot of pressure to
get daily pictures for my web page so I'm better off making sure the pictures can be used.
The pictures was OK, but I decided to go check out
our engine room. And I need to use their puncher to make 2 extra holes in my belt. And who is the guy to see? Of course, our Wonder Boy, the 3rd Engineer.
Maybe he is busy saving the ship down there?Hmm, most likely. And it turned out to be like I had feared, our 3rd Engineer was busy saving the ship. But I was not lucky, he found the time to help me out. Yo!
We have grown to like the stupid slide shows here at aladdin.st and no one deserves a slide show dedicated to him more than our 3rd Engineer. His ardour and assiduity had been pretty much unappreciated up until now.
I spent the time until the coffee break writing the ballast tank reports. And after the coffee
break our Pump Man and I threw away all old documents from the ship's office. About 2m³ of old documents like: “Ship Shore Checklists” from 2002. There were almost 1m³ of old cargo plans and delivery notes from 2001. Why thehave all these papers been saved for?
As I told Captain:
- Nice when we're leaving Finland, then we can empty the Owner's cabin and we're rid of the last papers.
- Don't be surprised if we run in to another hiding-place.
Ni, I will not be surprised. Quite the opposite, I will be surprised if we don't find any more papers lying around.
I know how sensitive this can be back in FUNKY TOWN.
- OH! You don't use my picture as background anymore!!!!
Mini Mart at Rompo Mansion, Bangkok- 25th of March 1998
A beautiful morning had turned in to a gorgeous evening and at 7 I went on deck for me evening constitutional.I had skipped dinner so I brought two apples on deck to munch on while walking around deck listening to music.
A beautiful evening with sunshine, but it was not hot. Quite cold in the wind and my guess is that the autumn will be here soon. Well, it's already here, but it will soon get real cold. Otherwise I usually wear shorts until the end of September and maybe a few days in to October.
But by then I will be back in FUNKY TOWN, they have found a reliever for me and I hope he will be onboard 15th of October so I can leave the 20th.
yesterday night, but now it was OK and the crew could start with the review of the deck. Walking around with a sander and a paint bucket to take the last spots of rust on deck.
We received our discharge orders, about 10500 MT in Helsinki and 2000 MT in Hamina so I started right of with my discharge plans.
I was doing cargo plans with one hand while I was checking out the progress with my spinach in the kitchen. When I came in to the kitchen our Chief Engineer tried to hide behind the stove without any success. 
I asked about the spinach and suddenly the Chief Engineer and our Cook found my belt very
interesting.
- Not many holes to go now?
- What an improvement!
- OK, enough already! I said and left.
Our Chief Engineer bought a new camera in Rotterdam a few
weeks ago, and I have pestered him every day about his camera.
- I never see you with your camera. What's wrong with it?
Well, seems like today was the time to bring out his camera and it didn't take long before I could hear our Chief Engineer
approaching my office. And that's even though I had the music on full blast. I could hear him giving instructions to our Mess Man.
- I need a picture of our Chief Officer, he said and suddenly I had him and our Mess Man in my door.
- F@ck you and your pictures! I said.
He started right of to take pictures and then he handed the camera to
our Mess Man so he could take pictures of our Chief Engineer together with me.
- OK, just because you're going home today. But shoulder up only!
After lunch I went to my cabin to read some Thai and as we will take Pilot at 2 o'clock we have to do our tests of the equipments after lunch so it's ready at arrival.
And of course, the most important. Uploading my web page before going to make the tests. Just to make sure that you know what we're up to onboard.
We were approaching Helsinki pilot station when I came down to my office after lunch. We started with our tests and we were pretty much ready when the pilot came onboard at 2 o'clock. And that's 3 o'clock local time. I was on the bridge 20 minutes after 2 o'clock to fill up my ISPS records. I have a binder were I fill up the ports we had been to and the security levels.
I went back to my cabin with the binder and when I came back up on the bridge we were just
approaching the Suomenlinna (Sveaborg in Swedish) sea fortress and from there it was 20 minutes to the port of Helsinki. Turning around and backing up to the jetty and we had the first line ashore quarter past 3 S/T and all fast 15 minutes later.
The crew got right on to the garbage detail and it was nice to get
rid of all the old papers. They say that we will stop discharging at 9 o'clock S/T and continue tomorrow morning.
Our Chief Engineer left for the airport and our new Chief Engineer has moved out from the owner’s cabin. So maybe we have time to empty this cabin from all the papers before we leave tomorrow. That would be nice. I threw away of a lot of other old filter for our half and full masks today as well. I made new inventory list and log over the filters so let’s see if we can keep things in good orders around here. Ship shape as we say in Sweden.
When we were up and running with the discharging I went ashore for an eveningconstitutional.
It was a beautiful evening but I was about to turn around when I came out from the port.
A big road with ugly houses from the 70's so I walked
down the road until I got to a bicycle bridge and I crossed the bridge. My plan was to go back to the ship, this place looked very boring.
But I discovered something that looked like older houses and shops from the bridge so I went there to investigate. Busses and trams where passing and when I reached the street I turned left and walked towards something that looked like centum.
I stopped at a convenient store and I bought a diet drink and I continued my walk. I passed
several pubs and bars. Our Pilot told us that there were a lot of students living in this area so there were plenty pubs.
- Student, pubs??!! Having a good time??!!
I thought you were supposed to study when you're a student.
That’s what I did! Well, for sure, times are changing.
I reached a square and I think I had had too many
diet drinks and I really didn't felt like using one of the bathrooms at any of the pubs so I decided to go back onboard.
I had one to one and a half hour ashore and it was very nice. But it was also nice to come back onboard to my clean bathroom. I popped open a new diet drink and I had a shower before I went to my desk for a few words on my web page.
Knock on wood, but it seems like we have survived yet another month and it's time to change month again. You just have to click on the link and you will be in the month of september 2010 in a jiff!
Evening E-mail
Kan du inte sätta Gilbert som "dagligt foto" en dag istället? Han kan ju oxå få rädda skeppet? Det skulle nog hans fru tycka om, nu när jag har talat om för henne hur man hittar till "aladdin".Yes, a request via e-mail to put our Pump Man on today's daily picture.
Jaja Lisen, jag får väl lägga ut ett foto. Men d ska inte bli nåt jävla RING SÅ SPELAR VI!!!
I received an e-mail from our previous Cook on Ek-River. She wanted me to change our 3rd Engineer for our Pump Man for one day.
She have told Pump Man's wife about my web page so I guess they expect a picture of our Pump Man. And who am I to say no?
So I got a picture of our Pump Man when I went to the work shop in the engine to check the progress with our ballast pipe this very morning
By request: Today's picture of our Pump Man
Today it's our Pump Man saving the ship (By request)
E du glad nu Lisen?
Our crew put back the first ballast pipe before lunch and they will remove the second pipe after lunch. Our Pump Man was a wee bit concerned.
- Can we call you when we're going to heave up the pipe? Pump Man asked me.
- What about our OS?went down to the pump room after lunch to see what was going on.The first pipe was back in place and our Pump man and AB was
busy removing the bolts from the last pipe under the grating.Didn't take long before the pipe was loose and we lifted up the pipe and put it on top of the grating with the help of a chain block.
Now it was the hard part, to get the darn pipe up from the pump room.
But as I told the guys.
- No need to be alarmed! Papa Daddy is here.
Didn't take long before we had the pipe out of the pump room. Luckily enough this pipe was smaller than the other pipe so it went pretty quick. So let's see if the crew can get it back tomorrow morning.
+++++++++++++++
Monday 16 th
of August 2010
and we were on our way towards Skagen, Denmark when I woke up. We had heaved up our anchor yesterday evening due to bad weather.Our Pump Man was busy welding in the engine work shop while I was enjoying my morning tea.
few pictures of the action down in the engine work shop.Nice to have a few pictures of the engine department
kicking behinds. Otherwise people can get the impression that it is only the deck department doing all the arse kicking.Hmm, I wish we could get a few pictures of me kickingbehinds. Most of you must think that I'm only taking pictures all day long.I skipped my Thai books during lunch and I got one
hour of sleepinstead. And it was really nice with a power nap, I had been tired all morning. Maybe I have slept badly due to some rolling during the night.I meet our Chief Engineer in the duty mess after lunch and we went to the work shop to check the ballast pipe. Our Pump Man was welding the last on the pipe and at 13:30 they started to bring it down to the pump room.
I was taking the pictures, yes, someone has to do it and today it was me! OK, but still a tiny leak, almost nothing on Port side so they had to bring down the pipe to the work shop again for some welding.So the guys brought down the pipe in the engine room after the coffee break and our Pump Man finished the pipe 10 minutes late for dinner.
My “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ® was waiting for me when I came to the mess room 10 minutes past 5. A big cup of tea to wash it down and I was content at 5 thirty when I went to my cabin for some alone time. At 7 o'clock the pipe was tested and no leaks, at least not what we could found. So this ballast pipe adventure had come to an end and I brought a can of diet drink to my cabin for a few words on my web page.
OK, they wanted pictures of our Pump Man so here we go. Lisen, just to start the slide show and beg for mercy!!!
A Stupid Slide Show just for Lisen
I know, I have not forgotten our daily 3rd Engineer Special. But, hmm, I'm a nice guy. Well, at least I try to be nice. So I could not say no to Lisen's request about a Pump Man Special. But as you understand I cannot continue like this.
I will end up with nothing but DAILY SPECIALS. And right now I'm looking at my watch, almost midnight and I also have other stuff to do. Sounds unbelievable, but it's true.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
No, it's not fun watching someone else saving the ship
+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 17 th
of August 2010
and I don't know what happened with the summer. Its weather youexpect from October and it had pretty much been like this since I joined the ship 25th of July in Stockholm.Well, never mind the weather, I had to go on deck to get to the pump room. Cleaning was in progress after the repairs in the pump room. Our Pump man was removing 2 pipes that needed some welding. But these two pipes are only very small so he can do it alone.
Thing seemed to work out well so I returned to my
office. I found our Electrician and we tested our remote gas detectors for the pump room and pipe trunk. I had to adjust sensor #4 and 6 and we were ready with the testing in about 20 minutes.After lunch, (yes, I read my Thai books during lunch), I and our Electrician checked our thermometers. He had a machine, an ingenious little machine and we could set the desired temp and we could compare with our thermometers. Quite clever!
Well, I managed to spend the time until the coffee break without getting bored. Now I only wait
for the good weather so I can continue with my evening constitutionals.We also got a new voyage, loading in Gdansk for
Rotterdam. Very good! No need to wait for cargo at Gothenburg anchorage. Just a quick stop to get onboard a service man for our server.We will drop anchor this afternoon and then we will try to restart the server. If it works we don't need the service man and we can continue towards Gdansk.
Arriving to the anchorage and my internet kicked in. Finally I can download the French Hip Hop I had been listening to at my friend's apartment in the middle of the night. So let's hope they are as good as they were when I was a wee bit tipsy.
I don't want to down load the music via our satellite internet, which will take quite some time. But
when we dropped our anchor I got connected to 3G and I went to the store. First thing was that they asked about the info for my AMEX.- Hmm, never happened before.Well, I filled up my info and I started to download the music. Lo and behold, after 3 tunes we turned with the current and I lost my connection. Darn!
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
To save the ship requires 24 Seven of look out, in all directions
Always on vigil. Is there an attack coming from above?
Always on vigil. Is there an attack coming from above?
We didn't stay long at Gothenburg anchorage. The server worked after the restart so we continued our voyage towards Gdansk in Poland.
+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 18 th
of August 2010
and we were approaching the Öresund's bridge when I woke up. I had 3G contact and I continued to down load my freshly purchased French Hip Hop. 30 tunes before the 3G disappeared again. Well, 20 to 30 more tunes to down load and I will do it on the way fromGdansk to Rotterdam.Well, I discovered a Danish group playing NU Jazz/ Jazz Hop / Hip Hop (Yes, it's hard to put a label on music)
yesterday while down loading my French Hip Hop. EXCELLENT!Our server was working and I discovered that I had 2 (TWO) different e-mail addresses onboard. Who the
has come up with this stupididea? I discovered an e-mail from Captain on Ek-River that he sent the 6th of August.“Mission Completed” with a picture attached. At first I did not understand what the
it was. But I was soon realising that it was our votes for the election going with the Agent.I guess that he was inspired by the "MISSION COMPLETED" picture I sent to him when I left Ek-River in Gothenburg.
OK, so I have to send him a second "MISSION COMPLETED" e-mail with the picture of the
votes going away with the Agent on my web page.Well, it was a terrible weather with a black sky and rain. It doesn't look like it will be any constitutional
today either. Darn, 3 or 4 days without myconstitutional now and I get abstinence.All our pipes were repaired and as our server was working again the crew could get started with our computer based maintenance.
I finished my loading plans, I will make the final adjustments when I have a density and temp of the cargo. And of course, I need to know how much we're going to load. But this will take me 5 minutes to do when we're coming alongside.
And as it looks now we will not go alongside until Friday night or Saturday morning. August will almost have come to an end when we're finished in Rotterdam. September will be a quick one and I'm out of here in October.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
Our 3rd Engineer makes the final adjustment to the device that’s going to save the ship
And well, the French Hip Hop, turned out to be a waste of money. Most of the tunes went straight
to the garbage bin. Never run awayto buy music you thought was EXCELLENT when you were drunkand in a goodmood 4 o'clock in the morning.+++++++++++++++
Thursday 19 th
of August 2010
and we were anchored outside Gdansk when I woke up. I was more Hej på dej!
Ja, du kan verkligen vara fantastisk ibland! och snäll å go på alla sätt och vis!Det var en skitrolig slide-show!
Gilberts fru tycket det hela var jättekul, och att se honom med en pony-tail var visst mycket uppskattat! Barnen tycket oxå att det var roligt att se bilder från pappas jobb, så jag tror det var en stor suxsé!
spent the whole night tossin' and turnin' in bed.Well, a hot shower and the fact that I discovered a kind of nice weather when I looked out my window made me feel a little better.
No rain and parts of the sky was blue so I had the crew to start the day with painting. Better take the cance to try to get the painting ready.
Our Pump Man was checking our tank cleaning machines so I went out to see how the work was proceeding.
- My wife and children saw me on your page!
- Yes
- They never saw me with long hair like this before.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
Our 3rd Engineer, you might come under the impression that he is relaxing when our Pump Man is kickin' behinds. NOT!
Our 3rd Engineer, not only does he need to save the ship 24 seven.
On top of that he also need to document his bravery. And of course, all documents needs a wet stamp
On top of that he also need to document his bravery. And of course, all documents needs a wet stamp
When I came down after lunch I saw our Mess Man in the mess room. He was having his lunch and
I thought I recognised what he had on the plate.- What is that?- It's tuna.
- AH! It looks just like my “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ®!
I told him that he had to pay me for each meal if he was stealing my idea.Well, I made myself a cup of tea and I returned to my office for some important paper work.
Our server had been down for a while so there was plenty to do in our Onboard Maintenance Program. Among other things, to inspect our deck crane. And the crew were busy greasing, a somewhat sunny morning had turned in to a rainy afternoon. So I hope they can get the last layer of paint within a few days, Or the work had been a waste.
But it doesn't look good, it has been raining and blowing the last month. And the forecast warns for freezing temperatures in the North of Sweden, in August!!!
+++++++++++++++
Friday 20 th
of August 2010
and I woke up to bright sunshine, nice. The crew canhopefullyfinish the painting today. Then there is only the review to do. Walkingaround with a sander and a pot of paint to get the last few spots.We will get our Pilot at 9 o'clock tonight, perfect time. We will be (
Hopefully) up and running with the loading until 2 o'clock. Can't be better, well, of course that depends on if I manage to get some sleep after lunch. If I can it will be no problem to stay up until early morning. But if I don't manage to catch some sleep it will be another story.Lunch, spinach, onion and green peas. Our Cook and I, inspired by my success. Yes, only one more
Before
After
And I don't mean a bigger belt.
We came up with the following diet, to be followed strictly. Our Cook has to give me 100US every time he asks if I want any cookies or some other bad stuff.
• Breakfast: 3 slices of rayed bread with cheese (Pumpernickel on order)
• Lunch: Spinach, onion and green peas
• Dinner: “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ®
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
Our 3rd Engineer, that's another story.
Always STAND-BY to dash off to save the ship, so he has to eat standing
Always STAND-BY to dash off to save the ship, so he has to eat standing
And luckily enough I managed to fall asleep, 2 or 3 hours of power nap and I woke up just in time for my “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE ” ® for dinner.
I brought my diner and a big cup of tea to wash it down with to the CCR. Our OS and I tested the high level alarms while I had my dinner.
Yes, it was a beautiful evening and I got my evening constitutional
after several days of bad weather. And it was very nice to hear “Lille Rapper” again. Must be enjoyed at full blast so I'm not bothering in my office. My equipment falls short. But I'm enjoying my Danish NU Jazz/ Jazz Hop / Hip Hop (Yes, it's hard to put a label on music) in my office.And they are pushing a full 10, almost.
go to the bridge at 9 o'clock when the Pilot comes onboard. Nice with some action again.Pilot came onboard 30 minutes earlier and I went on bridge 5 minutes after 9 when we approached the breakwaters. I'm impressed by the line up here in Gdansk. Laydays starts at 21st of August and they
take us in so we can start in time. Impressive preplanning. Our Surveyor and Loading Master came onboard 20 minutes past 10 o'clock.And the loading has been working out very well every time in Gdansk.
No guess work as it is inmost of the West European refineries and terminals.As I told the Loading Master: “Here you know how long time it will take to load 12600MT”
- I'm glad to hear that!
We were doing paper work when I heard a crack and I found our Loading Master on the floor on the other side of the table. He was flat on his back and I wanted to take a picture, but it would have been too embarrassing.
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- No problem, but he is not going to drive a car or operate any heavy machinery?
. Shall I eat it?
- Whoa whoa!! Let Papa Daddy help you or you will get sick!
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in time to get my evening constitutional. I will soon be the most handsome guy in the world.- Hmm, if it wasn't for my baldness. DARN!!
Well, I got an e-mail today and obviously the manager
at the badminton place had been asking for me. So I will soon be back playing badminton and I will go FAT TO FLAT in a jiff.I'm hungry now, but I will wait until my rayed bread tomorrow morning. But the hunger won't make it any easier to fall asleep. My SLEEPING IN THE AFTERNOON plan had backfired on me. We were up and loading much quicker than expected so I guess there will be some tossin' and turnin' before I manage to fall asleep.
+++++++++++++++
Saturday 21 st
of August 2010
and I woke up 08:30. I was tired, I didn't felt asleep until almost4 o'clock in the morning. A shower and a look out of my window improved my move. Seems like the summer is back.It was a beautiful morning and it was nice to get on deck again, for the first time in a long time.
Our new Captain came onboard while I was eating my lunch spinach in my office. He gave me his hand.
- We're way passed the hand shake. Give me a hug!
Luckily enough the 3rd Officer was close by so he could take our picture.
Our Agent Surveyor called and he asked what time we would
be ready with the loading.- Around 3 o'clock with the present rate, I said.
- OK, I will be there in 1 and a half hour.
When he came onboard the rate was down to 500m³/h and now it look like we're going to finish loading around 5 or 6 o'clock. Departure in the middle of the night and I will miss my evening constitutional.
Our Surveyor had his computer with him so he was killing time playing computer games. I was bored to death. Nothing special to do so I went to write a few stupid words on my web page in my cabin.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
Look at that, our hero is hurting himself saving the ship
The rate slowed down during the afternoon, so we were a bit late. But 15 minutes after 5 o'clock in the afternoon it was time for me to go on the jetty checking the draft.
We will load to maximum draft, and that is 8,59 meters so I'm better off checking it from the jetty so we don't get to much cargo onboard
Would be a major embarresement to sink the ship while loading. Well, we can also do it as the do
on the PanamaGreek ships. Stop loading when they guys start to wear rubber boats on deck.
Well, anyway, imagine having to launch the lifeboat alongside the jetty. I bet the company would have a hard time to get any more cargoes from that terminal. And of course, the Chief Officer in charge would have been the laughing stock of the whole shipping world.
We will load to maximum draft, and that is 8,59 meters so I'm better off checking it from the jetty so we don't get to much cargo onboard
Would be a major embarresement to sink the ship while loading. Well, we can also do it as the do
on the PanamaGreek ships. Stop loading when they guys start to wear rubber boats on deck.Well, anyway, imagine having to launch the lifeboat alongside the jetty. I bet the company would have a hard time to get any more cargoes from that terminal. And of course, the Chief Officer in charge would have been the laughing stock of the whole shipping world.
and I told our OS to give the stop signal to the CCR.When it was stop I went to check the draft forward. On the way back aft I asked our Os if he knew how to check the draft. I asked him to come on the jetty and we went aft to check the aft draft.
Paper work and calculations was ready around 18:45 and I returned to my cabin. Time for a few words on my web page before the Pilot arrives so we can leave for Rotterdam
And we know that we will go back
to load in Gothenburg after discharging in Rotterdam. Good, when we're finished with thatvoyage it's already september. Time has really turned quick, now it is 3 months since I left a burning FUNKY TOWN. Now it'sthe rainy season and this will be coming to an end by the time I'm back home. So this is something I'm looking forward to, but we also have fun onboard so I'm in no hurry to get home.I was in my cabin writing on my web page when they called me. Our Pilot was onboard just before 8 o'clock in the evening and it was time for us to leave. Nice!
Regulations require one tug boat at departure. Talk about day light robbery. One tug boat connected with a slack line. First they required ship's line. But we use our lines so they had to use their own. Yeah, I could see how disappointed they were that they had to do some work on the tug boat.
We were connected for a few minutes and we let go the tug boat and they charged us handsomely for this service. And of course, they are running a big engine so the operation was a setback for the environment as well. But someone is making money so they are happy.
+++++++++++++++
Sunday 22 nd
of August 2010
and it was nice to wake up and to be on the way again. It was a gloomy morning, but it look like there can be a chance for sunshine during the day. But no wind and waves. Good, I have planned to compare our UTI with the SAAB radar to day.Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
When he is not busy saving our ship he is ready to take on any other ship in peril
I was just about to go on deck for my evening constitutional when it started to rain. Well, it had been gloomy and grey all day long with passing showers. So I was disappointed when I returned to my cabin. 30 minutes later it looked better so I took a chance and I went on deck.
I got one hour on deck before I returned to my cabin. It was quite windy and now when I have lost so much weight my shirt has become so much bigger. So it was like walking with a parachute after me when walking against the wind. Of course, when I turned around I got the wind in from my back and it was like sailing down the deck.
+++++++++++++++
Monday 23 rd
of August 2010
and I woke up to beautiful day. So today the crew will take out theropes on our winches to nark them with our new labels. The loose ropes was marked a few day s ago and we only have the ropes on the winches to do.Our OS had opened the manholes to
our cofferdams on the cranes and masts this morning so I checked the cofferdams while the crew did the ropes. OK, the manhole in the FWD mast Rogge,
man behöver inte vara belastad med några stora studie skulder för att begripa vem som har inspererat en till fotot på vänster sida.
We tested the remote controls to the winches when I was ready with the cofferdams and everything was ready in time for lunch.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
Our 3rd Engineers enters the danger zone head on with fearless agility in order to save the ship
when “Normal Deadly” people are exiting screaming in agony and fear.
What a guy!!
What a guy!!
After lunch, that I spent reading my Thai books it was time to do some ballast inspection. The
inspection is not due until september/ October. But I want to start now so I can spread the inspections. It would kill us to check all tanks in one day. So we will check 4 or 5 tanks today.I entered the first tank 5 minutes before 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
- What the??!! 55 Minutes' after the lunch break was over!!??- Yeah, slow start after the lunch break.
And I was running in to a queue when getting out of my cabin!
No, it was due to paper work. A cubic ton of paper work to do before entering any tanks.
And I had to do a PRE ENTRY test of our gas detectors. When all this was ready I could enter the tanks.
tank on the port side.The tanks looked good and when I was
finished in the HEELING tanks we were going down to double bottom U6. U as in U shaped, no bulkhead in the tank so we can go down on Port side and come up on Starboard side.Yes, a U shaped ballast tank and who the
had come up with that stupid idea?This time I brought our Pump Man with me. It was no problem for me to
pass through the manholes in the HEELING tanks. But just in case I brought our Pump Man, if I had to turn around half way he could continue the inspection and come up on starboard side.Obviously I have been whuppin' arse with my diet because I passed
through the manholes like a cat. Our Pump Man was impressed by my athletic and agile moves.Well, we moved further in to the tank and suddenly it was stop for porky. The
ballast line passing through the ballast tank stopped me.I returned back up on deck and our Pump Man continued to
starboard side. We completed just in time for the coffee break and the guys went for a quick cuppa and I went to my cabin to check out my pictures.We decided to make 2 more tanks before we were going to
run a test of our ODME.I was in my office making the necessary paper work with my music on full blast. Pump Man and the AB were waiting for me to beready and our AB was dancingon the floor enjoying my music.- If you had music like this on the Philippines you would have been the f@cking king of Manila, I said.
When we finished the paper work we went on deck and Pump Man went down DB 5 starboard. Then we went to the port side, last tank for today and we could start with the ODME. We were passing Skagen and suddenly the weather turned from nice to bad. It became gloomy and grey within seconds. The wind picked up and it became cold. what's wrong with this summer? Russia is burning up and Poland was under water.
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So I decided to cancel the test of the ODME. Better to check our cargo tanks for H2S before we get bad weather that makes it impossible to be on deck.
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our tanks. Good, I returned my gas detector to the CCR and I went to pick up my “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE
”
® in the kitchen. A bucket of tea with the “ TUNA & ONION SURPRISE
”
® and I was off to my office to have my dinner.Well, it will not be any evening constitutional tonight. The weather deteriorates by the minute so I guess I will have to spend the time writing on my web page.
And maybe not even that, when the clock turned 8 I could feel that the ship started to roll and when I looked out my window the wind had picked up.
Damn, we had better weather last winter when I was on Ek-River. Cold, but the weather was nice. Sunshine and no wind
So maybe I will be better off in bed. Not very nice trying to write when I have to hold on to something sturdy and keep my computer at place at the same time.
+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 24 th
of August 2010
and I woke up to bad weather. Rough sea and strong winds. Darn! improve during the day. Well, I don't know who makes these forecast but the weather deteriorated and the crew could not be on deck. Well, we finished the test run of the ODME and that was good.Otherwise the 24th of August in the year of our GOOD lord 2010 will go down the history as a wasted day.
Nothing for the crew to do and I did some paper work and tank inspection reports, and of course the discharge plan.
So the crew were better off staying inside.Our OS on the 4 to 8 watch was on the bridge keeping a look
out. I was not his normalhimself, no asking about “arm wrestling” and no “flexing” of his muscles.- Hey! What's the matter with you?
- Nothing.
He looked like he was in a bad state hanging over the sofa.
- No arm wrestling today?
He did a half assed try to do some shadow
boxing trying to be his old cocky himself before he dashed off to the toilet. Never know, suddenly I might find myself on the floor so I'm better off lying on top off my bed.
I stayed in bed for a while and suddenly the time was 8 thirty in the evening: I don't think I dozed off. But I was bored to death so I went to my “Work room” and I took seat on the flimsy Chinese chair. The chair was squeaking and wimping but I managed to get a few words on my web page before I went to bed again.
+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 25 th
of August 2010
and my alarm went off at 7 thirty in the morning. I took a look out my window first thing. I discovered two things, sunshine and that we were in the port of Rotterdam so I called the bridge.- What’s happening?- We will arrive to the jetty in about 45 minutes'I had time for my morning tea and to fill up the temp log before I went to the bridge. we had all fast at VOPAK #1 West at 08:35.And as usually, as soon as we had all fast it was like they dropped a cubic ton of work on my shoulders. But, well, someone has to take it.
Our Pump Man, Motorman and one of our 3rd Officers are signing off today. They had to leave immediately or they would have missed their plane.
So they were in a hurry to leave and when I came in to Captain's office I ran in to a hug. Off signing Pump Man and Captain.
- What theare you two up to? What about me? But them we might risk running in to a mutiny.
change to Legay and then they will take care of everything and they have to make the initial inventory to be able to keep track of expiry dates and stock in our hospital.I went to collect the first aid kit in the Engine Control Room and, well, I can't say that I was surprised to discover that the cookies were almost finished.
it knocked on my door. I cracked open the door and it was our new 2ndOfficer. He gave me a bag through the chink.- A gift for you
- THAT'S THE SPIRIT!
I don't know if it's good for my diet, but it was
2 bags of dried mangoes.- Yummy!!
But how does he know that I like mango? Well, anyway, our Loading Master came onboard and I went down to the CCR. Originalplan was of course to discharge all cargo here in on go. Then it was changed to 4500MT and now it was changed back to all cargo again. Good! No need to Scooby Doo around with anchoring, waiting and shifting berth. Andhopefully we can finish discharging before midnight or around midnight so we can get theout of here before early morning so I can be in bed by then.I could not believe my eyes when I ran in to our Engine Cadet with a second plate of cookies for the day. This time he tried to run away but I was after him with the camera.
- What are you up to down there?
Hmm, maybe I should send down my guys with more chairs and a bigger table.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
When our 3rd Engineers is not busy saving the ship he prepares our Life Saving Equipments. And I quote Boy Wonder: “Always be prepared for the worst!”
What a guy!!
What a guy!!
We finished first parcel at 17:25 and I had expected them to resume discharging right on. Well, waiting for Surveyor and only God knows when we can start and we're looking at some middle of the night adventure, yet again.
Well, I was off to my cabin for some Thai studies and a few words on my web page while waiting.
They called me in my cabin at 7 o'clock.
- The Surveyor is onboard- Good, I'm coming so we can start to kick arse!I was in my office in 2 steps and one of the Surveyors tole me that we would start. The other Surveyor was talking on the phone. While they were talking the other Surveyor listened and he told me that there was just a delay for 2 or 3 hours.
- OK, then I hope they are delayed by 5 hours so we don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to complete the discharging.
+++++++++++++++
Thursday 26 th
of August 2010
and they called me at 04:30. We would be ready with thedischarging around 5 o'clock. We resumed discharging at 22:35
yesterday evening, a few hours too early so we completed in
the middle of the night.
The weather,it's like in December. Gloom and grey as
long as I can see and rain all the time. This summer
must be going down the history books as the worst
in a very long time.
Pilot was onboard at 8 o'clock and 20 minutes
later we had all our ropes onboard and we
could leave for Gothenburg. And it was
very nice to leave Rotterdam behind.
First they told us that the pilot
was ordered for 6 o'clock, then
it was changed to 7 thirthy.
And when our Agent came
onboard it was suddenly
When they arrived they needed a few minutes to fix the problem and we could leave.
We got a new 2nd Officer onboard yesterday and he seemed keen to learn stuff. He asked me if I could teach him the tricks of the trade. So before I left the bridge I told him that we would have cargo planning at 1 o'clock. I was back in my bed around 9 o'clock in the morning and my alarm went off at 12 o'clock.
I took a shower before I went for my lunch in the mess room. I quick cuppa and a sausage before I went for my paper work in my office.
I took a shower before I went for my lunch in the mess room. I quick cuppa and a sausage before I went for my paper work in my office.
“LIVE” example. Loading in Gothenburg, full draft.I gave him a step by step introduction to the cargo planning.
1) Remove 40 tons of bunker, that's how much we use to get us to Finland.
2) Enter the expected water density in Finland, 1.002MT/m³
3) Load the ship to draft 8.59m, even keel or with a trim of 5 cm by stern.
Now he was ready, this is how much he can load the ship to arrive with maximum draft 8.59m, more or less even keel. Simple!
But wait a minute, we're not ready yet.4) Add the 40 tonnes of bunker and you know what trim you will have when leaving Gothenburg.
5) Enter the expected water density in Gothenburg. 1.006 MT/m³
Now we got a trim of 15cm and a draft of 8,53m. So now he knows what trim and draft he shall have at departure from Gothenburg. And of course, he has to check the dock water density when
we're loadingin Gothenburg.- Hmm, maybe something for me to document with my camera!!
Our 2nd Officer was happy when he was ready. I could see that he thought that this was easy so I had to give him an advice.
- Be careful now!! Don't run away become a Chief Officer right yet!! Your wife might never want to
see you again. If you send her half a million Peso every month she might think it's a better idea to have you staying on the ship.- Well, tell her that you make 20 US per month and you will be just great, I suggested. But this was easy, right?
- Yeah, this was not hard!
- OK, so now you load the ship as per loading instructions in the e-mail.
- What is this? 2 discharge ports? 9-10kT in Helsinki and the balance in Hamina?
- And they want empty tanks in each discharge ports!
He came up with a new loading plan, almost 10000 in Helsinki and leaving cargo tanks 1 and 4P/S to Hamina.
- How will it look after discharging in Helsinki? I asked.
- looking good!
- OK, how will it look when you discharge 1P/S in Hamina.
- What the!!?? We will have a trip of 1 million meter.- Yes, any you cannot compensate with ballast until the tanks are empty.
- What to do?
- You have to find another solution!
We had a safety meeting after the coffee break. Captain was reading from news flashes and
incident reports and the crew were listening carefully. It was about Engineers falling andtripping. Over flow of oil while bunkering and stuff. Of course, not from this company, butI could not help myself. I just had to ask:- Where do they find the time for all these accidents? They must be running from coffee break right in to an accident, bouncing back to the coffee table and then right back in to a new mishap!
I passed our electrician's cabin after dinner. Our Electrician and our Deck Cadet was on one of those pages we remember from Bro Promotion.
Yes, the very same page I joined this Scooby Doo page to meet some beautiful girls when on our way to Africa. No, not beautiful African girls.
The only contact I got was with our Motorman one deck below and a few girls with insufficient
proficiency in the English language. So it was a Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii and that was pretty much it.Our electrician wrote to two girls from Bangkok
and when I checked in on him last time there had been exactly ZERO replies.I was back in my cabin for a few words on my web page. And as usual, I'm spending too much time on this already. I'm in progress to make a few pages about my time in school. I have spent 6 to 8 hours per day writing and I'm not in bed until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning. But this will
hopefully be ready in a week or so.Damn! I was just about to forget about our 3rd Engineer again. This is not good enough!!
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
There is something there, and he need to get to it in time or we will go under.
WILL HE MAKE IT IN TIME AND SAVE THE SHIP?
WILL HE MAKE IT IN TIME AND SAVE THE SHIP?
+++++++++++++++
Friday 27 th
of August 2010
and I didn't woke up dead so I guess our 3rd Engineer managed tosave our ship yet again. Good to have this guy onboard.I started the day by some cargo planning, but it turned out that we might tale 200MT of bunker in Gothenburg so it was pretty pointless to continue until I knew for sure.
Our Chief Engineer and the new Chief Engineer came to my office. Yes, we have 2 Chief Engineers onboard, we got a new one in Rotterdam and he will be onboard with our old Chief Engineer until Helsinki to learn the ship.
They were going to check the FRAMO system and they needed to turn off our Jockey pump.
- Don't be surprised when you get alarms, they told me.
They left for the FRAMO power packs under the fo'c's'le and our Electrician came in to my office.
- I got replay from the girl in Bangkok yesterday!!!Now he wanted me to give him a few tip of what to write to her.
- NO BAD STUFF!!!I gave him a few pointers and he told me that she would go check out my web page. I wrote to her yesterday in our Electrician's name asking her to go check out “MY FRIEND'S” web page in hope that she would discover that I was much more handsome than our Electrician.
machinery forward. There is a cooler for the hydraulic oil and theyneed to check the anodes.They had to drain the cooler, well, a heat exchanger, but this time the hydraulic oil heats the water and thus cooling down. I took a few pictures of the guys while they were kickin' behinds under the fo'c's'le.
It didn't take long before I grew bored and I returned to my office. I
had one thing high on my wish list. To get rid of all the cargo documents and stuff lying around all over the ship. My cabin is full, the day room and the owner’s cabin.I had discussed it with Captain and we decided that we should call the company. So I called them when I got back to my office. Yes, better to make sure. And they start work at 8 o'clock in the office so they should be there to answer.
And of course, by calling early in the morning I show them that we're on top of things even in the morning. Taking every opportunity to show how good we are.
- Yo! How long do we need to keep the cargo documents onboard?- 1 year should be enough. We have all the papers in our office.- Good, I have papers her from 1999 so I throw it all away.- Call the owner first and double check!I called the owner and we agreed on 2 years. Good, I can keep 2 years of paper work in my office. And I can keep track of the papers. Now we have from 1999 and even if we need to find some documents it would have been next to impossible.
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- Is that enough? I asked.He was embarrassed and tried to hide the plate when I
brought out my camera.- The more cookies you have the longer you can have the coffee break and thus slimming down the risk of running in to any mishaps, I said.
I brought the OS to help me and we started in my cabin after the coffee break. The first thing we found was an old TV and I asked our OS if he
wanted the TV. And yes he wanted the TV so I got rid of the darn thing.We emptied my cabin and then we continued with our dayroom. We
threw away several bags and boxes with old documents.But there is plenty more in the owner’s cabin. But our New Chief Engineer is living there until the old Chief Engineer is going home so we wait until after Finland with these papers. And of course, there are enough documents for the crew to take to the garbage container in Gothenburg as it is. We don't want to break any backs.
We finished all the paper work before lunch and I had time for some Thai studies before Ireturned to my office. we will take 175MT bunker in Gothenburg so I had to redo my cargo plan.Our 2nd officer came for some practice and he put his calculator on my desk.
- No calculators in my office. Here we do it in ourheads!I finished my cargo planning and the narrative part of the plan in time for our Coffee break. After coffee we meet on the bridge for a pep talk before the drills.
Of course, as you can see above I managed to get a picture of the whole crew.When we were ready on the bridge the fire alarm went off. Fire in the laundry room, one man missing. WE NEED OUR BEST GUYS, ON THE
DOUBLE!!!!TEAM #1 entered the accommodation while TEAM #2 was stand-by outside. Ready to assist if the need should arise. TEAM #1 extinguished the fire and the found our missing
guy. We rescued him through the emergency exit in the gymnasium and we brought him to safety on our stretcher.We should have an oil drill on top of the fire fighting extravaganza. Our Pump Man had prepared deck with water and we were going to use our oil spill pump.
Water on deck, the pump is lined up and it’s just to pull the plug to
our drain tank and start the pump from the drain tank to slop tank. I wanted our Engine Cadet to take charge. When he failed to pull the plug I sent ourSTRONG guy, the OS.MOTHERF@CKER, they were really fighting with the plug in vain. Our hero, the Chief Officer had to move in to solve the problem.
We pumped up the oil spill (water prepared by Pump Man) and I took the crew and we checked out what kind of oil spill equipment we had onboard.
I managed to get yet another group picture before we finished
the drills and I went to my office to write the drill reports.Latest news is that we will get Pilot at arrival and that is around 19:30 tonight. About 1 hour to jetty 511 in Skarvikshamnen and
hopefully we will get a few cases of diet drinks and 20 rolls of snus. Before
After
last hole in my belt so I was in a pretty good mood anyway. Soon time to change belt. I bought 2 sizes last time in Stanlow and now it's soon time tochange to the,I was just about to write “the small size”. But there is nothing small over it, but it's smaller than the huge belt.Well, anyway, I'm looking forward to my evening constitutionals
on our way to Finland.OK, I can as well tell you. I took a quick break from the writing to test my “Not so big” belt and it was a wee bit too small. But a few days more......
Well, almost 19:30 and I hear them slow down so I guess our Pilot is about to board us. So I'm out of here, plenty pre arrival tests to perform before we can start the loading.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
We all felt safe when suddenly, our 3rd Engineer sprung in to action and saved the ship
We arrived to Skarvikshamnen jetty 511 just before 8 o'clock in the evening and we had all fast 20 minutes' after 9 o'clock. We have had sunshine all day long but just after passing Trubaduren L/H the rain started. Luckily enough just for a minute or two and the sun started to shine again.
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Saturday 28 th
of August 2010
and I was in my cabin writing on my web page when they called meat 01:30 and we started loading 7 minutes later.I woke up at 9:30 and when I came down to my office I discovered that we had got new gas detectors onboard. So I needed to test all of them before sending ashore our old detectors. I should normally have been in a good mood, but WHERE THE
ARE MY DIET DRINKS?Our provision arrived after lunch and I meet the ship chandler outside my office.
- Is it the right diet drinks?
He checked his papers and he said that they had delivered Diet Max and not the Scooby drinks.
- Or you have to bring them back, I said.
He was ready to leave when all the papers were signed and I asked him to stay until we were 100% sure it was the right stuff.- You have to wait until the stuff is onboard so I can check the diet drinks!
- It's already on deck.
- What the??!!I was on deck in 2 steps and the ship chandler had
problem to keep up. Yes, it was the right stuff and I popped open a drink right there on deck.Swedish diet drinks and it was very important that I confirmed that I wanted the drinks before we made the order. The drink were wee bit more expensive in Sweden, but as I use to say: “Quality has to cost a little extra” Better to have 5 cases of expensive diet drinks that you can drink than 100 cases of cheap shit that you have to throw away.
- They are almost 1 US$ more per can than when we order at other places.
- Who cares? It's not a poor pensioner ordering the stuff. Just bring it onboard!
I was in my cabin writing on my web page drinking diet drinks when they called me at 6 o'clock.
- Terminal say that we're ready in 1 hour.- OK, I'm comingI had a shower and I finished my diet drink before I went down to the CCR. According to our figures we would load about 400 tonnes more and that means that we would be ready after 7 o'clock.
I went on the jetty to check our draft and we compared with the computer. It was the same so I returned to the 2nd Officer in the CCR.
Now it was just to load so we had between 10 to 15 cm trim by stern and we would arrive to Finland on even keel.
came onboard at 19:35 and we finished ullage and calculations at 19:50.Our Surveyor left and he told me that he would be back around 10 o'clock with the papers.
- There will be no Loading Master coming. I will do all the paper work.
- Good, see you at 10
I took a picture of our Surveyor before he left and he asked for the address for my web page.
- I will check out my picture
At 10 o'clock they called me in my cabin. Surveyor onboard with he papers and I was down in my office in 2 steps.
-Ugh, if I knew this I would have dressed a little better, I said.Our Surveyor told us that he had checked out my web page.
- What the
??!! Here we have been waiting for you while you have scratched your behind surfing the internet!!- I only took a quick glimpse!
Our paper work was finished 20 minutes past 10 and I had time for a few word on my web page before the pilot was supposed to come onboard at 11 o'clock.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
I don't know about you. But saving the ship 24 SEVEN and I would be surprised if our hero doesn’t get awarded with the highest distinction for zealous and devoted service
They called me in my cabin 10 minutes before 11 o'clock. The Pilot was on the way onboard. I went
to the bridge and we started to single up 5 Chris
28 Augusti 2010 går ner i historie böckerna som din första avgång med gångjärns metoden.
Our Pilot recognised me from back when we were at navigation school. He was at the last year when I started school and
he remembered me from when wewere at Vinterspelen in Härnösand back in February or March 1986.When the crew were ready on deck our 2nd Officer came up on the bridge and I was back in my cabin a few minutes after that. I few words on my web page and surprisingly enough I felt a sleep without too much tossin' and turnin' in my bed.
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Sunday 29 th
of August 2010
and we were in the Great Belt when I came down to my office. I filled upour temp log, the temp had decreased by almost 1°C since departure and that's even though we started the heating at 90°C right after departure.Well, I cranked up the heating to 110°C and at lunch O lowered the setting to 100°C. Plenty to do for our Hero the Chief Officer.
We knew that we had plenty of old documents in the owner's cabin and we will take care of them when our Chief Engineer moves out. I was planning the operation with Captain when we discovered an additional 2m³ of paper under the sofa in the ship's office. Can't wait to get rid of those documents.
No worries, they are not yet due for quite some time, but it's always good to be one step ahead of a “CUBIC TON” of work on my shoulders. Yes, that's how we operate onboard Ek-Star.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
This little doodah, believe it or not. Is the thing that our 3rd Engineer, with the
help of a pinch ingeniousness, will use to save the ship and the crew
help of a pinch ingeniousness, will use to save the ship and the crew
Slop chest at 3 o'clock so I was foresighted to get my toothbrush and paste after lunch. Everything to eliminate the risk of running in to any temptations. So it's easy to understand my disappointment
and anger when, after dinner, 17:30 some of the guys needs stuff from the slop chest and I'm running in to a pen door to the slop chest.  |
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Monday 30 th
of August 2010
and I woke up to a gorgeous morning. But I felt like shit. Yes, these2 chocolate bars I bought yesterday. Very stupid and I could feel that there were something wrong with my blood sugar when I woke up. I'm too old to eat 400g of chocolate before bed time.I was disappointed at our Captain and I was going to make sure that he knew. As he told me yesterday:
- You need energy if you're going down the ballast tanks tomorrow.Like telling an Alcoholic that “One beer is good for you”
- Yeah, you're right, I said quickly to disappear in to my cabin to rip open the chocolate.
Well, I started my day by doing the paper work for the tank entries and I checked our gas detectors and we went down in the Fore Peak after the coffee break. I gave my camera to our Pump Man and I instructed him how to take pictures of me entering through the man hole. Shoulder up was not necessary this time as we can see.
camera again. first platform and everything looked good.I had asked our Pump Man if he had been down to the FP before. He had been there several times and I asked him if he thought that there would be any problem for me to enter.
- Maybe through the holes between the platforms.
- No problem. I have been in the other tanks and the problem was the ballast pipe. And there is no ballast pipe in the Fore Peak, I said.
Well, going down to the second platform and I got stuck in the hole. I took out my flash light and walkie talkie from my back pockets. I could not even make it then so I had to call on our Pump Man.
He came down to me in the Fore Peak and as you can see on the pictures below he just manage to get through the hole, and he is a small guy.
fo'c's'le. He was recording entry and exit times from the Fore Peak on the Entry Permit. He was also taking notes of the inspection down in the tank.I use to call him from the tank if I found anything and thus I don't have to memorise everything with the risk of forgetting it when it's time to write the report.
So we were waiting for the Pump Man to return and we
took notes of his reports via the walkie talkie. And of course, I was up when our Pump Man returned from the Fore Peak so I could get a picture of him coming up from the tank.room. I asked how it worked out with the girl from Bangkok.- No reply!
- Well, must be hard. Especially when all the messages was questions
about moi! But don't give up!I had a quick spinach and I was off to my cabin for some serious Thai studies and I also had time to check out my pictures from the adventures in our ballast tanks earlier
this very morning. I'm under a lot of pressure toget daily pictures for my web page so I'm better off making sure the pictures can be used.The pictures was OK, but I decided to go check out
our engine room. And I need to use their puncher to make 2 extra holes in my belt. And who is the guy to see? Of course, our Wonder Boy, the 3rd Engineer.Maybe he is busy saving the ship down there?
Hmm, most likely. And it turned out to be like I had feared, our 3rd Engineer was busy saving the ship. But I was not lucky, he found the time to help me out. Yo!We have grown to like the stupid slide shows here at aladdin.st and no one deserves a slide show dedicated to him more than our 3rd Engineer. His ardour and assiduity had been pretty much unappreciated up until now.
Yet another stupid slide show on www.aladdin.st
I spent the time until the coffee break writing the ballast tank reports. And after the coffee
break our Pump Man and I threw away all old documents from the ship's office. About 2m³ of old documents like: “Ship Shore Checklists” from 2002. There were almost 1m³ of old cargo plans and delivery notes from 2001. Why thehave all these papers been saved for?As I told Captain:
- Nice when we're leaving Finland, then we can empty the Owner's cabin and we're rid of the last papers.
- Don't be surprised if we run in to another hiding-place.
Ni, I will not be surprised. Quite the opposite, I will be surprised if we don't find any more papers lying around.
James,
heads up, I have changed my desk top background.I know how sensitive this can be back in FUNKY TOWN.
- OH! You don't use my picture as background anymore!!!!
A beautiful morning had turned in to a gorgeous evening and at 7 I went on deck for me evening constitutional.
I had skipped dinner so I brought two apples on deck to munch on while walking around deck listening to music.A beautiful evening with sunshine, but it was not hot. Quite cold in the wind and my guess is that the autumn will be here soon. Well, it's already here, but it will soon get real cold. Otherwise I usually wear shorts until the end of September and maybe a few days in to October.
But by then I will be back in FUNKY TOWN, they have found a reliever for me and I hope he will be onboard 15th of October so I can leave the 20th.
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Tuesday 31 st
of August 2010
and I woke up to a beautiful day. We ran in to some nasty weatheryesterday night, but now it was OK and the crew could start with the review of the deck. Walking around with a sander and a paint bucket to take the last spots of rust on deck.We received our discharge orders, about 10500 MT in Helsinki and 2000 MT in Hamina so I started right of with my discharge plans.
I was doing cargo plans with one hand while I was checking out the progress with my spinach in the kitchen. When I came in to the kitchen our Chief Engineer tried to hide behind the stove without any success.
interesting.- Not many holes to go now?- What an improvement!
- OK, enough already! I said and left.
Our Chief Engineer bought a new camera in Rotterdam a few
weeks ago, and I have pestered him every day about his camera.- I never see you with your camera. What's wrong with it?
Well, seems like today was the time to bring out his camera and it didn't take long before I could hear our Chief Engineer
approaching my office. And that's even though I had the music on full blast. I could hear him giving instructions to our Mess Man.- I need a picture of our Chief Officer, he said and suddenly I had him and our Mess Man in my door.
- F@ck you and your pictures! I said.
He started right of to take pictures and then he handed the camera to
our Mess Man so he could take pictures of our Chief Engineer together with me.- OK, just because you're going home today. But shoulder up only!
After lunch I went to my cabin to read some Thai and as we will take Pilot at 2 o'clock we have to do our tests of the equipments after lunch so it's ready at arrival.
And of course, the most important. Uploading my web page before going to make the tests. Just to make sure that you know what we're up to onboard.
Today's daily picture of our 3rd Engineer
And this is a picture from my private collection, not meant to be on internet.
I had my doubt to make the picture available for you so, please, use your common sense before passing any judgement
And this is a picture from my private collection, not meant to be on internet.
I had my doubt to make the picture available for you so, please, use your common sense before passing any judgement
This is our 3rd Engineer like we never seen him before.
PLEASE!! Bear in mind that he has been busy 24 Seven saving the ship
PLEASE!! Bear in mind that he has been busy 24 Seven saving the ship
We were approaching Helsinki pilot station when I came down to my office after lunch. We started with our tests and we were pretty much ready when the pilot came onboard at 2 o'clock. And that's 3 o'clock local time. I was on the bridge 20 minutes after 2 o'clock to fill up my ISPS records. I have a binder were I fill up the ports we had been to and the security levels.
approaching the Suomenlinna (Sveaborg in Swedish) sea fortress and from there it was 20 minutes to the port of Helsinki. Turning around and backing up to the jetty and we had the first line ashore quarter past 3 S/T and all fast 15 minutes later.The crew got right on to the garbage detail and it was nice to get
rid of all the old papers. They say that we will stop discharging at 9 o'clock S/T and continue tomorrow morning.Our Chief Engineer left for the airport and our new Chief Engineer has moved out from the owner’s cabin. So maybe we have time to empty this cabin from all the papers before we leave tomorrow. That would be nice. I threw away of a lot of other old filter for our half and full masks today as well. I made new inventory list and log over the filters so let’s see if we can keep things in good orders around here. Ship shape as we say in Sweden.
constitutional.It was a beautiful evening but I was about to turn around when I came out from the port.A big road with ugly houses from the 70's so I walked
down the road until I got to a bicycle bridge and I crossed the bridge. My plan was to go back to the ship, this place looked very boring.But I discovered something that looked like older houses and shops from the bridge so I went there to investigate. Busses and trams where passing and when I reached the street I turned left and walked towards something that looked like centum.
several pubs and bars. Our Pilot told us that there were a lot of students living in this area so there were plenty pubs.- Student, pubs??!! Having a good time??!!I thought you were supposed to study when you're a student.
That’s what I did! Well, for sure, times are changing.I reached a square and I think I had had too many
diet drinks and I really didn't felt like using one of the bathrooms at any of the pubs so I decided to go back onboard.I had one to one and a half hour ashore and it was very nice. But it was also nice to come back onboard to my clean bathroom. I popped open a new diet drink and I had a shower before I went to my desk for a few words on my web page.
Knock on wood, but it seems like we have survived yet another month and it's time to change month again. You just have to click on the link and you will be in the month of september 2010 in a jiff!
OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it 
be? So it’s not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page. So
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one.
So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!
Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas
Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!
Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!
Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra
Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!
คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next”
ข้างบนนี้
Вы говорите по-русски? NJET PROBLEMA! Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!
E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.
Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.
be? So it’s not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page. So Jiffy (also jiff)
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!
Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaasFaites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopraSprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben! คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next”
ข้างบนนี้
Вы говорите по-русски? NJET PROBLEMA! Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!
E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.
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