M/T Rankki
Picture from www.shipspotting.com Picture by Capt. Jan Melchers
M/T Rankki was built 1982 in Helsinki, Finland. She's on 11538 ton DW.
Rankki is 140,7m long and 21,23m wide.
She was owned and operated by Neste, but Hornet had the management.She was later sold by Neste to Donsö Bunker Service and renamed Omega af Donsö
Monday 18 th of September 1995 and I left Go:teborg on an early morning flight bound for Helsinki,
Finland. Our Agent picked me up in Helsinki and he drove me to Borgå where he put me in a hotel.Rankki was delayed by a few hours to Neste's Refinery in Borgå so I had to wait at a hotel. Good, I had time for a walk around town and a few hours of sleep before they came to pick me up for transportation to Neste's Refinery and Rankki.
The summer was over but we had some days with nice weather. We were loading in Go:teborg one of those sunny Saturdays. The
crew went ashore in the afternoon for some fun at the amusement park "Liseberg"
. When they left after lunch they asked me when we were expected to be ready and when they should be back onboard- It will be around midnight with this loading rate, I said.
Well, loading rate increased and we were ready to leave just before midnight. They missed the ship and had to come onboard in Helsingborg with the pilot boat when passing through Öresund next the morning. But we could see them
coming on the jetty when we had left the jetty. 5 minutes earlier and they would have made it.Captain wanted me to pay for their tickets.
- What the
!! If they ask me 12 hours before they have to call again, I said.Especially in Gothenburg were they can't tell how long it will take to load. Göteborg and Brofjorden is notoriously bad when it comes to be able to tell how long the loading will take. At least they were back then, I must say that there have been some major improvements
during the years.I have cancelled many pilots in Gothenburg. When I ask Preem if there will be any more stops for analysis of the cargo and they say no. I order the pilot and 1 hour later they stop for a few hours to do yet another analyse of the cargo. It happened for me that they stop just before we are ready and then it's impossible to say when we will be ready.
Well, shit happens.
Well again, I know J like all this well and well. He even told me that is English Teacher in school ( A frequent visitor to my web page) got ileus every time he read the word “well”.
Well, anyway, our CCR was equipped with the ordinary stuff, well (again), we didn't have any tank
radar. We used Whessoe meters with remote reading in the CCR.They had planned to install tank radars and we had tank radar in one of our cargo tanks for evaluation. The company had to decide on what radar system they wanted to use, but I say: There is only one system and that’s SAAB.
september passed by and the Autumn and strong winds came with October. I don't like it at all, the ship is rolling and pitching. You have to hold on to something all the time and you can't sleep. But the worst is that you can't enjoy a good cup of tea on the bridge. You have to chase your cup all the time, then it's better to sit down and hold on to something sturdy.
Thursday 2 nd of November 1995 and I signed off in Stockholm together with the Chief Officer and we took the X-2000 train to Gothenburg.
My friend had his birthday Thursday 9 th of November 1995 and he was throwing the party on the
Saturday 18th of November. How do I remember this, well, for 2 reasons.1) Snow: Back then I was always walking to Saltholmen from Mariaplan. I used to leave home
around midnight and I was back home around 1 thirty 2 o'clock in the morning.But in the evening of the 16th of November I just made it to the grave yard 500 meters from home. It was snowing when I
left home but it was a full blizzard by the time I reached the grave yard
2009 and Roffe Ruff release his album “Ormar I gräset” I didn't heard the album until 2011
as I was first introduced to his 2011 album Barabbas.Foocking excellent! So I looking for more Roffe Ruff music and I found the “Ormar i gräset” CD and there was a tune called 17 November. And this song was about this very blizzard. Of course, as this is www.aladdin.st I have a sample for you.
Unnecessary to say: FULL BLAST!
Buy the CD to support good music!
Friday 17 th of November 1995 and when I woke up everything in Go:teborg had come to an
full stop. Snow everywhere and it was not possible to get out. Shops were closed and people could not get to their jobs. So it looked like the party was cancelled due to the snow.But things got better during the 18th and I could leave for the party in
a taxi.And before I left I just had to get a few pictures
of Bjäbben cleaning the apartment. Just to know that it's not only me
cleaning the apartment.My friend was getting 100 something so I had bought him a very nice CD. Good
music, I mean, his CD collection didn't impress anyone. And for sure, if we were going to depend on his music collection during the party it would have been a failure. So I bought him a few CDs so he
would have something to play at his party. And what a hit it turned out to be.I took a taxi to Mariaplan to my friend on Hisingen, and it took us a while to get there due to
J,
d va den gamla goa tiden med Nisse's Herrmode i dom skumma Hisings kvarteren.Man slapp skämma ut sig på stan. Och fram för allt så slapp man hyra folk till o gå och köpa kläder till en
I arrived to my friend's apartment and I brought out my check list.
1. Cake in the fridge: CHECK2. Plenty booze and beers: CHECK
3. Good music, well, happy birthday. CHECK
And now we come to the second reason for me to remember this birthday party.
2) The blame: Yes, its 15 years ago and they still
blame me for eating the marzipan top on the birthday cake. When it was time to eat the cake my friend went to get the darn thing in the fridge. He discovered that the green marzipan top
was gone with 3 finger marks left in the cream topping. Of course, I was blamed.And who the f@ck invites people to a party when there is only a Scooby 450 entertainment centre available? I had given my friend some funky music and it didn't take long
Björn,
o sen har du mage o klaga på när vi satt och lyssnade på P3 Klub i Majorna.Vi tog bara ett par drinkar innan vi gick på stan och det var ju inte tradigare än på ditt födelsedags kalas. Som
nog måste räknas som ett riktigt lågvatten märke.Fan, jag vågar till och med på stå att det var ett av 90-talets tråkigaste partyn. Fan, d va bara Johan sittande i porr hörnan som saknades så hade man slängt sig framför Hemglass bilen
then his loudspeakers got busted. Well, at least the neighbours didn't come to complain.
You might think that this would have been forgotten by now, 15 years later. Of course not, every time I meet him I have to listen to his blah-blah about his lousy loudspeakers.
- Fer f@ck's sake. Buy quality. Don't just look at the price tag!
No music so the party really never took off as it should. A party without music is, well, no party. And the cake, when it was time for cake I had lost interest for the darn cake.
- What the
is a cake without the marzipan. I pass!Time to sign on again so I was off to my next ship Margaron as Chief Officer.
