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Page is tested in Fire Fox, Chrome and Safari. Looks like it works OK in all browsers, except the sounds in Safari.Of course, browsing www.aladdin.st in Safari on an iPad is a different story, nothing looks as it should
Thursday 24 th of January 2013 and the Indian Ocean looked like a mirror when I came on my morning watch. A few fishing boats early during the watch, otherwise no sign of life. I was tired
when I left the bridge, no sleep during the night. But I could not go to bed because we had to start the cargo heating today.I have been onboard for more than a month and so far not much maintenance on deck. We have been busy, but I had planned for the crew to start chipping on the way to India. We only have a few days and then when we leave India it is time for tank cleaning again.
Our Pump Man came to the bridge at 6 and I told him to prepare for cargo heating and the purging of the cargo pumps. The rest of the crew could start with the chipping.
I called our 2nd Engineer when I was in the CCR and he would start up the boiler and I went for a
quick cup of tea and some black bread.When I finished my breakfast I was off to deck to see if there was any steam coming out from the drain valves. Cold water turned into hot water and we were soon having steam coming out from the drain valves and we could close them one by one.
I was in bed at 10 and they called me quarter to 12 because there was steam coming back to the engine room. We checked all the tanks, steam going in and
water coming back so it seems OK.Our Pump Man will take the temperatures again before going for dinner so we can see if we need to do any adjustments on the heating. First time for me heating cargo on this ship so I need to get the experience on how the cargo reacts to the steam.
And as I'm always tired I changed to the 8 to 12 watch starting tonight, good. I like the 4 to 8 in the evening, and the morning isn't all that bad. But as I'm always busy I'm always tired. Well, this will
hopefully change now.+++++++++++++++
Friday 25 th
of January 2013
and it was a gorgeous morning when I came on the bridge just before
8 o'clock. Time turned pretty quick and I was on in my office preparing my “Prize winning” discharge plan. And of course, prize isn't coming easy and it was almost 4 o'clock when I
could return to my cabin. Step by step calculation, narrative part and all the other stuff coming on top of that. But as I use to say, the STEP BY STEP calculations give me a lot of experience from the ship and how she reacting loading/ discharging the different tanks.It takes time, but it is worth it.
I went back to my cabin at 4 and I killed time with my stupid web page until 5 when it was time to check the cargo temperature. Dinner and then it is soon time to go on the bridge again. Music and tea, that’s how I will spend my evening. Of course, it will be an enjoyment with yet again red rest hours after a full day of action.
And things are starting to fall to place on deck. We got a new 2nd Engineer in Padang and the 2nd Engineer seems to be the real deal and it seems like he is getting on to things that are not working ASAP. Not only talking about how much he is working. That's the spirit we're looking for.
+++++++++++++++
Saturday 26 th
of January 2013
and I woke up quarter to 8, actually quarter past 9. But we had retarded ships time by 90 minutes during the night so it was 07:45 ships time. I was surprised, my alarm clock had not gone off at 7 thirty.Coming on the bridge just to discover a gloomy and grey day and increasing wind from NE. The only thing making me a wee bit PEP was the guys chipping and painting on deck. And of course, my 2 slices of black bread with cheese I had prepared yesterday evening. Talk about good luck, my alarm don't go off and I wouldn't have had the time to prepare my breakfast before going on the
bridge. So I started my day by enjoying a mug of tea and black bread with cheese while watching the guys on deck.And of course, when me boys are on deck I have to use our megaphone when I need to give them pointers.
Me boys chipping and painting on deck
Always ready to give a pointer or 2
I had a quick lunch and I went to inspect our chain boxes and I spent an hour in my cabin writing
the report while listening to music. I had a shower when I was ready and I went to
make trouble with our Captain.He is always claiming to be very busy and it is fun to stress test him when he goes
on and on about how much he have to do.- Yes, of course, 2 e-mails and you have killed a few hours.
I managed to get almost 1 hour of sleep in the afternoon before going to check the cargo temperatures. And as it is Saturday I went for dinner and I had more than vegetables.
I had steak and French fries, salmon with Philadelphia cheese. And as I said to our 3rd Officer from India: This is something I learned to like at Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay. Yes, impossible to forget the drama at Taj Mahal last
time I was in Bombay. Well, anyway, I stuffed myself with 3 of these delicatessen, or was it 4?Ice cream, whipped cream and pancakes on top of that and our 3rd Engineer was studying my “diet bet” but he never reached the part about Saturdays. Or maybe he did, anyway, he was disappointed when I pointed out the facts and he realised that he wasn't going to get 1000 US Dollars.
The wind was increasing during the evening and we had water spray over deck when I came on the bridge at 8. Pitch dark and
no sign of any ships so not much to do except drinking tea and to enjoy my music.And when I grew tired of the tea I asked the AB on watch if he could go get me a Coke ZERO and two tablets of
Ibuprofen in my cabin. I have had a slight fever the last few weeks, well, only some days. A summer cold? It willhopefully be gone soon.+++++++++++++++
Sunday 27 th
of January 2013
and I woke up when my phone rang.
- It is 8 o'clock already
- Did you call me at 7 thirty?And my alarm clock had obviously miss fired again. I tried the clock several times yesterday afternoon and it worked very well. But I had asked our 3rd officer to call me at 7 thirty everyday just in case. But he had forgotten to call me.
- No, I didn't call- I thought we had an agreementI had a shower and I went to the bridge and I discovered that we had water spray over deck due
to the increasing wind and size of waves.So no painting, but the crew continued with the chipping
and they can do the cup brushing and painting when the weather is getting better.I spent the afternoon making a new discharge plan and with the cargo temperatures and it was 3 thirty before I was back in my cabin. I tried to sleep but I failed and I was back in the CCR at 5 for Pump Man's MMC temperatures. Cargo heating goes quite well even though it is the first time for me on this ship and it takes a while to get on top of things.
+++++++++++++++
Monday 28 th
of January 2013
and we had nice weather when I came on the bridge at 8. Wind had turned from NE to E and increased to a force 3 - 4. ETA to Krishnapatnam anchorage 21:00 tonight and I won't mind spending 2 days on the anchorage.In the evening it looked like we would proceed straight to the berth, GREAT, yet another 24 hours non-stop without sleep. So my mood turned in to very good when the Krishnapatnam Port Control told me to drop anchor when I called them at 20:30 to give 2 hour notice. And Krishnapatnam, we got a
e-mail from the agent. Krishnapatnam was mentioned 3 times and it was spelled in 3 different ways, so even the Indians have problems to spell the name.We dropped our anchor at 22:40 and I had a Coke ZERO while waiting for the 2nd Officer. And as this is a nice guy we had a chat and it was almost 1 o'clock in the morning before I was back in my cabin.
+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 29 th
of January 2013
and I woke up when 3rd Officer called me at 7 thirty. I moved out to my desk and I continued my ZERO. I could feel that there was something wrong with me. I could feel my own heart beat and it was a fast pulse, a very fast one.I was on the bridge for an hour, just sitting in the chair sweating and at 9 when I went to check our position I almost collapsed. Captain came on the bridge and he got scared when he saw me. He
went to get our pulse and blood pressure machine. 110/80 and 120 to 150 in pulse. Of course, our equipment isn't made to fit 82kg of Thai boxer. It was way too small so I'm not sure about the results. But I wasn't feeling well.I threw away all my cigarettes, maybe it is because of the smoking and my cigarettes were in the garbage bin in a jiff. We called radio medical in Copenhagen and I explained the situation and he asked me to drink plenty water and to take a malaria test.
- Malaria test? It is not a heart attack??!!- NO NO! Then you would have some pain
Malaria, what the
? I was back in the garbage bin in a
jiff and I saved my cigarettes quicker than I had disposed them. Well, maybe it is the darn Coke Zero and not malaria
or an upcoming cardiac arrest making my pulse and blood pressure play tricks on me.I had a sleep during the afternoon, and I managed to fall asleep and I woke up at 5 feeling much
better, but with a sore throat. And bad news was awaiting me, Pilot might board us at midnight.Well, at least I got a few hours of sleep in the afternoon and I'm ready for everything they will throw at me during the night. But I'm still
hoping for the Pilot to come onboard tomorrow morning. But my hope vanished when they called me from Krishnapatnam Port Control at 21 thirty.- Pilot will board you at 00:30 at the Pilot boarding area.
Well, I was not happy about this news, this means that I will have to be up all night and morning before I have a chance to get to bed. But this is how we get money in our pockets so I was drinking a lot of tea on the bridge in order to try to keep the tiredness away.
Yes, I got 2 or 3 hours of sleep in the afternoon, of course, it helps a bit. But I'm expecting to stay up until at least 8 o'clock and that makes 24 hours.
I did all the checks and test on the bridge and our 2nd Officer did the emergency stop tests before he went forward to heave up the anchor at midnight together with one of the ABs. The other ABs prepared the pilot ladder.
+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 30 th
of January 2013
and I tested the high level alarms when I came down from the bridge. Everything was working and I returned to the bridge after a quick stop for some ZERO in
my cabin. Pilot was onboard when I was back on the bridge and it was soon time to connect the tug boats forward and aft.The tug boats were going to escort us to our jetty and there is not much space in the buoyed channel. Pilot came onboard at 00:50 and it was almost 2 when we entered the port. I was told that Krishnapatnam was the biggest port on the Indian East coast. The port wasn't looking like much on the chart. But there were some big bulk carriers and container ships on the anchorage when we arrived and there were plenty big bulk carriers discharging along the jetty
Passing bulk carriers on our way to our jetty
Passing bulk carriers on our way to our jetty
It was around 3 thirty in the morning when we had the gangway down and the paper exercise started. It was not until 5 minutes past 7 we started to discharge the first parcel and it was 10 o'clock before I was in bed. Of course, I had to do new cargo plans as we got orders to discharge the 13,500 MT as 3 different parcels. And believe me, it was nice to go to bed. The last few hours were not very nice, I had to calculate everything 2 or 3 times before I got it right.
I woke up at 3 o'clock and I had a shower and a glass of ZERO before I went down to the CCR. They were just starting the second parcel when I came down to the CCR. Our 3rd Officer had completed the first parcel and he had done the ullage report with the Surveyor. Then they had been pigging the line for about 4 hours before they could start the second parcel.
Discharging in Krishnapatnam
Discharging in Krishnapatnam
+++++++++++++++
Thursday 31 st
of January 2013
and I was called for 2 o'clock in the morning, time to make entry permits for the crew so they can sweep CT4P/S. I told the Surveyor and we went out on deck to
the entrance to CT #4 Stb. I measured the tank while the crew donned their safety harnesses.- What is that? The Surveyor asked
- A safety harness
- For safety? I have never seen anyone using that on any other ship before
The guys swept CT 4 starboard and when they were ready they went to drink electrolyte and to have a rest before going down in CT 4 on port side.
They completed the sweeping around 7 o'clock in the morning and it was day light when I left deck. And at
the crack of dawn we had several fishing boats next to us in the port fishing.We completed the second parcel at 07:50 and we did the cargo calculations and it was almost 9 when I was back in bed and by then my rest hours had been red since 2 o'clock in the morning. And they will be red for the rest of the day.
Our Surveyor and the crew going down to CT 4 Stb
Crew sweeping the bottom of CT 4 Stb
Crew sweeping the bottom of CT 4 Stb
Going down CT 4 Port
Going down CT 4 Port
Going down CT 4 Port
Early morning fishing
I was back in the CCR 4 o'clock in the afternoon and it was soon time to start sweeping again. The
terminal wanted us to stop discharging to compare ship/ shore figures. But I told them that we would wait until Ct 7 Stb was swept before we stopped.So when we were ready with 7Stb we stopped discharging and I went ashore with our Surveyor to check our draft before measuring our tanks. They told me it was 250MT difference with the shore figures in the last parcel.
Parcel #1 and #2 was ok and we had the same figures so I told them that then it must be the
correct figures on this parcel as well.And yes, after calculation we had the same figures on the ship as they had at the terminal and we continued discharging.
It was soon time to sweep slop tanks 1 & 2 and when we were ready with this I went for a shower waiting for cargo tanks 3 port and starboard to be ready for sweeping. Last sweeping for this time, the remaining tanks will be swept in Haldia. Well, this is pretty much it for the month of January 2013 and we swing right over to February .
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. 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.
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ข้างบนนี้
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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.
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