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.
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 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? 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. 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.
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? 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.
“The postings on this site are my own and don't represent Norden's position, strategies or opinions. All views are my own”
Monday 1 st of April 2024 and we met in the CCR at 6 o'clock in the morning. We will start cleaning bllast tank 1 port. We complete the paper work, risk assessment and entry permit before going to deck to measure the gas in the tank.
They guys enter the tank at 06:40, two guys entering and two guys will be on deck guarding the tank entrance, stand by if help is needed.
Ready to enter ballast tank 1 Port
Ready to enter ballast tank 1 Port
Ready to enter ballast tank 1 Port
Ready to enter ballast tank 1 Port
I spot on dark brown bird flying next to the ship. Coming in from behind and by the time I had got the boniculars in the CCR the bird was gone. So the bird was flying faster than the ship.
We were about to completed the second and last tank for today when I spotted two birds. Two dark grey birds flying around the boat when we had completed the cleaning for the day.
I tried to check them out with the binoculars. I thought that they looked like herons, but they were flying to quick for beeing herons.
I was on the bridge at 5 o'clock and I spotted one small dark bird landing on deck. But I never got any good look. Later on I had one swallow outside the winow that I could not ID.
But I had two birds to report to eBird.
We met Karen Mærsk going south. I had been told that she had to go to an unscheduled visit to a ship yard in China. Well, guess this is what happens when the maintenance falls behind.
Karen Mærsk and it looks like they are busy on deck
And they had all the deck lights on so they were working on deck. It was soon 8 o'clock and I left the bridge to go look for chocolate in my cabin.
I had bought 8 chocolate bars and I was regreting it instantly.
I called 2nd Officer and I asked him to hide the chocolate in my room so I could not find it all at once. Well, the first ting I discover coming in to my room is a chocolate bar.
So the 2nd Officer had obviously ran out of imagination.
First chocolate
Fer duck's sake!
Well, took me less than 2 seconds to discover the chocolate, not even needed to look for it. Four chocolate bars remaining, I did not bother to look for them, but I was sure that I would find them without any efforts.
I finished one of the chocolate bars watching half of a movie before going to bed.
+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 2 nd
of April 2024
and we met in the CCR at 6 o'clock in the morning. Check lists and paper work and the guys entered the ballast tank 4 starboard at 7 o'clock. I spotted a booby flying in front of the boat so I went to have a look after having got the inoculars from the CCR.It was a Red-footed Booby and I called to the bridge and I asked for our position so I can report the bird to eBird.
We had started the 2nd and last tank for today and I was in the CCR when 2nd Officer called, it was about 20 minutes past 1 i'clock. He told me that there was a bird up front and I grabbed my binoculars and I went forward to have a look.
It was one more Red-footed Booby, or was it the same I had seen earlier in the morning? Anyway, I called 2nd Officer on the bridge for the position so I can report this bird to the eBird as well.
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby
Our hero looking for birds
Our Hero could put yet another full day of action behind him. I had some tea in my room before going to the mess room for dinner. Our Chief Engineer have his birthday so there was cake.
Good no need to eat chocolate bars tonight and I can save a few ¢ that can come in handy when I am back home again.
Back in my room and I watched a video before going to bed. We will do the last ballast tank tomorrow morning and we will meet in the CCR at 6 o'clock.
Chief Engineer cutting the cake
Time for cake
Time for cake
Time for cake
Time for cake
Chief Engineer and 3rd engineer
+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 3 rd
of April 2024
and the guys go down to water ballast 5 starboard at 06:50 and I spot one Red-footed Booby in front of the ship at the same time. One hour later there are six of them hunting in front of the boat.I think it is 2 Brown Boobies at first, but I can see that it is two dark morph Red-footed Boobies making it six of them all together.
We complete ballast tank 5 starboard at 8 o'clock and this was the last ballast tank.
Coming on the bridge in the afternoon and I spotted 17 Red-footed Boobies hunting around the boat. I took a few pictures and I decided to make a sound recording. I took two videos to try to get the Donald Duck sound and I will convert the video to mp3 files.
Too much wind for the recordings to be any good, but I could upload two new recordings to xeno-canto. Poor quality, but better than nothing.
Listen to the Red-footed Booby
Sound from www.xeno-canto.org
Sound from www.xeno-canto.org
Remarks from the Recordist
Recorded with my Canon pocket camera. High Pass Filter applied with Audacity.
17 Red-footed Boobies hunting around the boat. They are all quiet, until they dive for a fish, then they start to sound like Donald Duck.
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby
Huge group of boobies hunting in front of Jin Hai Ping
Most likely Red-footed Boobies but I reported them s booby SP. in eBird
I managed to get a few pictures of the birds hunting around our boat. We had one south bound ship, m/t Jin Hai Ping and I could see boobies hunting in front of that ship.
I reported them in my eBird app and I cannot remember ever having seen so many Red-footed Boobies together before.
The AB on my watch came on the bridge 20 minutes fter 6 o'clock. He told me that the whole
crew would come to the bridge at 6 thirty. The dart tournament had come to an end and prizes had to be handed out.I was hoping
for them to come before the sun disappeared so I can get a picture.
A Team
A Team
Diploma and cash is handed out to the winners
Diploma and cash is handed out to the winners
Diploma and cash is handed out to the winners
Diploma and cash is handed out to the winners
Diploma and cash is handed out to the winners
+++++++++++++++
Thursday 4 th
of April 2024
and I can see 3 boobies in the forward mast when I come on the bridge at 4 o'clock in the morning. I could see them in the light from the navigation light forward. Quarter to six and I could see one Red-footed Booby hunting, it was still dark.The other two were gone and at 6 o'clock all of them were gone. I spotted one small light-coloured bird at the manifold but I never got any good look. At 7 thirty I had two Red-footed Boobies coming in from behind and they were hunting in front of the boat.
Red-footed Booby in the dark
I was joined by 2 Red-footed Boobies at 7 thirty
I was joined by 2 Red-footed Boobies at 7 thirty
I spotted one swallow in the afternoon and two Gulls/ Terns that was sitting on some garbage. They took off when we approached with the ship and I never got any good look.
+++++++++++++++
Friday 5 th
of April 2024
and we get our pilot at 09:45 and I get to the bridge. I had spent the morning in the CCR preparing tank cleaning plans. We will go to dry dock after discharging and we need to be gas free.Coming on the bridge and it was gloom and grey for long as I could see. Foggy and it looked like it could start to rain any second. But the temperature was very comfy at 21°C
Approaching Gulei Haiteng Terminal
Fishing boat overtaking us
At Gulei Haiteng Terminal
We had all fast at 11:15 and the Surveyor came on board soon after we had our gangway down. Immigration came onboard and they left 5 minutes before 1 o'clock and they could start ullaging and sampling.
We had completed everything around 3 o'clock and now we just have to wait for the sample analyse to be ready before we can start discharging. They came back to take a second sample in 3P as the cargo was off spec.
I thought it was OK when they came to connect the cargo arm, but we had not started discharging at midnight and I decided to go to sleep.
+++++++++++++++
Friday 5 th
of April 2024
and we started to discharge at 14:20, perfect, we will complete tomorrow evening and as it is daylight navigation only, we will stay alongside all night long.+++++++++++++++
Monday 8 th
of April 2024
and we left Gulei around 11 thirty. Completed discharging yesterday and we had been waiting for the pilot until 11 o'clock today.
Our Hero and the Loading Master
We left the pilot and we started to prepare for tank cleaning. Next stop is the Pax Ocean Shipyard in Xiushan so we need to be gas free. So, we got started with the cleaning and we were ready in the evening and we started the IG purging.
+++++++++++++++
Friday 12 th
of April 2024
and we dropped anchor at Xiushan Eastern Anchorage around 9 o'clock in the morning. The slop barge will come to pick up our slop in the afternoon. We will discharge Slop Tk. Port and clean this tank.When this tank is gas free, we will have a Chemist coming on board to measure the tanks. He will issue a gas free certificate if we are gas free.
Chemist on board to measure gas
Chemist on board to measure gas
Chemist on board to measure gas
+++++++++++++++
Sunday 14 th
of April 2024
and we will get our pilot at 14:00 and we will shift to the inner anchorage. At least I got one day yesterday with a wee bit off relaxing. Drinking tea looking for birds from the bridge.I spotted one black bird with a reddish belly landing outside the window this morning. I could not ID the bird, looking like a Blackbird, but with a black bill. It was just a meter from me and I got a very good view of the bird, but it lasted for a few seconds only so no time to get my camera.
I started to discharge ballast when I came down from the bridge. They want less than 6.5 meters draft when we shift to the inner anchorage.
I had expected us to be anchored by the time I will be on the bridge in the afternoon so I was surprised when they called me 20 minutes after 3 o'clock.
Changed plans, we will go alongside waiting for the dry dock so I went on the bridge to assist with the mooring at the shipyard.
Approaching Pax Ocean Shipyard
Pax Ocean Shipyard
Pax Ocean Shipyard
Mooring at Pax Ocean Shipyard
We had all fast at 17:00 and I went down to the CCR to see if we got any visitors from the shipyard. We had a Ship chandler coming and the crew bought SIM cards.
+++++++++++++++
Tuesday 16 th
of April 2024
and we are going to leave the jetty at 17 thirty. We will drop the anchor outside the dry dock and we will enter the dry dock 9 o'clock tonight.We got our new crew onboard at 11 and the off signers will leave tomorrow morning. I still wait for the Chief Officer.
They have started to remove the electric motors from the cargo pumps and our crew is busy with the Shipyard people and Lloyds. They are marking steel on deck that we need to renew on deck during the stay at the shipyard.
Work in full swing at Pax Ocean Shipyard
A picture for the company magazine
Removing the electric motors
I was told that the pilot would be one hour early, 16:00 but it was 16:35 before he came onboard and we left at 5 o'clock. We could see that the fog was coming on over the shipyard on Zhoushan Islandacross the Changbai Mountain Waterway.
We dropped anchor 15 minutes later and by then we had full fog.
The pilot told us that they might cancel the docking tonight dure to the fog. Well, I will not mind if we dock tomorrow morning instead.
Fog is coming in
Fog is coming in
Now we have full fog
Now we have full fog
Now we have full fog
The fog disappeared for a while and I was pretty sure that we would go in to the dock at 9 o'clock. I was enjoying my tea on the bridge when I saw how they opened the dock. There are three ships in the dry dock and two of them will leave.
We will go in to the dock together with one more ship. We were soon covered in fog again so we did not know what would happen during the night.
We are covered in fog again
I leave the bridge at 8 o'clock and at 9 o'clock there is no news so I go to bed. They are soon calling me again, pilot is onboard.
We don't have our engine anymore and we use two tugs to get us in to the dock. We heave up the anchor and they turn us around as we will go in to the dry dock stern first.
Going to the dry dock
Going to the dry dock
Going to the dry dock
Going to the dry dock
The other ship enter the dry dock
The other ship enter the dry dock
We are moored next to a car carrier and there is space for another ship to squeeze in next to us. The ship is in place and they told us that they would start to empty the dry dock at 2 o'clock in the morning.
I go to be to try to get some sleep before I start the ballast.
+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 17 th
of April 2024
and they call me quarter past two, there is a guy coming on board and I ask them to enquiry about the ballast. We have 2000 ton ballast remaining onboard that I need to discharge.I wake up again just after 6 o'clock and there is still no news. I had called the shipyard manager at midnight and I had three answers.
- I don't know
- Maybe
- I think so
The last news was to wait so I made some tea that I enjoyed in my room.
I went for breakfast and after that we were waiting for the morning meeting with the shipyard to start at 9 o'clock. I went on deck to see how it went with our anchor chains. They are lowering the anchors and chains to the bottom of the dry dock.
Morning in the dry dock
Morning in the dry dock
Cleaning the dry dock from mud
Cleaning the dry dock from mud
The yard is busy cleaning the bottom of the dry dock. Pumping out the water and there is a lot of mud remaining on the bottom and they need to remove it before it dries.
Dry mud becomes like concrete.
The day passed by very slowly, but quicker today as there was a little bit for me to do. I wait for them to be ready with the scaffolding etc. so I can get my crew in to work. As of now there is not very much for them to do.
I was told that the scaffolding was “almost” ready and I sent my TOP TEAM with chipping machines just to discover that they had done nothing with the scaffolding.
Our new O/S chipping ballast tank hatches
Our new O/S was put to chip our ballast tank hatches so they will be like new when we leave the shipyard. We have Lloyds onboard to survey the ship and they want to inspect all the tanks. And one team is measuring the steel thickness.
So we need to open manholes to cofferdams etc. and our crew is busy opening manholes for them to enter the spaces.
I could discharge the last ballast in the afternoon while they removed the bottom plugs. It was soon time for dinner and then an evening in my room.
Opening manholes to the cofferdams
+++++++++++++++
Thursday 18 th
of April 2024
and we are looking forward to yet another day in the dry dock. My reliever land in China today and he will be onboard tomorrow around 11 o'clock.So, I will leave on Saturday and I really look forward to come back home.
2nd Officer on deck
One of our ABs on deck
+++++++++++++++
Saturday 20 th
of April 2024
and I wake up for my last day onboard. The new Chief Officer arrived yesterday and the original plan was for me and the Chief Engineer to leave two hours after they arrived on board.19 Apr 23:15 - Shanghai Pudong (PVG) Term 2h 20 Apr 02:25 - Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) CA805
So, we changed for the same date but one day later. They will pick us up at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Click HERE to find out if I make it to Shanghai Pudong International Airport and my flight to Suvarnabhumi International.
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