1 a.m., the clock is turned back 1h.
We're on our way towards Santos in Brazil.
The captain orders a slight change of course so we'll get close to Lanzarote. This way we'll have the pleasure of having Internet access with our phones one last time :-)
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Friday 27. October 2017
Today we had drills, "Fire below deck" and "Abandon ship". The first one was signaled by the general alarm, 7x short and 1x long beep which were deafeningly loud. The crew had to fight a simulated fire in the forward cargo holds where the dangerous goods are stored. For the passengers that meant to take our life jacket, go to the bridge and wait for further instructions. So the alarm sounds, I grab my jacket, put on my shoes and go to the bridge. There the captain only says: "Ah, first passenger on the bridge, where's the second? Ah, there he is, ok, you may leave again..." Okaaaayyyy, that was less exciting than I'd hoped for. So I went in search of the fire crew but everything was already over. Shortly after the captain sounded the "Abandon ship" alarm, 1x shot and 1x long until the ship is gone. This time I grab the jacket and the immersion suit and go directly to the starboard life boat. There I entered the life boat together with 11 crew members. That's really worth the experience. So 12 persons in there is ok but these things are made for an estimated 30 persons!!! An anchovie has more room in its can! Then we went through the steps to lower the boat. Don't laugh now, it's important to make sure the plug is the drain in the bottom, I'm not kidding. Otherwise the thing will take on water. But hold on to your seats, what is the first thing you do once you're in the water? I don't think you'll guess, I was certainly surprised... Any guesses?
Everybody, really everybody has to take pills against motion sickness. Otherwise everybody would start to puke within 15 minutes or so. Imagine the situation. Rough seas, all hatches closed, only 12 persons in the can, no windows to look out and the thing is moving like rollercoaster. Sooner or later the first one will start and then the rest. I think we can agree that nobody wants that. To make a long story short, the life boat is really the last straw. According to the captain a life raft is even worse...After dinner I had an appointment with the barber :-D
Around 10 p.m. I went to the bridge as so often. It's really interesting to see how much nothing there is to see... And now for the highlight, please remember, we're currently going from the Canaries to Brazil on the direct route. When all of a sudden another ship comes directly our way. No sh....! And what does he do? Well, nothing at first and then he changes course to port, from his point of view... That was a little too much for our officer in charge who radioed the other vesel to remind him that you always change course to starboard in such cases... What can you say, just once I'd like to work with professionals :-)
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Saturday 28. October 2017
1 a.m., the clock is turned back 1h.
It's the cooks birthday... So there'll be a party at 6:30 p.m. and everybody is invited. I noticed that on the order list for the cantine the brandy is crossed out, hmmm, let's see. When I get there around 7 p.m. everybody is still sitting rather quiet around tables in the crews recreational room. When they see me they wave me in quite friendly. On the tables are plates full of food and two bottles of brandy. Also, there's a 30l keg of beer as well, let's see how much fun this will be. Before I know it there's a glas of beer in front of me. Musik videos are running in the television, apparently to warm up for Karaoke. What am I doing here?
After some time Felix, the steward, picks up the mike and sings the first songs. Not bad at all and with a lot of enthusiasm. The others are not ready yet to sing and I decline as well when asked if I wanted to sing.
Little by little the party gets going and one by one the Philipinos pick up the mike and sing :-) After my third beer I finally had enough liquid courage and give it a try with Billy Joels "River of Dreams". What can I say? It sounded like a great idea and in my head it sounded awesome... Well, unfortunately reality looked, or rather sounded drastically different. In the end I got 8 out of 100 possible points. What can I say? There is a reason I don't sing in a band. Well, the evening is still young.
My glass is almost empty when the cook takes it away for a refill. I thank him and decline politely. Shortly after I've got a full glass again. Ok, so that's how this works. I stick to the beer and let the others drink the brandy. And boy, they drink it like water, well, almost.
Then I perform "Hold the line" from Toto. Much better, and the machine displays 99 points... Wait, what? Ok, apparently it's only important to make a sound when the machine expects it. It doesn't really matter if you hit the tone or not. Also some of the crew profit from this behaviour. Thank goodness I'm not the worst one. Hard to believe but true.
Towards midnight, as I give everything singing "Wild Boys" from Duran Duran all the Philipinos are suddenly gone and only Aaron remains. He sings one last song and then we close the party :-)
Two things I learned:
1. Alcohol seems to turn Philipinos into peaceful Karaoke singers and
2. Don't get between a Philipino and his Karaoke machine, or his song. Because this is where the fun seems to end :-D
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Sunday 29. October 2017
1 a.m., the clock is turned back 1h, thank goodness.
Started the day rather slowly. My head is still a little heavy. Must have been the singing....
So I sleep away half the day. Around 3 p.m. I go the the steering engine room. Apparently there's a basketball match every sunday. But except for Alexis, the electrician, and Pawel, the second engineer no one is there. Seems the rest of the crew is digesting the previous day :-)
After half an hour I'm completely wasted and wet as a towel. Temperatures there are above 90 degrees and the closeness to the equator causes high humidity. Also you need ear plugs because the machines are loud as heck.
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Monday 30. October 2017
Today we finally got the long awaited tour of the machine room with the chief engineer. You can see that he loves his job because during the whole time he had a simle on his lips. Then again maybe this was only because I was grinning the whole time because of all the machinery :-)
In European waters these vessels use diesel fuel to fulfill the regulations for harmful emissions. Once on the open ocean they switch to heavy fuel oil. You can't imagine the effort it takes, or maybe you can? I didn't have the faintest idea...
The heavy oil is kept at 40-50 degrees centigrade to keep it fluid. Otherwise they'd have to use shovels (surely you've seen pictures of beaches covered in oil after tanker sank)... For security reasons this is done using steam. The steam is generated by a steam generator in the exhaust trakt of the engine. Afterwards the fuel has to be cleaned quite extensively. They have to get rid of water, filter it multiple times and and and. Left over is sludge which has to be disposed of in port.
Afterwards the fuel is heated to about 140-150 degrees centigrade before being injected into the two stroke engine. That is quite the sight. I don't have exact dimensions gut I guess the engine is about 12m high, 8m wide and 10m long. Next to it is a spare piston and ... The piston is about 3.5m high and a spare connecting rod. Can't say how high it is but it's big.
I don't even know what to write about? I could fill pages...Now if I hear people taking about their cars: "Mine has a 3.0l engine, 200kW and 420Nm!!!" Well, this thing, ich can only guess the size of the zylinders, maybe I can get some numbers. Well about 19,000l I would gess, 29,398kW (at 80% or 78 RPM, max 40670kW at 84 RPM) and 3,624kNm (no, that's no typo). Now that's power and I'm only standing about 2m away! Ok, let's not talk about fuel consumption. Currently it's using about 5.5 tons per hour! No way you can move that with a shovel. At least not with a crew of 26.
The tanks hold about 1242t of diesel, 8,007t of heavy fuel and 392t of motor oil. That makes the guy at the gas station happy :-DSo, how do you start a two stroke engine like that? With 30bar (450PSI) of air pressure. So the air storage tanks are big as well.
But what surprised me the most, the propeller is directly connected to the engine! No generator that feeds an electric motor... Ahem, Hristov, how do you set this thing in reverse? Well, take a guess. Well, acutally rather easy if you think about it...
You reverse the firing order of the cylinders!!!
As the engine isn't powering a generator the ships electricity has to be produced somewhere else. It comes from 5 generators each supplying 4,320 kW at 6,600V! These are then transformed to 440V for the Reefers and 240V for the crew quarters.
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Tuesday 31. October 2017
Did exactly zip today...
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Wednesday 01. November 2017
1 a.m., the clock is turned back 1h, again...
Finally, the equator. Unfortunately I can't see it because it's 0:50h... The ship doesn't roll over and toilet isn't showing unnatural behavior either... But maybe that's because it's a vacuum system ;-)
There's also no party or shananigans, so back to bed it is.
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Thursday 02. November 2017
Towards afternoon spotted some whales. About 3h ago we hit the continental shelf of South America (ocean floor rose from ~4000m to <50m almost instantly) They give birth to their young in these shallow waters. However, this is no whale watching trip and our ship goes on regardless. Also my vantage point on the bridge (50m above the water) doesn't really help. Still nice :-)
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Friday 03. November 2017
Did exactly zip today...
Bearthed in Santos, Brazil around 10 p.m.
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