MNTB - Careers At Sea

Date: 16th November 2007
Location: Yokohama, Japan

She's a really fast ship
The ship is nearly full but there is room for a bit more cargo before crossing the Pacific to Los Angeles, our last call here will be Yokohama, Japan. It has been a busy period with this port being the last of seven over a ten day period. We arrived in China on 7 November and have been stretched ever since. Three Chinese ports, Dalian, Xingang and Qingdao on consecutive days followed by Busan and Kwangyang in Korea. Yesterday was Nagoya, Japan and today we have about five hours alongside to drop off a few containers and load a couple of hundred to take to the USA.

Good news. The pilot boarding time has been changed from 0600 to 0800 which is a bit more civilised and means there will be a chance for breakfast as well. It is not very far from Nagoya to Yokohama and it's a very busy area with lots of fishermen and plenty of small coasters to avoid. We are not used to going slowly and are rarely overtaken, but over the last night have had to take our place with the coasters going along at a very gentle 11kts instead of our more normal 22kts. The full speed of this ship is highly impressive but is rarely used due to the environmental impact and cost of high fuel consumption. It is great fun though, particularly if there is someone to show off to, ideally a passing warship or passenger ship. Last year in the Caribbean it was necessary for safety reasons to overtake a cruise liner and US destroyer at close range at full speed. Very satisfying!

0930 All fast in Yokohama. A nice day with a straightforward pilotage and a simple berth approach. Very cautious pilot - pleasantly common in Japan - and although sometimes a few minutes slower, undoubtedly much safer.

0945 All the paperwork complete and not much of it either, unlike some countries. It is usually the countries which are underdeveloped where the paperwork seems to increase to make the jobs go round!

1430 Everything done, paperwork too so we can set sail for the US. Looking forward to ten days at sea though the weather predictions are not looking too good.

Date: 22nd November 2007
Location: At sea, Pacific Ocean

Bad weather - and stabiliser trouble
0200 Well it isn't very good sleeping weather, and to make things worse one of the stabilisers packed up in the middle of the night. If that wasn't rude enough, it gave up with maximum pitch angle and refused to come in so made things worse for a few hours until we persuaded it to 'house'. We have two fin stabilisers that stick out about six metres from the side of the ship and fold themselves away when we don't need them. Normally they are brilliant, but not today.

0300 Some new advice from the weather routeing centre. They are suggesting a more southerly route but I don't think it is necessary as the weather improvement to be expected is slight and the increase in fuel used will not justify it. As it is already improving we will follow our planned track.

0800 The weather is moderating, down from Storm Force 10 to Gale Force 8. As the weather is from behind us the ship is fairly comfortable. This is helped by the fact that we are completely full of cargo which improves our stability. This is termed the ship being 'tender', where she rolls gently. The opposite is when the ship is 'stiff', in our case this means empty or at least with little cargo, when the rolling is much quicker and more violent - not nice at all. Although the maths isn't very exciting it must be carefully checked, as if the ship is too tender, in extreme conditions, she could capsize!

1200 Looking forward to a Sunday afternoon rest - a luxury after the coast, and having been up since 0200 when the stabilisers went wrong. I deserve it!

1600 Daily visit to the gym - the weather is definitely much better now. Try to do around half an hour running on the treadmill most days as otherwise, like most occupations, I will spend too long sitting down, mainly in front of the computer screen. We have a small swimming pool too, and it's quite nice when the weather allows - but certainly not in the Pacific in the middle of winter!

Date: 24th November 2007
Location: Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California USA

Christmas shopping in Los Angeles
Los Angeles tomorrow. There are lots of pre arrival checks and tests to complete and be properly recorded and reported. Some we do for every country and port, some specifically for the US, and even some simply unique to the State of California. Regrettably it seems only too easy to introduce ever more rules for us to follow. Some of these show muddled thinking and incomplete understanding. Unfortunately that doesn't mean we can ignore the rules we don't agree with!

We are expecting some contractors to carry out a number of jobs which are to be paid for by the shipyard under the warranty from new building. That means more preparations: permissions from the port, Coast Guard and company for welding, a chemist to come and ensure one of the oil residue tanks is clean enough for welding work ...

The good news is that we should have nearly two days here, a rare luxury, as the ship is arriving full and needs to be almost completely emptied then refilled before sailing. This should mean that if all goes well a shopping trip to get some Christmas presents should be possible. Whilst work generally increases in port, by rotating the work and watches, and with such a long period alongside, a few hours ashore is generally available for those who want it.

The forecast for the next few days is also good, so we'll be able get some outside maintenance done. Maintenance can be quite hard in the north Pacific as it is generally cold, often foggy and sometimes too rough to tackle the outside jobs. But today we're in luck!