July262010
Posted in Merchant Navy | No Comments
My 2 months off has gone reasonably fast and I will be heading to the airport tomorrow ready to fly back to the Minerva. This time I don’t really have far to go, I will be joining on Wednesday in Dover so it’s just a nice quick 50 minute flight, which is a first for me joining ship – normally I have at least 1 connecting flight.
I will be on Minerva for around 4 months, the first month will be spent cruising round the United Kingdom (although mainly the Scottish islands) with a jaunt up to Iceland. She will then be relocating back to the sunny Mediterranean with a few cruises around the Mediterranean and a trip up to the Black Sea.
I should leave, if all goes to plan some time in November before she heads off to Asia for the winter season.
June202010
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Well I went off to visit a friend I met on the Minerva last year down in Wales. After spending a few days at her house we went up to Alton Towers for 2 days.
It’s been ages since I was last at Alton Towers and it has changed a lot. It was brilliant and it wasn’t really that busy on the thursday, which was odd as it was a lovely sunny day and very hot.
By the time we got to the hotel and our park tickets it was around midday. We went straight to the park and worked out way around the rides; we managed to do pretty much every ride on the thursday, although we left Th13teen, Sonic Spinball and Rita until the friday.
As we stayed in the Alton Towers hotel we got into the park an hour before everyone else on the friday morning, so we used this time to go on Sonic Spinball and then went and joined the queue for Th13teen ahead of everyone else.
So over the two days we did every ride except Oblivion – I didn’t fancy that, but Air and Nemesis are brilliant.
Th13teen has a lot of hype built up about it and while it was fun it really wasn’t that scary!
Unfortunately the good weather didn’t last until the Friday, it started pouring around midday so we returned to one of the hotels to have lunch and then drove back to Wales.
June112010
Posted in Merchant Navy | 2 Comments
I finished my second contract onboard Minerva last week, it turned out to be quite interesting with an unscheduled dry dock in the middle!
From where I left off last time, we finished in Antarctica having hit the worst storm I have ever experienced while on our way from Antarctica to the Falkland Islands. It was so bad we had to just put the swell on our stern and maintain minimum speed until it had passed. 2 days pitching and rolling in waves which were the same height as the bridge was not fun!
We eventually pulled into Stanley, Falkland Islands rather late – so late in fact that we proceeded directly alongside a bunker barge to take on additional fuel and then departed a few hours later for Mar del Plata, Argentina.
After leaving South America we returned across the Atlantic to Africa, visiting Senegal and Gambia before heading up to the Canary Islands and back into the Mediterranean.
We arrived into Piraeus a day early and then proceeded to an island called Syros to enter dry dock to allow for repairs on the starboard propellor shaft. After spending 2 days there we returned to Piraeus and collected the passengers who had just disembarked – they had been unable to fly home due to the volcanic ash. We stayed alongside in Piraeus for a few days until flights were arranged for the passengers stuck onboard, then we proceeded back to Syros where over the period of 3 weeks we were in and out of dry dock several times.
This unfortunately meant that we missed going through the Suez Canal to Jordan, but did provide an opportunity to blast and paint the ships hull while they were carrying out maintenance on the damaged propellor shaft.
After leaving dry dock, we went straight to Istanbul and picked up our passengers, for what was my last cruise, and then went up to the Black Sea visiting Ukraine & Bulgaria before back to Turkey, Greece through the Corinth Canal and onto Malta where I flew home after a 3 day handover.
February212010
Posted in Merchant Navy | Comments Off
So, having recovered from the flu, I flew out to join Minerva in Punta Arenas, Chile on the 6th of February, unfortunately fate had other plans and the ships itinerary was changed. Luckily my flights were Edinburgh – Paris – Santiago – Punta Arenas, so on arrival in Santiago I got to spend the night in the lovely Holiday Inn at the airport, and flew out the next day to the Falkland Islands. Flying is considerably faster than sailing, so I got to the Falkland Islands a day and half before the ship and spent 2 nights in a hotel in Stanley.
I eventually joined the ship 2 days later than originally planned on the 8th of February and was assigned to the 12 – 4 watch. This contract I am now a second officer so am spending my time keeping the thousands of Admiralty charts up to date.
As I write this we are alongside in Ushuaia, Argentina for the last time this season. We sail tomorrow evening for 3 days in Antarctica then on to the Falkland Islands before heading north to Buenos Aires and onwards to Brazil.
After spending a few weeks sailing off the coast of Brazil and crossing the Atlantic to Africa, we will eventually be back in the Mediterranean and Red Sea until mid June when she heads to the UK.
January82010
Posted in Merchant Navy | Comments Off
