cabin fever

I know many of you have been on tenter hooks but you need not have worried after two days of hardcore nagging of the first mate I managed to secure a much coveted SCART cable for the dvd player - no more books just the warm glow of the goggle box to sooth me. As I connected the magical cable it seemed to shimmer in the half light of our cabin, it was only when I switched on the player that I realised the laser on the player was shagged ! It was another day before I managed to find a player that worked - Anyway before this blog starts to resemble confessions of a Dixon's worker back to the boat.

Being on the ship was a bloody amazing experience, the captain was Polish, the engineers and first mate were Crotian and Ukranian while the 3rd mate, cook and deck crew were all Phillipinos - there were 20 crew in total and we were the only passengers! The boat itself was 168m long.

Despite our best efforts we had three hot meals a day in the officers mess (nice but not as posh as it sounds). The food was simple but good worth some really tasty soups however the language barrier appeared problematic when trying to secure half portions or request anything in particular. We had no safety drill bag search or formal introduction to the boat other than being shown our cabin which was a weird - we didn't find the table tennis table for days.

The bridge was great with awesome views on the handful of days the New Foundland fog did not obscure them!

Take it to the bridge, or maybe just leave it below deck.....

officers mess - hotmeals at 8, 12 and 1700

 Our route

I think I have the eye colour to pull off a survival suit

About the voyage - Where to begin?
The first night seems as good a place as any to start, bloody hell the lock out of liverpool port is narrow!!  There was apparently only 60cm clearance below the ship and the tide was on its way out but the crew and pilot were up to the job, with a lot of shouting of numbers and something about the midships, we were eventually out at sea. Every containership has a pilot that meets them to get them in out of port.

Day 1

The highlight of the first day was definitely the coastguard helicopter which radio'd to ask if they could use the boat in a drill - the relaxed crew were more than happy to oblige and after much toing and froing a member of the helicopter crew was dropped onto the deck. Initially he looked well chuffed at the maneuver but as we gawped at him and his mates circled overhead it became obvious that he was starting to feel like a bit of a tit and waited with a slightly pained expression until he was picked up again. The chopper came in really low and was a good source of entertainment. We also picked up our first passenger a very lost looking racing pigeon who kept circling the boat and occasionally landing and slipping about on the containers.

Day 2

The roughest part of the trip, 3 to 4 metre waves Fi felt a bit seasick and slept most of the day. The chairs are super heavy, the table is stuck down and they all have lips to stop stuff coming off, even the television is strapped down.

Day 3

Got out on the lower deck for the first time, but only on one side as there were still some smaller waves spilling over.

Day 4

Saw a pod of 10-15 dolphins from the bridge. There have been seabirds around us every day even today when we were 600 miles from the Azores, 700 from home and Newfoundland

Day 5

First game of table tennis against chief engineer and second lookout - both thrashed me but was good fun and was much in need of the exercise after all those cooked dinners.

Day 6

Slightly shambolic fire drill, not sure all members of the crew would have survived! but did get to have ago in all the life boats but only on deck. We also picked up our second passenger, a barn swallow, who perched on the never used basketball hoop at the back of the boat - I asked about the ball but no one had seen it for several years.

Day 7

Land ahoy - Coming into Chester