Where am I now?

Now I know I wrote the last entry, proclaiming how rushed off my feet I am, but some things are more important than work, and my Grandfathers 90th Birthday party was 1 such occasion. Having missed numerous family events over the last few years including my sisters wedding, I was determined to try my hardest to make this one. The location of the party was also very special to the whole family, as it is where we gathered 22 years ago to celebrate my Great-Grandfathers 100th Birthday.
So on Friday afternoon, I ran away from the ship, jumped on a ferry, and began a marathon journey to make it back to the Gower in Wales for the party.
I had kept my attendance a surprise as I didn't know till the last minute whether drydock progress would enable me to go, or not. The journey there involved 4 countries in 12 hours, beginning in Denmark, then the ferry to Sweden, a flight to Stansted, and a long drive to Wales.
I arrived on Saturday morning, and bumped into 1 of my cousins who told me my parents and grandfather were walking along a beach. We met as they were walking back along the beach, and it was a great suprise greeted with hugs all round and a few tears. Then it was back to the hotel to meet up with more family before heading to Caswell Beach with the next generation of the family.

It was a place that I had spent lots of time as a child, and I soon reverted back to my youth, taking off my shoes, and messing around in rock pools with my nephew and his cousins.

Then it was back to the hotel to meet yet more of the family and have a good catch up and an afternoon swim.

The family soon divided into the swimmers and the drinkers. Surprisingly I was in the swimming category. Although it was more a splashing session than a swimming session.

Saturday night saw 26 of the family gathered for an excellent meal and far too much drink. The cobwebs and hangovers were soon blown away on Sunday morning as we all headed out for a nice walk along the cliffs.

I say nice. Its all fairly relative, and maybe strong winds, cold temperatures, and rain aren't everyones idea of fun, but it didn't seem to bother any of us. Although the nice bar and comfy sofa were very welcome on the return to the hotel. Even better was been able to share the sofa with my Dad and Nephew.

Then it was time for the big event of the weekend, and my Grandfathers birthday lunch. He shared blowing out the candles on the cake with 3 of his great-grandchildren, who then proceeded to demolish as much of the cake as their parents would let them.

Then unfortunately for me the weekend was over, and another marathon journey lay ahead. This time it was a cross country drive to Gatwick, and a late night flight back to Denmark.

So a very busy weekend, a very long way to go, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Well, since my last update, almost all of the good intentions have gone by the wayside. Not only have I been very slow and useless at keeping my blog upto date, I have been even worse at the new exercise regime. I do however have some very good excuses.

Life as Chief Officer is very hectic, but the experience is so far a very good one. The only thing that has been lacking over the last 6 weeks is some time at sea. We are currently in drydock in Denmark, and before that we were laid up in Montrose as there was no further jobs for us. So lots of time in port, which has been a pretty fair mix of work and play.

As for drydock, we arrived in Denmark about 2 weeks ago, and have been in drydock for just over a week. The preparation involved in getting to this point was a steep learning curve for me, as I needed to check all the stability information and ensure that I was all set for the massive jobs list once we docked.

Before we could dock, the drydock needed to be inspected to ensure that all the blocks that the ship was going to sit on were in the right positions. Luckily the yard here are excellent, and everything was as it should be, to enable us to access all the underwater fittings.

The drydock is different to my past experiences in that we are in a floating dock. This meant that after we were in position, the water was slowly pumped out of the dock, letting the dock float up and take our weight. It was all a very quick and efficient process, as has everything else been since our arrival.

Once we were high and dry, it was back down to the dock bottom to get the before pictures. This revealed quite a bit of marine growth, and several bare patches where the ice had beaten the paint in the battle for supremacy.

Since our arrival it has been non stop, with people crawling all over the ship. As I currently write, we have no rudder or propeller in the ship as they are both ashore for work. The entire underside has been sand blasted to bare metal ready for a new coating. And I have had the unenviable task of crawling through every horrible, nasty tank onboard to check the condition and identify any work required. So a very busy, dirty and tiring time!

All that said, the work is going very well, and I am enjoying it. More importantly it is a great opportunity to learn more about the ship and the Chief Officers job.


And whilst I have been busy getting the big ship refitted, I haven't completely forgotton about my little boat back in Spain. In the evenings I have been trying to get to grips with some nice easy carpentry, and have made some nice new name boats for Fintail. Not bad for a first effort with a router, and I didn't even end up with any stitches!