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!
