Tuesday 24 June 2008

Off to Sea!

Cargo loading went on all night. Woke to find the ship sailing away from Houston. Great to be underway.






The ship’s Captain is a Mr Darko Falconi a strong reserved Croatian from Dubrovnik. Whilst the Chief Engineer is a Mr Eugeniusz Kolodziejczyk a talkative and enthusiastic Pole from Gdansk. The rest of the crew are a bunch of smiling Philippinos. They are fabulous always warm hearted and brimming with friendliness. Alas their English is a little weak so conversation is rather staccato.



On my first trip up to the bridge I was surprised to find one young philippino watching over the systems. I had expected to see a room full of bodies intently manning radar screens or clutching binoculars looking for elusive icebergs. Alas no such activity. The ship practically runs itself. The voyage is programmed in, the Captain keeps an eye on the weather reports and the companies HQ sends suggestions for routes according to their weather forecasts. Otherwise the ship is fully computerized.






Well there really is very little to do on board. The crew spend the day making themselves busy – painting, cleaning and prepping for their next port of call.



So the routine. Breakfast from 7.30-8.30, lunch 11.30-12.30 and supper 17.30 – 18.30. The officers sit at one table the guests as another. It’s an odd arrangement especially as there are only three of us at the moment!!! We are picking two more passengers up in Philadelphia.






Spent the evening with the crew and the Chief Engineer celebrating the third officers birthday.


1 comment:

Bradpetehoops said...

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