“The postings on this site are my own and don't represent Maersk Group's position, strategies or opinions. All views are my own”
Wednesday 1st of June 2016 and we started the day by opening the valves for the cargo heating. As soon as this was ready we got going with the good morning gymnastics. We will have a fire drill after the 10 o'clock coffee break so we are looking forward for some excitements.
DARN! Evening and time to update the web page and I have forgot what we did during the day. But it have been a busy day and the time have passed by very quickly.
The fire drill was an exercise in fighting fire in the stores on the poop deck. We discussed different techniques to recover people from the sea, MOB situations and when rescuing crew from other ships.
And when we were ready we went through the routines for releasing the CO2. The alarms were tested and when we were ready the crew went on deck to continue with the painting.
There is enough chipping and painting jobs to last them for a life time. But they are making good progress and cargo pipes and manifolds are soon ready. Then they will continue on the winches and the deck. I stated with a discharge plan and I could hear the chipping machines all the way in to the CCR.
My reliever will arrive to Singapore tomorrow afternoon and he will come on board when we drop the anchor early Friday morning. So I'm busy, not only with discharging papers, but also a handover.
Good, plenty to do and the time passing by very quickly and before I know it I'm back home looking at birds again. I need a refresher with my camera as I have forgotten what to use all the buttons for. So a walk in the park can come in handy, especially since I'm soon off to Australia and my “Koala & Kangaroo” adventure.
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Thursday 2nd of June 2016 and we started the day with a safety meeting in the CCR. High H2S content in the ullage spaces so we need to have a safety meeting today, and first thing in the morning. I had prepared a risk assessment yesterday so this was ready.
The whole crew were present in the CCR when I came. Well, almost all crew as some of them were sleeping. High H2S in the ullage space so no one to work on deck today. Just Pump man wearing a BA set while opening the PV valves.
So the whole crew spent the day inside the accommodation and I had handed out two personal gas detectors, one for the bridge and one for the engine department. And we started the IG purging around 9 o'clock in the morning.
First gas check is scheduled to be done just before lunch. And the H2S content was looking very good when we measured quarter to twelve. We had only measured 3 tanks to keep the exposure to a minimum.
But after this result we decided to measure all tanks after lunch. Yes, the day passed by quite quickly and it was soon time to retire to my cabin and some on line courses I'm taking. LNG bunkering and some other interesting (pointless and boring) courses. Of course, the internet is very slow so it takes way longer than I had been hoping for.
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Friday 3rd of June 2016 and we were about to drop the anchor when I came down to the CCR. We have got news and that is that we're going alongside as soon as the immigration is ready. No sign of the launch with the relievers.
I got my flight details yesterday evening, Singapore Airlines flight SQ 970 departing Changi International at 07:10 arriving to Suvarnabhumi International at 08:35. But this will for sure be changed if we're coming along side, no chance we will be ready before tomorrow morning.
And the launch, well, they are waiting at another anchorage, since 5 o'clock in the morning! So we waited for the launch to come before we heaved up the anchor to proceed to Jetty #3 at VOPAK. My reliever went to bed as he had been up all night long.
We started discharging at 17:06 so that means that there will be no need to get up in the middle of the night to complete the discharging. So hopefully a full night of sleep.
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Saturday 4th of June 2016 and my alarm had obviously gone crazy during the night. My alarm was set for 7 fifteen, but it went of, well, at 7 fifteen, but by then the ships time was 8 fifteen so the time had swapped from Singapore to Thailand time.
And it was 10 minutes before 9 when I discovered this.
Well, they had not called me so we are not about to be ready with the discharging any time soon. We completed loading 6 minutes after 1 o'clock in the afternoon and due to congestion in the port there is no Pilot available until 16:30. I had plenty time to pack my bag and I will take a tour on deck with the new Chief Officer after departure.
We left VOPAK Jetty #3 in Singapore at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. We dropped our anchor 20 minutes later to take stores and bunker. I was on deck with the new Chief Officer when we dropped anchor and we could hear a service launch honking the horn approaching us.
The stores are coming and I could see the crew lifting on board pain and stores from the mess room. New Chief Officer and I'm soon off the ship for a few hours before leaving Singapore Airlines flight SQ 970 departing Changi International at 07:10 tomorrow morning, arriving to Suvarnabhumi International at 08:35. OPPS! Yet another flight I could have spent on board a Thai Airways plane!
Yeah, the 10 times Thai entrance fee to national parks, museum etc. for tourists are really working out well for them! I can spend my money someplace else. Anyway, the service launch will come to pick us up around 8 o'clock and first stop on the way to the hotel, a supermarket for a few bottles of Pepsi MAX. I had a Coke light for dinner, one sip and I threw it out in the sink.
6 o'clock and I handed over the responsibilities to the new Chief Officer and I went to pack my last things, the service launch was ordered for 8 o'clock. Our Chief Engineer will not sign off as his reliever is not ready. So it is just me and one of the ABs leaving the ship today.
We were on deck waiting for the launch watching the bunker boat and the bunkering preparation activity.
We were not very surprised when the clock turned 8 and still no sign of any launch bound for us. Yes, the launch were delayed and when the boat finally arrived we were down in the boat in a jiff. They sent down our bags and we were soon on our way to Singapore and our hotel leaving Roy Mærsk behind.
Leaving Roy Mærsk behind on Singapore roads
We passed immigration and the custom and we were in the van on our way to our hotel after a few minutes. I asked the driver to stop at a supermarket to see if we could arrange a few Pepsi MAX. We stopped at a shopping mall and I entered through a 7 Eleven, no Diet Pepsi or Pepsi MAX.
- We have Diet Coke
- I prefer to drink sewage
No Diet Pepsi at the supermarket either so I had a bottle of orange juice from the mini bar when I came in to my room. I went to bed and it was impossible to sleep. I got out of bed and I set up my computer and I finished the last online course with Shipgaz. I was soon back in bed trying to get some sleep. Soon time to wake up again.
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Sunday 5th of June 2016 and they called me at 4 thirty. The driver will come to pick us up at 5 o'clock. I was waiting for my tea but no room service so I went for a shower. I had asked them for a wake-up call at 4 thirty. They confirmed with the room service that they would send a pot of Earl Grey tea at 4 thirty. The driver told us that he would come to pick us up at 4 but we changed it to 5 o'clock.
And as I didn't managed to get hold of any Diet Pepsi I wanted to start the day with a pot of tea. So yes, I was disappointed when there wasn't any room service with tea. But it knocked on the door when I was out of the shower and I had time to enjoy a pot of tea before going down to check out from the hotel. They could not give me 4 Dollars for the vending machine when I checked out. I paid for the mini bar and I asked if they could be so kind to add 4 dollars so I could get cash for 2 bottles of Minute Maid from the vending machine.
So, well, I had not expected anything, especially with their internet, must have been the slowest internet I had ever experienced. Pretty much useless and I could not even open the simplest web page. Anyway, where is the driver? The clock was quarter past 5 when I decided to take a taxi to the airport. The driver dropped a passenger and me and the AB got in to the car and we took off to the airport.
If someone pay you for bringing them to the airport you better be in time. This was just too bad! Same when we joined the ship in Singapore.
Well, this is where the world is going, charge money for a service, and Mærsk is a huge company so you would imagine the van company to be on their toes to provide a good service to secure future business. But as with many things today, you pay for a service and then you should be grateful for them to provide the service. No van and a departing flight so we took a taxi to the airport.
The driver dropped us at Changi International Terminal 2 and I was soon to discover that Singapore Airlines flight SQ 970 from Changi Airport to Suvarnabhumi was departing from gate D40. And gate D40 was the gate furthest away. Actually I had walked all the way back to Terminal 1 and gate D 40 was the first gate at Terminal 1.No breakfast and I was hungry so I stopped at a coffee shop after having bought a few things at the tax free shop. 3 quality USB cables for me. White chocolate for the girls at the condo office and a bottle of Whiskey for my friend.
Immigration at Suvarnabhumi is empty
Reaching the taxi at Suvarnabhumi
I went to see my friend and we had Sunday brunch at the Huntsman, maybe the best Sunday roast in Bangkok. Their apple tarts and vanilla sauce. As good, OK, almost as good as it gets in Skåne. So if you're in Bangkok on a Sunday, visit Landmark Hotel and the Huntsman’s Pub in the basement, excellent food.
We went for a beer when we finished the food, but as I had have no sleep I left my friends. I went back home, with a stop at Foodland to buy Mango, papaya, pineapple and bananas for my fruit salad. And tomorrow it will be boxing again. I will for sure need as much exercise I can get as it is time to take off to Sweden for my Spring roll Tour on Thursday. Click HERE and you will soon find yourself at Österns Pärla in Helsingborg, Skåne.
Just a few days at home, never mind how long time you have been in Thailand, surprises everyday. I had been at my friend’s house for dinner. On my way back home and I asked the taxi to stop at Lawson 108. I needed milk for my tea and a few bottles of Diet MAX. I walked home from Lawson 108 and I passed 7 Eleven. Plenty people outside as usually eating food from the vendors and, yes drinking beer.
An old Thai lady approached the motorcycle taxi driver that was sitting on his bike drinking beer. She wanted to go to the sky train station.
- ไม่ไปดื่มเบียร์เยอะ (I can not go as I have had many beers)
You see the drivers all over town drinking while waiting for passengers so I was so surprised when I heard this I had to look back to see if I had heard it right. Yes, I was, the old lady had to continue looking for another ride to the sky train station. OK, I'm off on my Spring roll Tour.
OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.
Jiffy (also jiff)
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!
Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas
Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!
Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!
Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra
Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!