2007 August archive at Tims Times

Archive for August, 2007

Deep Sea

Published August 12, 2007 in blog. 2 Comments

Will be joining in Cape Town tomorrow so I will probably be off the air for a two week or so, the satellite only covers the Northern hemisphere for internet anyway, so I’ll have to wait until I am the northern side of the equator before I can start posting again.

Neptunes grace and all, I do have my crossing the line cert but it was a while ago now….

Forest stroll

Published August 10, 2007 in Nature, From Sweden and At home. 1 Comment

The countryside around where I live is full of magnificent nature, you can wander for hours without seeing another person. You might meet a hare or deer, I have even seen a lynx making tracks fast in the opposite direction to me. However even though you might not see another human you can always tell that they have been there. I always considered that Swedes were law abiding honest decent hard working, and into tennis and Abba, then I moved to Sweden. The Swedish people are just as law abiding as any other type of people, when it suits them, and they have a holier than thou attitude against those that are openly caught committing crime while secretly thinking of ways to perfect their own criminal activities. Ok maybe thats a bit hard, most people no matter where are honest and law abiding, but the police go around with Glocks on their side here and exploding armoured money transport vans a fairly regular occurrence.

Back to my walk in the forest, there I was enjoying the fresh air and slightly damp smell of vegetation when I spied the following…..

3 out of 4 used tyres on rims, carefully placed in the woods in case anyone needs them. I know that all tyre outlets have to take used tyres and wheels in for recycling, and that is a law here they can’t refuse, so whoever placed these wheels in the forest had to go far out of their way. So it can’t have been laziness, maybe stupidity, or an emergency brought on by a sudden chemical imbalance and they felt they were under threat from the wheels so had to dump them quickly. The last explanation may not be so crazy as later on in my stroll the following plants known for their distinctive shape and many uses appeared in a clearing….

Not your normal forest flora in this part of the world, but may have been for making hemp rope and the like……or for smoking? I didn’t hang around to have a friendly chat with the grower, self preservation being high on my personal list of priorities! My forest stroll turned rapidly in to a brisk jog away from the clearing and towards civilization…it is safer there.

Last Resort

Published August 4, 2007 in Tankers, UAE, VLCC and From the ship. 0 Comments

The bar on the Resource was called “The Last Resort”, I spent two trips on this giant VLCC, both memorable for different reasons but all good memories none the less. The above photo is pre-digital from the archives and taken circa 1997 at Dubai Dry Dock when she was given a face lift and had a few hundred tonnes of steel replaced. She won the safety award for that year also, much to the disappointment of all the LNG ships in the fleet who thought they had such an easy ride in that department. These days the above collection of steel plates are razor blades as they say in the trade.
She was built in 1975, and was mothballed for 5 years from ‘76 till ‘81 when she was rebuilt in the engine room with a diesel engine having originally had a steam turbine plant. The ship was a bit of a freak, with all the old steam ancillaries and the big boilers from the old steam plant with this huge diesel in the middle of everything. The temperatures in the Gulf in the summer went up to 60C in the pit, and the double crew of diesel rats and steam queens giving each other hell. She had 2 of everything bar Captain and Chief Engineer.
When I was there she had Sierra Leone crew, Polish fitters, Canadian, Irish, Polish and British officers all told 44 compliment.

She was a big old beast as can be seen from the below photo, note the draft marks on the stern, and the boys on the scaffolding around the rudder, large dimensions we speak about here.

This 270,000 tonner was demolished in the year 2000, 25 years after being built. I have a T-shirt that says “British Resource RIP, Rust in Peace 25th Anniversary The Last Resort”