The only two tankers in Cape Town were us and the above, Nyborg Maersk from Denmark. So Scandinavia was well represented in the southern hemisphere at any rate. She was coming in to load as we were discharging, another mysterious transaction no doubt but I have no solid proof, only liquid! I learned the other week that if the Maersk is last in a ship’s name then it is owned by them (Maersk that is) if it comes first then it is on charter to them, so q.e.d. by the powers of deduction this one is owned by them and she had the port of Nyborg strangely enough as registry and Danish flag. Anyone who knows different or can confirm my recent learning can comment as usual.
She had a stern radar antenna which was interesting/unusual for a tanker I suppose it depends on where you are trading.
All of our crew were on deck watching as she floated by and the Danes stared at the Swedes, dourly like good Scandinavians. If it had been two Irish ships the crew would have waved at least, or two British ships the crews would have traded insults and given each other the two finger and one finger gesture, and roared at each other good natured of course, but not these 2 crews they only stared.
The deep sea adventure draws to a close as we get in radio range of Lisbon, I left home on the 12th of August to join in Cape Town and we departed South Africa on the 20th of August, no internet, no telly, limited e-mail and no phone contact until the other day at Las Palmas and now this evening we came back into the shadow of a nice satellite which means Tims Times is open again for business.
The above photo is taken on our departure, at the time we were conducting a stowaway search, we had been warned that stowaways manage to slip through the security net and ships heading for Europe were prime targets for a free trip, we didn’t find any even though I had nightmares about finding families of refugees in the pipe tunnel. There are 3000 refugees daily coming in to South Africa from Zimbabwe and Somalia and other African countries, we saw a few outside the Immigration building looking for visas, it was a bizarre feeling being so noticeably white and obviously wealthier among poor black refugees, no amount of Irish charm was going to work on these guys if the shit hit the fan. Our agent was nervous also which didn’t help, he had a walkie talkie in his hand and he kept saying to me I’ll smack them in the face with the radio if they come near me, I believed him. They didn’t come near us. (The bald guy on the right was our agent, I was right behind him)
A small bit of excitement in Cape Town, and meeting a few more Irish people, one was Argentinian Irish the grandfather was Irish and spoke English with a clear South American dialect but he looked like one of the locals from Wexford, his people were from the South East, and he had moved to South Africa to escape the chaos of the Peron years in Argentina, he was on the move again to escape the chaos of South Africa. The other Irish guy was from Cork and he thought that the place was great, he said the only ones complaining were the South African whites, and let them he said . It was hard to take in all the different takes on life, I thought the agent was the most interesting, he kept going on about the black criminals and the black refugees, and how the black police were useless, sure he was black himself, he was the one with the walkie talkie as a weapon. Then it was off to sea for 2 weeks, well it’s blue and there is lots of it and I’m glad to be nearing land again.
There will be more news coming soon, watch this space……
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