Ship stories and other stuff
The Netherlands coastguard ship “Frans Naerebout” heading back out to sea again with a few buoys for repositioning. We were alongside near Flushing for about 30 hours and this lad was back and forth at least twice in the time we were there.
Note the hull markings are not entirely unlike the US Coast Guard.
Kustwacht The website link.
The sea is big and we are small, we got a fair beating in the North Sea the other day, the wind was cold and from the North and it whipped up the sea, and because we were heading west we got it on the beam. So there were a few green faces among the crew, the picture above shows the big sea and the small ship is what we are on. The decks were covered with seas and the howling wind was whistling through the ventilation system enough to make you wonder what the hell you are doing at sea and not at home eating chocolate Easter eggs.
But now it’s Sunday, and we are in the Irish Sea, the wind has died down and we’ll survive to fight another day.
In the North Sea, so there is nothing really good about this Friday, at least I’m not being crucified today for a chocolate egg on Sunday. We have some orthodox Christians in the crew, they won’t be celebrating for another month so we get two Easters this year. Someone decided a long time ago about how to calculate the day Easter would fall on and they couldn’t agree on that or Christmas for that matter. It all has to do with Full moons and equinoxes, and that it has to be a Sunday I suppose, they could have made a simple rule like the GAA have for September; first Sunday Hurling, last Sunday Football, easy no full moons or hokes pokes with equinoxes.
There seems to have been a lot of thing decided a long time ago that have an affect on our lives today that we would be better off without, not least religious decisions about clothes and food and drink and cutting off body parts, for all we know Lazarus was comatose from the drink and Jesus just gave him a drop of the crathur to liven him up, now getting very irreverent here so I won’t give any interpretations on the Easter theory.
The pope will appear in his pharaoh hat and give his Easter message, but it might as well be an Eater message as the whole show these days revolves around getting stuffed with chocolate and food, and pissed on box wine which is just the ticket for our obese western culture. The archeologists of the future when unraveling the mystery of the decline of western civilization will realise that it was because “they must have eaten themselves to death” Jesus would surely be turning in his grave at the way his legacy was being treated if it wasn’t for the fact that he rose from the dead and has no grave at all.
Have to go, the cook wants more eggs. Happy Easter.
On the Netherlands coast last year we had to disembark the pilot by helicopter because the weather was too rough for the pilot boat. The decision to use the helicopter was taken at the last minute and the pilot had been expecting to get off by launch, but he had the helicopter suit and helmet with just in case.
He wanted to get off by boat and he was very dischuffed about the whole helicopter lark, he didn’t say anything and remained professional but his facial expression fell and there was a fair deal of huffing and puffing putting on the immersion suit. His hands were a bit shaky also, I felt sorry for him but he marched out stoicly and his departure was successful.
It was a fairly spectacular sight to see the yellow chopper buzzing over the deck, I was in the helicopter party, which sounds like fun maybe but is a bit more serious, we have the bolt cutters and chemical foam and extinguishers ready if it all goes wrong. It didn’t and the pilot flew away and we sailed away.
The Pilot Boat has more on pilot operations click on the link and head on over.
After browsing the Norwegian newspaper sites I have made a brief account of the court hearing in Ålesund Norway 25th April about the capsize of the Bourbon Dolphin.
The court heard from several witnesses including the off duty Master and one of the Officers who was rescued from the scene. Geir Syversen (32) described how the sequence of events started when another vessel the Highland Valour failed to retrieve the heavy anchor cable from the Bourbon Dolphin which was apparently too small for the job. The Highland Valour during seven attempts to take the chain caught it twice but dropped it both times, increasing the strain on the Bourbon Dolphin.
There was also a near collision between the two vessels which meant that the Bourbon Dolphin had to go full ahead on her engines to avoid a collision, calling into question the seamanship and shiphandling of the Highland Valour.
Then the Valour pushed the Dolphin in the wrong direction and the Dolphin was pushed out of position which meant that her bow thruster got overheated and the Chief Engineer asked him to reduce the load on the thruster.
The Domino effect was in full swing and problems stared mounting for the Bourbon Dolphin, when the Master decided that emergency measures were required, he asked the Chief Officer to use the quick release system to get rid of the anchor chain, but it was not so quick and by then the Chief Engineer called up to say that the engines had stopped.
By this stage hope was out for the ship and it had listed over on its side 90 degrees port side down.
Some of the crew managed to get off before she turned completely around. Then the survivors managed to climb into a raft and others were plucked out of the water.
The Master and his 14 year old son were among 8 crew lost in the accident.
The Norwegian Goverment has set up a Committee to investigate further into the accident.
Be my guest and leave a comment if you like!
| Irish Bloggers Webring |
|---|
| Join | Ring Hub | Random | Prev | Next |
Powered by FireStats
© 2006 to 2008 www.timstimes.net
Powered by FireStats
Recent Comments