The speakers of the bridge stereo are blasting out the sound of Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet” album from the 80’s. The voice of New Jersey native Jon Bon Jovi is appealing to us and in the dark it reminds me of those sweaty discos back in Wexford 20 years ago.
The adrenaline shock from the Satellite alarm gets me right back to the present, with the siren breaking the music like a nuclear attack warning, every time the bastard goes off I think WW3 has been declared. This time it is merely a Navigation warning for the Straits of Gib., fat lot of good it is to us up here in the North Sea, not one of my favourite places to be.
We are crossing at the time of writing an area near the Fergus Oil Field, on a border area shared by the UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, the rigs go from being called Ardmore, Angus, Flora and Fife to Valhalla, Svend, Valdemar and Rolf.
Meanwhile out on the main deck our cargo fan is belting away at 200 bar pressure driving out the vapours of the last cargo Naphtha and replacing them with cool, clean, fresh North Sea air, the ship is airlocked down with a carbon filter on the intakes keeping out the nasty smell of Naphtha, it doesn’t stop the vapours from finding a way in and every so often there is a smell of brimstone mixed with pig slurry, a real pleasant waft to get across the olfactory membrane.
The Naphtha is used as a cracking additive in the petrochemicals industry and is really nice stuff, it has the skull and crossbones symbol, is highly flammable and dangerous for the environment. It may cause genetic mutation, cancer and other sicknesses. It says no smoking here on the checklist, although smoking would be the healthy option when given the choice between the two.
The sampling guy had a breathing mask and filter but the hose connecting guys did not. We had them onboard also for our crew naturally but the epsilon minuses connecting the hoses were either unaware of the dangers or too thick to realise the dangers , or maybe they had spare lungs at home.
Next cargo, Naphtha again….Nice.
There is plenty talk about carbon neutrality and carbon footprints, I think I’d have to plant a forest the size of New Jersey to get to carbon zero, maybe New Jersey would benefit from forestation?
Archive for the 'olfaction' Category
The ship happened to be passing Gothenburg just in time for my 4 week stint to finish, so I was able to get off in Sweden. What a relief to miss all the shite of airports, unfortunately the relief will be shortlived I have to head over to Ireland on Sunday for the final exam all going well. Mode of transport, airplane. Object to be passed through in order to reach mode of transport, airport.
I got a taxi to the train station when I paid off the ship, the senses were bombarded by input from everywhere people, cars, movement, noise and smell. I also got a good deal of staring applied to me. I can never figure it out but in Sweden, staring is acceptable as an activity. The phrase “you lookin’ at me” would be well wasted here because if you are in anyway outside the normal run of the mill you get stared at. Wheeling a large yellow suitcase on a Tuesday afternoon on a commuter train is abnormal, hence staring. Speaking English on the cellphone, abnormal more focused staring. Staring back irrelevant. Now if I had been speaking Serbo-croat, almost guaranteed no reaction. As the Americans say “go figure”.
The smell of perfume, cigarettes smoke, car exhaust fumes, fried fast food and a million other smells that have been absent on the ship now reappear to be registered up inside the brain like a test of remember that smell. I sat beside a lady on the train she gave off a soapy smell mixed with toffee, the soap smell was fairly easy to understand, the toffee was less easy, until I noticed her surreptitiously scoffing down sweets that appeared from under the cuff of her jacket sleeve at intervals not exceeding 5 minutes.
The train condutor punches two holes in the ticket in Sweden, to be sure, to be sure? I would say that the conductors at CIE would be most displeased if they had to do the same, it would be double the work.
If you want to avoid being stared at here in Sweden, carry a bunch of Big Issue magazines, guaranteed to get rid of people. Great to be home again.
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