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24th Jun - 12th Jul 2011
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| The back end of our ship There was a young man from Portree, When asked his position at sea, said "I'm mid-Pacific, to be more specific, I'm in the loo having a pee". |
I'll tell you what, 17 days spent on a Russian/Philippino crewed container ship crossing the South Pacific feels like one hell of a long time! Don't bother to think you can pass the time playing 'I Spy' because you soon run out of ideas once sea and sky have been exhausted.
I boarded the ship, the Cap Cleveland, at 2030hrs on the 24th June at Balboa Port on the Pacific end of the Canal. It was dark and no opportunity to get a photo of the ship. It was much the same size and shape as the Tanzania ( of trans-Atlantic experience ) carrying containers containing who knows what. I think we set sail at about 0400hrs next morning. I was asleep. When I woke up we were just losing sight of the outlying Panama islands.The ship's officers (8) were 'Eastern European' and crew (8), as normal, Philippino. There were 4 of us passengers. Total on board 20 souls. The officers' English was not great and they were rather typically of the ex-soviet monosyllabic tendency. The Captain, or Master, was a decent cove called Grigory. As New Zealanders pronounce their flat 'e's as flat 'i's ( ie 'yes' becomes 'yis' in Kiwi-speak ) then Grigory would be Kiwi for Gregory. I called him Grigory Pick in tribute to the late actor. The Chief Engineer, Volodymyr, was from the Ukraine. His only words of English were "have a nice day". That did for 'good morning", 'good evening" and probably for "abandon ship" as well. The 1st Mate was called Vitaly, from Vladivostock. He was relatively amusing..
It was a fairly spartan existence on board. Ex-soviets are not renowned for elegant living. Our Philippino steward was called, would you believe it, Jenny. He was a sullen, bolshy bastard and, frankly, did not appear to enjoy looking after us one bit! 'Service with a scowl' was his motto. I suppose Jenny would become 'Jinny' in New Zealandish, or just 'lazy idle useless c**t' in English.
There were three fellow passengers on board; a retired civil engineer and his wife, from near Sydney, Australia, and a young computer programmer, Cameron, from near Winnipeg, Canada. The Aussie couple had just driven around the USA ( 13,500 miles on the clock, apparently. They liked driving. ) and were returning to Sydney. The computer geek was emigrating to Brisbane. They had all joined the ship a week before in Savannah, Georgia. We got on fine, and at least they spoke English.
The food, served reluctantly by 'Jinny', was not great and, perhaps healthily, served in meagre quantities. It usually consisted of a small chunk of unspecified dry meat or fish with a couple of boiled potatoes or rice. Raids on the 'galley' became necessary.
We were able to buy canned beer and bottles of wine from the 'slop-chest' when decreed by Captain Grigory, usually twice a week. No spirits were stocked on board. I'm not sure whether this had anything to do with the East European enthuiasm for vodka and thus strict company rules, or whether it had all been drunk before Panama, or both. In any event the beer ran out on day 10.
I was intending to publish this blog as a daily 'ship's log', ( I did actually keep one, just to help pass the time. It involved at least 5 minutes writing each morning ) however this would have proved somewhat repetitive and tedious considering the only thing of significance that changed on a daily basis was our lat & long.
The routine consisted of breakfast at 0730hrs followed by a visit to the bridge. There was, normally, one 'officer' on watch who didn't speak much.They had a satellite 'news' service on a computer there ( very limited ), but at least it reported the Wimbledon results. Lunch at 1200hrs. Walk around the deck, about 1 km round, once or twice. Kip. Supper at 1730hrs and occasionally a gathering of us pax in one cabin or another for a drink and chat. No passenger 'lounge' as on Tanzania. There was a ping-pong table but that was in a room on the 'ground floor' deck and used predominantly by the crew ( there were 7 decks above the main deck including the bridge ). My cabin was on D deck. Anyway, my fellow passengers were not that interested in such things. I will attempt, below, to record, blow by blow, all the memorable happenings on board.
Left: The bridge, and all very similar to Tanzania. Visits here involved looking at the nav computer displays to see where we were. Looking at the charts to see which islands we were out of sight of. Checking some world news and sport headlines on the satellite comms system and scanning the horizon with powerful ship's binos to fail to see any other vessels or forms of life.
On day 2 someone said they had seen some flying fish. I didn't. Eight brown coloured seabirds with long beaks took up residence on a lighting mast above some containers at the pointy end of the ship. They were with us for about three days and shat all over front deck area ( for which there will be some nautical term, no doubt ). On day 4 they disappeared. I have a suspicion that they might subsequently have supplemented the rations.
Right: Typical view for'ard from the port side of the bridge ( days 1 to 8 )....................
Left:............and from the starboard side ( days 9 to 17 )
Right: Day 4. We crossed the equator. This event is traditionally celebrated by someone dressing up as Neptune and much cavorting. It certainly isn't on ships like these. I think I was the only person to notice, or care.
Day 7, July 1st, was Canada Day. Our Canadian computer chappie dressed up in his Canadian national ice hockey shirt to celebrate. Whoopee.
Left:: Day 8. An evening barbeque was laid on for the ship's company and us. This was probably the highlight of the trip. Plenty of wine and beer on offer and the food, for once, was both tasty and plentiful. I think the greater part of the ship's catering budget had been blown on this.
Our Aussie shipmates, left, having a wild time.
Our Aussie shipmates, left, having a wild time.
Right: The 'officers' enjoying themselves. The Philippino crewmen were also having a great time enjoying Karaoke where they sang loudly, and with great enthusiasm, many completely unrecognisable songs.........
.....including, left, this better known hit, 'Libyan on a Jet Plane', by John Denver.....!
Right: The Aussie couple with, right, Captain Grigory.
Left: ..and together with the Canadian, Cameron. There was nothing he did not know about computers...except how to fix my expensive and useless lump of Apple junk.
Day 11. July 5th at 2000hrs was another moment of considerable excitement as we passed through the 10 mile wide straight between Tahiti and it's neighbouring island Moorea. We saw the bright lights of Pepeete, the capital, and a few aircraft landing. In fact the ship had to make quite a dog-leg from the direct track to achieve this route. It was noticeable that all the crew took the opportunity to use their mobile phones to call home. This was the only land we saw between Panama and Auckland. Sadly no nubile maidens in grass skirts paddled out in canoes to greet us.
Right: Day 13. A 'bottle with a message' was dispatched at 28deg 09S 165deg 37W. Actually two were thrown just to guarantee delivery. The message offered a reward, unspecified, to any bona-fide recipient. I am quivering with anticipation.
Day 14/15, Friday 8th/Sunday 10th July we passed the international date line. For us, Saturday 9th did not occur.
Day 16, see left. On Monday 11th July,we actually passed the 180deg long at 1203hrs (L). This meant that I was now exactly 1/2 WAY AROUND THE WORLD. There was nothing special too see. I celebrated with a tin of Budweiser beer. Ghastly muck.
Right: Captain Grigory in ceremonial dress in preparation to welcome aboard the customs and immigration officials at Auckland. The amount of paperwork accumulated on a container ship is astronomical and it all has to be checked. According to captain Grig, dealing with the paperwork and the Bysantine port procedures are the most arduous and, at the less civilised ports, the most risky aspects of commanding a large commercial vessel. Once at sea the job is a doddle ( unless you run into a storm or pirates presumably ).
Left: Arrival at Auckland. Phew! We arrived without ( as far as I am aware ) any mishap en route. Actually, nothing of note really happened at all; not even a good storm to write home about. I suppose the beer running out was as close as we came to a disaster There were a couple of days when the sea was choppy and there was quite a large swell but hardly enough to spill my wine. I was thinking of making something up, including computer experts being washed overboard, to spice up this journal. But I didn't.
Anyway, I won't have long in Auckland because I have to catch a bus to the Bay of Islands, on the north-east coast, where I will hopefully have a few days R&R before setting off to explore New Zealand. More thrilling adventures to follow in due course.
Above: Local officials carrying out rigorous immigration procedures in Auckland.
And finally:
A sailor called Vlad from Murmansk,
Discovered some ants in his pants,
His mates said he looks like
He's doing the Hornpipe,
Or some other nautical dance.
PS. Had a few technical problems with this blogsite here which caused me much frustration, hence delay. I hope it's fixed.
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