Questions from emails

Ela in a bear jumper.

Hi everyone, I've gotten email questions and I'll answer most of them here. Please write if you have questions.

Do you stay on the boat or can you get off?

I sleep on the boat. People have gone home for a week or two, some vacationed in the island's hotels. We're free to travel the island, on foot, buses, taxis, we've been allowed off load and use our trucks too. During the dry dock phase, the families with children stayed in hotels - the ship and shipyard is no place for little ones.

How long do you stay on dry dock?

We stayed around 8 days.

Where are you going next?

We're docked at Santa Cruz, Tenerife (island), Spain.

Are you loving it?

Yes indeed.

Do they celebrate the Christmas holiday in some way?

Yes, absolutely. We had a Christmas service, especially good Christmas dinner and brunch on Christmas day. We've had numerous Christmas events on board, decorating the ship, cabin doors, and a New Years Ball and on and on.

Are most people volunteers?

Yes. I don't know the percentage, but it's in the high 90s.

If so, is it difficult for some to keep motivated?

I think you have the same work ethic on board as every work place. As a friend back home stated it "You guys make it work because it has to. If you were doing it for profit the entire organization would be full of bureaucrats and dead weight instead of people that are doing what they want to do." He's not completely serious, but poking fun - however there is some truth to that coming from a large company to a much smaller group. People are less self serving, and that has created a solid foundation of family, unity, and duty.

Do you miss your old job?

Rarely. I miss the people, the challenge of improving the vehicle's safety control systems, and the driving. I do miss winter a little, especially all the snow that the mid west has been receiving.

-Dan

Ship work in dry dock

These past few blogs are from early December.

With the ship out of water, all water cooled engines off, maintenance work began.

Victor, Emanuel, Paul. The large tube at the top is a 'cooler' or heat exchanger. This is where the engine coolant is cooled by seawater.

Some heavy piping was removed for cleaning and replacement. This is part of the main cooling system, the pump housing is on the right.

With the seawater valve removed for cleaning, and the exterior screens removed, you can see out of the ship from inside.

A pipe in the seawater system.

A cooler needing cleaning. Notice the clogged holes on the top half.

We left dry dock on the 20th, a few days later than planned. After the propeller blades were cleaned, they were checked for cracks. One propeller (4 on each shaft) had a critical crack and needed to be replaced. The spare (which we had on board) and broken blade were weighed and the new blade was within specs of +/- 2kg out of 2tons. With that hurdle out of the way we were ready to leave, and sail to a nearby island, Tenerife. We plan to stay in Santa Cruz, Tenerife until January 29th. Then return to Liberia.

Las Palmas, Spain

After sailing for 5 days, December 12th we arrived in Las Palmas, Spain. It felt good to walk on land again - especially sandy beaches. The water was cold, but the air was a nice 24-20c. Having ice cream along the board walk was a true treat. We had some time to wait, a couple days before we could move to the dry dock.

In Europe this type of Christmas decoration is common.

Inside Iglesia Catedral - gorgeous and full of Spanish style.

On the beach there was amazing sand art, with a Christmas themes.

Saint Lucia celebration

On December 8th, the Scandinavian crew celebrated Saint Lucia. Click here for

history of this tradition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy%27s_Day

They sang beautifully. Oh how I like Scandinavians. They baked Lucia buns and cookies.

Baking Christmas cookies

On December 3rd, in the crew mess, the kitchen that the crew can use, we baked Christman cookies.

Katrin and Jennifer

Christian

Meeting Swiss Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid

On November 27, the Swiss citizens were invited to a reception at a hotel in Monrovia. Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid visited for a day. This link explain's what his title represents: http://www.swissworld.org/en/politics/government_and_parliament/the_federal_council/

Below were the Swiss people on board - Vanessa, Dan, Anouchka, Aslak, Judith, Captian Schutte and his wife, Rahel.

This year Mr. Schmid is the revolving president.

Some of the appetizers - Bundner fleisch.

A few days later, while sailing to the Canary Islands, we had a little party with left over meat that was given to us. What a special time.

Emergency generator

This generator will be the emergency power for the ship's sprinkler system. The load stack up for the existing emergency generator is too high for the new sprinkler system's pump. For weeks preparation was underway in the room below here (Installing exhaust, electrical, and fuel systems). The hole you see is port side deck 8, with the funnel on the left.

Helping build a well in Liberia

On November 22, I went to help Carl build a well outside Monrovia. He and his wife, Ilene, plan to live there for awhile and build and start an orphanage. The hole was dug by hand the previous day, and this day we placed concrete rings down the shaft. The hired help is from farmers around the land.

Using the truck, tripod and rope, we lowered 8 rings. Foam was placed between the rings where the joints where below the water table. Higher up the joints were cemented.

The water pump barely kept up with the inflowing water the first ring is being placed here. To help keep most of the sand out, a cheap mattress was tied to the bottom of the ring. The following day a cap was made for the well.

Merry Christmas from Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Merry Christmas!

It's tradition to leave your shoe outside your cabin for it to be visited by Santa.

This morning's sun rise.

The view from the other side of the ship, two days ago.

Ocean sunsets and rises

These were taken on the way from west Africa to the Canary Islands. I didn't snap these pictures.

Dry Dock in Las Palmas, Spain

The five day sail from Monrovia to Las Palmas was smooth, and my first ocean voyage.
Crusing speed was about 11 knots, and fuel consumption was 8.2k liters a day.

For the first 3 days out of Monrovia there was a pirate ship watch during the night time. Old co-workers, friends and family, thanks for the warnings, no pirates were incountered!

After waiting a few days in a passenger berth, our slot in the shipyard was open. On this windy day, tug boats aided the ship to back into the lift dock.

The aft lines you see are ties to a rack on each side. This rack pulled the ship in slowly.

Lift dock control room, there were 30 lift winches on each side. Divers moved the trolleys and wood planks to support the ship.

Bow thrusters

Underway these screws turn at ~175 RPM, constant. The speed of the ship depends on the pitch of the blades. About 5 degrees equals about 11 knots.

Four front loaders were chained together and pulled the ship off the lifting dock, to it's shipyard berth. The engineering superintendent remarked that a former rail ferry ship is now rolling on rails.

Yes, that is a rudder on the front of the ship. I was told that when the ship was a train ferry, the route that it had it would not turn around, as it also had doors in the bow and aft. The trains would drive through the ship. Which means the ship sailed in reverse. There was a second bridge on the back of the ship. The seams of door on the bow are visible up close. The seam runs vertically between the F and R of Africa, then slants down toward flat horizontal part of the mid bow. The location of the supporting hull trolleys changes at each paint job (every few years). This ensures the sections that can't be painted now, will be the next.

One task in dry dock is to clean and paint the hull, all blue and reddish. Fortunately the many anodes on the ship were still there, only a few needed replacement. What does the zinc do? Click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacrificial_anode When the older Mercy ship Anastasis was dry docked all the zinc anodes had been removed by diving thieves.

The shipyard is a busy, dusty, and noise place. It's a seven to seven in the evening operation, marked by the sirens, air raid sirens. They tell you when it's lunch time and siesta time. There's constant loud sandblasting, welding, painting, and pressure washing. There are cranes milling about too, helping remove corroded pipes, burned up electrical motors, engine parts - you name it. Our on-board crane's cables are too short to lower items to the ground. The other day it was discovered that one of the propeller blades has a crack. The inspector decided that it would have to be replaced. We're now waiting to see if the one spare blade (for port side, they are handed) weighs within 2-1kg of the old, so that the propeller assembly will be properly balanced. Each blade is 2 metric tons.