My trip back home

Hi all,

Its been a long time since I last blogged. Its just because I have been terribly busy with the whole tankcleanking and dock preparation operations onboard Richard Maersk. After a lot of delays and even more operational problems we did make it to drydock yesterday at Lisbon in Portugal. Among all these things my sign off date kept getting delayed too. Well, I made it off the vessel yesterday and hopped on to the flight back home (literally 3 flights back home).

Mr Shahrukh Khan - now I know what you felt at the airport in US few months although I din't go through exactly the same. At one of the checkpoints I was asked if I had some arms or ammunitions to declare (Chat reaction = ROFL). I told them laughing that I indeed did not have any arms or ammunitioms to declare. I think I saw some brows relax around. This is probably the limits of paranoia for the white people. Do they think the real terrorists would actually declare their arms and ammunitions at customs or like pay duty. Now that would be quite interesting to see.

So that was the issue about Europe and probably one of its many escalating issues in the start of this century.

I had a good question all for my friends especiallly some of my batchmates who might stumble upon this post. I might even get my ass kicked some day because of this. Are you all really proud to be Indian? I was proud and all when I first left the country. But the more time I have spent outside the country in the past years I think I am much less proud to be Indian than I was earlier. Ofcourse I am still attached to it... Its my motherland and always will be. I am sure everyone would have travelled alongwith a lot of Indians. The sheer volume of the plane is 50dB higher than normal. Sometimes it dubs out the engine. Nosepicking, burping, staring at people with big eyes for minutes and minutes, staring at every girl from top to bottom, cutting nails: these are all that I just noticed. There are so many more. Its just embaressing for me sitting beside these people. Its just a 3 hour flight from Dubai to London. I don't see the need at all to do all those Indian things. Its a little sad for me. I have seen the quality of life outside now and I want that for my family. Thats where I would probably like my kids to grow up in some day, a mature, healthy and discoplined environment.

I dont have a conclusion for this post. Its just what I had been thinkin for the past years and decided to put it down today in some sort of writing. It helped me pass 30 minutes on this flight too. :)

Basu

PS: The seat belt sign has been on for the past 30 minutes; people are still standing around and talking as if in their backyard. Every one of them standing is ofcourse as you might have guessed Indian.

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Location:Vithalbhai Patel Rd,,India

Wondering

Hey ppl,

Its been a hectic week in terms of work. Weird cargo plans, long hours, inspections and vettings - it basically had everything that we don't look forward too.

Well its finally over, atleast fot now and we are on our way to the river Seine. Thats going yo be our last discharge port before drydock, and probably my penulyimate port as well onboard this vessel.

Sailing through the North Sea isnt really much to talk about or rather write about. I have been on watch for about 2 hours now and not a vessel in sight. I have been on a single steady course all throughout(205 G).

I called my girlfriend(fiance actually) a while back. She was sleeping. We both love waking each other up. I do that from my early morning watch and she wakes me up for my afternoon watch hours. She's an amazing person and I love her the most in this entire world. She's gone back to sleep now(tired from sleeping too much), so am basically back to bridge watch (today its basically looking out into the emptiness).

So I was wondering what I should do and thus this post.


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Kalundborg

Hi all,

Am not really posting from Kalundborg. We were there in the morning. I got to witness a Danish summer sunrise. It was a cool quiet day today pretty much within the peak of summer time.

The above pic was at 0650 inthe morning. I decided to go a little technical and thus the below pictures. Actually i wanted to show how different the length of the days and nights are in these high latitudes. But that would make more sense when I put in thr pictures from North of Skagen. We should be passing that place in a couple of days.







There is not much activity in this part of the world. People are sparsely distributed all over this multi island vcombo. Growing up in the crowded corners of Delhi and Mumbai and their bustling streets, this eerie calm and silence of the Northern Baltic is mostly alarming and disturbing for me. It might be amazing for some of you to hear this but thats just how I have been tuned.








I added a nice evening shot from outside Fredericia. With no wind and no sea, the sailing vessels around me are having a tough time, but for me on Richard its a calm and peaceful watch.

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Location:Middelfart,Denmark

A Sad Day

Hi all,

Its 2010. We are already past the era of technology. In that I mean we arent surprised by what technology brings next. Its just taken as new research to make our lives a little bit easier anf maybe a little more interesting.

I think I am not very out of line saying that internet is no longer the boon of the century, or the big revelation. I think its more commonplace nowadays, much more of a common man's tool.

Yet this blog will first reach the internet 2 days later. Ofcourse, being on a ship doesnt help. We had the advent of internet about 1.5 years back onboard our ships but its not without restrictions.

Restrictions of usage and shutdowns and the super awesome speed - it just seems like the shore community is taking pity towards us and doing us a favour. Don't they realise internet is a necessity nowadays? In a multi million dollar profit making industry what is keeping aside a few thousnd dollars aside every year for giving sailors with what is just a basic necessity nowadays. You had drugs and discos in the 80s, we have information technology...

I read once in a biography by on of my lecturers in school... - We are neither the living nor the dead; We are at sea.

Sad, isnt it?


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The Sign On Story

Hey ppl,

I thought I would share my unfortunate tale of signing onto Richard Maersk.

Lots of events transpired that day which led from one setback(for me ofcourse) to another.

Richard Maersk was reaching Gibraltar on 16 April 2010. So i was set upon my journey from Mumbai via London. I got a nice Air India flight(not sarcastic) from Mumbai to London and a day's stay there. Things were going smoothly with me enjoying the cold, gray, cloudy weather in London that day walking around Wesminister Abbey(Pics on my website http://www.basujit.in).

Come the morning of 15 April 2010, I was supposed to get onto a morning 3 hour flight to Gibraltar. Me being the really punctual type, I reached the airport well in time and made my way to the boarding gates. Sitting in the waiting area and using the Heathrow wifi on my iphone I was just going through the latest news flashes. As I read about the volcanic explosion in Iceland, i suddenly knew what all the delays were about. The airport information boards started showing the dreadful CANCELLED sign in front of flights. Well, we did take off after a certain delay but I did find out that mine was the last flight out of London that day.

The flight itself was a pretty normal BA flight. With music in my ears and terrified brits around me (ya guys, its true what they show in the movies), it seemed like the day would finally go well.

After not quite a routine pilot cabin announcement, I came to know that the captain on this flight was a last minute change coz the original guy was a very senior captain and BA needed him elsewhere. Approaching Gibraltar, he said that there was quite a lot of tailwind and that it could be possible that they wouldnt be able to land. You see the Gibraltar airstrip isn't that long. Well as things were going that day ofcourse he couldnt land the plane there and we diverted to Malaga. Well, Malaga might be a 3 hour drive for Europeans, for people like me landing in Spain without a visa literally means a one way ticket home.

Ofcourse i presented my case to immigration with all my sincerity. It did help that I had a dozen other sailors stuck with me from Turkey and Philippines also joining ships in Gibraltar. After a lot of talking and my extremely amazing Spanish to English translation skills, they did issue me a temporary visa but ofcourse after making me wait at Policia for about 7 to 8 hours.



Sitting in the bus, dozing off on the way(duh), reaching Gibraltar, seeing the red telephone booth on entry(finally out of spain), and reaching the hotel is nothing much of a story. Well I slept well that night and joined the next day.

Coming back to the Gibraltar airstrip. Its actually really small. Heres a pic I took from our electronic chart. Its 1 nm across, the whole width of the country.



A fun day..:)

Cheers,
Basujit
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Location:De Poel,Westland,The Netherlands

MO Watch

Back to the all familiar 4-8 watch. :). i get the sunrises now...


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Janina

There was a collision involving a fishing vessel and a 60 metre tanker named Janina at Anchorage 4BN outside Rotterdam area south of the MAAS Approach channel just about 20 miles from where the Richard Maersk was. The details arent that clear to me because the mayday measage wasnt quite informative.

I first heard the Mayday on VHF RT Channel 16 from Janina. The Netherlands Coastguard acknowledged the call instantly which is quite reassuring.

[I think 375787000 is the MMSI of Janina and the other two are SAR vessels of the Netherlands Coastguard]


Within 20 minutes of the first mayday call the engine room of Janina was completely flooded. They reported that they had their liferaft inflated and ready in the water. Their 6 crewmembers were all fine and assembled together. The coastguard then reported that they would be at the vessel in 20 minutes. By 0330, the first SAR vessel Antoinette SAR was with Janina and assisted them in leaving the vessel.

All the above information is all from what I could gather from what I heard on the VHF. I gather that the rescue was successful and all went well in the end.

However, this just reascertains the fact that life at sea is still as dangerous as it was 50 years back and it doesnt take much to go wrong. What is good is that the rescue services have improved and so has their efficiency in handling these situations.

Hope this was an interesting read.

Basujit