lamphs

I've had a freighter trip on my list. My cousin spent a few years as Crew on freighters, and he got me interested in the many unique ports of call he frequented (generally going ashore; I always had the sense that his shore time in port was 'time off'). I am not sure I am as interested in such a trip if I am not able to leave the ship.

Internet access aboard?

I am really enjoying this report - so different than the usual 'F' reports!

YVR Cockroach

Crew time off is limited these days due to short time in ports. Some of the officers (5 to be precise) took shore leave soon after the ship docked in Long Beach.

You may be able to leave the ship but it's with caveats to stay in touch with ship and ship agent to get back in time. They dont wait for you.

Another to be answered. Yes on the Libra but not offered to us. The crew has it but apparently it's for e-mail only. If there is internet and offered, it is InMarSat and very expensive. I certainly wouldn't pay to post this TR from ship!

YVR Cockroach

She's a born 'n bred BCian. Austrian courtesy of her parents who immigrated to Canada on a war-booty ship that could be floated inside the Libra's forward holds. Heck, the Star Princess could be floated inside the Libra's hull.

YVR Cockroach

Day 5 – 13 March east fringe of the East China sea and western Pacific Ocean south and south east of Kyushu, Japan

Today was full of excitement with engine room tour, passing by active volcanic islands and a deck BBQ. On the previous day, the Chief Engineer had heard from the Chief Officer that we wanted to tour the engine room and he quite gladly arranged the visit, and had the 2nd Officer in charge of safety to outfit us (hard hat, hearing protection, safety boots, boiler suit and gloves).

Add dressed up for the engine room tour by

At the appointed hour, we found the engineer outside the door to the engine room on deck A. Duly equipped and donning ear plugs, we first entered the insulating chamber, closed the door before entering the top of the engine room. Very loud. You have to speak loudly directly to one’s ear.

Engine Control Room

The first visiting point is the fortunately well-insulated engine control room which is where the engineers, electrician and reefer man all hang out during the day even if they are apparently not on duty. It is filled with banks of switches, transformers and meters, and a huge console of instruments and more switches, with all information displayed on screens where they’re monitored constantly. Alarm start to sound if measurements go out of acceptable range allowing the engineers to all have meals at the same time. Hold no vision of an old salt wondering around the hot engine room in a grimy vest with an oil can and looking at gauge dials. No natural light down here either.

The sole propulsion engine is a 12 cylinder ~22,000 l or ~ 1,350,000 c.i. Hyundai turbo-diesel that directly drives the propeller shaft and hence the propeller with a maximum rated output of 72,000 KW (nearly 100,000 h.p.). Top speed is 104 rpm though it appears the maximum operational is 60-85 rpm (and you can feel the vibration a hundred feet up at that). There is a minimum speed (how slow the engine will turn at) and going from full ahead to full astern is a process that take over 6 minutes: The engine has to come to a dead halt, and then restarted in reverse. The engineers tell me it is one of the largest ship engines which gives the Libra and her sisters a maximum cruise speed of 25 knots. Both newer and larger ships come with smaller or same size motors respectively often with fewer cylinders, smaller bore and longer stroke for better fuel economy.

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A spare cylinder head


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A spare cylinder liner. Ports at the bottom allow charge air to enter

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The 12 working cylinder heads and the exhaust manifold above

Engine hold by yvrcockroach

Looking down the engine room from the cylinder deck. The engine is some 3 storeys high and the engine room several in total. A couple of spare cylinders and attached connecting rods across the gap

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Crankcase cover. Open the doors and you can work on the connecting rods and pistons

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Another level of engine

Each cylinder is almost a meter in diameter with a stroke of around 2 ½ metres. Power is enhanced by turbo superchargers – 4 of them each much bigger than a heavy truck engine – with enormous air-to-air intercoolers to match. The engine’s oil and coolant are cooled with enormous seawater heat exchangers. There are also two enormous compressed air tanks required to start the engine (maximum of 15 before they have to be repressurised.

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Turbo Supercharger and Intercooler, one of 4


Seawater is converted to freshwater even on a ship of this size for crew and passenger consumption. Some of this goes to the boiler which, while also providing hot water onboard (very hot), serves the purpose of heating the heavy and viscous bunker fuel oil so that it is liquid enough to flow through the injector and vaporise in the cylinder. Pride of the engine room must be the sewage processor tank that is rather large for a maximum of 39 on board. I hate to think how big those on cruise ships are.

The engine can be maintained on board so there are spare pistons and rings, connecting rods, cylinder head and liners/sleeves, high-pressure direct fuel injectors and other parts onboard with cranes to lift and move them.
To power the reefers, other electrical demands and also the bow thruster, there are also 5 diesel-electric generators – 2 9 cylinder units on the starboard side good for 3,760 KVA each and 3 7 cylinder units on the port side good for 2,927 KVA each though normal maximum use is some 60% of maximum power. The bow thruster can require up to 3 of these generators during port manoeuvers and a whole bank of reefers the other 2. With only 5 reefers and at cruise, only one generator was used at some 30% of maximum.

We must have gone down some 60-70’ on some 5 flight of stairs as the entrance on A deck is some 9’ above U (main) deck and the crankshaft is substantially below water level near the bottom of the ship (almost 30m from main deck to ship’s bottom). The engine room is deep and cavernous. Near the drive shaft, the crew has a water, air and perhaps fire proof escape room where they climb over 70’ to reach the main deck for escape.

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Engine drive shaft. Direct connection to the single propeller

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The heat exchangers to cool engine oil and coolant. The saltwater output at ~34C could have been used to make a nice hot tub of of the pool

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Larger pair of the ship's 5 diesel-powered electrical generators

Somewhere down in this part of the ship is the “citadel”. In the event of boarding by pirates, the crew and passengers are to muster down in the engine room and take refuge in the citadel, which is usually the rudder room. Extremely robust (forced entry would be difficult), it has no control but has communications capability.

Piracy is a possibility particularly off both Atlantic and Indian ocean coasts of Africa. Generally, a container ship at cruise is moving too fast for pirates and it’s a long way up too. If unidentified vessels are seen approaching the ship at a high rate of speed, the ships’ first defence is to increase speed. Loaded bulk carriers and tankers are slower and much easier game. A British company has come up with a simple device – plastic blocks – mounted on the deck rails that make it even more difficult to mount a boarding ladder.

The second excitement was passing through the Ryukyu islands off the southern end of mainland Japan which included at least two active volcanoes, unfortunately not erupting but producing lots of steam.

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Passing by an active volcano

The third excitement was the traditional crew barbeque. Held once a voyage, it allows the crew to have a meal together and is a reward after a week of hard work sailing between ports and the long hours of port operation. Sailors like to eat lots of meat so there were sausage, steak, pork belly, chicken, lamb chops, prawns, mackerel halves as well as the leftover filling from yesterday’s empanadas. Veg offering was potato salad and garlic bread (that’s a veg) with dessert of croissants, and both prepared by Paul, a blast-from-the-past that I’ve strangely never actually had before identified by the Austrian as an ambrosia salad and a saltines (standing in for Graham Crackers) and cream cheese fruit cocktail (including fresh papaya) cake, which the captain relished evidenced by the amount he had on his plate. Not your normal cruise BBQ. Unfortunately it was also held at 1400 and there’s no dinner that night though there is a feeding from the leftovers after 1700.

BBQ fare by

Crew BBQ by

Tall dude chowing down lots of food is the Captain

All dressed for the party

If you were wondering what an ambrosia salad is, it’s drained, canned fruit salad marinated in evaporated milk: Reportedly a staple of the 1960’s North American housewife.

We went back to find a Filipino crewman making his dinner and still some food (all uncooked and still sitting out on deck: Good thing there are no flies or apparently food-poisoning microbes at sea). The Able Seaman on duty came and added charcoal to restart the BBQ and others came along. It’d be a long evening if you don’t eat enough. What was surprising is that no one ate the chicken (so we knew what was for tomorrow’s lunch) but all the saltine cracker cheese cake and almost all the ambrosia salad were gone….

YVR Cockroach

Day 6 – 14 March in the western Pacific Ocean south and south east of Honshu, Japan

We woke up to find slightly-rougher seas, but still pretty calm with 1-2’ swells (the wake of the ship, actually quite small, were just as big), and a light, steady rain that had been going all night. Visibility was good but range was limited. It is easy to see how navies took advantage of poor weather to hide ships from the enemy in the pre-radar days (remarkably an era that is still within the lifetime of some).

Paul asked us at breakfast if he could come to vacuum the cabin and came up a little later, a quick process that was easy for him and convenient for us. We also tried the stereo system that promised USB input but it didn’t like our phones.

We went up to the bridge to find only the officer on watch on the bridge (all by his lonesome little, not even a nominal helmsman for companionship) and asked permission to visit. Not only the only person on the bridge but dressed so he could fit in if seen in a suburbia Canada mall on a summer weekend day, and reminded the Austrian of her nephew. After asking the small course change (weather related) and the weather/seas forecast (5m swells ahead), we asked about navigation. As for paper charts, some lines have done away with them though the Libra still uses paper. All past charts and logs have archived in the specified archive room so electronic storage (and retrieval) would be faster though the young officer still preferred the visual and reliability of paper. It’ll also require a whole extra console.

In the past, bridge crew would have likely included at least a navigator, radio officer, helmsman and officer on watch. These days, just the officer on watch does it all with the assistance of automation.

In case you think only one person on bridge is risky, there is a monitor alarm that sounds every few minutes, and the Officer On Watch has to press it promptly otherwise it will sound to other parts of the ship, much as autobrake systems that exist on trains. Similarly, an alarm exists for all the ship’s major components. If there is an irregularity of any sort, an alarm will sound at various points and will grow louder and go to all parts of the ship if not addressed quickly enough.



Container ship day at sea - view from the bridge. Lateral wipers are pretty useless, and spinning disc windows are no longer used


The Austrian also asked about flags. Ships fly the country’s flag of whose territorial waters they’re in, which is internationally defined at the 12 mile limit. Some countries believing in their own exceptionalism (namely Israel) extend these to 200 miles, which also includes other countries’ territorial waters.

We also asked about date of arrival at Long Beach which was expected to be early on the 24th. U.S. clearance requires everyone to be grouped and present (by contrast, we didn’t see anyone when the ship docked in either of the two Chinas.) He mentioned Israel is also one of the very worse for crew clearance taking 10-15 minute interrogation per person and denying clearance (and disembarkation) to those who looks they don’t like (who would want to go ashore in Israel anyway?)

At lunch, which did feature chicken and whether it was from the yesterday’s BBQ or not, we were informed by the Chief Officer that rough seas were forecasted tomorrow and he advised us that anti-nausea medication would be available at our table. We have been in rough seas before on a ship half the length (and possibly much, much smaller displacement in rough seas and have had no problem. Maybe not being able to sleep, as even the Chief Engineer experiences at 25 degree rolls, will be more annoying.

The rest of lunch was a lentil soup with some carrots, broccoli, mash potatoes and a nice light mushroom sauce with the chicken, and bananas that nearly ready for bread.

What to do with your day

Days onboard start early (breakfast from 0700-0800) and end early (dinner from 1800-1900, an hour later on French-flagged ships), and they don’t take very much time – your main plate is usually at your table less than a minute after you sit down if that’s all you want. There’s no one and nothing organised to entertain you: No daily activity schedule, no bars, night clubs/discos and happy hours, no spas (though some duct rooms could be converted into saunas), no trivia contests, no bingo, no movies, no casino, no coffee or snack bars, no yoga or exercise lessons, no book clubs full of people who haven’t read the book but have an opinion about it, no musicians, no dancing, no afternoon tea, no formal nights or officers’ ball, no shows, no crew shows, no alternative/specialty dining, no room service, no expansive dining menus, no 24-hour buffets, no cheesy cruise directors, no sobriety meetings and/or religious services, no craft workshops, no lectures, no cooking demonstrations (though the cook probably wouldn’t mind if you volunteered to make dinner), or whatever else cruise passengers apparently need for entertainment. Even the Line’s general waiver states there are no line-organised shore excursions (someone must have asked/complained). Best of all, there is no one trying to sell you future cruises, dubious art pieces, overpriced souvenirs and trinkets although ironically the containers probably carry a plethora of the latter, some probably even bound for cruise lines. It’s also good for the budget as there’s nowhere to spend money.

Since the library was bare (what few books that were there were pretty trite to her), the Austrian was glad she stocked up before we boarded as well as having go some e–books courtesy of Amtrak.

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Complete inventory of entertainment in the Passengers' Lounge

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Sole movie (actually its an original 'n sequel doublepack) so bad no one wants to watch it

We had computers so I wrote the long treatise you’re skimming through (and also trying to finish the one of our Cuba trip last April), picking choice photos out of thousands to process as well as simulate alternate history by playing and winning a couple of games of Civilization V.

One can also attach a GPS receiver to one’s computer and chart and log the journey across. No one’s volunteered the ship’s speed, heading or position but we know all using our system. No posted ship charts (or even weather reports/forecasts) unless one goes up to the bridge which is not always permitted.

The gym works if you can make the equipment work for you. I picked up a cheap air of strap trainers in China (the French company wisely sells some of its products in the country of origin rather than ship them to France and then back) to use. Pilates at sea.

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You can walk up and down the stairs for exercise. We did that, 4 flights (or 8 halves of 8 steps each), 3x daily for meals

If you love the sound of your own voice, go and ask the Crew if you can join them as Filipino sailors are reputed to love karaoke (the Croatian captain of the same shipping line said on some French show that knows his Crew are happy if they are singing, and unhappy if not). The Crew tend to end their day at 6 (except for the Messman and Chief Cook) so they have time on their hands.

The windows all over the ship get covered with salt (surprising how far up the sea spray goes) and soot so it’s nice to clean them to get a clearer view. Window cleaning is probably hardly ever done as the crew all seem to have their blinds drawn closed anyway. We had cleaned our windows shortly after we boarded but after the first day of rough seas…

There’s also a SOLAS (safety and rescue) training manual in the passenger lounge so you can study marine safety, firefighting, anti-piracy procedures, rescue, evacuation and survival. As it probably has to conform to some ISO standard, no prior knowledge is assumed. Life buoys have to “be constructed out of inherently buoyant material”? Who knew? Choice quote from the section about survival at sea specifically in regard to fish bites and stings: “Shark and barracuda bites generally result in lost (sp) of large amounts of tissue”. I now know the ship has 444 45Kg cylinders of CO2 for engine room and hold fires. I’ve also been proof reading the manual. Maybe you can even learn enough pass the exams and get your mariner ticket.

Another time change this afternoon to UTC+10. They come fast and furious.
We went to the gym again today and decided to play table tennis (or try to). After giving it a go, we dug around in the equipment box and found a list of games and some games, open deck of playing and tarot cards (didn’t count if they were all there) and some dice games. There was also a list of crew computer games of the shoot-‘em-ups and soccer variety. Maybe what we heard emanating from the Officer’ lounge as a recorded football game may be the officers playing FIFA 14 (or 15 or 16) and the complement are busy playing such games off duty (we hardly see anyone around the ship when they’re not on duty).

We went to dinner, shortly after 1700 as the clock had advanced an hour a few minute earlier. Dinner was the same soup as lunch, and then a nicely-dressed cheeseburger with fries. No malted vinegar so a red wine one had to do. Dessert was pears, which were loaded in California 3 weeks earlier and were making their way back. We had carefully nursed our bottle of wine and had finished it at lunch, and a new bottle was waiting at our table, as was a sealed bottle of 50 anti-nausea pills.

Most of the sailing officers had eaten or were finishing up when we came down, and through the music coming down the spiral stairs was some generic Sarah McLachlan-like stuff, the Austrian swore she could hear the electronic sound of sword fighting.

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Stairs leading up from the Officers' Mess to the Officers Lounge. Football sounds, girl pop and tobacco smoke drift down


Seas are getting rougher but the best is yet to come.

tailwindflyer

Excellent TR.

RandomBaritone

OP, you should pitch this as a magazine article. A fascinating slice of our global life. Well done!

YVR Cockroach

Day 7 – 15 March in the western Pacific Ocean 800 Km east of Tokyo

Woke up this morning to slightly rougher seas, 1-2 m swells, but the rain has gone. Bit more creaking and groaning, coming mainly from the metal sheets used in the ceiling. The waves are exacerbating the harmonic vibration emanating from the engine that makes the external walkway of our deck flutter slightly and feeds into our cabin. It would have been so easy to stop this by rubberising the edge overlaps. Have marine engineers ever been to sea?



Another container ship day at sea


No officers again at breakfast. Either they eat very early and quickly or not at all. Maybe they are all busy this morning as the ship changed direction twice, heading on a more southerly course (toward, than south of Hawaii), sometime after breakfast. We went to the bridge in the late morning to ask. It appears that the storm is sufficiently violent that the ship is heading at 153 degrees instead of 85-odd for some 9 hours or 360 km before resuming course to avoid it. Barometric pressure had fallen to 980 (990 and dropping the previous day from a relatively-steady 1000). We also found out that the majority of ship officers have to sign off on course alteration.

The ship was rolling enough that we had to use handrails in the corridor and stairway to get to and from the mess at lunch. Lunch today was a beef vegetable soup, and main plate of pork chop with boiled potatoes and aubergine. Another easy sailing day so 11 of the 13 ship’ officers came down to eat (one 2nd Officer is always on watch for the 1200-1500 and 0000-0300 shift and the other may prefer the company of his Filipino compatriots.)

Yet another time change at 1700 to UTC+11. Our current course has us as southerly as we had been the previous morning.

Dinner tonight was the same beef soup, meatballs and penne, and apple pie (frozen). We also had a galley tour and met the cook. The kitchen is surprisingly large for such a small complement but working in there must be tricky in rough seas with all the hot surfaces.

At around 2300, the ship changed course back to a more north-easterly bearing which would make the voyage a less comfortable for the next few nights.

YVR Cockroach

Day 8 – 16 March Somewhere east of northern Japan

The night was a rough one after the ship changed course. Instead of the swells coming at the ship from astern - the Libra is long enough so that pitching is relatively limited - the swells came more from the side which caused the Libra to roll and I am not sure if stabilisers would have helped.

Being so high up in the ship, any rolling will have you essentially travelling through the air laterally as well as up and down in a radial direction for quite a distance. You can see the movement and feel the G force much like in an elevator, but with added side-to-side motion. Not just rolling but the ship is also rising and falling as the swells go underneath, like a cork – albeit a huge one - in the ocean. The beds are all in line with the ship so your body rolls with it. As the mattresses are hard, rolling of the ship will make you slide and or roll over if sleeping on your side and it is difficult to even go to sleep in the first place. One appreciates why some cruise ship passengers book cabins as low in the ship as they can and right in the middle even if there are no windows.



Another container ship day at sea


Overall it was not nauseating but certainly annoying: Being thrown off balance, things sliding off and going bump in the night so everything having to be secured, and not being able to sleep easily. After a few more days, the Austrian said, ”I am not sea sick but I am sick of the sea”.

We spoke to Paul and he told us that he sleeps on the sofa when the seas are rough. The crew cabins are large enough that each cabin has a sofa, which is placed perpendicular to the ship’s lateral axis so rolling action doesn’t turn you (but make you feel you are on an inversion table with pre-red and black out as the blood rushes to and from your head). The First Officer’s method of sleeping is lying on one’s face with arms spread out. Not good for the back. It’d be nice if you could have a hammock or suspended bed so at least you don’t roll but still there’ll be the variation in G force.

A bridge visit that morning showed us that the barometer had dropped to 980 but was slowly moving up. I had a talk with the officer on watch, a relatively-young and ambitious man who had served in the Romanian navy on interesting ships: Mine sweepers and layers, Russian-made rocket ships (armed to the teeth with ship-to-ship (SS-N) missiles for hit-‘n-run tactics. His last naval ship was on outdated British-designed destroyer and it was here he enlightened me on the Falklands/Malvinas campaign even though he wasn’t even born during its course. It seems it is a case study for naval cadets as it was the last real naval campaign. He also described why sailors switch companies. His previous employer had wanted the officers to go to a 6-months-on-6-months-off contract which he thought is difficult if one has a family, while CMA CGM still offers 3 and 3 to Romanians. Employers also vary on how one is paid, either only while at sea or all year even when one is at home. The catch is that even if one is promised so much time off inbetween sailings, they’ll come and ask you to resume early so it is important to calculate real compensation. Sailors are pretty good at calculation.

Maximum roll recorded that night was only some 10 degrees from upright. Still at 150’ wide, that would mean one side of the ship would be 26’ higher than the other (verified using my rusty geometry and trigonometry skills) and movement would still be some 20’ where our cabin was located. I made my own roll meter by suspending a weight (penknife) on a lace and placing markers for angles. Pingpong balls were long gone as they’d be annoying. Even after the worst of the swells, we did observe one roll which might have been in the 15 degree range.



Home-made roll-meter. Should have folded a piece of paper so I could measure out 45, 22.5 and 11.25 degrees more accurately. I estimate there was the very occasional 15 degree roll


Yet another time change to UTC+12. You can have UTC-12 or UTC+12: It’s all the same except depending which side of the International Date Line you want to be on. There’s also GMT+13 and +14 time zones for various countries that want to start the day (or celebrate new year) early.

YVR Cockroach

Day 9 – 17 March in the western north Pacific Ocean

It was yet another rough night, possibly even rougher than the night before. The Austrian slept on the sofa which worked quite well, but it is like lying on a see-saw while flying so one’s head and feet are always moving up and down relatively to each other. I tried sleeping on a diagonal with my head wedged in the corner to provide a little support and make my body less susceptible to the G forces at play. Helped just a little.

I think we noticed the only ship - a MOL (Mitsui O.S. K Line container ship - going the other way which would be the last seen for a week. It probably wanted to divert round the storm too. Also noticed a jet contrail. There are just not too many jets flying over this area.

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Last ship we saw for over a week. A Japan-bound Mitsui OS K Line ship also avoiding the storm


Containers overboard

How do containers stay on the ship? It is somewhat amazing as only the bottom 4 containers above deck are lashed with tie rods, while the four above those seemingly just sit on top of the others. All containers are fastened to the one above and below by locking levers at each corner, which also serve to keep the containers in place. They’ll apparently hold the containers on unless seas are extremely violent and either they fail or the container fails. Physics wins as a 45’ overheight (or even a standard height 40’) container can legally weigh up to 34.8 tonnes. Lots of momentum to overcome but lots to stop once it gathers. I estimate that without momentum, an overheight container with the centre of gravity exactly in the middle of the cross section will tip over when tilted more than 40 degrees, a degree and a half more for a standard height.

Container fastener

A shift lever lock (or something like that). Turn the lever to one side and it locks container together



Dockworkers lashing down containers



Lashed-down containers

Dockworker

Dockworker presumably shifting the lever locks

It is rather surprising that you don’t hear the sound of containers banging together but the stacks are probably all swaying in the same direction. There is some metallic groaning though. The Austrian likes to compare these to whale songs. I wonder what the whales think of the sound.

[Video to be posted]

There are no confirmed statistics but containers do fall off ships every year due to poor weather but the numbers pale compared to the number of containers shipped annually, or even on one ship.

On our deck tour, we learned that containers are lashed by dockworkers. Good thing as the sailors have enough to do.

Yet another time change to UTC-11 without going a day back. There’s nothing mentioned other than an announcement shortly after noon and a hand written notice and placard on the mess deck about the day’s time change. We finally rode in the elevator and saw the schedule. It seems the ship’s master likes to make the time changes early and upfront, and then the day change on a Sunday so Sunday is two days long (no cleaning chores for the Crew and half day for the Officers).

Even more challenging than playing table tennis for the first time in some 40 years is playing table tennis for the first time in some 40 years at sea: One can see the table move underneath the bouncing ball, and you’re moving with the table. Some of the Crew get viciously good at it.

YVR Cockroach

Day 10 – 18 March western north Pacific ocean - south of Kamchatka peninsula N38.7 E172.2 @ 0930

Another rough night though the sea did seem “calm” in that there were almost no white cap waves but the swells were fairly large. That’s where all the huge surfs hitting Hawaii and west coast North America come from.



Meteorologists and oceanographers as well as students of wave theory and motion can probably discern where the sources are emanating from as there are two distinct speeds and frequencies, as well as slightly different direction.
Interesting lunch today as all 12 of the Romanian crew were dining together. I am not sure if they wanted to or was it just the designated lunch time.
Creamy pork soup was a bust however.

Saw a wave-skimming seabird, - the first since flocks off Japan - probably an albatross or something solitary that spends months if not years aloft.

Yet another time change to UTC-10. Crossed the IDL around 2220. I doubt if this crew would bother with doing anything for equatorial crossings.

YVR Cockroach

Day 11 - 19 March Central North Pacific Ocean ~2,000 km south of Kamchatka N40 W175 @ 0800

The time changes have come too fast: It’s still dark at 0730 ship time and the sun sets after 2000. Swells much diminished this morning though you still have the occasional big ones as can be felt in the roll of the ship. Weather again cloudy with some breaks of sun. Sailing is much calmer though speed remains the same at approximately 21 knots/40-41 km/h. The 2nd Officer had explained that loading of the ship and wave direction and size and impact speed due to the ship’s hull design astern but speed of the Libra has remained fairly constant.

yvrcockroach

Rough container ship day at sea

I had noticed at the past few lunches that there was a sign-out sheet on one of the officer tables. It was one for after work clothes which explains all the company logo wear the officers have been wearing.

Visited the bridge again to find the Filipino 2nd Officer on watch. Unlike his Romanian colleagues, the standard for Filipino officers is longer rotations: 6 months. For French officers, I’ve heard it is 2 months. Barometric pressure has been back to a relatively-constant level of 1000 the past two days.

Another time change to UTC-9, only 2 more to go. 6 hourly changes in 6 days doesn’t make for gradual adjustment when the crossing is twice as long.

The GPS said local time at position is still two hours behind even at noon the next day.

We finally asked Paul what the crew do in the evening. The officers seem to like to play some version of FIFA in their lounge (so real that the whistles, crowd cheer and commentary fooled us for a while) while the crew like to watch movies. Now we know where all the DVD media and the player are.

YVR Cockroach

Day 12 - 20 March – north Pacific ocean 1,500 km south of the Alaska Panhandle N 40.6 W 164.3

Finally a day without time change, just a date change, so we have two Sundays. Sea surface is a little rougher from waves, though the swells are still present but diminished. The ship still rolls and pitches to boot. The most-northerly point of the voyage’s trajectory was reached last night and the ship is starting to veer south. A glance at the chart yesterday showed a course to be set for a point due west of Long Beach, joining the shipping lane there and entering the harbour at around 0400 on the 24 March.

Our ship pass photo ID were on our table at lunch (sunday special of striploin steak). Too bad we disembark at the next port of call. I don’t think it’s necessarily only Romanian officers who may be a tad asocial. I asked an American seafaring biker friend of mine if he had considered working on a cruise ship. His reply? “Ah, I don’t want to dress up for dinner and deal with passengers and all that sh!t”.)

We looked more closely at the Fire Control chart (also a scale drawing) and noticed that the Chief Officer and 2nd Engineer each have a small day room next to their cabin bedroom with the Chief Officer’s quarters directly below us and the 2nd Engineer’s under Cabin A. Other crew cabins are the size of the Passenger Lounge or a little narrower.

We’ve noted the artwork on board the ship which the company decorates hallways, stairwells, cabins, lounges and various spaces with. In addition to CMA CGM posters (older ships smaller than the Libra but were the pride of the fleet when printed) were prints of works by Picasso, Monet, Modigliani, Miro and van Gogh among others. He best piece must be some heaven ‘n hell/damnation altar triptych by Hieronymus Bosch that probably scares the Filipinos into piety. I certainly saw a couple of seamen look at one carefully.

YVR Cockroach

Day 13 - 20 March again N40.1 W153

One day retard yesterday in ship time though we had crossed the IDL 2 days earlier. Weather was a bit brighter this morning but the seas turned more rolly last night. Swells this morning are pretty high, 2-3 m at least. Not too bad but they’re moving ever so slightly faster than the ship and coming in at a 45 degree angle from the aft which is causing it to sit on them and roll more as a result. Frequency of waves is faster so the ship rolls faster and more frequently and rhythmically though not necessarily more degrees.

Special treat for soup of the day: sour cream tripe soup which appeals to the eastern and central Europeans but not the Austrian. Sunday special lunch is roast lamb leg. All the Romanians turned up and all were relishing the tripe soup, some adding extra sour cream (as if it wasn’t already sour or creamy enough) – though none who came for dinner had it. The ice cream promised on the menu never showed up, and it would seem the freezer is bare.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve noticed some interesting dietary habits. The Chief Officer always asks for (and gets) 1 or 2 of those massive Chinese soup carrots. The Electrician doesn’t appear to eat beef so he actually gets a substitute. Maybe he’s important enough as his place is next to the Captain. A dinner plate is always set out for the Captain (we’ve never seen him at dinner) and we see it at breakfast and even at lunch the next day (when it’s moved to our table) sitting out there all unrefrigerated. We’ve never seen it even partially consumed, and he’s a very tall man too.

It was cleaning day on our deck and one of the Ordinary Seaman came to do his chores. With his attire, hair cut and 'kerchief tied around his head, the Austrian remarked he did look like a Filipino pirate. If they had Halloween onboard, he doesn’t need a costume.

CMA CGM tries to be a good corporate citizen so there’s recycling - only of metal cans and plastic bottles - onboard. No trash is disposed of overboard other than food waste that is first ground into smaller pieces. At least the fish get to eat the captain’s dinner.

Change to UTC-8 so just one more to go. Summer time is a nuisance enacted and then extended at the behest of special interests.

YVR Cockroach

Day 14 – 21 March east North Pacific ocean 1,700 km WNW of San Francisco N38.8 W142.9

Woke up this morning to find the seas calmer. Swells are small and they’re coming from almost straight aft but the ship still rolls 6 degrees. Went up to the bridge to take sunrise photos. Engine turning at 85 rpm.

On my way down, noticed that the Chief Engineer has his bag out in his day room. It appears that he is rotating off at Long Beach along with the 2 Romanian 2nd Officers. At breakfast, the Chief Officer highlighted U.S. entry procedures at Long Beach which will start early. The ship is schedule to dock at 0600 with US CBP the first onboard. They clear the crew first and then us (physical presence required unlike the 2 Chinas).

Our last towel change today and linen change tomorrow. Last time change too as we adjust to PDT. The GPS had just got an hour closer to ship time and then it got thrown off again.

The Ordinary seamen were cleaning the open deck 2 deck below us around the accommodation before and after lunch. Why they don’t work from top to bottom, I don’t know as the drain downpipes simply empty from upper decks to the one immediately below. Maybe no rain is forecast for the next little while though it was about time they did. Spray gets everywhere so one should never leave windows open when not in the room or asleep. Water from cleaning and rain can ingress quite unexpectedly. The bridge windows were cleaned earlier in the day (a fairly-regular job), of course just after we had cleaned our cabin windows with the drip dirtying them again. Fortunately they went up to bridge deck and worked their way down, but unfortunately missed a little patch of our deck.

Lunch: Beef soup. Ice cream had run out so it was just apples.

Noticed a lot of jet contrails this afternoon. We are back where flights between the North American mainland and Hawaii fly through so at least we know a nuclear war didn’t erupt while we were at sea, or maybe one was just got started and bombers were headed for their targets. Still likely too far out for fishing vessels and the sea can rough this time of the year (calm reportedly only in a couple of summer months).

Dinner was breaded pork chops (bone in) and cauliflower with apple pear for dessert. Good but small portion of pork so the Austrian and I asked for a second chop to share.