TUESDAY 9TH MAY, 2006

The day started off following the same pattern. I went down to the mess for porridge and toast, Judy had a small bowl of cereal and a big read in our cabin. Gee she is giving the books a hiding.

We finally got it together about 9.30 am, and headed for the deck for a walk. It was quite warm, about 32°C, but really humid. Just to do a few laps of the deck took its toll, so it didn’t take too much thinking to work out that we should be in the pool. Last night we had chatted to the cook to organize a picnic pool side lunch for us, so after a swim we went to the kitchen and got our tray of goodies (huge salad rolls, freshly fried chips and fruit). We spent the next three hours indulging ourselves with swimming, dining and reading in the warm sunny conditions.

It got really hot as the sun positioned itself astern of the ship, so we had no alternative than to head for the shade up on the pilot deck. A bit more reading and the hard life we were leading took over………….we headed for our air-conditioned cabin and another nap!

I woke up after about 45 minutes of snooze time, and was lucky enough to be looking out of our cabin window when disaster struck the crew painting the number three crane. Two of them were suspended from a swing scaffold, about 15 metres in the air, and were tasked with painting the outside rear of the crane structure. They must have decided to lower their scaffold a bit to paint a little lower. That’s when it all turned to s**t! Each man had a block and tackle on his end of the scaffold, and to lower the scaffold, he gradually released his rope until the right height was reached. Well that is how it should have been, but a tangled rope and a miscommunication saw one end of the scaffold drop about 2 metres and the other stay put. Now imagine a 3 metre plank with a block and tackle on either end, 2 men, and a big 25 litre can of paint, all 15 metres up in the air. One end drops to 13 metres and the plank has suddenly got a lean of 45°. Where does the tin of paint go? Sure enough, the deck and the bosun standing on it are suddenly painted cream! What a laugh, well for me anyway.

Judy woke up soon after so we headed to the bridge for a look see. We cracked it for dolphins and whales again; they seem to pop up all the time now. The officers on watch cannot remember the seas ever being this calm for so long, Hardly a ripple on the surface, and this makes it great for them (and us!) to spot anything on the surface. The amount of debris, floats, timber, rubbish etc. that floats by is amazing. The officer of the watch is ever vigilant, looking out for anything floating near or on the surface, which can damage the ship. Whilst we haven’t seen any, containers lost overboard from other ships are a real threat.

At dinner the Captain decided that he would stir up the cook and ask for pancakes for desert. He was just joking, but no sooner had he said it than we were all gorging big fresh pancakes with lemon and sugar, or jam and cream. Goran said he had never had a cook so obliging.
After dinner we snuck up onto the bridge to check the ships position before retiring for the night, and got involved in a discussion with the Chief Officer about the things that the crew didn’t have onboard. Whilst they had a TV/DVD in their recreation room, they did not have these in their own cabins. Similarly, they did not have the luxury of a fridge in their cabin either. This meant that to recreate (read, watch movies/drink booze) they had no option than to share a room with their fellow workers. Sure this was OK most of the time, but surely they, like the rest of us humans, needed some space of their own at some stage. You have to remember these blokes are on board for 9 months, and some times interaction with others gets a bit testy. To buy these items themselves, given the small salaries they get, is not an option for them. And even if they did, what happens at the end of their contract, they can’t cart them home. Both Judy and I thought that the addition of a fridge and TV/DVD in each of the crew’s cabins would be a worthwhile investment for the crew and ships welfare.

We headed to our cabin where we settled in for a movie, but not before we sorted out a few things to stay onboard with the crew (100+ DVD’S we had brought with us and some clothes and trinkets we had no use for). Tonight we decided to finish off the 1.5 litre bottle of Baileys Irish Cream we had in the fridge. Little did we know that it was only half empty, so by the time it was drained, so were we! It was easy to nod off tonight

WEDNESDAY 10TH MAY, 2006

As is norm lately, I have breaky in mess, Judy in our room.

By the time I arrived back to our cabin, Judy had visited the bridge to see what was going on. She came back with the latest report on pirates in the area for me to read. It is hard to imagine that this sort of thing still goes on, but it does. I don’t mean the swash buckling sword fighting cannons out the side type of thing, but piracy is still rife in some parts of our world. Now days they tend to approach the ships under cover of darkness, and with grappling hooks and lines, board their vessels of prey by climbing up and over the sides.

Once aboard, the modern day pirates (by all reports) tend to be chasing money, valuables (jewellery, watches etc.), and ships radars and GPS systems. Things that have a sale on the black market are generally their targets. Of course, money is the first thing they want, and most ships have a large amount of cash aboard for crew’s wages etc.
Today’s report stated,

1/ “04.05.06 at 0120, off Horsburgh Lighthouse, Singapore. A speedboat with five pirates on board fired upon a bulk carrier underway. Deck Officer raised alarm; crew mustered, switched on deck lights and secured doors. Four heavily armed pirates boarded, broke down bridge door, tied up the crew and threatened to kill them. Pirates stole ship’s cash, equipment and valuables, as well as cash from crew, and then escaped.”

2/ “09.05.06 at 0405, vicinity of Natura Island, Indonesia. An unlit boat approached the stern of a supply ship underway. Alert crew switched on searchlights and the boat moved away.”
It happens, and although it may be exciting, we don’t really want to share the experience!

We did the usual deck walk, and then spent the remainder of the day swimming, reading, and sorting out the junk we were, and weren’t, going to take with us. I have to say, after almost 4 months, we were not really working at a great rate of knots, in fact if we were working for us, we would have to make ourselves redundant!

Of course we had a few visits to the bridge, and each time we could see ourselves getting closer to Singapore. The end of our maritime adventure was getting closer and closer for us, and the lack of discussion between us about it showed neither of us wanted this to end.

We were now the topic of every discussion with the crew and officers. Each new conversation started with how soon we would be off on our way home. It appeared to us that we were going to be missed by them at least as much, or maybe even more, than we would miss the new friends we had made on board. Gee it is starting to hit home now.

As usual it was movie and then bed, but there was a bit of Cointreau to finish off first!

THURSDAY 11TH MAY, 2006

We were up and on the bridge when the pilot boarded at 7am. We stayed on the bridge until it was time to head for breakfast. Judy decided to join me in the mess today, and the bacon and eggs surely meant she enjoyed it!

We finished breaky and went to the stern just in time to see our final berthing. It was already hot and steamy but we decided that as this was the last time we would see the Jakarta berth, we would put up with the humidity and stay put. The crew really put on a show for us this time. Like us, they knew it was our last time so they really hammed it up.

We headed back for some more packing, but at 11am we were asked to go to the ships office to meet Immigration and the ships Singapore Agent. Immigration was easy, but organizing the agent wasn’t as smooth. He was helpful, but as he didn’t know when the ship would be finished cargo operations, he couldn’t really tell us what time he would be picking us up for our airport transfer. At this stage it was presumed that we would be picked up at 3pm, trouble was the ship was due to sail at 11am! Oh well, we have never sailed when we were supposed to yet, so I don’t think we need worry too much.

We headed back for some more packing until lunch beckoned, then after lunch had no option than to keep on packing. You accumulate so much stuff in 4 months, and it does take a fair bit of sorting.

I wandered up to the pilot deck and then down to the poop deck that many times, I just about wore a track into the stairs. I was sure that with all of the unloading going on, they would certainly need my opinion on something before they got it right. It was really busy on deck as the ship was unloading lots of cargo. Some of it had to be moved around so as to gain access to what was underneath it in the holds, and this double handling all took time. I had a feeling that they were behind schedule, so fingers crossed, we could still be here at 3pm tomorrow and our transfer to the airport should be ok.

We both had a go at this blogger, as there were some things that had to be typed out before we forgot them. We both did the short version of what we wanted to add, and left the final script until time permitted.

With the packing finished, we got permission to walk the deck during cargo operations. This is normally taboo, but we put safety helmets on, and with the blessing of the officers, did our final inspection of “our ship”. It was so hot and steamy we didn’t last long, and the air conditioning beckoned us to our cabin just in time to freshen up for dinner.

We followed dinner with a walk around the wharf, again with the officer’s permission. It was such a busy and dangerous place. As well as our ship, there were 2 other freighters loading in front of us, and a continual stream of small coastal boats loading at the wharf adjacent to our stern. I counted 16 mobile cranes in our vicinity, and all were busy loading or unloading freight. We had to dodge trucks, cranes, cars and forklifts, but it was a real hoot just to be there and in amongst this organized (dis!) chaos.

We were soon back in our cabin for the last nights sleep on board. Judy read until she fell asleep, I just had to go out again and supervise the Bunkering (loading of fuel oil) before I could settle down for the night.


FRIDAY 12TH MAY, 2006

We made it to the mess for a hearty breakfast of pancakes. We both knew this healthy breakfast (!) would have to stop when we arrived back in OZ.

We had all of our things packed and stacked in our cabin, ready for the big carry down to the wharf, so we decided we would fill in the time wandering about the decks (poop, “A” and pilot) where it was safe, and where we could observe all that was going on, until we got the order to depart. We were still unsure of what time we would be departing, but by now there was no way the ship would be leaving at 11am. We were starting to feel pretty comfortable that we would still be aboard until our transfer arrived at 3pm, and just to help us out, the heavens opened up! We had a massive tropical monsoon rain storm. All the hatches were closed, and all work stopped for about 2 hours. Thanks hewy!

Our last lunch was as sad as you would imagine, and made more so when cookie stated that “the clouds were sad and crying because we were going home today”. We had already said some good-byes, so straight after lunch we tried to catch up with as many of the officers and crew that we could, but as cargo ops were now in full swing, we had missed a few.
We both showered and put on some decent attire for the plane flight home, then it was “lug the bags time”, so we grabbed 2 and headed for the ships office on “A” deck. As soon as we got there, the first officer took over, and it wasn’t long before the steward was dispatched to fetch the rest of our bags. We waited in the A/C until our transfer arrived, and then were inundated by crew members who had been ordered to carry our bags to the wharf.

The Captain, First and Second Officers, and about 10 of the crew saw us off the ship. Both Judy and I were overwhelmed by the affection that was shown to us as we departed. We were both sure there were some very wet eyes in amongst our fare welling party, and as we drove away from the side of the ship, it seemed as though all work had stopped so as they could all wave goodbye to us. What a great bunch of friends we were leaving behind.

We were at the airport with plenty of time to spare, almost 3 hours before our flight, so after a walk around the duty free, it was into the Qantas Club for a few drinks and a relax before the drudgery of a 7½ hour flight back to Melbourne. I must say our national carrier certainly needs to improve on its customer relations. We had tried for an upgrade to business class for the return flight. We had put the request in, in accordance with their award rules, but as the ship arrival date couldn’t be confirmed, they scrubbed our request before we booked in. You guessed it. The aircraft was ⅔ full, and yet they wouldn’t change our booking. There was no negotiation when they wanted $5,600 to upgrade us, and we just wouldn’t pay that on principle. Surely any extra dollars would have been good for them, and if they had said $2,500 we would have taken it. Loyalty is sometimes forgotten by the big conglomerates.


SATURDAY 13TH MAY 2006

Back in the land of OZ.

As usual it was a long and boring flight, but all of that was forgotten when we walked from the aircraft at about 4.45am at Melbourne International Airport, Tullamarine. We were through customs without too much delay, and it wasn’t long before we arrived back at our apartment. The kids were all asleep, and after there initial run and hide, the cats realized it was the people who pay for their food, and they came around for a cuddle. We were into bed as quick as a flash, and sleep took over in double quick time.

By late morning we were up and at it. We had so much to tell all who would listen, I just wonder whether they will get the same joy out of listening to our stories of our “Around the World Cruise on a Freighter”, as we will out of telling them!