No time to edit or make a separate english and czech version.. Look for pictures below in the czech text...
Its has beem almost a month since I got
on board a merchant vessel Anette. This ship will be my home and work
for another half a year. Unfortunately, there is no internet here, so
Ill try to post some photos and stories here as often as we reach
ports and get the chance to leave the boat and find internet on land.
It has been almost a month since I
stared at this steel giant crushing its way through the ice covered
waters in the port of Trois Rivieres in Canada. Its rusty, scratched
bow covered with ice and snow, which slowly reached the lights on the
pier sure looked like a picture from a different planet. It was
freezing like in Canada that night. Guys on the deck were pulling
heavy thick frozen ropes, tug boats pushing and pulling Anette back
and forth until it was safely moored. Ok. Now there is no way back.
Im taking my bag and walking up the gangway to the snow covered deck.
Let this adventure begin.
Anette is a bulk carrier, which has
been partly remodeled to a tanker a couple of years ago. It carries
clay(whatever plates and coffe mugs are made of) from the delta of
Amazon in Brazil in a form of powder and kind of liquid mud, which is
stored at the bottom of the cargo holds. We take this clay to
Searsport in Maine and to Trois Rivieres in Canada. Its a pretty
decent size ship, but with its 180m its nothing compare to the
biggest panamax size vessels. It sure takes a while to walk all the
way to the front and realize that you forgot something in the engine
room.
The first days passed like in a dream.
I kept my eyes opened so I didnt have to ask any stupid questions. I
recieved my new working outfit, helmet, ear plugs and gloves and was
sent to the engine room. I noticed on the STAIRWAY sign on the
hallway, that someone used a black marker and added ''TO HELL'' Well
the reality is pretty close. Its crazy in here. Felling like a proper
engineer, I recognize the main engine and congratulate myself. Well
its not that hard in the end. It is 4 stories tall and Im trying to
find the ear plugs I just had 5 minutes ago in my hand. Pipes,
vlaves, compressors, pumps, more pipes, steep staircases which lead
to different floors of the engine room. Its a crazy yet fascinating
place. I start working right away. As a proper wiper(which is my
official job description) i start wiping. Well what did I expect. At
least they didnt want me to do any engineering here. I have a feeling
that its gonna take a while to understand this whole machine. No
wonder the chief engineer is getting payed ten grant a month. And
suposively this is a bad paying company.
As we are getting fuel the next day,
the deck crew is busy with unloading the remaining clay. To my
surprise they load the entire excavator to the cargo hold using the
crane to scoop up whats left. Its hard to meet the new people here
since everybody on the deck is wearing a ski mask and thick overall
to be protected from the freezing wind and snow. I recognize one face
though. Old Venca guy. I met him in september when I was going
through some safety training. How do you like your first day on your
first ship? He asks me. I love it man. Its crazy and awesome.... It
will pass Petr. Dont worry... My question why is he on a boat for 33
years is overheard and his ice covered bearded face dissapears
inside.
We leave at night and navigate through
the ice down the river. Huge ice plates, large as ice rinks crack
like nothing as the heavy ship hits them full speed.
The promise, that we wil be working
only 8 hours a day is broken the very first day, when we all go to
bed after almost 20 hours. Later I found out its only when we are in
ports. Loading and unloading the cargo is more important than
anything. On the open ocean we really do work from 8 to 5. Almost.
Next day we found out that some smart
ass forgott to close one of the million of the valves on board and
water reached a certain pipe, where should be steam. Water froze and
cracked the whole thing. Roughly half of a mile of pipes. Every other
one is ripped, every gasket is done. So we start dissasembling,
cutting, welding, assembling. For a week we walk into the tunnels
which lead from the back all the way to the front and try to fix this
pipeline. As we do so, we break almost every thinkable safety
regulation. None of us has a welding certificate for high pressure
pipes, the sign on the door we walk through millions of times a day
says KEEP CLOSED AT SEA. None of the deck crew guys has a certificate
to operate a crane, but what the hell... Im not carrying the
excavator on my back. I better work and shut up I think to myself.
Just watch out and be careful not to weld or cut a hole in the ships
hull and it will be ok. Being careful is my biggest concern. Getting
hurt out here can as well be the end. I dont want to see some deck or
engineering officer going throug some medical books, trying to figure
out how to stitch up a wound. No there is no doctor here. But yes,
third deck officer has a first aid training:)
As we sail south the temperature rises.
The ice on the inside of our windows sdissapeared one night. Sun gets
higher every day and the temperature in the engine room rises and
rises. It was around 50C when I stopped worrying. Unfortunately shit
breaks down there as well and working in this heat is unbearable. I
think to myself just shut up and do it. When its done, you can go and
také a cold shower.
Just before we reached Brazil an
important pump broke down and it took 14 hours straight to replace
the broken shaft inside. Fuel pipe broke and it took two days to
clean up the leaked fuel. Perfect job for a wiper. The fuel though is
closer to asphalt then diesel fuel. Black, thick and if you just
imagine any image of an oil spill disaster, you got the picture.
Exhaust valve on the main angine failed
and we needed a small crane to just lift it out from the engine head.
You can easily hide the one from your car in your hand. No wonder
things break down here. As I walk around the engine room, I notice
the information plate on the engine room, which gives you all kinds
of information about the power and so on... At the bottom it says
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA... Ok. Good to know. The whole ship was
designed and built in China, because it was way cheaper to build it
there than in lets say Finland or South Korea. 15 million dollars is
supposively a good price for a ship like this. But after 10 years in
service its almost at the end of its journey.
A couple of days ago as we were getting
closer to the coast of the United States, pretty big storm hit us
strong. Waves as big as houses were hitting us for more than 12
hours. Noone got any sleep that night. Not because of fear, but
because it was impossible. We were rolling in our beds like crazy.
The ship was heeling up to 30-35 degrees, which is quite a lot,
considering the fact that we dont have a sailboat style keel:)
Tons of water was flowing across the
deck and the whole ship was vibrating, shaking.. In the tunnels
inside, where you can see throuh almost the entire ship, I saw how
the entire construction bends and twists. I felt a strange calm and
undescribable feeling of trust. Eventhough I remember from university
something called fatigue failure and the fact that this ship was
built by chinese engineers I felt no fear. I was staring at the giant
ship out the window on the bridge deck and thinking to myself that
this sure must be on a different planet.
Anette is a german owned vessel,
operating under a Liberian flag with czech captain and slovakians,
czechs russians and some ukranians as the crew. No good filipinos on
board unfortunately. I kinda expected some kind of a social life
here, but honestly everyone is dead tired and goes pretty much to
sleep after work. Its nice though to sit outside sometimes on the
deck, drink beer and talk. The only time we see each other is
breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most of the guys are fun and hard
working dudes. Old, young, all with interesting life stories.. Some
though have some issues and if they werent officers they would be
thrown overboard for sure. Its hard to deal with an idiot in normal
life, but here you cant run away from him. Im the only first
contracter here and pretty much noone understand why I took this job
and how can I like this. Why I laugh all the time, joke around and
dont care how hard some of the work is. I dont know. Maybe I wanted
to see this crazy world up close, escape from the day-to-day routine
of life on shore, make money, have some adventure, understand the
ocean a bit more...
As I sit on the deck and stare at the
sea I cant think of anything else, but the fact that the surface of
the ocean looks the same for millions of years. Mountains grow and
fall, forests burn down, deserts spread and move around... not the
ocean. It will always be here with its enourmous power and huge
horizon. Sitting on this floating island called Anette I feel so
free, eventhough this world we live on right now shrunk to the
dimensions of a small clay carrier. As I stare to the water I hear
behind myself „Pedro, you know what they say about the people who
look into the water?... that they are crazy“ It was just good old
bosun passing by. And he is right.
