Day 28

Another quiet watch this morning, although a flash of inspiration has led me explore a completly new topic for my dissertation.

The second engineer showed myself and the other cadet around the engine room this afternoon, pics and explanations below.

More painting this afternoon.

  

As with most merchant vessels, there is no starter motor for the engines because the capacity is too large to crank over. Instead they are started with compressed air being forced into the cylinders to kick it over. These are the tanks containing that compressed air.

  

We produce our own fresh water from seawater.  Seawater is sucked into these evaporation units, that are heated using the hot cooling water from the main engines, to allow this to boil the seawater, the pressure is lowered within the EVAP to decrease the boiling point of the water. Each unit can produce approximately 14t a day of fresh water.

  

The ship, unlike a lot of other merchant ships burns marine diesel, it is much cleaner than normal heavy fuel but it still requires pre filtering. This is one of the centrifuges for the diesel, the clean diesel is then pumped into the service tanks ready to be used in the engines.

  

Gearbox. There are two main engines on board, they are coupled via a single gear box and drive one propeller shaft.  We have a controllable pitch propeller which is good for manoeuvrability. The engines spin the shaft at a constant 158rpm, if more speed is required; the central computer alters the pitch of the propeller to generate it.

  

One of two diesel generators on board, there is also a shaft generator, this meets all the day to day power requirements but if more power is needed for the thrusters etc then the computer will bring these generators online.

  

One of two main engines, you can see the turbo charger on the left of the pic. Output is 2200Kw @720 rpm. Daily consumption is approximately 7t of diesel or 5mpg.

  

This is the main switch board, where all the electrical power is distributed for the ship.

  

Finally,  the steering gear. The rudder stock is the central stainless steel structure. There is a small needle on the front with a scale for angle indication, if the linkage up to the bridge is lost, the ship can be steered locally from within the steering gear room.

Day 27

Quiet watch this morning, wind is a steady F5 on the nose, temperature is comfortable. I was learning the art of chart corrections this afternoon.

Every chart on board has to be update by law, chart corrections come out weekly and we download them then print them off and apply them to the charts that are needed. There are two different types that you physically put on the chart, blocks and traces. Blocks are replacement parts of chart that are stuck on top to replace a section of chart and traces are printed out onto tracing paper, these can be additions eg new lights, depths, etc or removal of lights, etc or replacing features.

This evening we had doctor school, the doc showed us how to put in a drip, take blood and test our blood groups. I took my own blood, which was a strange feeling and found out my blood type to be O+.

Clocks are going to GMT +1 tonight, each watch it 20mins less. Instead of starting at midnight tonight I start at 2320, then we put the clocks forward an hour.

Day 26

Body clock a bit of a mess today due to changing watches, swell increased over night which also ddnt help the no sleep front.  Tried to shoot the sun at local noon but missed it, back to the books tonight and re try again tomorrow.

 I was helping the third mate pressure test all the fire hoses and nozzles on board (over 40 of them) then we had another drill/safety brief on immersion suits, foam systems and liferafts.

Current location 02° S    008° W. Temperature has decreased to mid 20s and the sky has been overcast for the past couple of days

Day 25

Scrubbing the decks this morning. Swell has increased, its now on the nose, we have got wind, swell and equatorial currents against us.

Crossed the equator tonight, now its summer!

I missed the only exciting thing of the day, the third mate saw a raft float passed. There wasn’t anybody on it or near it, looked like it had been out at here a long time.

Watch changes today, moving onto the 12-4 for a week.

Myth busted; water ran down sink clockwise in N hemisphere, runs down clockwise in S hemisphere.

Day 24

On deck painting this morning then a fairly chilled out afternoon BBQ for crossing the line. Weather has been overcast all day with a bit of rain to spoil my painting, cant complain though, it has caused the temperature to drop to a comfortable mid 20s

Day 23

A nice morning of undercoating then had a fire and first aid drill, I got strapped into a stretcher.

This afternoon has been fairly quiet, usual stuff, gym, a bit of laundry and some uni work. 

Current location is 250nM off the coast of Sierra Leone.

Tonight, the ship was heading straight for a large lightning storm, the forecast was for gusts of severe wind but it must have always just been ahead of us as the ship never met the wind forecasted.

Day 22

First job this morning was to pay out and flake the aft mooring line onto the poop deck. Once this was complete, the pressure washer was rigged and I drove to winch to put the line back on, whilst the boatswain washed the line. Bridge watch tonight was hot and not a lot happening, usual met forecast sent to the met office and a compass correction by star (Achenar). The last waypoint and turn before Cape Town has just been done, this leg is over 3000nM.

Air and Sea temp at midnight 28°C