Back to Cape Town!

Yesterday, just after I had finished writing the blog, I felt the ship start to move and in the excitement of an immanent departure rushed up on deck to see what was happening. We were just moving back to the harbour at the Waterfront so that the freezer repairs could be completed. The captain allowed all of us to go ashore until two thirty pm as he predicted that we would be able to depart at three pm at the earliest. Jess, Odd, Charles and I ended up at the San Marco Restaurant where Jess and I tried the San Marco signature cocktail called Scorpino while the guys stuck to coke as they had to assist with the ship’s departure. Back to the cocktails though – the best I have ever had. It was a mix of lemon sorbet, champagne, vodka, ice cream and cream (as far as I can remember) and neither of us passes over having a second one.

We did a little bit of wandering around at the Waterfront before being back on the ship at the correct time. The freezer had been fixed and a pilot ordered for a 4pm departure. We only left at around 5 pm as the pilot was late. After having a glorious day in Cape Town as soon as the ship started moving we felt the wind and knew we were in for a bumpy ride. Jess and I stayed on the deck for as long as possible but then the waves were splashing onto us and we beat a hasty retreat indoors. The trip out was very bumpy in the howling wind and there were quite a few pale faces around including my own. I felt nauseous for about ten minutes until the seasickness tablets started to work and then I was mostly okay for the night although I also admit to spending a lot of time sleeping.

This morning I woke up early and heard the trawl doors bang against the back of the ship and went to see if we had started fishing. It was only the end of the operation to get the tension on the trawl wires correct. I heard that during this the ship’s engine had shutoff completely and had to be restarted. We moved from offshore to the trawl site and in went the first trawl of the survey. It was fairly deep and took a while to get on the bottom. All seemed to be going okay until the trawl was pulled in when the engine shutoff again. We drifted for a bit and then everything started up again and the catch was emptied onto the deck. We got on with processing the catch and, as for all first catches, there were a few processing problems but those will be sorted out as things go along. I had to reacquaint myself with the database system and all the fish codes but everything was fine in the end.

The engine problem has, however, put a temporary stop on all fishing activities and we will be returning to Cape Town to get it sorted out. It will take us quite a while to get back and then some time for a specialist to arrive from Norway and fix everything. Hopefully we will be able to get some trawling done before the crew change on the 19th of January.

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