Cape Town and other stories
On Friday afternoon the ship docked in Cape Town and there was an exodus by the crew once all the fish had been sorted out and our work area was clean and tidy. I didn't rush off the ship but took things easy and then went to buy a pair of board shorts before returning to the ship for a rest. Kerry and I went off to the Spur for a decent steak which I was longing for before return to the ship and joining Charles up on the bridge. Kerry was really keen to find the horn and blow it but decided in the end that it would not be the best idea to disturb everyone. We then went for a tour around the ship and checked out the engine room, the trawl winches, etc.
During the evening my new cabin mate arrived and moved in. Kerry moved to the next door cabin for her last night and we spent a lot of time there as Claudia arrived and went to sleep making me feel uncomfortable about hanging around my own cabin.
Saturday morning was a very lazy start and I just went and did a little shopping before heading back to the ship to see Kerry off. Charles then kindly invited me to lunch and it was a good distraction from missing Kerry. In the afternoon we had to go to immigration to get stamped out of the country and this is where the fun and games began. One of the scientific crew had not arrived and on phoning him we found out that he was still at home. He was given instructions on how to get to immigration but he really didn't seem to phased by any need to hurry. We all got our stamps and returned to the ship. Our colleague pitched up at the ship without going through immigration so it was decided that he should rather not come with. When he was told to pack his stuff up quickly so that we could leave, it was discovered that he only had a pair of takkies and a notebook onboard -he had taken all his stuff off the ship the night before and had no intention of coming with us. The dragging his heals was so that he was told to stay rather than him asking if he could skip the next leg of the cruise.
After leaving the harbour we had the mandatory emergency drill and then the normal pre-cruise leg meeting. Afterwards everyone just dispersed, mostly to their own cabins, and caught up on some sleep.
So now we have started the third leg of the cruise and everyone is pretty relaxed. We are less one chief scientist and that has made a huge difference to the stress levels on the deck. This morning's trawls were processed efficiently and everyone was sort of looking at each other saying "Have we done everything?" because it felt so strange to just work quickly without having to wait for all the arguments to subside first.
Today we managed to get in 6 trawls but tomorrow we will be aiming for 7. All of us want an extra day in Walvis Bay so we need to get as much done as possible in case the weather turns against us and we loose time.
During the evening my new cabin mate arrived and moved in. Kerry moved to the next door cabin for her last night and we spent a lot of time there as Claudia arrived and went to sleep making me feel uncomfortable about hanging around my own cabin.
Saturday morning was a very lazy start and I just went and did a little shopping before heading back to the ship to see Kerry off. Charles then kindly invited me to lunch and it was a good distraction from missing Kerry. In the afternoon we had to go to immigration to get stamped out of the country and this is where the fun and games began. One of the scientific crew had not arrived and on phoning him we found out that he was still at home. He was given instructions on how to get to immigration but he really didn't seem to phased by any need to hurry. We all got our stamps and returned to the ship. Our colleague pitched up at the ship without going through immigration so it was decided that he should rather not come with. When he was told to pack his stuff up quickly so that we could leave, it was discovered that he only had a pair of takkies and a notebook onboard -he had taken all his stuff off the ship the night before and had no intention of coming with us. The dragging his heals was so that he was told to stay rather than him asking if he could skip the next leg of the cruise.
Cape Town on our departure.
Marek Lipinski waving to us as we were leaving.
After leaving the harbour we had the mandatory emergency drill and then the normal pre-cruise leg meeting. Afterwards everyone just dispersed, mostly to their own cabins, and caught up on some sleep.
So now we have started the third leg of the cruise and everyone is pretty relaxed. We are less one chief scientist and that has made a huge difference to the stress levels on the deck. This morning's trawls were processed efficiently and everyone was sort of looking at each other saying "Have we done everything?" because it felt so strange to just work quickly without having to wait for all the arguments to subside first.
Today we managed to get in 6 trawls but tomorrow we will be aiming for 7. All of us want an extra day in Walvis Bay so we need to get as much done as possible in case the weather turns against us and we loose time.
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