Saturday in Spain

Apparently the tumultuous global economy hasn't affected the pleasure boat industry here in Spain  -  as I was making my approach to the pilot station there were so many boats I couldn't count them all!  Thank goodness our whistle is operational!  Honk!  Honk!  Move over!  Honk!  Honk!  Coming through!

I'm not sure what is worse....a fishing boat or a pleasure boat....either way, when they cross in front of a loaded tanker I think it's safe to consider them a speed bump.

I think given my aversion to small boats I should get on a pre-positioned vessel.  That way, if a small boat is headed your way you know they're going to hit you....because you're ANCHORED!

Outbound Cartagena

It's sunnier!  I think you can see how craggy it is a little easier.... I think it's my lot in life to be harassed by persistent fishing boats.

Cartagena, Spain

I was anchored off the coast of Cartagena for about a day before heading into port. The coastline was much more rugged than I expected....lots of rock outcroppings and craggy slopes.

Rugged coastline + Misty morning = Oddly beautiful

Back up and running

These are the photos I wanted to post the other day.... I'm standing 6 and 6 watches....which means I work 6 hours and then have 6 hours off....it turns me into a walking zombie.....so the blog will be a little light for awhile.  I literally work, eat and sleep....

The past few days...

I've been pretty lucky the last few days - I've been in an absolutely beautiful port - basking in perfect summer weather. After a two day port stay in was back through the Strait of Gibraltar....

We got nailed with very thick fog last night on my watch - I'd definitely describe it as 'pea soup thick'.

I'm now in the Med anchored in another absolutely beautiful port.

(just fyi...I'm having trouble loading photos onto the site...I'll keep you posted - hopefully we won't be out of comission...you never know about those guys in IT though...)

3's

You guys aren't going to believe this. Yesterday, I was standing my first cargo watch where we were discharging cargo - normally this would have happened weeks ago but we've been having issues with local port state control.  It was the first time I was running the pumps and I've been here almost three weeks!

The Chief Mate leaves me alone in the cargo control room and not even a half hour later we loose the plant and the ship goes dark.

Because everything is fully automated this means we lost control of the majority of our cargo valves - and obviously we lost control of the cargo pumps.

Long story short, it wasn't my fault - just an engine room mishap.  One of the generators tripped offline and because we had such a large load it caused everything to trip offline.

I really believe that not so good things come in sets of three.

In just under a week I've participated in a near collision, a steering casualty, and a ship blackout.

I hope this means that I'm off the hook for at least a little while.....