We’re still here!
No orders, yet, for any cargo. We might find out, today, though if there’s anything in the foreseeable future. You see, we aren’t set up with any current charter therefore; anything that is offered is termed as a ’spot charter’.
However, we were vetted, or inspected, by Chevron oil over a week ago. There findings might entice the prospect of our ship by receiving a charter. As of now, we just ’sit on the hook’, or maritime vernacular for ‘being at anchor’.
We are getting sporadic Satellite signal and yet, we found out that our highly sophisticated and self-tracking satellite equipment had a few flaws; one of which, was the onboard equipment wasn’t acquiring either of the two satellites required for a good signal. I stood poised within the ship’s bridge as one of the engineers troubleshoot the faulty system located on the fly bridge as I relayed information back as the tracking computer tried to correct itself . Nonetheless, for a few days, the world stood still in our eyes, as far as we knew it with only a bit of information coming from loved ones ashore via cellular service!
I’ve been busy at other tasks while off Watch during the four hours which make up the twelve hours allotted for a typical day at work. We get a salary, onboard, yet it consists of a bit more money as it compensates for these twelve hours, rather than a traditional eight-hour work day. Preventative weekly and monthly maintenance checks such as firefighting and lifesaving gear including fire extinguishers, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) bottles, lifeboats and even life ring buoys are conducted.
Each deck officer gets his fair share of duties and the ship is properly maintained, as a result. Travis, the other Third Mate, is responsible for keeping up with the medical equipment, for instance and Mike, the Second Mate, is primarily updating navigational publications and charts. He also has the task of greasing the cargo deck valves, as well and other equipment
responsible for cargo operations.
I was not too pleased on how the forward firefighting supply locker was arranged and took it upon myself to arrange the darn thing so it had some kind of organization. I did manage to locate a few pieces of equipment that I’ve never seen before so I considered it a learning experience.
Just another day aboard the Chemical Explorer!
Have a good day!
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