Sunday observations

Today it is Sunday, which means half day off for me as a cadet. I have spent my day doing two of my favorite things, reading and photographing. For one moment I also thought of drawing, but I realized that the light in the cabin wasn't enough for my precision sketches. Instead, I had the opportunity to borrow the second mate's telephoto lens (a Sigma 300mm) and portrait the inbounds of Rostock. One frequent guest in this port is the "Kronprins Frederik", which is, together with her sister ship "Kronprins Joachim", whitout a doubt the ugliest ships of the Baltic sea. I do not know how they thought when they were designing the hull's shape, but it was either no hydro- and aerodynamic aspects or the overall looks of the ship that they had in mind. It is literally a box with a hull, pushing the sea forward instead of smoothly cut the water. Take a look for yourselves:

"Kronprins Frederik" doing her daily duty pushing the Baltic sea northwards

Unfortunately, my internet connection is dying by this moment, so instead of giving you the full story of today's adventures, here's a picture of the bulkhead in my cabin, in case you care.

Listen to: E Nomine – Schwarze Sonne - Radio Mix (Deutsche Version)

Tales from the sketchbook

People tend to judge you for what you have done

instead of why you did it

and they will never ask

just leave you alone

//Fröken J

Listen to: Tuxedomoon – In A Manner Of Speaking

When the sun came to Trelleborg

The sun heats up the port of Trelleborg in one last moment of brightness before it collapse into the horizon and leave the city for the night.

Listen to: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra – Sunshine - Adagio In D Minor

For the sake of a fast rescue

Last monday we had the Swedish and the German Transport agency onboard, doing their annual inspection of the ship. Among other things, they wanted to see how the FRB (Fast Rescue Boat) was working and how the launching procedure was carried out. Therefore, the chief officer and two ABs suited up in survival suits and boarded the boat.

Well, steady as she goes

AB Madde suited up

Chief officer ready to lower the boat to the sea level

Launching in progress. As you can see, every person is equipped with a safety harness with lines fixed to the mother ship. It requires good simultaneous capacity to both lower the boat and yourself at the same time and in the same speed

Fast rescue boat going fast

Nebel

Three weeks ago when I was hand steering inbound port of Rostock, I saw an amazing photo opportunity. The whole ship yard was shrouded in fog and the cranes seemed to float in the misty air. If you have seen Rammstein's music video "Seeman" (my absolute favorite) you know what I am talking about, it was truly beautiful. However, I was hand steering and had no opportunity to go and fetch the camera, so the moment passed and I had to wait. Not for long though, the moist weather are a very distinctive feature of the Baltic ports during the winters, and a couple of days ago Rostock was once more covered in a blanket of fog. This time, I was not on duty, so I could preserve the moment.

Neptun-Werft GmbH in Rostock. More than 1500 new ships have been built there since the ship yard was founded in 1850. During the second world war, Rostock and Warnemünde was a top target for the Allies' bomb planes, this due to the fact that they where building submarines there

Starboard life boat in mist

LKW (LastKraftWagen - eng. trucks) and PKW (PersonKraftWagen - eng. ordinary private cars) check-in. On the right side, Scandline's ship "Skåne"

Listen to: Rammstein - Nebel

Watch this:

Terrible birthday

If you have the luck to get one year older onboard, there is three options how your celebration will turn out. The best scenario is that your co-workes congratulate you with cake and presents, a slightly poorer scenario is that nobody notice your special day and you get older in silent forgetfulness. But the worst scenario is that you are signing on on your birthday only to discover that your thoughtful friends on the other watch have rearranged your cabin so it is covered up with plastic cups full of water, nude pictures on the bulkheads and clever traps hidden everywhere in your cabin. I promise that it isn't fun to discover that your bedsheets and your towels are filled with flour and that someone have put invisible plastic wrap over your toilet. But that how it is, when your getting older on a ship where people really care to celebrate your birthday ;)

Congrats from the crew on the other watch

Every single cup is filled up with water

Close up of the cups

And when I am into the topic of funny observations onboard, look what I found while I made the inventory of the medical store onboard - Absolut Finsprit! Perhaps only funny for swedish people, however "Finsprit" can be translated to "Fine liquor", and since we swedish people are so proud of our (x-swedish, nowadays french) "Absolut Vodka" I thought my finding was worth sharing since everything made perfectly sense. However, it will be terrible strong drinks, 99,5% alcohol isn't anything to play around with :)

Resources in the medical store

Listen to: The Birthday Massacre – Red Stars

Greetings from Trelleborg

So, here I am, since one week ago I am on board the ship once again, traveling between Trelleborg and exotic Rostock. I thought I should share some photos I have taken onboard while I am in an area with internet-access. As usual, I forgot about the very existence of my camera the moment I signed on the ship (it seems to happen quite often when I am out on a contract), however, I found my camera and the motivation for photographing a couple of days ago, therefore I was out in the cold evening sun and took some photos over Trelleborg port. Some day I will go ashore in Rostock and Warnemünde too, since it is a little bit more exotic there.

Well, here they are, the photos of what I see every day (with the exception of the weather, it is very seldom the sun shines over Trelleborg and Rostock, but sometimes it does. When that happens, I bring out the camera).

The funnel and the ventilation shafts of the ship in the sunset

The view on the port side while we are discharging and loading in Trelleborg

M/S Nils Dacke and M/S Gryf in the port of Trelleborg, the view from starboard side

When talking about how exotic Rostock is, it is always good to have some perspective. Compared to Trelleborg the city seems more interesting, maybe because of the fact that it isn't a swedish town, therefore it is exotic. However, compared to the views and the smells in the morning in the middle of the Argentinian jungle at Rio Parana Guazú, Rostock doesn't stand a chance as an exotic destination. It was amazing. Therefore, I complete today's post with a photo of the morning sun over the Argentinian jungle, taken onboard Stena Primorsk in october 2010. I promise I will stay tuned.

Listen to: Anna Ternheim – What Have I Done - Familjen Remix

A dog named Doris

I am on my way and on the roads towards Trelleborg and the ship once again. I have spent the morning packing two large suitcases with stuff that will become necessary and convenient for my life onboard. I know that I bring too much things with me, but I hate to discover that I'm not in possession of what I need or want at the moment onboard the ship. However, on this ship it is very easy to go ashore and refill the stack with stuff that I need compared to onboard the vessels which do not go into port that frequently. Even though, my bags are filled with books (an easy calculation shows that I just can't read them all, there will be no time, but I like to have the possibility to choose among the books so it suits my literature preferences of the day), I have brought my monospeaker (which also is complete necessary ;), almost all of my camera equipment (so there will be more frequent updates here) and a large amount of other technical gadgets. When I come onboard I do not like to leave the ship before the contract is over, I don't know why, maybe because I am too lazy to do so. But the possibility of shorebased shopping is however good when you are planning what to bring to the ship.

Yesterday I visited my friend Anna together with another friend, Linda. Earlier this week we planned a second photo shoot in her upcoming apartment (the first photo can be found here), so yesterday afternoon we spent an hour or two behind and in front of the camera. I have got a remote trigger for my camera now, which make it way more easy to take self portraits. Anna's dog, Doris, did also participate in the photo shoot.

Anna, Linda and Doris

A dog named Doris. With a hat. Selbstverständlich.

The self portrait

I think it is a little bit of a pity that the remote control is visible in my hand at the last photo, but it isn't so much to do about it now afterwards. I also see that the pictures are a bit too dark, but I believe it is because of the fact that the screen to the stationary computer at home are no longer calibrated. Maybe I will upload a set with brighter photos later.

Now - time for the sea.

Listen to Frida Boccara – L'arbre D'amour

Winter's end

I was out walking in the slippery snow slush in the city a couple of days ago. I haven't used my camera so much the past week, mainly because of the lack of time, I have been working, but the other day I carried a compact camera with me. I took a picture which had a great resemblance with one of my photos from the past summer. I did not think of the similarity at that moment, but when I came home and compared the two photos I saw that I had exactly the same idea and point of view six months ago. The differences, among other things, are the weather and the surroundings. But it is going to get better and warmer, even though it will take some time. In a month or two we will be at the winter's end, but before that, I will be out at the sea.