Last trip for a while

You know that feeling you are working with people you like, but you know that it's growing close to an end for each day that goes on.

That's how it's going out here, in the.... not so bright weather conditions.

we have only been on the ship for 8 days now, and we already had 3 days where we couldn't work due to weather conditions, and today is one of them.

But alot of things have happen since the last time I wrote a blog, everything from visitng Manchester and meet countles of good friends and.... (he will know if he reads this) Trolls, to ending up with the doctor for blood test and waiting...

So where to begin...

Manchester...

I had a ticket from the october 9th to the 11th in Manchester, and it was awesome.

The awesomeness started already in the airport in Copenahgen, before I left for UK, becuse I got the big chance of meeting my old crew from the old ship I was working on, the Esvagt Bergen.

Not that I miss the part of the bad weather out there...

But like I said, I meet them... or a few of them in the airport, for a short chat... very short, like 1 min. some of them, or the only 2 i manage to talk to where quiet in a hurry. But it was still nice to see some of the old ones from my old ship.

So the plane left for Manchester, not that I got any pictures of that, only me writing that it was just yet another trip with plane, and I am bad at taking pictures on a plane, my phone uselly always ends up in flight mode and never leaves my pocket untill we land.

But I have to admit it... Manchester airport... you are confusing.

Anyways, I got out of there and found the place where we where to meet with all of the others from an organisation called "Imperium" that I am a part of, to meet up with friends from all across the world, not all members though, otherwise we would have end up in.... well... too many.

Anyways, a whole weekend with all of those awesome people and participating in CitizenCon from Star Citizen... what an awesome weekend!

And the best thing of all, my flight got canceled the sunday during morning, so I just won a whole day extra in Manchester to spent with those awesome people I meet... How ever, the flight I took later that sunday to get home... well... I got home to DK so late, that there was no way I could get back home that day, due to ferries... so I won a hotel stay out of own pocket... the flight company did not support that... sucks. 

After that, I got one awesome email from the National Homeguard school, that they want me more then anything to be instructor on their navigation courses, so in the future, if all goes well, I will be educating navigators and watch officers across the country.

And as it wasn't enough, I spent 5 days working on one of the army schools as.... many things, everything from dummy and actor, to judge for some test they had to go through, all in all... great 5 days... there is a picture I would like to show that was a part of some of the excersises, note that the picture is not real, its all makeup on the picture.

IT'S ALL MAKEUP!! NO REAL BLOOD!!

IT'S ALL MAKEUP!! NO REAL BLOOD!!

But I have no idea what I was doing right nevertheless on those 5 days, I ended up beeing the guy everyone liked... despite not knowing any of the guys or students, not to mention the feedback I got from the students... it was so good, that the school already requested me for more courses... Awesome.

So the doctors stuff.... nothing much to tell really, I had some issues with my body the last.... ehh... I think it's almost up on 5 months now, always something the blood test came out with good resoults.... meaning they have no clue at all whats wrong, but damm that doctor ruined my arm, he couldn't get enough blood the the last test glass, so he simply started to move the needle around in my arm... not that it hurt, but wauw my arm was black the next week. 

No need to worrie... I dont have any pictures of that.

But otherwise then that, it's all back to normal, I'm back to work on the Esvagt Froude, and we are not doing much as long as the weather is too bad, so it will be atleast 3 days more before we even can get close to weather conditions that are good enough.

For those of you, who might have wondered why I call this "Last trip for a while" it's simply becuse in 3 weeks, when this trip ends, I will be back to school for the next 2½ year. Finishing off this year with work and 1 month off before school, with christmas and new years.

A ship in harbor is a safe ship, but ships where not made for that.

Time to go Home! And Manchester

Like the subject says.... I am going HOME!... well not right now, but tomorrow. the 7th... and yet again, I am not going to mannage to get all the way home, due to the lack of time untill my plane leaves on friday to Manchester.

There has been alot of consideration lately onboard, of if we where to go in to shore a bit earlier then normal, becuse the weather... well, it's so Sh%#&y so we can't really do any work out here, then look and clean the ship, which is by the way allready clean.

I also had to reschedule my work time for when we are coming a shore.... we are pretty much under manned that day, 1 is sleeping, 2 is doing some test, 1 are not permittet to drive the cranes onboard.... so we are basicly only 2 left to do the work for 5.... It's gonna be awesome...
"Everything is awesome".

But then you might think... "Where am I gonna stay until friday" and that part... you can only guess about that ;)

So... Friday, I am going to Manchester, to meet up with alot of other people I talk and write with everyday, and then we are going to something called "CitizenCon" for those who doesn't know it, it's related to a game called "Star Citizen".

Oh reminds me of...

Next trip with the Esvagt Froude will be my last... for atleast some time though. I'm going back to school for the next 2½ year.

Alot of things is happening at the same time.

And I also got everything planned out in the coming home periode, also after the CitizenCon.

Lot's of National Homeguard stuff to do.... and mostly important, I'm going to visit my family back home for 3 days.... It's been way too long.

Otherwise then that, I got stuff to do pretty much everyday from now on untill the 25th.... ehhm... correct that, 26th.

Until next time.

"A ship in harbor is a safe ship, but ships where not made for harbor."

1½ week to go!

I got to be honest here... but wauw, I am getting really tired now, waking up every morning 0345, and not to mention the officer on watch, that I am watchkeeper for, is tired as well... And tonight is no exception.

But I have to say it out loud, WAUW I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO GO HOME!

well.. not home home, but home, im not going to my own place when I'm done on this trip, im going to someone, and then 2 days later, I'll be on a plane on the way to Manchester, for CitizenCon.

Otherwise, the weather are for once with us, we only had 2 days where the weather was a bit too rough to work in.... which I dont really mind, becuse then we can have days off... or said in other words, weekend, all thanks to the weather.... otherwise we just keep working non stop.

I recently visited VUC AEROE, when I was home, as National Homeguard Officer, to do some small commercial and... well.... showoff, to show all the new people who arrived to Aeroe this August, that the National Homeguard is here as well.

I planned with my Recruiter that we don't want to make anything big or anything, but only stand in the middle of the school, and say nothing, only when people comes to us and ask.

It was a great hit, the part of not saying anything was only something we could talk about, we where constantly talking to young people who where interrested in our jobs, and wanted to see more and sign up.

Great day... But I have to mention though, there are apparently something about the Uniform, becuse there where a young lady who asked for my phone number,and keept staring, she didn't really want to know anything about the National Homeguard, but more, how old I was, my name.... and she couldn't get her eye's off me.... It was fun though. It might be a good thing that there are no mobile phone cover where I am right now.

Hopefully no one recognizes me when I start at the school next to it this january.

Reminds me of, when I departed to work, from home, we go to Rostock in Germany, and the first thing I saw when I arrived to Rostock... and I am not kidding at all.... the picture says it all.

So... welcome to Germany, it was hillarius.

That's about it for this time, a short blog update, but better something then nothing.

Cya later ;)

Time goes on

I have to admit it, Time flies like the wind. And I simply just can't keep up with the wind. And like that I don't mean anything negative on this, I mean it like, a good thing, that I just got so many things to do lately, that I completly forgot or didn't have time for so many other things.

But enough of that, I am back for the time beeing, and here I am, writing my blogg again.

So where to start from, it's been sometime since last time I wrote something.

2 months ago from today on, we got into our charter in Germany with the Esvagt Froude, the windturbine farm we are working at is named "Baltic 2" and it has 89 turbines, or was it 81... at this point, I don't think it mean that much, when we are on such high numbers... Alot of turbines.

Currently we are working on high speed, but ofcourse safely, and by that I mean that we are all working at the same time, both the mother ship to the turbines, and the small boat to the turbines, to be able to keep up with all of the turbines, that we need to drop off technecians on.

Time even goes on so fast, we got some small jobs onboard of maintanence, but we just dont have time for that... Now don't get the idea of we are running around on the ship and stressing around becuse we got too much to do, not the case. The case is, thanks to all of the work permits and check lists we have to do everytime we are starting a work, it takes too long to do and work with, witch is the case why we can't really do much.

Basicly, that's pretty much all I remamber from the trip 2 months ago.

Time for something from my homefront.

Becuse sailing and working at sea is not just something I do while in Esvagt, but also when I am home in the "Danish National Homeguard" Naval division, as the commander of the ship.

But due to some... pretty stupid things happening here and there, there are not a ship from the National guard located on "Ærø" where I live, all the time... Only when I am home from work, and the reason.... well... I am the only on the whole Island that got permission and educated to command a navy vessel. And that gives alot of work, but it's work I like to work with.

So what I do, is that I borrow ships from across the country, the last couple of times, I borrowed the MHV 801 Adebaran from Kerteminde (North East of Fyn) It's the oldest ship in the fleet, but despite that, she is a fine ship.

The first time I where to get the ship with a crew of 7, including me, was in a full out storm. Honestly, people where calling us and telling us that we where crazy going out in that weather. Meby we are, but it was a western wind, and if it was an eastern wind, I might have canceled it, but due to it was a western wind, the island Fyn had us covered all the way, so that big mighty storm, that everyone was calling us crazy to go out in... well... we didn't feel a thing from it.

I had the ship under my command for 1½ week the first time, where we went some places, all around in the southern waters of Fyn, we even had a trip to Bagenkop, where we where to give one of my Cummunications guy a medal for his many years of service... and here we are talking about 40 years of service in the Homeguard.

During that periode, I also had arrange some weekend trips and education trip, and even had some interrested in the Homeguard with me, in all ages, and as one of the best things I ever tried so far in the Homeguard... I had my parants with me onboard the ship that I was in charge of. It was a pleasure to show to my parants what it is I am doing now a days as well.

But just sailing around and so on, is not the only thing.

I recieved and invitation to a German Regatta called "Peter Gast Regatta", to be the starting ship, and rescue ship during that race, which I was happy to participate in.

Informations as followed for the race:

Starting place: Kappeln

Ending harbor: Ærøskøbing

Numbers of ships in all: 138 ships

And that number of ships is even without all of the camera boats and start/finish line ships.

As the starter ship, and as that corner that where furthest, all of the 138 ships wanted to cross the corner and get a good start, which was the corner where I was with my ship. and I am telling you, the ships that crossed the line where so close that you could walk from my ship to the others.

But unfortunatly, I didn't see it all.... One of my crew members fell during that and got a injuri on his leg, so I had to take him inside and fix him up... 

After 1 hour of wil starts of the race all of the ships where heading North towards Ærøskøbing, and my only goal was to make sure of the safety of that race, and to be the first in harbor... as simple as it sounds.

And to my parants that probebly will read this, Yes!, my hands are in my pocket on one of the pictures.

When we finally arrived to Ærøskøbing, and the harbor was litteraly full, and by full I mean, you could walk from the one end of the harbor to the other, without getting wet, and thats across the harbor, there where so many ships in the harbor so there where almost no room left.

When the time got around dinner time, there was a walk through Ærøskøbing city, to show the city that the regatta was here, and we where also invited ofcourse to that as well.

I am not going into details what happened during the party, becuse if I did that, I wouldn't be done today, becuse there where litteraly.... Everything, everything from a bar made out of ice, to the local hotdog lady.

The day after, everything went back to it self, all of the germans went home, and I left the ship in Ærøskøbing, the shipyard of Søby needed to have a look at some stuff of the ship that was broken, nothing major, otherwise I wouldn't have went out.

Oh.. one last thing regarding the regatta... We had some strict orders onboard, and that was to keep an close eye on 2 of the ships during that race, becuse those 2 ships where manned by women only.

Then you can think about why's that.

In the meantime, I have been on some courses as well, or... rather, I was on 1. but that 1 took a whole week, and it was a week of pure awesome, extreme alot of hard work, but it was awesome. 

Instructor course, and it's not a specific subject to be an instructor on, but in general.... to put it simple, What I've been thorugh, gives me the capability to be instructor on pretty much anything, as long as I know what the subject is about and knows the stuff well. 

I even turned 24 in the middle of that course, and I kinda forgot about it, becuse there where so much hard working during that course.

But all things goes around in a circle, I had to deliver the ship, and go back to work in Esvagt.

The only thing I regret during the last 3 months, is that I didn't get the chance to visit my family, becuse I simply had way to much to do lately. Even my good family asked, when I was coming home to celebrated that I turned 24, and that I haven't done yet... and to makes things worse then they already are.... my family haven't seen my the last 3 months. 

But I also got some fun stuff to tell about though.

And it is nothing personel, to all of my German friends, but when I arrived in Rostock last week, the first thing we saw was this picture below, and I am not gonna go into details about it.

But other then that, I think I will turn this blogg in, and call it for the day for this blogg... I have to admit it though, I can't remamber when the last time was when I made a blogg this long.... Im pretty sure this is the first time it is that long.

But untill next time.

So long, and thanks for the fish.

At sea finally!

Yes, just as it says, we finally went out yesterday evening around 22:45 from Rostock.

And I did a little stupid mistake, when we started preparing to leave, I had a bit too much cloth on, so after we took the Gangway and the lines... I where kinda soaked wet.

On our way out, we passed one big box of luxery, a cruise ship.... hah, we looked like one of theire lifeboats compared in sieze.

But when we got out, and well on our way towards the Windturbine field, I couldn't stop noticing with the officer on watch.... what a beautiful weather it was.

As I said countless times now a day, it might be a work away from home, and for a month at the time, but beeing home can't beat the viewe though.

But otherwise then that, there aren't really much to tell just yet, we did some excersiezes with some connections to the windturbines, but nothing that included me though.... that will be tomorrow, when we will go out in some of the smaller boats STB7 (Safety Transport boat), sailing technicians from the mothership to the turbines, that's gonna be a very interresting job to do and try out.

But okay, I have to give it to the windturbine field... there are pretty many windturbines.... all in all... 81 turbines.

And I am telling you, the heat today was incediable... some places on the deck we reached 42 degrees heat... toasting.

And tomorrow I will give it a try to see if I can get some videos on here as well.

Signing off.

"The wind in my hair, the salt water in my hair... that's how I like it."

Something is happening

As truely as the title says, something is happening.

okay befoure I start off, I just have to say it out loud... damn those flies are annoying.

So where did I come from.... ah yes, the happening.



To start of with, the first thing I noticed when I came out from my room was, there where new faces everywhere, and not to mention, wauw some friendly people we got onboard, even people who are going to stay, and where just onboard for a day.

A little bit unfortunat some of them only speaks German, but okay, it is after all Germany we are in, so I guess there is no excuses, Good thing my German language.... is far from flawless.... But I can mannage small talks and so on, and guide people from the reception.... all in all... long and detailed conventation will be a problem....

But anyways... most of the good guest and upcoming colleagues do speak English though, it is after all a required language to speak while we do operations on the deck.

But what a start on the day, and it suddenly helped alot too that one of the girls that got onboard wanted to make an intrudoction, and ended up in have a good long talk on 30 min.  So what a great start of the day.

No that picture ain't from today, Haven't taken any photoes lately, nothing new to show.... so here's and old one... or... it's from last trip though, and heres another one.

It's a picture from one of the old fields.... or rather... the first Wind turbine field we where in.

Oh yes... completly forgot to tell, but from today of, there is only small 7 days to go, and I will be well on my way home.

And hopefully, when I get home, the next kind of ship I will write from is one of the Danish National Homeguard ships.... or from my home otherwise, I don't really inten to write everyday though, sense a normal everyday is not something new... Ah you know what I mean.

But as far as the plan sounds like, we will finally be headed out at sea tomorrow evening, hopefully earlier.... but worst case, not even tomorrow.

But what I got told is that as soon as we get out, we will conduct excersices with all the boats and wind turbines... all in all... hopefully lots of good pictures.

Now I will just sit here and enjoy the "Top 20 Funniest" on television.

Signing off.

"Red sky in morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight”

New week, new challenges in Germany

So here the thing...

First of all, I'm actuelly writing while it's day right now, which is... the same, just with light outsite of the window. So yeah, it's a new week, and monday morning, we already have 5 exoected visitors, primary people that are going to plan the baptism... yes, you guessed right, the ship is brand new, shiped it out in january, and it's still not named anything... It is... but not officially.

Some agents and some people from the company that charters us in, and hopefully.... they will come on my watch, so I atleast can see if I can remamber how to sign people in and out.... it's been a long time since last time we had some guest onboard.

14:00 hours today, we will have a firedrill, sinse it is... well... It's not, but we do have passengers onboard.... or how to call them, they work.... WE GOT PEOPLE ONBOARD... there we go. So we need to have regulary drills, everything from, Man over board to Firedrills.

Ah, there is a little bit of info from the night last night.... or not info, just a picture.

One of the luxery we got onboard is, that we do sail with people onboard, not like a cruise or passener ship, but still like it, so all the chairs in the living rooms and in every room, we got... as good as it sounds, stressless charis. Despite just beeing a chair... damn they are good to sit in, if you are a bit tired when you sit in one of those chairs, you are pretty sure to fall asleep.

And not to mention the 2 cinemas we have onboard as well... gorgeous chairs you almost can lay down in, and good big screens with good sorround sounders as well... almost like a real cinema, all we needed is the popcorn machine.

But beeing a new ship and lots of good stuff... there are still some small things that just.... goes on a persons nerve in a funny way.

But the ship is still a good ship, and for that matter, it's my home away from home. Or rather the other way around, I actuelly spent more nights and days on this ship then in my own home.

And I am not going to show any pictures of my own room.... it's not becuse it's messy... for once it's not, but becuse it's.... a bit.... ehhm, how to put it.... tiny. I do have a big bed, like 2.20 meters long, a TV, the smooth chair, my own toilet with a bath, and a small table.... that should cover must of it... oh and a closet, where the right site of it is mine and the left is the other person who I share my room with, while I'm home.

Signing off.

"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."

Weekend of waiting

And thats basicly it.... All we do is just waiting for the charter to arrive. All we can do all day long... well in my case, I sit in the ISPS, but there are some small repairs here and there, create new stuff... you know, maintenance and event things.

But 1 thing I simply just did not expect today... you see, the first thing you get into when you walk onboard this ship is the ISPS guard (Me) so there is a gangway from the ship to the harbor... but back to what I did not expect... when I went out on the gangway, I saw something i wasn't expecting, which concluded I didn't walk out on the gangway.... a 12 tons heavy boat above.

It turned out that there where maintenance on the big davit we have onboard.

But yeah... I do experince alot, but standing under a boat on that size was not how I expected to start my day off.

The summer is still here, however while the day went on, and late, I would say that the summer is on a hold... it's actuelly rather cold outsite right now.

But right here and now, what my night goes on with is, watching Ghost Adventures on Canal 9. and I know it's just on television and so on, and I am pretty skeptical when it comes to ghost and stuff like that, I don't belive it really... and yet a little bit.

But alot of what they capture and see, is pretty creepy, and gives me gooseflesh.

I'm gonna sit here and watch yet another episode of Ghost Adventures.

Signing off. 

"Death is that state where one lives only in the memory of others, which is why it is not an end.

 No goodbyes-- just good memories."

Yup, the summer is here

25 degrees in the shadow... and even more exposed to the sun.... I decided to walk my way to the Scanlines Boarder shop today, with one of the other crew members.

I didn't take a jacket on... good choice.... but I did have a black T-shirt on... bad choice.... wauw the sun was hot, you could almost feel the t-shirt shrink on my body becuse of the heat.

But I have to say it... why is there no direct way from the ferries and harbor to the boardershop... something that would take 5 min. in a straight line... ended up taking 25 min.

But it was totally worth the walk, there where lots of good offers.

I even got "Risen" for almost nothing compared to many other places... and I sure have a weakness for those, so I will probebly have a stomach paine the next couple of days.

And if the way to the Boarder shop wasn't hot... it surely was on the way back again.

It's even so hot, that we had to open all the doors to get some fresh ait in and out... okay, we do have a great aircondition system, but it doesn't beat fresh air.

Otherwise... nothing great happened today, only another day onboard the ship.

Well... I did start on making numbers in one of the storage areas, for the shelf sections.

So think about it.... drawing and painting numbers in Stencil that are 1.5 meters high... looks kinda awesome.

But yes, I am back to no person coming on or offboard on my watch... so I didn't really see anything shiny today.

But yup, here I am... once again, sitting here in the ISPS as the only person onboard awake for the next 4 hours... and the most stupid thing is, that we spent like 80% of this trip in harbor.... 

"A ship in harbor is a safe ship, but that's not what ships are built for"

Signing off. 

"Behind every strong sailor there is an even stronger family who stands by them, supports them, and loves them with all their heart."

The summer has arrived!

As the title says... the summer has come... and I mean it for real... for once.

Start of the day.

Woke up 1 hour too early... okay it was nothing more then I just went over to the other site and sleept again... but Damn, my mouth was dry, good thing we got plenty of bottles of water onboard, I always have atleast 3 bottle of water at the end of my bed.

But my breakfast... which is Lunch according to the time, but still my breakfast, we got moussaka... with chili in it... and a hell alot of cheese... and I mean alot.... like 50% cheese 40% meat and 10% chili.... yeah... it was a strong one.... But... Soooo... Delicious.

But yeah... my day stated off once again with the 4 hour watch duty in the ISPS, and for once, there where actuelly something happening today, 4 people left the ship... thats it,

The weather was perfect.

So as soon as I got releaved from the ISPS, i started greasing all the moving parts on the deck, and it was still so hot, that I simply just couldn't work with my jacket on, so for the first time this year, I was working on the deck, outsite... only with a t-shirt on my upper body... Wauw I waited so long for that.

And no... I just couldn't stop my self from taking some more pictures of the great viewe of Rostock.

But yeah... One of the ships main funciton is to be a platform for other companies... put it in this way, a Hotel ship, as a working platform.

So it is pretty important that the companies that charters them self in, can get all of their stuff onboard, and to that, we have our Main deck... just a big hugh room, where we can take off the roof, and a crane can lower containers in to the room, and now when we have an empty ship, I could finally get a picture of how it looks like... empty, here ya go.

But as funny as it is... I actuelly dont have a picture of the main deck with containers... We'll get to that later, probebly next week, when they will arrive.

Signing off. Credits to all the readers.

First day with no sleep in Germany

Okay okay... no sleep is a bit of a overshot.

But a full night sleep... far from, more like.... 2 hours of sleep.

What happened was, ysterday evening, we where told to move to some diffrent rooms, becuse there where some work to be done up over the roof of the room.... but the thing is, they kinda moved us directly under where they where suppose to work.

Always something that they didn't have to pull me out of my room, but still.... when they started hammering, drilling and you name it, anything that is needed to lift up a 4 tons heavy davit 30 cm.

So I kinda woke up when they started working 07:00 in the morning... where I was suppose to sleep... so yeah, 3 hours of sleep it was. and damn, what a mess I came out to when I walked out of the door.

And not to mention the smell of.... cooked paint and other stuff, so what my breakfest was... was 2 pills against headache.

BUT HEY!!! Enough of this negative stuff, no one can get anything good out of that... The best thing of all of this, that they miscalculated where they should work is, that I moved back to my own room again.

And the watch, was more silent the usell, not a singel person wanted to get onboard or off the ship when I where on duty... must be a sign... or not.

So in the mean time while nothing was happening... I started feeling a strange vibration, you know, just like you got a hugh bass playing silently in the background and sends out vibration... only thing is just.... There are no bass around me... so what could it be? I went outsite... to find this heavy big boat manuvering in...

And it's called "Peter Pan" And it's not flying very well...

So it was no wonder why the ship I am on was moving around... becuse that big boat surely moved alot of water.

But as Ironic as it sounds... as soon as I got releaved of watch... 3 guys wanted to leave the ship... so yeah.

So yeah... I'm sitting here once again on my post as the ISPS, and what better thing are there to do then write here on my blog.

But Can't write all 4 hours I'm sitting here... otherwise it would probebly get.... pretty boring reading me writing stuff I just thought of.

Signing off. 

Imperium, The sun never sets.