Thanks to all the volunteers who came to Milford Haven to help us with the ship’s maintenance. Now the maintenance period is over and we have been busy getting the ship restocked, stowed, scrubbed and ready to go back to sea.
Once the new crew had arrived, signed on, found their cabins and seen their loved ones back onto dry land; Captain Barbara then invited everyone to meet her in the lower mess for the introductions to begin. The permanent crew for this voyage were introduced as: Steve the first mate, Ali the 2nd mate, David the Bosun, with Will the supernumerary officer then, Peter the chief engineer with ‘Shiny Tony’ as 2nd engineer; Graham the Cook and his assistant for the voyage Ros; Rachel, medical purser and a confusion of Bosun’s mates (is that the collective term??) namely, Maureen, Godfrey, MVB and John.
Captain Barbara outlined her plans for the voyage ahead. Possibly a thousand miles to our first port. Our destination is Barcelona in the north of Spain and it is planned for us to enjoy one or two ports en route – we’ll keep you posted . If any of you are following the weather forecasts you’ll appreciate that we are keen to keep ahead of the weather as the low depressions come through but expect our first few days to perhaps be a little lumpy!!
Of course, once the voyage plans had been voiced, the next job was to make sure our new crew had undertaken the training in order to put this altogether. First of all came the briefings and the first of the evacuation drills ensuring that everyone knew how to find their muster stations safely and don their life jackets. This was in fact a crafty ploy by the very clever mate to get everyone out of the lower mess in order for the tables to be laid up for dinner!! Then the mess men were introduced to the joys of the galley; helping to serve dinner and of course clear away afterwards – every aspect of ships life is shared with our crews! Of course there’s no time to be wasted either, so no sooner had the last fork been put down, then the Mate invited everyone to return to the lower mess for some further training before giving shore leave, with harbour watches commencing at 2200hrs and for the rest of us a pleasant evening was had getting to know each other in the ship’s bar, before turning in for the night and who knows what lies ahead.....
Rachel
MP TNS