Just had an interesting 6-day adventure out at sea, before we got back into ECMP. Well, apparently anyway. I didn't actually see daylight for those 6 days, spent the whole time inside either working for Diesel's part of ship, watchkeeping or sleeping (with the odd DVD chucked in). Actually it's nice to know Amazon deliver DVDs very efficiently to BFPO addresses- I've just had a small re-stock!
Over the last few days of last week, the ship has been navigating some tricky passages in between the falkland Islands, and anchored at points to give the ship's company a chance to visit them... or at least that was the plan, but every time we did, the wind was too strong and we couldn't get anybody ashore. But what's the point of searching out wildlife, when we can just suck wildlife out of the sea and watch it from the comfort of our own engine room!? this week, one of our jobs was to clean the sea suction strainers (Basically where a lot of our pumps take a suction of sea-water from). Because we had anchored in a pile of sea-weed, they were very blocked up- but as the photos below show, it wasn't just plant life that had to be removed. Now I've heard stories of cleaning these strainers, where the strainer has been removed and released all manner of deep water beasts, like giant squid, electric eels, krakens (or just octupuses) and other scary stuff... but in this case, we didn't have any such luck. All we had were 3 baby lobsters (actually I think they may be prawns...), a few little fishys, some crabs and loads of shrimp and bizarre organisms flitting about! Better luck next time... That little job was one of my last on diesel's section. It's come to that time where we have a job change- although I had asked to stay on the section because I've really enjoyed it, had a really good working relationship with both my boss and the guys I've been working with... (like Olly and Sid) but I wasn't too disheartened because my new section is a pretty good one- 'L' section.
This week we're alongside in ECMP, and I'm hoping to get the band going. I now have 2 guitarists, a bass player and a drummer. We have options for singers too- most of them karaoke-trained... fortunately our first gig was cancelled (fortunate because it was this saturday!) -Actually, that was the viewpoint of the band. I just want to get on and play, the others were slightly put out that I accepted the gig without questioning them I think.... but I completely intend to take a "Simon Cowell" approach to it! I've managed to acquire a lot of PA system, speaker sets and wires too... and the Hangar as a practice room! In the words of Mercury: The show must go on.
This week has also been the start of my new job. For the last year I've been the killick on diesel's section, but now I am the Killick 'L'- so I'll be getting a lot more electrical experience, and I'll keep my hands cleaner too! One of my first jobs this week though, was to test and fix the navigation lights on the mainmast... a perfect job for someone who can deal with heights. NOT a job for Douglas Clutterbuck. I coped ok though (although I had 'Airy with me... actually I was terrified), and I managed to get a few photos while I was up there. I suddenly realised there was a vulture above my head sat on the radar! Made an awesome photo which you can see below. It's got massive claw feet. As you can see, I wasn't the only one with a camera- Tab (my new boss) was spotting us to make sure we were ok, and got some cool photos. Actually the crow's nest was an awesome place to take photos from- great views of the landscape (expectedly), but also of the ship- don't usually see it from this angle... and I even saw a seal! All the photos are below.
It's been a pleasant first week on my new section. I now work with Ras (ET Winch: His name is derived from the winch we use on the forecastle for replenishment at sea, or R.A.S)... people think of Ras as my canadian brother-from-another-mother. But I think that's perhaps because we both have incredibly similar, ginger beards. And it's causing a lot of unrest in the department. As you can see, Tab could easily be construed as our influence, so I'm thinking we could get forced to shave soon...
There's me up the mainmast above, and below is photos forward and aft.
There's 'Airy in mountain climbing pose, and a vulture sitting on a radar on one of the other masts. Below is the vast landscape aft of the ship...
That little red light above, is the reason we were up the mast. And that's the vulture below, that randomly perched itself on the radar just above my head! And there's a photo of the seal I suddenly saw- but I was a bit slow with the camera so it's not a good one...
My sore throat and bad cough seems to have cleared up after a month and a half of it!- not the worst thing in the world but I've been taking several hours to go to sleep every night... hopefully it'll get better now. And as I sit here writing this, I'm waiting for today's mail to arrive. We had a mail drop on Monday but none of my DVDs came... and apparently today's is the last one for quite a while- (you'll find out why soon)- so if you have sent me anything, it might be almost October before I get it! On that note- mail is probably the biggest thing most people look forward to onboard... Everyone is always asking when the next drop will be. So please don't hesitate to send me (or any of us) anything! I read, eat and display anything I recieve, like everyone else. I can't tell you how good it feels to recieve something!
I'm in Valparaiso, having docked here this morning. It's taken us the last week and a half to get here, and my first taste of the pacific ocean was preceeded by some pretty spectacular scenery- its worth clicking on all my photos to see them full size. We didn't go round the bottom of South America to leave the atlantic, we went through it! How? By using the Magellan straights and Patagonian Canals. It's the more adventurous way of entering the Pacific, - and it's much more beautiful and scenic. You can see the route we took with my little map I've annotated- it was 600 miles, and took us almost 3 days to complete- and it was well worth it. Deep into the canals the water was absolutely still, the ship just glided along. The canals were mostly quite wide, but at some points we navigated through gaps less than 100 yards wide- I'm not sure if my photos show that very well. But what was more staggering, was that these canals were 600m deep- hard to comprehend when you see all these peaks jutting out of the water all around you. Apparently this is very similar to north west scotland... but I've always been stuck in an engine room when we've been up there. 
Along the way, there were a few reminders of what can happen if you're not careful- a few ships obviously straying off course in the canals that have been abandoned and shipwrecked. The only thing I was a little disappointed with was the lack of life. It was very desolate, and according to the flight crew, the nearest civilization is a small town 50 miles away. I didn't see any animals or sea life at all, except for a few birds as we came to the end. And at the end, it was a baptism of fire as we entered the pacific, going from immaculately still waters in the canals to gale force winds in just half an hour! The other thing noticeable around here is how clean everything is. The air is super fresh, and the reverse-osmosis plants that make our fresh water are barely putting any work in, as the sea water coming in is so clean. All the photos below are from the patagonian canals.
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