Bored on Board?
Ask a seasoned voyager what passengers do all day on a cargo ship and
you may be treated to a mildly pitying look as if to say,
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Well, no, to a novice it
isn’t at all obvious. But freighter aficionados will tell you that
the days seem to fly by and they always find something to keep them
occupied.
“One of the first requirements after embarkation is
lifeboat drill. We had lifeboat drill every week. This is very simple
for passengers as our steward comes and checks our donning of the
lifejackets and then leads us to our muster station–either up on
the Bridge or down to the boats. We had not been issued with hard hats
but this was soon rectified. One friendly member of the crew told me not
to worry too much about the hat because I would never need it for long
‘as we always eat the passengers first’!”
We are indebted to one of our regular voyagers,
Mary Sketch, for permission to reproduce extracts from her
journals.
Meal times are high points of the day around which all other
activities revolve.
“I woke to the telephone ringing. It was the steward
from the dining room saying that it was 8 am and breakfast time. In
fact, breakfast is at 7.30 and it is cleared at 8.30 so when he had no
takers from his passengers he thankfully took some action. With much
haste I was down in ten minutes. All good intentions to keep to a small
meal of just juice, cereal and possibly toast went out of the porthole
when savoury omelette was offered as well. Maybe tomorrow I will begin
the diet.”
Everyone has their own way of passing the time: a freighter voyage is
a splendid opportunity to take up those hobbies you never got round to,
or to read that blockbuster novel–or to write one.
“Life is now settling into a routine–writing on
my laptop, sewing, listening to CDs, doing a jigsaw and reading in the
sunshine on deck–interspersed with visits to the Bridge to check
on how things are, talking to the officer on watch and having very good
meals.”
Different rules apply on different ships, but most Masters allow
passengers to spend time on the Bridge.
“The Captain invited us to the Bridge (three fellow
passengers and myself). He showed us all the latest computers and radio
station finders. In spite of all the technology he still likes to use
the sextant at least once a day to keep his hand in. From now on we can
go on the Bridge at any time, check where we are and ask the Officer on
Watch any questions we like, but only during the day. If there is a
difficult course change or when the pilot is on board, then it is out of
bounds.”
The Chief Engineer will also probably be happy to give you a tour of
his domain.
“Today the Chief Engineer gave us a tour of the
Engine Room. It was awe-inspiring and everything was spotlessly painted
but the heat and the noise were quite something too, not to mention the
iron staircases we had to negotiate around the machinery. It is another
world down there with banks of computers for everything. We are totally
self-sufficient in that we take all our water from the sea, desalinate
it to make it fresh for drinking, then process all the waste to put
clean water back into the sea. There are engines for the process,
engines for air-conditioning, engines for heating and lighting as well
as those for driving the ship. We went down so deep that we were only a
few metres from the bottom of the ship. We then came up and went through
all the container holds to get to the engine which drives the rudder and
course-changes determined by the Bridge.”
Of course, for some the fascination of a sea voyage is the ocean
itself–and its contents.
“We are now passing Newfoundland and officially in
the iceberg zone so there is a double lookout on the Bridge. The sea is
totally calm–it is only just above freezing outside, but luckily
there is still no fog. There are a lot of fishing buoys about and this
morning I saw a small whale and the fins of some other fish. This
evening there was a fleet of fishing boats as well as the factory ship
in the distance and this time we saw a big humpback whale swimming and
jumping alongside us, together with several dolphins accompanying it.
The birds were getting very excited and riding on its back. It was a
great sight.”
Passengers are usually included in the ship’s company’s
special occasions.
“It is the Bosun’s birthday today, so there is
a party in the crew’s lounge to which everyone is invited. We all
jigged about and had a very convivial time. There were conflicting
reports about what time it ended but I think it was well into the early
Watch. The Filipino crew had some amazing dancers, but the star is our
brilliant cook. Where he gets the energy from is unbelievable. He said
he liked dancing because it was the only time he took exercise, spending
all day from about 6 am until 7 pm just running from one cooking pot to
another!”
One thing to remember is that a freighter voyage is NOT a cruise.
There is:
- NO organised entertainment,
- NO formality,
- NO
being herded together with hundreds or even thousands of fellow
passengers,
- NO enticement for you to spend money at every
opportunity.
You will be one of a select group of no more than 12 travellers of
like mind, anxious to experience the adventure of a real sea voyage.
Cabin Comforts