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A (bumpy) day in the life of the radio operator
By Cees, radio operator. 7 March. The day before yesterday,
Tuesday, it was just before 00:00 and I was still up. The
night before I was working 'til 1:30 to send the latest
updates from this ship about the inspection of the vessel
Meltemi.
Tonight it is not work that keeps me awake. No, it is Lesley
who wants to celebrate the captain's birthday with a Dutch
start. So at twelve he came to the messroom and we started
singing. He got his first presents and we drank to his health.
It was a good start for him. After one we all went to bed.
At 7:30 the wake up call. It was a bit early for me, I
could use some extra sleep. Took a look at the blackboard
and discovered that our ETA was at 13:00. I downloaded the
weather maps and saw it will be a bumpy trip, wind force
nine. We went out and suddenly the floor of the radioroom
is not horizontal any more. We are listing to portside and
that means I am sliding down to the side all the time. A
quick inspection on deck informed me that we were sailing.
Working was not that easy and I was very tired so I went
to my bunk for a nap.
I woke up nearly falling out of my bunk. It is rough outside.
I climbed up to the bridge and saw water splashing over
the ship. We were rolling. Only 15 per cent of the sails
out, still doing more than 10 knots. It was great to see
and we had more than force 10 winds. We had this situation
till 20:00, then we went around the corner and suddenly
it was much calmer.
At nine we started the birthday party for Pete again. This
time Marco had made a beautiful birthday cake which was
delicious. At ten Pete had to go, he had watch during the
night and I went to my bunk early for a very nice sleep.
Cees
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