Travel Channel

A Trip to Russia and Back Again

We departed Kholmsk, Russia this morning after six days alongside and I think everybody was happy to be on the move again! It is a two day run to the location so apart from a little rough weather and a noticeable drop in temperature nothing should have disturbed us. Yet there I was, brought back to reality by the rattle of the anchor chain in the hawse pipe and no earthly reason that I could think of why this should be happening unless it had come loose all by itself!
I sauntered (ran) up to the bridge to find out what was going on and there, right outside the window not half a mile away was the port of Kholmsk! Further enquiries produced the fact that somewhere around lunch time an email had come in telling us to return to port! Strangely, I was the last to know! I recalled having looked out of the port hole late afternoon and subconsciously noting that the land mass was on the wrong side but it just didn’t click!
Life follows a certain pattern for me on here! A pattern that consists mainly of irregularity, unknowns and imminent change should I spend longer than ten minutes on any single job! The only real known routine is to get up in the morning, a coffee is usually next if we have not run out of milk yet again but after that anything goes. This morning I started in all earnestness to make headway with some defect reports, unfortunately the Bosun had also decided to make similar headway with his tasks by securing my computer monitor to the desk! The securing of monitors is of course extremely important as no-one wishes to see them crashing to the floor as a big wave rocks the boat but with the input of three persons to the project, the endless rotation of the screen as ideas were formed as to a suitable fastening arrangement and as my workplace rapidly turned itself into a carpenters workshop and machine shop I decided to find solace on another project in the engine room.
Half way down stairs I was accosted by the Chief Officer who asked me to help with printing some documents out on the network so off we toddled back upstairs. It was only when I tripped over the cable of the jigsaw and pierced my knee with a carelessly discarded and broken drill bit that I remembered that my office was not a good place to be at this exact moment. So off I toddled back down stairs!
I was three quarters of the way down when the mess boy decided to explain why he had entered my cabin at the unearthly hour of 5am and although I nodded my head I did not understand a word that was said as it was all in Russian. I was still nodding my head when I eventually reached the bridge door!
I didn’t really know what to do on the bridge! I was not really sure how or why I had ended up there! Never-the-less I took the opportunity to check the emails that had just come in that morning, found about three that needed answering (the information required for the answers being in other parts of the ship) so I printed them out for future reference, made myself a coffee and had a chat with the Captain. As I was busy explaining the benefits of keeping an orderly system for the filing of emails the engine room phone rang, the Chief Engineer requiring my attendance to a rather sticky problem they were having down in the bowels of the vessel.
Ten minutes later I was covered from head to toe in oil! It was an unfortunate occurrence, the fact that I was under the engine trying to tighten up some self-loosening bolts with only my right foot showing to the world as proof of my existence led the third engineer to trip over it. He was at the time carrying a bucket filled with prime used LO from the main engine sump and as he tripped he let it go, right over me. Not a problem, a quick wipe with an oily rag and I was away again, up to the control room to start the project of listing all the manuals on the vessel! This project never really gained headway as my boots were starting to squelch as the oil dripped into them so I headed back upstairs.
To summarize the first hour of the day, I had a cup of cold coffee awaiting me in the office upstairs (it was probably filled with sawdust by now), another on the bridge that I had hardly sipped for the effort of making it, printed out emails on the bridge that I needed in the engine room, I was now covered in oil and to beat it all I found out a bit later that the key to my cabin was missing from my pocket – I found it eventually underneath the engine, this time I took my feet with me when I went under.
Eating on here is a strange deal! The food is of course very Russia orientated and seems to consist of far more fatty foods than one would expect. It has been suggested that this is to build up the fat for the winter months but I find it very hard to digest! I am also not a fan of strange foods, I like my basic chicken or beef and when I take what looks like a beef stew and then find out that it is in fact tongue, I sort of well…can’t eat anymore. I do though like some things, I find solace in the potato or cabbage filled ravioli (I decline the extra helping of olive oil as a condiment), I like the salads if the mayonnaise has run out as it is typically used with everything and I love the bread. Today was liver burgers!
By two o’clock I was starving and couldn’t concentrate on anything! I drank some of the coffee that I had left in the office that morning and it was not filled with sawdust but metal shavings and the rest of the broken drill bit. The Bosun was still busy, the initial design had failed miserably and now the electrician, the second mate and the chief engineer were all there to help. Up on the bridge life was normal, more emails had come in and the printouts from my endeavors that morning had been used as a used T-bag resting place. My coffee was still there though!
So when that anchor went down it was unexpected but I suppose expected! I will have to cancel all those jobs I had planned for when at sea; we are going into port tomorrow!
Ieuan Dolby is the Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.com. As a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for twenty years on a variety of rust buckets and state of the art vessels. Now living in Taiwan with his wife and son he writes about cultures across the globe and life as he sees it; a seafarers escapades with a few tall tales thrown in!