MarkC Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 27 minutes ago, 62613 said: Agree with most of them! Never been in the Carribean, so no real knowledge of what it's like. Any port up the Gulf, surely? Djebel Dhanna and Umm Said take a bit of beating, as did Das Island, Mena, Bandar Mash, and anywhere off Iraq. Luanda during the Angolan civil war. You're alongside discharging motor spirit, and there's refugees down the jetty round open fires Most Caribbean ports are actually pretty good, although going mob-handed at night is a seamanlike precaution. Kingston & Port au Prince though - *shudders*. Sharjah & Bahrain aren't bad runs ashore in the Gulf, tbh. As for refugees & the open fire - nothing would surprise me. Mind, I was on a Saudia flight back to the UK in the late 80s (no chance of a seat on BA - all the wealthier Arabs were on that flight), overnight job. About 7am the fire alarms sounded in the cabin - turned out there were a couple of, shall we say, less wealthy Arabs, trying to cook some stinking goat meat over a hexamine burner... 1 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 47 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said: After the Radio Caroline ship a few posts back, and some mentions of COP26, may I present another celebrity and an unusual visitor to Birkenhead this afternoon on her way to Glasgow. Mol Shouldn't they be going to China, India, Russia? 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mol_PMB Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 2 minutes ago, MarkC said: Shouldn't they be going to China, India, Russia? It’s a fair point! Hopefully diplomats from those countries will also be in Glasgow. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted October 25, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 25, 2021 2 hours ago, MarkC said: I was on a Saudia flight back to the UK Spitting or Non Spitting class ? 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted October 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 25, 2021 5 hours ago, Mol_PMB said: After the Radio Caroline ship a few posts back, and some mentions of COP26, may I present another celebrity and an unusual visitor to Birkenhead this afternoon on her way to Glasgow. Mol What fuel does she use? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mol_PMB Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 51 minutes ago, St Enodoc said: What fuel does she use? She is predominantly a sailing ship, but does have a diesel-electric backup. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Accord Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 On 24/10/2021 at 20:12, New Haven Neil said: R'as Tanurah? Not so fond memories of the "Ras to Jas" run, i.e. Ras Tanurah to Jeddah on a continuous circuit. If I remember rightly we used to load condensate in Ras Tan and discharge in Jeddah, then straight back to the Perishin' Gulf to do it all again. Continuous misery for 5 months with the only chink of light being the 4 weekly stop in Fujairah to embark stores and a LOT of beer. 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Accord Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 6 hours ago, MarkC said: As for refugees & the open fire - nothing would surprise me. Mind, I was on a Saudia flight back to the UK in the late 80s (no chance of a seat on BA - all the wealthier Arabs were on that flight), overnight job. About 7am the fire alarms sounded in the cabin - turned out there were a couple of, shall we say, less wealthy Arabs, trying to cook some stinking goat meat over a hexamine burner... Not entirely unknown even today on internal flights in Pakistan, usually those from the north of the country - oh and those passengers have been through security... Bahrain can be a pleasant enough stop for a run ashore, although outside the PG Muscat is also a rather pleasant spot as is Salalah which had/has an excellent ex-pats club. The Hilton resort there used to do excellent curried lobster! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 7 hours ago, Bon Accord said: Not entirely unknown even today on internal flights in Pakistan, usually those from the north of the country - oh and those passengers have been through security... Truly scary, innit? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted October 26, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 26, 2021 9 hours ago, Bon Accord said: Not so fond memories of the "Ras to Jas" run, i.e. Ras Tanurah to Jeddah on a continuous circuit. If I remember rightly we used to load condensate in Ras Tan and discharge in Jeddah, then straight back to the Perishin' Gulf to do it all again. Continuous misery for 5 months with the only chink of light being the 4 weekly stop in Fujairah to embark stores and a LOT of beer. Dear 'Rasty-nasty', I don't miss it! it was back and forth to Japan with butane and propane for us, so blessed relief with a good trip up the road was available at the end of each round trip! Ras Al-kaimah rings a bell too. It was a 'while' ago, memory fades. Being young and keen I got 'sentenced' to gas-wagons. This one was nice. This one wasn't. And Mark knows of this one - I escaped her luckily! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 16 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said: Dear 'Rasty-nasty', I don't miss it! it was back and forth to Japan with butane and propane for us, so blessed relief with a good trip up the road was available at the end of each round trip! Ras Al-kaimah rings a bell too. It was a 'while' ago, memory fades. Being young and keen I got 'sentenced' to gas-wagons. This one was nice. This one wasn't. And Mark knows of this one - I escaped her luckily! We might have dodged the Wiltshire bullet - but we got the Traquair... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted October 26, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 26, 2021 7 hours ago, MarkC said: We might have dodged the Wiltshire bullet - but we got the Traquair... Was she fun, Mark? Not encumbered with a Doxford I wouldn't think.....must have been a Ruston then! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said: Was she fun, Mark? Not encumbered with a Doxford I wouldn't think.....must have been a Ruston then! Main Engine was a genuine b@$**rd - Sulzer RLA but with RLB cylinder covers - as we found out when I ordered a new cylinder cover to fit on receipt - rush job - we placed the new cover on the engine & realised that it stood quite a bit higher than the others... The last engine built by George Clark on the Tyne... 3x Stork Werkspoor DRO218 gensets... ME cooling systems with separate pneumatically operated valves for cooler inlet & bypass, not mechanically linked. Guess what happened regularly... how THAT was approved by Class I'll never know... Large anchor boxes that meant that if you didn't voluntarily slow down if you started pitching, the first time you slammed into a wave got your attention & made you slow down... A HUGE barred speed range between Half & Full Ahead - if you didn't let speed build up before going to full ahead then she sat in the barred range and the consoles in the wheelhouse vibrated so badly that occasionally parts fell off... Oh, and she was built in 2 halves - the forward section by Fergusons in Port Glasgow, the aft part by Ailsa in Troon. When they put the 2 parts into a drydock, pumped the water out & welded her up, they found that the bow section was some 30mm narrower in the beam than the aft section - you could see the 'step' in the hull. A triumph for British Shipbuilders, back in 1982. Oh, hang on... Edited October 26, 2021 by MarkC 1 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted October 26, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 26, 2021 Deep joy. We didn't have any RL series engines, IIRC they are closely related to the smaller RND's? I googled to see the anchor boxes - look very odd. The build seems to have many of the qualities our 'Yorkshire' had, not Tyneside's finest shipbuilding moment. A rather poor 8RND90 (Barclay Curle) also with a good sized barred zone, and - this always cracked me up - Kawasaki-Wallsend boilers for the turbine cargo pumps. The only things that were reliable were the Mirlees-Blackstone genny engines. I would rather have sailed on the Wiltshire......I had 4 months of sheer hell, during which my feet did not touch land once. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 14 hours ago, New Haven Neil said: Deep joy. We didn't have any RL series engines, IIRC they are closely related to the smaller RND's? I googled to see the anchor boxes - look very odd. The build seems to have many of the qualities our 'Yorkshire' had, not Tyneside's finest shipbuilding moment. A rather poor 8RND90 (Barclay Curle) also with a good sized barred zone, and - this always cracked me up - Kawasaki-Wallsend boilers for the turbine cargo pumps. The only things that were reliable were the Mirlees-Blackstone genny engines. I would rather have sailed on the Wiltshire......I had 4 months of sheer hell, during which my feet did not touch land once. My sympathies, Neil - what a banger... The RLA/B was basically a refined RND - Sulzer's last loop scavenge engine before they went Uniflow with the RTA. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mol_PMB Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 A couple of classic coasters in Ramsey harbour yesterday: ‘CEG Orbit’ nearer, with a load of cement, and pallet/container freighter ‘Silver River’ on the right. CEG Orbit’s previous (unplanned) visit to the Isle of Man was a little embarrassing when she was driven onto the beach in the middle of the night! Silver River is quite a veteran built in 1968, providing a regular service linking the island to England and Northern Ireland. Though she is currently still sheltering in Ramsey as it’s a bit blowy in the Irish Sea! 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 The container ship in trouble off southern Vancouver Island apparently lost a lot more containers than originally thought. The latest count is 109: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/more-than-100-ship-containers-overboard-1.6227331 and what’s in the lost containers suggests a new verse should be added to John Masefield’s poem ‘Cargoes’: https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/cargoes.html though you would have problems rhyming “Christmas decorations, sofas, poker tables, metal car parts, clothing, toys, yoga mats, stand-up paddle boards, industrial parts and potassium amylxanthate”. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
380John Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 The gas supply issues are obviously coming to an end.... Unfortunately after all the decent weather it's now due to come to us when things aren't great. First of two LNG cargoes due this month from Peru for Milford Haven. I'm not aware of LNG being sourced from Peru at least not in recent years. Will be a busy time for us on the tugs this week. African crude, South American and Qatari LNG, plus the fuel we were never actually short of! John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 Had to go tank diving this morning, after reports of water ingress into a hold space. This is what I found... 3 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted October 29, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 29, 2021 Duct tape. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 11 minutes ago, chris p bacon said: Duct tape. Indeed - but a Devcon patch will be used instead, from the inside of the ballast tank. (After end drilling the crack). To be welded up next time we're gas free. The joys... 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted October 29, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 29, 2021 10 minutes ago, MarkC said: Indeed - but a Devcon patch will be used instead, from the inside of the ballast tank. (After end drilling the crack). To be welded up next time we're gas free. The joys... Metalock? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
380John Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 What's caused that? Previous damage? (looking at the paint) or a poor weld etc? John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 8 minutes ago, St Enodoc said: Metalock? Nah - electric glue 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 1 minute ago, 380John said: What's caused that? Previous damage? (looking at the paint) or a poor weld etc? John Possibly vibration. I've seen such things before. The tank on the other side of the ship is fine; indeed the rest of the structure around this crack is in good condition, both inside & outside the tank. 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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