Still Broken

Well we are still alongside undergoing repairs. Conducting basin trails tomorrow and then to sea. Assuming we are all mended and it was a very large bang the other night that resonated through the ship so whether we will be mended is another thing. Mind you at least by breaking down it has given us all breathing space to crack on and get work out the way. For once I have managed to get a fair bit achieved today. I have still got an awful lot to do before I can stop getting up at silly o?clock to start at six. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be on top of things and with our programme being as it is I should be able to get into a nice routine. The main thing is that by 8 tonight I had crossed of lots of jobs so I am now sitting here typing my blog with a cold can of strongbow and a chunk of cheese. No good for my diet but who cares.

Now we are down south I did get a better phone signal so I tried my Skype again and got to see Debbie, Beth and William (who was asleep). It was still jerky but at least I got to see them. Next plan is to sign up for pay as you go mobile broadband and see if that is any better. Will need to get ashore first so maybe I will do that in a couple of weeks.

I have still got my joining blues, but they are slowly wearing off. I always find the first three weeks the hardest, trying to get back into the routines. I miss home something chronic but at least things are really busy this end, so time passes really quickly. I think that is the problem with being at sea, is that we constantly wish our lives away. Whilst onboard we count down to our pay of date and when we get on leave we count down how few precious days we have left before we head away again.

Saying that we do see some wonderful sights. I will always remember standing on the bridge wing one night with Debbie up in the Arctic Circle watching the Northern Lights (Sorry chickened out of trying to spell the Aurora Borealis) the sky was fantastic. Another fond memory from many years ago was standing on the same bridge ring transiting the read Red Sea watching a school of about 100 dolphins. This was at night so we couldn?t see the dolphins but we could hear them jumping out the water. Also due to the bioluminesnce they left long trails of light in the water. It was an amazing sight as the ship was surrounded by streaks of light under the water, it is so hard to describe but I will never forget it.

Anyway I transgress, as usual, yep we are still broken but maybe we will sail tomorrow.