Bored on Board
We are indebted to one of our regular voyagers, Mary Sketch, for permission to reproduce extracts from her journals.
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’!”
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.
