The Marine Society & Sea Cadets

2 September 2006

I woke up and thought it was going to be just like every other day on the British Trader, until I read the daily work plan.

My eyes lit up as I saw that we were going to launch the rescue boat. I was hoping that I would get to tag along. I met the Chief Officer, and as luck would have it I was going to be part of the boat crew.

We went through the launching procedure, and then we went down to the boat.

The Fourth Engineer was going as an engineer is required at all times as part of the crew. The Chief Officer then went through the launching procedure with the bosun and crew.

We then put on our lifejackets and helmets for the boat. We got into the boat and braced ourselves for the launch. I’m telling you right now: it’s a long way down to the water. It seemed an even longer way down when we were in the boat!

We had to deliver a package to the British Merchant once we got in the water. She was in the same anchorage as us and she was lying about 9 cables off our port side.

I was also given the ship’s camera for the event and I had to take pictures of the ship’s hull for the captain. The hull has a lot of growth on it at the moment and pictures were required to assess the extent of it.

After we had taken some pictures of the hull and some of yours truly, we started making our way across to the Merchant. It was one of the longest sea passages I had done since I joined, as we had been sitting at anchor for a couple of weeks awaiting cargo orders. It took us all of about three minutes to get across to the Merchant.

We went alongside and they lowered a heaving line to us and we gave them their package.

On the way back to the ship I got to take the wheel for a while, I handed back to the Chief Officer, and as we came alongside again I took some more pictures of the other side of the hull.

It was an exciting morning and it was all over before nine o’clock.
If only it could be done everyday...