Seaweed in the British Trader
It has been almost 6 weeks since our last web ship report, and although we’ve had the best of intentions to submit an update before now, various factors have taken priority over this.
After our visit to Cove Point in February, when we submitted our last report, we were again scheduled to return to Trinidad to load. After leaving the berth at Cove Point there is a long transit down Chesapeake Bay before returning to the Atlantic Ocean. It is done under pilotage, the pilot being someone who is a qualified master mariner who has extensive local knowledge of the Bay and state regulations. The actual bay transit is half in deep open water and the remainder in narrow buoyed dredged channels where, if we did venture from the channel, the ship would certainly go aground. There is little room for error.
It was during this transit that the ship’s engine cooling water intakes sucked in some seaweed that caused a loss of cooling to the engine. This was not critical at the time, but would need rectifying once we got into deep sea and well away from land and other shipping, when the ship could stop and repairs carried out.
This was done the following day. The engine was shut down and the ship’s condenser opened to see what was causing the problem. This turned out to be quite a large quantity of seaweed, which was quickly removed, and we continued on our way to Trinidad.
Our cargo this time was destined for Aes Andres in the Dominican Republic. This is only about one day steaming from Trinidad, so a busy time with little time to catch a breath after the loading port. The terminal there consists of one LNG storage tank and flare, and this feeds directly to the local power station. It’s quite an exposed berth to any South Easterly swell, which can cause the ship to move about quite a bit whilst alongside. Therefore, precautions have to be taken to prevent damage to the mooring lines due to chafing.
After we finished there, it was again back to Trinidad to load once again for Cove Point. Fortunately, this time we had about a week at anchor before loading, to catch up on some maintenance, run the lifeboats in the water and even shore leave for those lucky enough.
The weather was much better this time for our call at Cove Point. The 4 weeks that had passed since our last visit had brought warmer and calmer weather that was much appreciated, after the cold icy weather experienced during our last call
After leaving Cove Point we were to head back to Trinidad, but this time going via St Eustatius to take on bunker fuel oil.
Although St Eustatius is a relatively small island in the Caribbean, it is a popular refuelling port for shipping transiting the Caribbean area. Other than the oil storage and refuelling facilities, there appears to be little other industry on the island, which is quite mountainous but with barely any trees at all.
The bunkering operation was conducted whilst the ship was at anchor about 0.7 miles off the shore. The bunkers were supplied by barge that was towed into position alongside the ship’s port side and secured. Then, a flexible hose was connected to the ships bunker fuel connection amidships and the transfer commenced. This time we were to take onboard 2700 Mt of fuel oil and the transfer expected to take about 6 hours. It was completed at 0100 in the morning.
The bunker hose was then drained and disconnected, transfer documentation completed, and the ship heaved anchor and set off for Trinidad at 0400.
We arrived at Trinidad on the 6th April and have been fortunate to have some time at anchor before loading our next cargo to catch up again on maintenance, run our lifeboats in the water, change out some of the ship’s personnel and arrange some shore leave.
We are currently due to go alongside today (April 25th) to load once again for Cove Point, which will make a change from lying at anchor for so long.
This will be my last report this trip, as my relief is due to join once we reach Cove Point. It’s certainly been a busier trip than my last one, where we only carried one cargo. Hopefully this will continue.