The Marine Society & Sea Cadets

It’s now the end of another month onboard, and we are on our way to Cove Point in Maryland, USA.

This is one of the regular runs for the LNG ships operating out of Trinidad, our last visit here being early July where I joined.

It certainly makes a change for us all onboard, actually going somewhere after six weeks anchored at Trinidad, waiting for our next cargo.

However, things sometimes just do not turn out as you would expect. After all that time at anchor, we eventually berthed in Trinidad at 0100 in the morning, and began the task of cooling down the ships tanks ready for the cargo on LNG (loaded at –160 c).

All progressed as planned, the cooldown time taking about 10 hours in total, so we estimated we would be ready to start loading about midday.

If you remember my earlier reports, I did mention that August is the time of year for hurricanes in this region. This has the additional consequence of generating many lightening storms across Trinidad. Well, one of these storms struck whilst we were alongside.

The LNG terminal has a sophisticated instrument for measuring any electrical storms in the area and their proximity to the ship.

This is so all cargo operations can be stopped for safety reasons should a storm approach.

Therefore we stopped cargo operations on this occasion when a particularly energetic storm passed across the plant, which caused some damage to local buildings and structures.

As if this was not enough excitement for one port, later that evening shore informed us that a ‘tropical wave’ weather system was approaching Trinidad. This is basically a hurricane in its early stages, and something we did not want to be close to if it did indeed pass over Trinidad.

Fortunately we had enough time to be able to complete loading our cargo as planned.

However, once finished loading we departed the terminal a quickly as we could to ensure that we were deep sea should the storm arrive.

The storm did in fact eventually develop into Hurricane Ernesto, and is currently heading for Cuba. Fortunately for us the storm passed about 150’ to the north of us as we left Trinidad so, although the seas were quite rough, we did escape its full force.

We are now about 200’ off the east coast of the US and sailing in calm blue seas as we approach Cove Point.

A run ashore is the subject on most crewmembers minds, with a visit to some shops and restaurants. It’s been almost two months since we last took provisions, so the ship’s galley fridges are ready for filling again once we get alongside.

That’s about it for now from your webship British Trader. I will update you on our visit to Cove Point and voyage back to Trinidad in my next report.

Captain Dave Edgeworth