British Trader in the Caribbean
by Captain Dave Pegg; 19 January 2007.
Christmas on the British Trader
December has been a busy month and began with a visit from two divers. They came to Trinidad from the UK to carry out the cleaning of the hull. Whilst at anchor, the local wildlife found the British Trader's underwater areas a nice place to live.
We are coated with a special silicon based coating which is so slippery that normally marine life is unable to grip to it and will not grow, however this only works when the ship is moving through the water!
The two divers bought an underwater sled with them. It is water jet propelled and fitted with special brushes to wipe away all the growth. As we were so long at anchor, the cleaning took three days.
Once we were clean we received a top up of our fuel tanks and off we went to load our first cargo in three months.
The cargo was taken to Savannah, Georgia. As per our last visit we had a full USCG (United States Coast Guard) inspection on arrival. This inspection was a full renewal of our certificate which allows the vessel to trade to US ports. The inspection was completed the day before we were due to Berth.
Unfortunately once we attempted the river transit, fog was beginning to form and I took the decision to delay berthing until we had better visibility. Even with all the equipment onboard the "Mark I" eye-ball is one of the best tools.
We finally berthed a day later and discharged a full cargo. Many of the officers and crew managed to leave the vessel at the end of their trip so they could spend Christmas with their families. The down side being, ofcourse that others had to take their place. We arrived back in Trinidad in Christmas Eve.
Luckily we had no cargo scheduled so we had a quiet relaxing Christmas day. The meal was beautifully cooked and everyone ate too much!
We received cargo orders on December 26th and berthed to cool down the cargo tanks and load on the 29th. We then had a high speed run to Cove Point, Maryland. Nineteen knots all the way. LNG carriers, like container ships, carry high value cargos so we tend to travel at higher speeds.
We completed an uneventful discharge at Cove Point. It was good to see all the friends we have made there over the years.
We are just about to arrive back in Trinidad and anchor to await our next cargo. This is likely to be very soon and who knows where it will take us.