Day 3

-41.5005556, 150.808611

Out at sea with a gentle rock, it is dark and I quickly fall sound asleep, only to wake as my cabin lights up. Realising the sun must be rising, and knowing we are heading east, I hoped for some beautiful sunrise photos. Unfortunately I am one deck too low, and the containers block my view. I snap some of the sky in the gap between the accommodation tower and the containers, and promise myself that one day I will get up to the Bridge at 5.30am for a magnificent shot.

After breakfast I seek out the officers/passengers deck area the Captain has told me about. I am disappointed to see it is inset into the boat, like a cave. However I quickly realise this is a blessing as despite the sun, all you can feel is the wind. From the comfort of my deck chair I am able to see the waves, but are sheltered.

Not long after I sit down there is a splash, and I see a lone dolphin jump out of the water. I scramble to get my camera but there is only one more jump, and I miss it. I then spend the morning debating what I saw, as I was under the impression dolphins are social creatures. My expectation had been a large pod dancing and jumping along side the ship.

I settle in to wait for more, as obviously it doesn’t take much to stumble across the sea life in the Tasman. Instead I see a green container ship heading toward Australia pass us maybe 2km away, and then we pass Tasmania which is the last land I will see in a while.

If I had had a nice glass of wine the setting would have been perfect, but noone has mentioned the ship shop at all. I particularly want a bottle of water, which I know will not break. I have a glass back in the cabin, but I am nervous about using it, as the Captain was very specific about being careful with glasses. It doesn’t seem right to bring a small glass up to the deck, as it is bound to fall off somehow.

I was too nervous to mention it at breakfast, as I didn’t want to seem like I was hanging in there for alcohol to become available. At meals we are given water, or coffee, and there is no wine provided or gatherings at night to drink beer like I have read about in blogs. I decide at lunchtime I will ask about water bottles, and if there is an opening for wine I will take it.

At lunch I ask Peter if there is a shop. He nods and takes me to a list of options and gives me a form to fill in for what I’d like. Whatever I pick will be delivered to my cabin that night.

I tick a carton of water, and then skim through the rest of the list. It looks like my options for drink are Fanta, Coke, Water, Cabernet, Vodka or Whiskey. I hum and ha, then tick a pack of Pringles and decide that will be it. Unfortunately I don’t like red wine, and hadn’t planned on drinking spirits on the deck.

After lunch the Captain rings my cabin to let me know the weekly fire drill is at 3pm, but I can stay in my cabin if I would like. I ask where I would go if I’d like to participate, and he suggests I am best off observing from the Bridge.

While I wait I decide to descend to the Upper deck and then back up to the Bridge. It gives me 5 stories down and 7 up as some exercise for the day.

I arrive up to the Bridge slightly early to check the GPS positioning and watch for a while. The Captain is once again the only one there, and he asks me if I saw the whales. I said that I hadn’t which was disappointing, as they had apparently given a show.

While we wait he shows me some more of the screens and zooms out to show me where we currently are. It doesn’t look like we have got very far to me, but I smile and nod.

Next he enquires after my sleep as he does every day, and I assure him it was much better, before he asks me about my shower. I tell him I think it is a very good shower, which greatly pleases him. He tells me to shower lots, as we make our own water. “We can make 25 tonnes of water a day, so shower all day, all day” he laughs. It is obviously something he is proud of, and it’s something I had wondered about.

I wasn’t sure if we held tanks of fresh water on board, and whether I had to be frugal or not, so while I’m not planning to spend the next week in the shower, I am certainly going to be less cautious about saving water.

He then offers me a coffee and starts making it himself, which embarrasses me. The hierarchy is so entrenched on the ship that I am constantly aware of his status, and that we should be differential to him. He waves me off and makes it anyway.

At 1530 he pushes the siren and there is high pitch noise nothing like what I expected. I would not have realised it was the fire alarm if it had gone off previously. The Crew radio him on the bridge for instructions and he says that there is a fire in the mess room, and that they should prepare the lifeboats before attempting to fight the fire.

Soon crew are running up the side stairs and grabbing the codes tucked in behind fire extinguishers required for part of the activity. They are wearing their life jackets and hard hats

The Captain continues to stand there with his coffee and survey the organised chaos. He takes me to the deck to watch them getting into the lifeboat. I tell him next week I’d like to join in, and he offers me a tour afterwards instead. He says they are not very comfortable, and that they launch the lifeboats in port every 3 months, but it is not a well liked drill.

The third engineer is told that once he finishes his duties, he is to take me on a tour around the upper deck, and then to the engine room. Apparently today is a good day, as tomorrow the swell will be bigger. At the moment the ship is too light, and we will sail better after picking up more containers in NZ. I ask if the reason that there number of containers on each side is different, is because they weigh different amounts, and it’s important to balance the ship. He laughs and says that we use the Ballast Tanks full of seawater to do that. He has a good chuckle and says the Port is too slow already; we can’t wait for them to balance the boat.

I don a hard hat given to me by the Third Engineer and we head out onto the upper deck. The hat wobbles on my head, and it is difficult to ensure it doesn’t fall off, let alone imagine it will protect my head from anything. It is narrow and smells like engine oil. It does not feel remotely like a pleasure vessel. Other crew are wandering around in their overalls and hard hats, and smile and wave.

He takes me to the front of the boat, and I am a little surprised at how round the front is. I had aimed to be cliché and get a “Titanic” photo at the peak. I bite the bullet and do a very average version of it anyway.

Then I am taken to the lifeboat, and allowed to get into it. All the heroism and drama of “Captain Phillips” drops away as I realise it is very small, dark, hot and smelly. There are harnesses all the way along, and the spaces per person don’t look like they would even take my width. I decide that next week I am not taking part in the drill.

At the Engine Room the Third Engineer gives me a slightly confusing tour, which is then high jacked by the Chief Engineer after I take a photo of him in the engine room. He is very enthusiastic and I really enjoy my tour with him.

The area is 12 metres high, by 55 long and 20metres wide. However instead of being a cavernous room that I can take a photo of, it is a maze of mezzanine floors, sky walks and machinery.

I am shown the desalinator humming away, the spare piston that is 3metres long, the bilge pump, and 4 generators. After we go passed the lathe I started to lose track and was just seeing machine after machine. But I took photos where I could and enjoyed the fact I was seeing equipment that other people could only dream about.

At dinner we are told the clocks will go forward an hour tonight, as we are getting closer to NZ. I decide to make it an early night in the cabin, after I have collected my daily GPS coordinates.

It is at this point I realise that while my app works without Internet, it only works on land. While in port it had still worked, but now it picks up nothing.

So I quietly head up 2 floors to the bridge, and take a photo of our position before heading to bed.

I only saw my one lone dolphin today.