Sorry for the absence, had some problems with emails, my hard drive and now my word doesn't want to work on my laptop!
I am now in transit between Savannah, Georgia and Miami. Since my last blog I have visited New York and Charleston. I can now tick both of them off the bucket list and I can't wait until I am back.
We have faced a few days of cancellations so far during this USA visit. The ship spent 3 days waiting to get into Charleston and then spent a further 2 days in port in Savannah which was only supposed to be a 15 hour port! Now we are at sea and we have cancelled for Miami so we will be spending another day at anchor before we can get into the port. This is causing havoc on board as both Chief Officer and Chief Engineer, as well as the 3rd Officer and both Deck Cadets are waiting to fly home. Their flights have been pushed back 3 times because of the cancellations. We are also supposed to be picking up 4 new cadets, which means I have to take a turn as Chief Cadet. This is nothing special you just have to hold out until new cadets join and you get the promotion but it does mean I won't be alone in the engine room anymore.
Ahead of us after Miami we have our last port in Freeport, Bahamas before we face the journey back across the world towards Malaysia. The thought of being at sea for nearly a month is stressing me, I don't exactly relish long stints at sea with no land in sight, I need off every once in a while to stretch my legs! The schedule does mean however, that the next time I will visit America I will hopefully be flying home from Miami. I reached my 2 month stage of my sea phase on the 17th July, counting down the days until I can fly home now!
Not much has changed on board, I am still working hard during the days and then I mostly write reports or complete a system drawing at night during my time off. If I finish work before the sun sets I usually run a few laps around the boat. Still can't get over the view and it sure beats staring at the wall on the treadmill in the gym. Hopefully I can get more blogs up in the coming days with more detail.
62 (ish) Days to go!
