Monday 9th March
Arrived Sept Isles to join the Federal Pioneer at 1730. The ship was alongside at the Alouette berth where she was loading aluminium slabs and ingots. Met Captain Zbigniew Stebnicki and had dinner with him, Chief Engineer Jerzy Lewandowski and Electrical Engineer Andrzej Krajewski. Loading had been due to complete afternoon on Tuesday but it was going slowly.
Tuesday 10th March.
Had breakfast with the Chief Engineer and toured the engine room, which was in a very clean condition. The ship was experiencing problems with one generator but, more importantly, with frozen pipes in the forward fresh water tank. Loading continued steadily throughout the day but the estimated time for completion was moved back to 2300 hours. I wandered around the ship during the course of the day and admired how smartly she presented herself for a ten-year old vessel coming up for her second Special Survey. Having said that, I also heard numerous complaints about deficiencies, mostly arising from the quality of this Chinese-built unit and, in particular, with the problems of its Chinese-produced components. The Electrical Engineer complained that he had only managed a few hours sleep over the course of several days as a result of dealing with problems; and the Chief Engineer complained bitterly about the quality of the pipes and gaskets, warning of problems lying ahead.
Wednesday 11th March
The last cargo was loaded at 0300 hours but extra securing and dunnaging took another three hours. Two harbour tugs arrived at 0500 hours and broke up the ice around the ship. Lines were released at 0630 hours and the two tugs pulled the ship away to starboard, parallel to the dock wall. Once sufficiently clear, the aft tug released and went around the vessel to push forward on the port bow swinging the ship towards the channel. The starboard tug released and proceeded to lead the way ahead through the channel, followed by the second tug once it had collected the harbour pilot. Sylvain Dubé, the ice-pilot from Port Cartier, took over the routing. A somewhat unexpected 5-degree list to starboard was traced to a frozen valve that had failed to close, pumping 150 tonnes of engine cooling water from the sea chest to a starboard ballast tank. The valve was released and the ballast trimmed. Pilot Dubé guided the ship towards the northwest of Anticosti Island and then followed the western coastline. The ice was mostly grey ice and the ship maintained a good speed of 13 knots. The wind was very strong at a steady 40 knots from the south.
Thursday 12th March
Significant first year ice under pressure from the southerly winds was encountered at midnight and the vessel's speed fell to about 5 knots, eventually grinding to a halt at 0200 hours. CGS Terry Fox, the Canadian icebreaker, was 9 miles away but only maintained observation as Pilot Dubé ordered the ship astern to carve a new route to the south. Very slow progress was made during the course of the night, the vessel becoming temporarily stuck again at 0600 hours. However by 0800 hours the ice cover had become fragmented and with the wind shifting astern her speed increased to 15 knots. Pilot Dubé was severely fatigued after a continuous watch of over 30 hours as we exited the ice cover and headed to Port aux Basques, his intended disembarkation point. However the port pilot authority there advised that he could not disembark with winds from the west and the vessel would either to wait for the winds to shift to the northwest, expected in about 12 hours, or proceed to Saint Pierre et Miquelon. Captain Stebnicki opted for the latter, being a relatively minor deviation. This gave Pilot Dubé the opportunity to get some rest. We arrived at about nine o'clock and proceeded up La Baie, the channel between Petite Miquelon Island and Ile Saint Pierre, rounding the top of the island to slow down for the pilot boat to come alongside. The swell was heavy but Pilot Dubé successfully managed the transfer. We resumed full speed and proceeded south-easterly to rejoin our track out into the Atlantic. Meanwhile the problems with frozen pipes continued with fresh water only being available intermittently. This was compounded by ice damage to sections of the steam pipes, which necessitated turning off the accommodation heating. The ship soon became cold! The engineers struggled overnight to access the points of failure, often in inaccessible places.
Friday 13th March
Still no heating - but in the morning there was some fresh water that allowed the use of a hot shower to warm up. The ship was still making good progress with the wind astern and waves of two metres in Beaufort scale 8 conditions. The engineers continued to work on the piping, eventually turning on the heat by late afternoon. The ship gradually began to thaw. However the problem with the pipes was not over: a burst main flooded the Officers' Mess with 400 litres of water. The fresh water was turned off again.
Saturday 14th March
Tension in the Officers' Mess was apparent the next morning as the Captain, Chief Engineer and Chief Officer Pawel Siwiec continued their conversation in Polish. The Captain later explained that the ship had inexplicably lost most of its fresh water overnight. The forward tank was three-quarters full at the last reading on the previous evening; now, it was almost empty. The fresh water evaporator was a small unit capable of producing only six tonnes of water per day. The Chief Engineer was worried that there would only be sufficient to keep the main engines going. The fresh water supply to the accommodation block was still turned off and the ban on laundry continued. This is going to be one smelly ship!
However this drama was soon overshadowed when, at 0930, the ship suffered a complete blackout. On the bridge was Third Mate, Joelito Baco, with the Captain who became increasingly concerned as the ship drifted broadside to the waves. The rolling became serious, the clinometer showing rolls of over 30 degrees from the centreline. Books, mugs, unsecured chairs in the bridge all went flying. The sound of breaking and crashing could be heard throughout the ship. Then, more ominously, each roll was followed by a separate thud; the cargo had started to break loose and was shifting in the holds. If sufficient cargo broke free then one rogue wave might be enough to roll the ship. Captain Stebnicki was calm but seriously worried. Fortunately, at 1000 hours, some thirty minutes after the blackout, the main engine was restarted and the vessel once again powered ahead. The Chief Officer checked the holds to see what cargo had broken loose. Fortunately the damage was found confined only to the cargo of aluminium ingots in tweendeck No.2. The Captain ordered the helm to change course to keep the wind from astern in order to minimise rolling as the crew were sent in to strap down the shifted cargo, a process that took until 2300 hours. The Chief Engineer reported that the generators caused the blackout; all three had surged simultaneously and blew the fuses. There seemed to be no reason for this happening but a poor power management system was suspected. Captain Stebnicki once again bemoaned the shoddy Chinese workmanship, the result of which has bedevilled this ship, adding that he was very surprised when he learnt that I wanted to join this particular vessel bearing in mind its history of problems. Now somebody tells me!
That evening was supposed to be a party but it was abandoned because of more bad news: the steam pipes were still frozen and the Chief Engineer calculated only 65 tons of pumpable fuel, the rest being too viscous without being heated. That was enough for only two or three days steaming. A debate ensued as to whether the ship should proceed southbound towards the Azores to find some warmer weather. However, during the course of examining this option, the engineers managed to get some of the pipes unfrozen - and then realised that there had been a miscalculation of available pumpable fuel... There went my detour to the Canary Islands! Party or no, dinner was quite an amusing occasion with plenty of black and not-so-black humour.
Sunday 15th March
The Captain had decided to move the clocks forward by three hours in one go, a clever decision as Sunday is a rest day for the crew. Deck watches were adjusted to 3 hours each to effect the change. There were some tired looking faces at breakfast that morning but everything seemed to working better and it was a sunny, warm day which looked promising for the balance of the frozen pipes. At 3 p.m. the Captain sounded the alarm and the crew mustered at the lifeboat and then proceeded to practice emergency steering; starting the emergency generator; and, tackling a fire. We all then had to take our positions in the lifeboat, a free-fall type, properly securing our belts whilst the cadets were reminded how to start the engine and how to steer the lifeboat with the emergency tiller in case of steering wheel failure. Afterwards the crew attended a safety lecture and watched a safety video. Missing from those in attendance was a number of deck hands who were with the Chief Engineer pumping out the fresh water that went missing on Saturday that was found in the duct keel and void spaces. Surprisingly, the Chief reported that there were still a number of frozen pipes that had burst and the ice accretion was still very thick. At least the weather for the remainder of the trip looks like being more of the same, low winds, and the thermometer in the low/mid teens, which should do the trick.
Monday 16th March
A fairly uneventful day, all in all. The ship remained in the Gulf Stream taking the benefit of more than a knot of current. For a short while a lone dolphin accompanied us off our port side. Problems still remained with burst and bursting fresh water pipes resulting in the occasional disconnection whilst repairs were affected. Electrical Engineer Krajewski had an unexpected bath - and a lucky escape - whilst in the void space when a fresh water valve, thought to have been turned off but in fact frozen, became unplugged. Water rapidly filled the space and Krajewski had to swim to the escape hatch in near-freezing water. Amazingly the incident was dismissed with good humour! Later in the afternoon, the laundry was declared open and good fortune (with advance notice) put me first in line! There was quite a scrum for the two washing machines in the crew laundry, the officers' laundry being out of action with a broken washer. There was a shift of wind during the evening to a south-easterly and, as it picked up strength, the ship started to slam into the waves. The spray from the bow, illuminated by the port/starboard navigation lights, made quite a spectacle. Engine revolutions were reduced for a few hours but, as the Captain later noted, there was only a negligible reduction in overall speed. However our estimated time of arrival in Liverpool on Thursday was going to be too late to catch the morning high tide and we will not now be docking until the evening.
Tuesday 17th March.
St. Patrick's day but not one of major celebration for either the Polish officers or the Filipino crew although the Captain did allow everyone a can of American beer at lunch! Progress was smooth throughout the day with about 360 miles to go before we reach Fastnet. Disappointingly we heard from Liverpool that we will not be entering the lock until first high tide on Friday at 02:00 so will not be alongside until 04:00. Discharge will start at 07:00. Still problems with the fresh water which has been turned off for much of the day whilst repairs are made to leaks in the accommodation block and to the fire hoses, some of which were found on testing to have been ruptured. We are advancing the clocks by one hour to fully align us with UK time.
Wednesday 18th March
Woke up to a beautiful sunny day with gentle swell and winds. A quick calculation, we would be passing close by the famous Fastnet Rock off the SW coast of Ireland shortly after lunch, following the Irish coast past Cork to Tuskar Rock before crossing St George's Channel to Anglesey. So much to see! I spent much of the morning pacing up and down the bridge checking our progress on the charts. However my excitement was soon replaced with disappointment: fog! The visibility reduced from 12 miles to almost zero at the point when Fastnet should have been coming into view. The second mate turned on the doleful sound of the foghorn as I stared into the mist...
Thursday 19th March
At breakfast the Captain quipped, "Welcome to English weather!". The fog was still with us, concealing Holyhead and even Liverpool as we made our approach. It even concealed other traffic in the area. Since leaving Sept Isles, the only ship that I had seen was a Panamax bulkcarrier, m.v. Dubrovnik - and that was in the Gulf of St Lawrence. I saw nothing across the Atlantic and, now that we were in a busy shipping lane, I could only track other ships on the radar and AIS as they hid behind the blanket of fog. At around 3 o'clock we arrived at the anchorage and dropped the hook, turning off the main engine. The pilot is due to join the ship shortly after midnight to take us up the Mersey River to the discharging berth. The fog lifted a little during the late afternoon and it was fascinating to watch the number of ferries, container ships and coasters passing by. In the distance I could just make out the windmills on the coast at Moreton on Liverpool Bay through the remaining haze before the sun set over the sea. My journey is nearly over...
Friday 20th March
Just before midnight we lifted the anchor and moved slowly towards the pickup point for the harbour pilot. The wind was quite strong, gusting over 25 knots, but the pilot boat had no difficulty coming alongside as we motored a steady course at 7 knots. Once aboard, the pilot called for the tugs, questioning the Captain why he had requested two. The answer that No.1 generator was not functioning and therefore the thrusters were only working at fifty percent capacity satisfied him - and, as things panned out, it had been a very wise decision. We were shortly in the channel but a traffic jam of outward ships was going to delay the arrival of the tugs. The pilot ordered stop engines and proceeded to heave to using occasional dead slow ahead to maintain control of the helm. Eventually the outbound ships passed us and the two tugs arrived, the first connecting a wire to the stern and the other forward. Once we approached the lock, almost parallel to the channel with its entrance facing the opposite direction from which were coming, the ship had to be swung 180 degrees across the current to drift astern until in line with the lock gate. This was skilfully done but insufficient headway was set before we started to enter the lock. The tugs struggled to hold her steady in the wind that clipped the accommodation block and put the vessel off course. The pilot ordered a succession of ahead/astern with thrusters before we finally succeeded in entering Gladstone lock that raised the ship 5 metres.
Our berth at Gladstone Dock lies just the other side of the lock at right angles but the pilot decided not to risk a single manoeuvre as he feared we might have the same problem as when entering the lock. Instead we passed our quay, putting the nose into the next quay and affecting a three-point turn before approaching our berth from the opposite direction. With a panamax coal carrier behind us and another ship to the side, the whole operation looked quite tight but was successfully executed and we came alongside at 0430 hours without any further problems.
A couple of hours sleep and I met the Chief Officer and Electrical Engineer grabbing a quick breakfast. Both were thoroughly exhausted, Engineer Krajewski especially having been working for 25 hours without a break. And now there was more bad news: both cranes were broken. One had a hydraulic failure and the other had blown half of its electrical controls. Chief Siwiec was assisting the electrical engineer, as there were many more hours of work ahead to solve these problems. The Captain was fairly sanguine, shrugging his shoulders at yet another breakdown.
I packed my bags and said some good-byes before meeting with the agent who offered to arrange a taxi once we had clearance for me to leave the ship. Border Security came on board and they telephoned Immigration that gave its okay for me to disembark. A quick farewell and thank you to the Captain, help down the gangway with my luggage from the third mate and I was ashore! Next stop, Lime Street Station; my trip on Federal Pioneer complete, a truly memorable experience.