06/038 - Coastal Operations

 

Report: type of vessel : dry cargo coaster

Bridge crew consisted of the 1^st mate and the captain in a six hours on six hours of schedule.

The normal time on board would be 3 months - at the time the vessel had been engaged for 3 months in a trade that would take a week to complete.

The schedule:

• Netherlands to load a cargo
• sail to Finland  via the Nord-Ostzee canal and the Saimaa canal (the Saimaa canal takes 8 hours with all crew on standby for 8 locks)
• 1 port of discharge and 1 loading port. a lot of times the loading would include a deck cargo as well.
• sail to the UK via saimaa canal and Nord-Ostzee canal.

As you can imagine there is little rest on a cargo run like this.

There is hardly any time to rest when going through the saimaa canal, and the subsequent discharge. Off course the hold has to be washed and dried before loading commences 8 hours later.

Fatigue was inevitable and yet hours of rest reports were queried as incorrect by the authorities and owners.

After (almost) falling asleep on the bridge several times, the captain wisely decided to anchor the vessel before the first lock at the saimaa canal. After 12 hours of rest we continued the journey.