Captain's blog - Handover

I arrived in the evening on 31st April by train and minivan from Bangkok to sign on m/y Kalizma, the van left me at the Yacht Haven Marina junction and a final motorbike ride took me to the Marina.

M/y Kalizma in Yacht Haven

What yacht is good for you?

Many times you see or hear of a yacht and you just wish you could work there, but sometimes the picture behind the scenes is not as rosy as it looks like from the outside. The question here is how to sort out on what kind of yacht one is suitable to work on?

Wally yachts

Ring finger incident

Cheers everyone, been away for some time now but I'm back again, not with a vengeance but just back.

As some of you may know I had a boating accident recently involving my right hand and a rescue boat. We were at anchor in Male atoll in Maldives and we were tendering crew to a nearby Island called Bandos (should actually be renamed Bandits as they charged exorbitant prices and silly fees with no benefits).

After operation

Conventions regulating ships

Everyone might have heard of different Conventions and Standards etc. stipulating different rules of how a ship has to be built and managed.

Quit smoking 10yr anniversary

This is my story how I started smoking and quit smoking.

Anatomy of a grounding

Wonder how they managed this...

Near drowning incident

A few weeks ago I went out for my morning walk with my colleague Wendy. She had been hankering for days to walk on the beach and the idea was cool to me too, so we took our rubber dinghy and drove to the closest beach near the shipyard which is Woodman's point.

Monkey Mia

Been awhile since the last time but I've been really busy starting up this yacht I'm working on. Currently we are doing a "shakedown" cruise to find all faulty systems and to see that everything is working properly. 

Monkey Mia bay

Burglary

Damn, last nite we had burglars in the house. One of my flatmates, Wendy, forgot to lock the doors and they had been marching right in the door and took the closest thing available - her laptop. Luckily they did not take the other 3 laptops in the house, her jewellery, portable hard drives, our beers in the fridge...

Cancelled internet bill

Don't drink and drive

Last week and this has not been good for our team here in Australia. Our Captain who was on a wine tasting session with our boss got nipped by the coppers on a DUI (just over the limit) and today our landlord called us that we have exceeded our internet cap by the double and the bill is 4200 ozzie dollars.

A millionaire's dinner

Yesterday our boss came to inspect the ship he is building here in Australia. He had loads a meetings and finally settled down to discuss matters with the Captain.

Outback Wallaby

The weather has been awful for the last week, rain, rain and more rain. Haven't seen raining men but it sure is close. Well, enuff of that stuff. Yesterday we went out cruising east on the intention of seeing wild kangaroos or skippies as they call 'em here down under.

Night out in Freo

Greetings from Australia once more. Have been down under in Oz for a couple weeks now. Last Saturday I volunteered to be the designated driver for my colleagues. Ah, need to back track some more. We live in a 3 bedroom (3-story) house that is near the center of Fremantle.

Fremantle, Australia

Been now almost a week in Oz and seen and experienced a lot.

Titan

06.10.2006-05.04.2007

Chief officer

m/y Titan 

Titan in La Seyne-sur-Mer

CMA CGM Capella

26.05.2006 - 27.09.2006
Second Mate (Safety and medical Officer)
m/v CMA CGM Capella

CMA CGM Capella (photo courtesy of Ivan Meshkov/ Shipspotting.com)

Shore based employment - Pandaw cruises

08.08.2005 - 20.12.2005

Marine Superintendent

r/v Tonle Pandaw on Tonle Lake

RMS Windsor Castle

This post is copied as seen on ssmaritime.com for RMS Windsor Castle (5 pages), the website SSMaritime is private and the author elderly so one doesn't know how long the domain will remain active. I give all credit to the author Dr. Reuben Goossens, who has compiled the pictures and written the text. 

This to honor the history of the vessel I was involved in saving after the storm in 12th Feb 2004. (JL)

************************************************

RMS Windsor Castle

Later: SS Margarita L / Rita

Ship of sheer beauty! (Author’s collection)

RMS Windsor Castle 1960 - 1977

Grounding of Margarita L

Back in 2003 I was in Greece working for SETE yachts converting Columbus Caravelle to mega yacht Turama and we were alongside in Lamda shipyards where I had a good view of the laid up vessels in the sheltered Elefsis Bay, one of the interesting vessels out there was Margarita L, her imposing silhouette brought into my mind a lot questions of what is this ship doing here, where has she come from and what is she doing here. Little did I know that she was the property of the Latsis family.

After some research I learned that she was originally launched as Windsor Castle and sailed for the Union Castle lines from UK to South Africa. She was the last cruise ship ever built by Cammell Laird shipyard. Eventually after the advent of air travel cruising was no longer popular and she changed hands and became property of Mr John Latsis who used her mostly in Saudi Arabia where he had business interests. After that she was laid up in Elefsina Bay.

Then one night in the middle of the winter in 2004, Feb 12th she broke her anchor chain during a winter storm.

m/s Margarita L on Salamina

Columbus Caravelle sold

30.01.2003 - 03.02.2003

Owner's representative/ Captain
m/v Columbus Caravelle

Columbus Caravelle alongside Gaoyanglu wharf, Shanghai

(photo collage)

Columbus Caravelle

04.03.2000 - 31.05.2000 Chief Officer
01.06.2000 - 07.08.2000 Captain
02.10.2000 - 01.11.2000 Chief Officer
02.11.2000 - 04.02.2001 Captain
05.04.2001 - 04.06.2001 Chief Officer
05.06.2001 - 10.08.2001 Captain
09.10.2001 - 09.12.2001 Chief Officer
10.12.2001 - 26.04.2002 Captain
24.06.2002 - 07.01.2003 Captain
M/v Columbus Caravelle

M/v Columbus Caravelle in Jeju Is., S. Korea

New cruising grounds

Having signed off last April I knew that the stay in Singapore was over and also my counterpart resigned for landbased work, I was now the senior Captain but it didn't look good for the future as both Chief Mate's that I had were not considered mature enough to be promoted and relatively new in the Company.

Columbus Caravelle alongside in Jeju island

Moving to Singapore

Having signed on last October as Chief Mate we got the news of a new acquirement by Conning shipping, an old 2nd hand cruise ship made in Denmark. It was all crewed by Ukrainians, cheap as chips as was also told by the Technical Manager, Mr Yeung, that they can't afford us anymore. Bit of a pity to hear it but as usual it is the figure under the red line that matters. 

Off Bintan Island