I’m back! It has been quite a while and things moved on a bit, meanwhile I had time to rethink the role of my blog and what to write about. I will focus on content about me, as it is my personal homepage, for all other things there are much better sites out there. And you may notice that the language changed. I figured that all my friends are able to understand English and it makes my life a lot easier to write the stories just once.
Enough technical talk, there is a lot to tell! First of all, I got a promotion a few months back. This means that I work as a 2nd Officer, work times have changed and so did responsibilities. I work now twice a day from 12-04 and in the morning 2 hours. In port it is just twice 12-06. Especially the work at night one must get used to, it is a lonely time and it doesn’t really fit the biorhythm. So along with that I had, and still have, trouble to sleep and to find my pace which results in exhaustion.
Apart from the latter I really enjoy my new position. The main responsibilities of a second officer are the navigation charts and the bridge equipment like radars and radio communication. By doing all the passage planning I am much more involved in the day to day operation of the ship. Essentially I get to choose how we go to the next port. Of course it should be the shortest route but still, I get to make decisions. And to keep the bridge and everything on it in good condition is just much more interesting work than greasing fire flapsÖ To give you a better understanding of what my work consists of I will describe a whole day in a post later on.
Until the end of April the Coral Rubrum will be my home. We sail in the Far East between South Korea, China, Taiwan and Japan. On board there is Russian-speaking crew (Ukraine, Latvia etc.) Indonesians and some Dutch guys. All very nice people to live and work with and it’s a good atmosphere on the ship. Apart from writing to me electronically you could send me a postcard or small packages. You can do so until end of March. Send it to the address mentioned on the right side of this post.
There was another mayor event, although it is not related to sailing or travelling I cannot resist mentioning it. I bought a house in the centre of Gouda. It is not only a house; it is my first real home since I am in the Netherlands. It really feels good to have a home finally. Still there is some work to be done but you are very welcome to come visit me when I am back home.
That’s it for now. I hope to keep updating the blog again on a more regular basis and fine-tune the looks of it. I’d love to hear from you too, just reply below.
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This entry was posted in Work
Hoi Fin, van harte gefeliciteerd met je promotie! Leuk. Goed te lezen dat je een leuke crew hebt. Ben benieuwd naar je ervaringen in het Verre Oosten. Succes en tot horens, Groet, Arjen
Bij ons is het 8 uur vroeger dan bij jullie, wij leven met Koreaanse tijd. Het weer in Taiwan was behoorlijk warm, rond de 20 graden. Maar in Korea is het nog net zo koud als het in Nederland was toen ik vertrok.
Groetjes
Hoi Fin
Leuk om dit bericht van je te lezen en we kunnen het nog begrijpen ook. Je hebt het vandaag geschreven. We zijn even aan het uitzoeken, wat het tijdverschil is. Bij ons is het nu 21.00 uur dus jij bent w.s. net naar bed gegaan na je nachtdienst. Hopenlijk wen je snel aan dit ritme.
Hoe is het weer bij jou, zeker warmer dan bij ons? Hier sneeuwde het vandaag (eindelijk) weer eens. Iedereen heeft nu sportvakantie en sinds Januarie ligt er nouewelijks sneeuw. Het was vaak zonnig en warm en werd veel te droog voor de natuur. Er heerst dan ook bosbrandgevaar.
Wij wensen je behouden vaart en tot horens.