The Gamming Blog

26 August 09.25 (GMT +4) Steaming towards Hormuz Straits The only thing that lightened the monotony yesterday was the alarm at around 10 last night. And the ridiculous conversations between the Iranian ship’s captains on channel 16 (which is supposed to be reserved for emergencies).   22.00 (GMT +4) The air outside is at last […]

24 August 09.15 (GMT+4) Steaming in the Indian Ocean The “rough seas” promised by the weather bulletin appeared somewhere close to 21.00 last night. It really wasn’t all that rough in any case and the rolling was more like being in a hammock. Strangely the vibrations and the rolling bring on dreams and I dream […]

23 August 10.46 (GMT+3) Steaming through the southern Arabian Seas – somewhere between Aden and Mukalla What a surprise this morning when the Filipino A/B, Alexander said to me “khasteh nabashid”. Turns out he was for two years between 2009 and 2011 working on a bulker belong to IRISLN – Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping […]

22 August 10.49 Ship time (GMT +3) Steaming towards Bab al-Mandab The Red Sea is such a wondrous sea. Volcanic activities around the Zubayr Islands. So many reefs and shoals and atolls, such depth and such harsh jagged mountains on the edges, a gash through the earth, the seam of movement of the continents perhaps, […]

21 August 10.19 (GMT +3) Steaming towards Bab al-Mandab   The ship left earlier again than anticipated. We had been scheduled for 09.00, but I could feel the engine coming on at 05.00 and then we were off at 06.00 and we are now steaming at 17 knots towards Bab al-Mandab which we are supposed […]

20 August 09:05 (GMT +3) Steaming towards Jidda   Can’t really see all the reefs that the Admiralty charts say are there and which make approach to Jidda such a treacherous and difficult thing. It is hot and humid out there and when I went out there the lens of my camera just fogged up. […]

19 August 11.50 (GMT +2) Steaming towards Jidda Had a couple of very interesting conversations today. First with Lysandro, the messman/steward whose theory it is that the 9/11 bombings was very bad for Filipino crewmen on cruise-ships. That security went up, salaries went down, and Filipino crewmen were viewed with suspicion. Interestingly, he also attributes […]

18 August 2016 07.55 (GMT +2) Transitting Suez I was so excited last night I could barely sleep. Woke up several times between 02.00 and 04.30 when I finally got up. Turned out we were already steaming – and were/are the first ship in the convoy. It was rather majestic, that slow stately procession of […]

16 August 12.43 Steaming through the Mediterranean towards Port Said anchorage   We are going incredibly slowly at 11.4 knots towards Port Said anchorage. The ship is filled with reefers – with even more having been loaded at Mersin. Much of the hazardous chemicals seem to be destined for Jabal Ali. Not sure what is […]