A selection of some of the photos taken when visiting a brand new (6 weeks old) car carrier at the Southampton dock.
The shots show the sheer size of the ship and the cargo packed closely together. It also shows the wheel and bridge deck as well as 1 (of 4) deck around the engine (which produces over 13000kW).
Enjoy…
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Ciao
Food seems to be a bit of a theme going on but today was “Pancake-day” and the first time I celebrated it properly (as I missed out last year).
Basically it follows from the whole 40 days before Easter no eating thing from Christianity but I cannot remember from bible lessons this custom. Then again there’s no carnival to be had here (which I think has more or less the same goal).
Anyway it follows from the tradition of finishing the winter rations (of flour, egg etcetera) and is the last time of enjoying the good life before Easter (starting Ash-Wednesday) but as it goes has taken on an entirely unrelated role for most people. I can see why you would go for the pancakes though, I feel like I don’t need to have another meal for the next 40-odd days.
As far as normal service is concerned: Did the boat-visit last week and it was great (will put a link up to some photos tomorrow). Also looked at a classic S&S Swan 44 for a friend’s parents (not my cup of tea but some lovely stuff going on), celebrated a birthday of a German on the island (very much fun) and spend hours reading through literature in search of answers of prying questions on ship building.
Life ain’t too bad…
Ciao!
The classic English Sunday Roast is perhaps one of the best things from the English cuisine and culture. Whereas in some cases it is very comparable to Sunday dinner with the parents back in NL with the big difference that the institution here allows the freedom of picking your own group of people. And patting the English on the back here I must admit that they also seem to have realized that vegetables are much nicer when they are not boiled at the same time as the spuds and the roast.
Anyway having had a very challenging roast today (it had been too long ago so the sheer size of dinner was the challenging bit) and now back in Scumpton it is also a time to have a look in the near future. Uni is almost back up to it’s good old self with a number of assignments underway with the General Arrangement of my general purpose cargo vessel being the most interesting at the moment. The great thing is the fact that a lot of the stuff is becoming very tangible and has to be applied straight away in ship related projects. This is even further backed up by the guest lectures and field trips. I get to visit one of the ugliest types of floating things later this week when a visit is planned to a car carrier… But having said that it will also be a showcase of applications of what’s been taught and at the same time showing the vast scale of what more is involved between the basics and the finished and active product.
So it’s back to 60-ish hour workweeks (which is not a complaint since it is actually good fun to figure ships out) and unfortunately less time for fun stuff in the weekends. Having said that, the 6 Nations hasn’t been too much fun with the poor performance of the English and thus the watching very quickly turns a day into something completely different and un-planned…
Life is good and the weather (although very much still English) is actually starting to show signs of springiness.
Ciao!
ps. Red and Laura again a very big thank you for the beautiful roast and hospitality
Monday was an interesting day for a number of reasons most notably it was the start of the new semester and it was the day that showed the heaviest snowfall in 18 years here in Southampton.
Wat this means? Well about 5cm of snow at around 8 in the morning and a country that almost completely shuts down. London had next to no public transport system going and right here in Southampton the people on the road displayed a incredible lack of understanding of what snow does to the surroundings… A large number of schools was closed and not just on Monday but on Tuesday as well and even more interesting was a decent amount of faculties cancelling all lectures. As for ship, we had a snowball fight amongst ourselves and just got on with it.
As I said the weather on Tuesday still had some snow left and since it was forecasted a lot of people in the UK decided to not even bother (and they are curious as to why their economy is being struck hardest…).
Anyway within Ship we tried to enjoy it the best we could whilst getting on with the new semester. The new semester has some challenging stuff for us lot but with quite a serious amount of the knowledge being applied at the same time. It includes a ship visit or two and numerous guest lectures. All in all a couple of weeks to look seriously forward to. Having said that the workload is also already starting to show.
The snow has gone now and it’s back to drooly wintery Southern England. A shame really as Soton actually looked almost half decent under a cover of an inch or two of snow:
Ciao,
’09 has barely started but the focus has already shifted back to the work that has to be done. Looking back I have failed to get some miles down on the ice (real stuff, not the fake fabricated that lacks the beautiful sounds) but other than that I think I might have gotten just about enough sleep in to make up for the first term and have some left for the rest of this first semester.
Currently packing my stuff again to head back home to Soton tonight and have the lovely 9am start tomorrow. Should be good to get back into Uni again and see everyone back in the UK.
As for all you I’m assuming Monday means back to work as well so good luck with that!
Ciao!
As the time is coming neigh for those in OZ and kiwi-land:
Merry New Year!
(or in other words: all the best for 2009; great health, great wisdom, good winds, great friends and just plain good times!)
Taking on a more selfish point of view, ’09 promises to be another challenging year with several design to be produced (and the inclusive non-existing nights to make the deadlines). As more people will be finding out they cannot afford to play the game at the level they wanted I am not quite sure what will happen sailing wise but having said that the planning is to do less sailing and more engineering related stuff throughout the ’09 summer.
Anyway, I hope all stay safe also in the new year and we can stay in touch and will see the credit-crunch be used to solve non-issues between people/nations/religions/states/etc. That religions can agree to disagree, that environmental-terrorists get realistic and realise the long-term benifits of electric cars are more pollution to the envirionment and that the economy failure (or the believe that bankers are honest) will have people be more down-to-earth, tollerant, thankful for all we still have (your probably part of the lucky half of this worlds population) and just a bit more relativation in everyday life.
Life is still great (and could be awesome in a few days time if I can get some skates on and do some skating on real ice whilst here in NL for the first time in over a decade! see also this on the “elfstedentocht” this means the whole of the Netherlands travels to the North to stand in the freezing could for an entire day with warm drinks and bites to cheer on the lucky few who are allowed to participate in what the late Steve Fosset had called the biggest he still wanted to do after doing all the sailing/flying/ballooning)
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//–>Got my fingers crossed to be able to present you a film in a while of gliding across the frozen waterways of NL before I’m back in Soton, it is just unexplainable the feeling it gives you…
Back to today (and NYE), stay safe and have fun all: See you in 2009!
Ciao!
There is lot’s going on in the (sailing) world at the moment with the Vendee-skippers suffering immensly (both physical and with their gear) over the last couple of days and the Volvo guys suffering mostly mentally (although there has been the structural failure of black betty). Although I’m not involved in any of this (and off to play in the snow shortly) a quick few snippets of interesting stuff (in my humble opinion) of the sailing over the last couple of days:
– Yann Elies suffering a mayor injury, no-one deserves that and I hope the Australian Navy (who are on thier way) manage to get him into safety and comfort quickly. My favorite yacht (Safran, which was not performing anywhere as good as I’d hoped) is sailing next to him and the yacht “Generali” offering support.
– Mike Golding and Loick Peyron both dismasted in leading position, both had been sailing really well and no apperent reason has been found other than the rough seas and heavy (50+ kts) winds.
– Leading the Vendee at the moment is Foncia (‘Mich Desj’) who had to return to port after the start to fix a few minor details and has been sailing faster and smarter up till now than anyone else, wow!
– Further back there is an interesting dual between the boat that won twice, now ROXY, and the brand new (and on her third mast) Pindar (JuanK-60). Sam Davies showing what the commitment and lessons of the French offshore sailing school can do when combined with a yacht that is known inside out fencing off Brian on his hugely powerful 60.
– Delta Lloyd with a number of friends involved suffered structural damage earlier, some carbon gave way. Not good fun and I hope the conditions stay fairly favourable to Black Betty’s injury.
– The 33rd America’s Cup has been dead in the water for some time now but in a very obvious attempt to influence the court ruling Alinghi has continued preparing for the cup with meetings with possible challengers a full list of accepted challengers being released as part of the whole play. Looking at the list I am of the opinion there are a large number of participants and wannabees but hardly any real competitive challengers… What is obvious is the fact that one of the challenges that at least would have been economically viable has been ignored and the twist the PR-peopple will give on all that will be interesting to follow (but no reason to let it spoil a perfectly good ski-trip).
– One of the biggest 600-mile classics (the “Hobart”) is about the start and there will be some awesome gear on the line. Most interesting boats will be the new Living Doll (Farr IRC55, twin rudder), the new Loki (R/P 63) and new limit (R/P 62). Studying the results (and thus designs) is on the list for when I’ve returned from the snow…
That’s a quick summary of what I think is important in the unimportant world of sailing. Life’s great
Ciao!
It are busy times around here with the Christmas break only two weeks away… Sinterklaas has not even passed but everything is already fully focused on the big fat red dude (crazy people those English to paraphrase the great Obelix).
Anyway this means on the bright side that the number of deadlines becomes less and less each day (or every two days) and it also means that Christmas parties and dinners are filling the nights. But that’s not what I wanted to discuss (and what the title’s about)…
The interweb is a great place and today was another day with proof of the lack of boundaries on this place. For an assignment wee have to do some shopping online: a 8000BHP diesel engine.
And yes you can find them online… But as they’re not that cheap I’ll spend some time checking out E-Bay and the likes to see if I can find a nice second hand one for less.
Time now for some socializing and so I’m off.
Ciao!
Apologies for the lack of updates, especially compared to
the same time last year but that’s what happens when it is quite busy (and that
actually is an understatement). I wish I could say it is busy with social
things, sailing, exploring etcetera but it unfortunately for all of you it is
just uni-stuff and thus getting stuck in and doing it all. It has been a
combination of maths, laboratories, Finite Element Analysis (and comparable
computer stuff) and second year boaty studies. The result (and I’m not complaining)
is that the camera is lying around unused, my photos on the wall hold no
secrets and the virtual VOR is running in the background next to a simple
simulation.
Tonight however is a bit different as I don’t have any pressing deadlines and
therefore I have taken the night off to catch up on all less pressing
things and what happens is that I decided to look back (and it isn’t even the
end of the year yet when one would usually do that). Anyway I’ve been here now
for 14 months or so and on the one hand it doesn’t feel that long at all whilst
on the other hand I can’t believe it has only been just over a year. Yes you
should take that as a positive thing: time has flown (always happens if it’s
fun, right?!) but I also feel perfectly at home (and that has nothing to do
with being away from horrible people in the flatland: promise!) for which I
have to thank the people here and back in the flatland (staying in touch very
kindly).
You can’t imagine where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been (must
have been said by a very smart person before) so leading onwards from looking
back I’m also planning ahead and that is much harder. The story about multiple
roads and Rome seems still to hold merit but to use the analogy from the
VOR-website (thank you Mark Chisnell) I am looking if I can find the highway
(or at the very least a dual carriage way) instead of a b-road that visits all
the outskirts first. What I’m talking about is placements and the UK South
Coast is literally spoiled for choice (well maybe not choice but options none
the least) with designers, builders, engineers and suppliers. Thus in between
deadlines for marks I try to juggle with getting that organised even though it
is more than half a year away; You gotta give ’em a chance to acknowledge my suitability,
right!
It was a bit early due to a certain German who had plans to invade the
Flatlands this morning so I’m off but will try to keep you all more updated.
Life’s pretty good,
Ciao!
It has been three weeks since the last update but life hasn’t been quiet since then. It has been filled with mostly work but some fun stuff has managed to fight it’s way through as well. I just finished and handed in the last of a first pile of assignments and with that a very nice weekend ahead even when it wouldn’t have included a trip to the Flatland.
In the past three weeks I had a great night when Fred and Laura celebrated their engagement. I also had a great night when the Baltic Sprint Cup crew was invited by the owner of the boat to his vineyard and we had some time to catch up with each other.
Sailing wise I got the opportunity to race a Farr40 last weekend. Sailing in the role of tactician the team managed to get the best result so far with the boat racing under IRC. It was great to be able to get out there and pay a little contribution to the program.
Looking ahead I will be flying to the Flatland after lectures tomorrow to meet up with a bunch of the people I lived with in Delft. Also on the agenda for the weekend are a visit to my cousin who got a baby daughter a couple of weeks back as well as celebrating my grandma’s birthday. Should be really good fun and also an opportunity to recharge some batteries for the work that will start presenting itself after the weekend.
Life’s good…
Ciao!
