All Aboard!

"Attention Africa Mercy Ship. This is your Captain..." That's how it always starts.

For the last few days, as you may have read before, things have been getting crazy here, what with preparing to sea. The galley (as well as everywhere else on the ship) has been tying up and crating smaller, moveable objects to prepare for open sea. There have been several drills in the last couple of days, where we have mustered in our assigned areas, gathered our life jackets and practiced going towards our life boats.

This morning (Thursday), we are finally ACTUALLY departing! The Deck 3 gangway, for commercial goods and workers, stayed in place until the last minute while the Deck 5 gangway was folded up. The last part of it was then unhitched from the ship while it was pulled to the top deck of the ship with a crane which is part of the top deck.

Friends that had been made while in port came to wave goodbye and the bowlines and aftlines were systematically released. (And yes, there were actually more friends to wave than just these few gentlemen.)

One of the last views of the dock where the ship has been since early September, 2010, when it arrived in Durban for extensive updates and repairs.

A port pilot joined the ship as we were leaving. He belongs to the Port of Durban and must be on any unfamiliar ship entering or leaving the port. If he is not allowed to board and direct the foreign ship while in his port, the ship is not allowed to enter and dock. The ship is also escorted by 2 tugboats. As the Africa Mercy enters the open sea, the tugboats leave us and the port pilot is picked off the top deck of our ship by a local helicopter. Everyone not involved in the pickup was ordered inside the ship in case something were to go wrong with the helicopter. After the pilot was picked up, the ship was considered at sea and the port went back to its regular activities. So did we.

In the meantime, most of the ship went out and watched the departure of the ship through the port itself. The first photo is a postcard of the port with the white, folded paper indicating where we were docked during repairs. From this photo, you can see how far we had to go through the entire port in order to get to sea.

On our way out we passed numerous other local and foreign ships and the rest of the city of Durban:

a grain ship -

scrap metal -

Wilson's Wharf, a little port shopping/eating center (like a small Seaport Village) -

a car carrier -

more of I don't know exactly what, from I don't know where -

and one of the beaches I didn't get to visit while I was here. This was just before we hit open sea.

We will be at sea for 2 - 3 days until we reach Cape Town, which is the southern tip of Africa. We should have about 24 hours there to shop or see the sights.

Catch you later, when we get there...

Preparations

Getting very close to leaving now: it was supposed to be today but it's now scheduled for Thursday. But serious preparations are under way! Yesterday was "bunkering", filling the ship with gasoline (diesel) from another ship (a small tanker) in the harbor. I missed a photo of that, sorry. Also recently was taking the vehicles from the dock and loading them onto the top deck of the ship. All but 2 are stashed on the ship; 2 are left until the last minute for emergency reasons. I was curious about what happens when the seas get rough and found some very secure attachments.

The "X" is called an elephant's foot and the red hooks are called elephant's toes.

The 'locks' are actually part of the floor of the deck and they are all over the deck. the belts are attached to the frame of the vehicle on one end and the 'locks' in the floor of the ship deck, and then tightened. I was impressed.

Today, the lifeboats were being tested and locked into place. At one point, a lifeboat was 'flying' by the window where I was reading. It was being pulled up by crane and put into place. I followed it out and took some more photos of the prep.

This one was waiting for its turn to be hoisted:

Most of the dumpsters have been taken away. While we're at sea the trash is stored in dumpsters that are already on the top deck and locked down safely.

The last of the delivery trucks have been arriving with ship materials, groceries for the shipshop and a fresh fruit/veggie delivery for the galley. Speaking of the galley, we are busy up there cooking some big pots of stuff that can be frozen now and cooked later. Apparently, lunches on board during sailing are cold lunches as cooking & baking for 200+ are quite challanging when the boat rocking and rolling. Large amounts of casserole-type dishes are made ahead of time for dinners when the seas are particularily bad.



The engines are running today so they can be examined thoroughly in that state, and Thursday should be the big day. I'll let you know...

Durban, S. Africa

As of today, Feb 4, 2011, we are still in port at Durban, S. Africa. A LOT has been going on preparing for our departure which is planned for next Tuesday. This place is definately bustling! I was able to go into town again the other day and see a different side of the city, closer to the water. Durban is just less than 900 square miles and has approx 3.5 million people of various ethnic backgrounds. I've heard the beaches are beautiful but I did not get to visit any of them while I was here. There are also safaris occasionally offered for a weekend buy I missed those - bummed about that. May have to come back this way again for that experience...

Durban is the busiest port in South Africa which includes a lot of natural and man-made port features. Because of the location and moderate (sub-tropical) climate and beaches, is it also a big tourist location. There have been a few warm days, but mostly the weather has been lovely.

Durban was also one of the locations for the World Soccer Games. This arena was built just for that and now sits with nothing to do but be used by bungee jumbers.

I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to try more things while I was here. Crew personnel have to balance their days off and the days that trips are offered. The vehicles can only be driven by certain people and are limited in space, so you get what you can get. Since we are preparing to leave, the vehicles are being placed on top of the ship this weekend, by cranes.

I'll have more on the preparations to leave soon....

Feel free to leave comments if you enjoy any of the blogs or would like to know more about anything!



AIR! We have AIR!

We have air! YAY!!  The air has been on for Decks 4 (cabins and nurses stations) and 5 (part of galley, dining room, many offices, registration, café, ship shop, library and academy). It’s on on deck 3 (my cabin) but it needs some time to fill the rooms there first. It’s also going to take some time to fill up deck 7 (laundry, computer room, some more offices and big meeting room).  The pool is also open. Just in time too, because all of the people from Applesbosch have arrived. Applesbosch was a former small college campus that was taken over by the Mercy Ship people as a hold-over site for many ship people while the ship was being worked on and had no air (for several months). I’ve been told that there were pros and cons to both locations: AB had windows, land to walk around and play on (for all the kids), was a pretty area in the middle of the mountains; it also took forever to go anywhere or do anything because it was in the middle of nowhere and didn’t have any ship people. The ship had no air, but it was in the middle of the mission itself and it is near a town.

That also means that the ship has about 300 people living on board now, including 300 to cook for every meal and clean up too. The good news is that the generators are also getting up to snuff in other areas. There is already a commercial dishwasher downstairs for the dishes in the dining room, but all the pots and pans must be washed by hand upstairs (in the galley) after every meal. We should have another such dishwasher upstairs in the next week or so, before we leave port. Also, the rest of the clothes washers/dryers should be up and running very soon – important for a tight community of 300! In the meantime, areas which have been getting dirty or otherwise mussed, what with engine workers, dust, pipes and tubes running all over the ship, are being scrubbed to within an inch of their lives. Even before the air came on, people were being bussed in daily from AB, getting down on their hands & knees scrubbing floors, walls, shelves (you name it), and then filing back on to the small busses and taking the 90 minute drive back to AB. All of this scrubbing must be accomplished before the ship can pass inspection and leave for Sierra Leone. All the nurses have been working hard, also cleaning and arranging the entire hospital, in order to be fully prepared for medical services when we arrive. It’s truly amazing to watch. Please understand, fans & followers, this is all done by volunteers! Not only is everything done without pay, for the glory of the Lord, but everyone has to pay for their room and board in order to serve here.

As I said earlier there are entire families here now; mothers and/or fathers serving on the ship while the kids live on ship and go to the academy. The academy serves all grades although all grades are not being served at all time – that, of course, depends on the array of ages of the children on board.

While in classes, the kids are even in uniforms. While they are in school, the ship continues to prepare for inspection and departure. Our goal is to leave no later than February 8^th, in order to arrive in Sierra Leone by the 25^th, with a 24 hour respite in Cape Town. Most of the guys working on the generators have not had any time off whatsoever for some time now, and deserve at least one completely free day! Some of those whose jobs are now complete (or will be when we leave) will fly out of Cape Town for their homes. In the meantime, there are teams of doctors in Sierra Leone interviewing and preparing lists of those SL natives who will need medical care from the ship when it arrives. That’s why the ship and its hospital must be ready when it arrives there...

International Lounge above where we have devotionals every morning and any other important get-togethers. Captain's spot below - the Bridge (also called the Wheelhouse).

PS: just got back to my room after my dinner dishes shift and it’s freezing – YAAAAAAY!