"Oh flip" she thought " there goes my favourite shoe, flopping over the guard rail" as she watched the flip-flop flying through the air with the greatest of ease, fluttering gently on the breeze created by steaming full ahead at 22 knots. 
She'd learned that flip-flops (or some kind of easy slip on shoes) are crucial to life on board, because you are constantly taking them on and off. If you don't, the carpeted areas (cabins/recreation areas) soon get absolutely filthy from invisible - but ever present - dirt/grease picked up in other areas of the ship (deck, offices, workrooms, crew rooms). It's also the perfect way to find someone - look for shoes outside their cabin; no shoes means they're out and about on the ship somewhere. Fine tune the tracking by checking outside the Mess and Recreation rooms and a few other key areas (quick glance down several long corridors), if you still can't see the shoes - they're on The Bridge, in the Engine room or on deck.
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| Leaving New Orleans |
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| Turning around in port at Bahamas |
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| View from Supercargo cabin |
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| I HATE the gangway (very steep, wobbly and 20 metres / 66 feet above ground at the top!) |
The voyage booked months was proving much more more interesting and enjoyable than she had even dared to hope.
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| Drying room |
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| Captain and Watchman on The Bridge |
The superstructure (accommodation) runs the full beam (overall vessel width; 40M/125 feet), sitting about 2/3rds back and consists of nine decks, running from "upper" (confusingly, this is the lowest accommodation deck), then A through G and at the very top sits The Bridge (command centre). Each cabin or compartment is labelled according to function (e.g. "Cold Store"; "Chief Engineer"; "Crew Recreation room").
Her front-facing cabin ("Supercargo") on deck E was a little "home from home"; reasonably large , comfortably appointed and furnished (small double bed, sofa, desk, lots of storage space, fridge) to the usual German efficient standards, including en-suite wetroom. It had taken her a little while to get used to the view - the eye is led across a huge stack of containers (each 8 feet 6 inches high, 8 feet wide, 20 or 40 feet long and having a maximum payload of nearly 70,000 lbs). Containers are stacked 14 wide and 7 high fore and aft (rear), fully loaded the ship carries 6,500 containers; carrying a variety of items from wine (South America) to limestone products (Bahamas) to paper (Savannah). She was somewhat relieved to learn that there were no human bodies on this ship (India, export to UK for research, 50 refrigerated per container). On this ship the major containers concerns are fish (to maintain constant refrigeration) and hazardous chemicals (to ensure stability of load).
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| Very early on The Bridge |
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| Lots of these! |
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| In case you wondered (like I did) - how does the Pilot actually get on and off board? |
Fact-ette time: 80% of everything that is transported throughout the world is done by ship. 60% of everything in your house has been on a ship.
By far the most exciting activity is coming alongside (into port) and departing. The Master (Captain) generously allows passengers on The Bridge at any time. First the Pilot (specialist Mariner who understands local conditions) comes on board, and control of the helm (steering) is handed over from the Master to the Pilot. The Pilot then guides the ship (using a couple of tugs) safely into port, through a pre-defined channel ,avoiding obstacles and shallow water. MSC Alessia has an air draught (vertical distance between a vessel's highest point and adjacent sea level of 55M/170feet), so the obstacles aren't just below, but overhead too (bridges). Surprisingly, ports are often quite a long way inland (New Orleans, 10 hours sailing up the Mississippi; Savannah 3 hours river cruise).
The ship is "prettied up" for coming alongside, flags raised (host country fore, registered country aft) and the officers wear full uniform. When underway, shorts and jeans prevail for all from Captain to ABs.
As soon as the ropes are tied off, the gantries (cranes) begin un/loading containers and the noise starts. BIG, mechanical,clanking sounds; more or less - depending on the skill of the gantry controller, a highly specialised, highly paid (and Mafia controlled) job. Un/loading is done as quickly as possible, as an aeroplane is only making money while in flight, so a commercial seagoing vessel is only profitable while at sea, plus time alongside is very expensive. For security reasons, when alongside, the ship is in total "lock-down" (all entry and exit points locked except at gangway), and no access to The Bridge.
Life on board a container vessel - as a passenger - is immensely laid-back. There's a time-less quality and a peacefulness - especially underway (at sea) where there's just miles and miles of blue sky and ocean all around and incredibly huge vistas of stars and planets at night. As the ship runs 24 hours, there's no obvious delineation between day and night and the only indicator of time is your stomach's demands.
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| Survival vessel training |
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| Mr and Mrs German General |
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| Approaching a bridge on the Mississippi |
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| We made it - just... mast cleared by about 6 inches! |
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| Tug |
No wildlife on board, barring the occasional egret which hitches a ride, feathers ruffling in the breeze and snakes (poisonous, American) which nest (and breed) in the containers and get shaken up by the movement at which point they slither out on to deck... cue a hapless AB (Able Seaman) ordered on deck with a net and protective gloves - and the 2nd Officer on standby nervously clutching the anti-venom.
The ship has its own de-salination plant - so no restrictions on water usage. Facilities also include a laundry, elevator and a well-stocked dispensary (morphine to nursing aids) - no doctor but 2nd Mate (Officer) with extensive medical training.
There's a small salt-water swimming pool, which was filled en route to The Bahamas (warm water). She took a dip, luckily before the 3rd Officer had told her about the time they caught a shark and kept it in the pool (for fun and added entertainment value when female passengers find it). He enjoyed telling the tale considerably more than she did hearing it - and that was the end of her swimming aboard days!
The long reach of the "Nanny State" has not embraced the world of commercial shipping (hurrah!). You are expected to work out for yourself that decks are very slippery when wet and not to use the elevator during excessive pitching or rolling (up and down or side to side movement). Nor is there any signage to tell you that steel doors are heavy (mind the fingers!) and gangways very steep and made of hard, sharp metal (ditto the shins!). The only caution given is not to keep fruit in cabins while in the USA, port inspectors take a very dim view and slap huge fines on the Captain (personally), ranging from $1000 to jail.
The Captain (Master) has total command at all times, there's a dedicated phone line to his cabin for when he's not on The Bridge. Often he is not; six watches of four hours each are shared between Chief, Second and Third Officers - but he is always on The Bridge during maneuvers (coming alongside or departure, turning, river sailing), which can take 12-14 hours and often in the middle of the night. Otherwise he tells me his life is dominated by paperwork, which there does seem to be a lot of: cargo, passenger and crew manifests, immigration, Customs, Lloyds inspection, shore passes, port inspectors, reporting to weather stations, Bonded inventory - the list is endless. Nothing moves without the Master's command; the ship doesn't alter course nor speed; NOTHING and noone boards or disembarks without his personal approval (he keeps all passports). Everything is reported to him 24/7, from passenger visits to The Bridge to a request for an aspirin from the Chief Cook.
Meals are pretty good (mostly), plentiful, taken officially in the Officer's mess (German; lots of pork and cabbage), but sometimes eaten in the Crew's mess (Filipino, lovely rice dishes) always at: 0800, 1200, 1800 (tea and cofee at 1000 and 1500). If she bumps into him, The Master has taken to dropping her a little "mot du jour" at the evening meal. Ranging from "clocks forward tonight" (always at 1700 to allow all Watches to adjust in time) to "arrival/departure time is confirmed as..." (it's infinitely changeable depending on speed of local labour in loading the ship, last minute changes to cargo) to "there's a hurricane waiting for us south of Newfoundland" (more of this later - or hopefully not).
For now, the most pressing decision she had to make was whether to hitch a ride to Walmart (at every port there is ALWAYS someone going to Walmart, it's the most popular store in the country) to hunt down another pair of flip flops. Or to bask in the last few rays of sunny warmth she was sure to feel before Spring. It was about to get cold - very cold (next waypoint: Newfoundland).
On the other hand, every "off the wall" idea (live with ten people recently released from prison, anyone?) has always turned out to be bloody brilliant!
