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Ian Rambles
The stevedores worked through the night - though the
effect was less than impressive! Being dense, a cargo
of steel takes up little space anyway and, to be limit
the ships draft to get through the locks on the Lakes,
they only loaded 21,000 tonnes - Isa could carry half
as much again. The cargo formed a thin layer at the
bottom of the hold.
Fiona's Journal
The loading continued throughout the night and, what
with the noise of that and the heat (we are, effectively,
in in a stationary metal box that has sat in the sun
all day), I did not sleep much. I was not unhappy in
my insomnia though – a working steel plant is beautiful
at night and I was entranced by it, no matter how non-green
that may sound. The combination of tall chimney stacks
emitting variously coloured mixtures of smoke and steam,
the massive heaps of coal of various grades, the water
sprinklers keeping the coal dust under control and the
whole scene lit by thousands of electric light bulbs
and occasional gouts of flame is dramatic and somehow
awe inspiring and makes me wish I could paint. Anyway,
I was just too excited at the prospect of our voyage
to care whether or when I sleep.
After an interesting breakfast consisting of a selection
of cold meats and cheeses with brown bread and a cup
of lemon tea, we took a taxi into the town centre of
Ijmuiden (a twenty minute drive from the port) to do
a bit of last minute shopping. The boys have managed
to consume three litres of orange juice in the 24 hours
we have been on board – at that rate of consumption
we will have drained the ship's entire supply within
a week! We therefore stock up with plenty of orange
squash and also instant coffee and coffee whitener for
me, a box of red wine, a few bottles of beer and a few
snacks and treats. Then the boys get a chance to spend
their Euros in a rather excellent sweet shop and I am
quite surprised how different the sweets are from those
they buy in England.
I buy (and write) a postcard to Mum and Dad but completely
fail to find a post office or anywhere that sells stamps
so they wont get this one for a few weeks and it will
come from America!
Back at the Isa we are told that departure time has
been put back until after tea, about 6.00pm. Constant
slippage in time schedules seems to be a feature of
life at sea – I thought it was just us! So we spend
the afternoon sorting out our stuff and stowing things
away in our cabins and just watching the work of the
ship go on around us. We meet “the sixth passenger”,
a Dutchman called Wilhelm who seems very friendly, as
are all the Dutch people we have met.
At 6.20pm we were up on the top deck, the roof of the
Bridge, and watched the last rope being cast off as
we slipped, almost imperceptibly, off our moorings and
headed quietly out to sea. We had a pilot on board to
guide us out through the harbour but once outside the
harbour wall he obviously had to get back to the pilot
boat, unless he was coming all the way to America with
us. This involved an interesting manoevre whereby the
pilot boat pulled tight alongside the Isa's massive
moving hull and held this position while the pilot scrambled
down a rope ladder from our deck to his. It was done
as unhurriedly as if he were alighting from a bus and,
of course, they do it every day but it impressed the
hell out of me!
We set a course of 218 degrees which had us steaming
directly along the golden pathway of reflected light,
into the setting sun!. Tacky but true!
Arthur's Log:
The crew are all very busy so I haven't really
met anyone yet, but tomorrow I will. We went into town
to get supplies and found they had all the same shops
as in England. I thought Amsterdam was very similar
only because it's a tourist target but it seems it's
all very similar . Even the TV channels - 4 of them
are in English 1 Dutch and 1 American. The languages
are almost the same anyway - like new in dutch is spelled
neiuw and pronounced with an extra syllable. So the
main differences here are, there is a whole lane of
the road given to bikes, better TV, magic mushrooms
are legal and so is weed and being/seeing a prostitute.
If I was going to emigrate to anywhere it would be here!
We're off. The cargo ship left at 6.00pm involving
many cool things which I will tell you about when I
get back. The pilot (person who knows the harbor very
well) came to help guide us out the harbour but once
we were out he needed to get back onto his boat. While
we were speeding through the waves he was climbing down
a tiny rope ladder down the side of our ship onto his
boat which was not tied there at all, it was just being
driven along side.
The Harry Report
Went out shopping and went into a sweety shop which
my little brother found almost instantly. We lugged
the shopping back then slept till the sun rose again.
George's Musings
Impressed by the sweet shop!
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