Pinglan The Ship Surveyor

I am a proud member of Ångfartygs-Befälhavare-Sällskapet🙂 If I try to translate it in to English it would be Steamship Captains Society.

Anyway this is a very old Society and it is a real Society. You have to apply for the membership and the boarder decides if you can be a member or not.

Over the year there are meetings and some other events. Yesterday was the first meeting of 2019. After the meeting there was a presentation of Gotlandsbolaget. Nice to hear what their thoughts about the future are.

Then of course we had dinner. It is a very nice old place and we use two floors.

The first one for the meeting and coffee after the dinner

The top floor for the dinner

As you can see there are not many females so here is my dinner company

I’m not complaining, they are all very nice. After the coffee I had to rush home because there was a new adventure waiting next morning🙂

Sometimes I do inspections where there is nothing to take pictures of and that I did last week but during this inspection I came across Pioneer MC.

These 4 guys are well worth to mention, all very good singers and a nice mix of songs💝

I do not always work with big Passenger ships. Last week I was visiting Sjöbjörn 9

for an ISM audit. In the International Safety Management code it states how a company should be managed and who is responsible for the different parts in the system. All ships that has to follow the code must have an ISM manual onboard that is in accordance with the code and the Manual has to be followed by all crew onboard. So what I do during this type of audit is interviewing the crew.

On Sjöbjörn 9 they have one crewmember that doesn’t have to follow the code😍

Sjöbjörn 9 is a small tanker and has got everything a big tanker has but in miniature, like the wheel

the lines and pumps on deck

the safety plan

Even the doors are smaller then normal

Good morning Riga

During the winter it is very important that nothing freezes, so lifeboat drills are made all year around.

The crew is also checked so they are dressed for winter. It is very cold to stay out on open deck.

The bay of Riga is known for its ice but this morning it was open water. During the day the ship was bunkering and as it was getting colder the water started to freeze around the bunkerbarge

There used to be an Escaperoom here but it is gone. To bad I think, I love escaperooms🙂

The ship has different types of restaurants

There is a big kids area and a youth corner

The ships to Riga are not “taxfree” but the prices are so low so it is as cheap as taxfree so they have a big shop.

Back in Stockholm another week of work was finished

Monday it was time to get back in business after 3 weeks vacation. We went onboard Romantika at mid day to start the HSC.

After the storm the week before Stockholm was calm

and it was a perfect day for a Lifeboat drill.

This type of Lifeboat is supposed to take 150 persons. That means that there has to be one person sitting on every mark.

During the stay in port there are lots of things going on to keep all the passengers happy. Food, drinks and clean linen are taken onboard.

Traveling with dogs is not always easy as this is the dog toilet. I know that my old dog would not have liked it🙂

After a successful day with our colleagues from Latvia in a cold Riga we went ashore and stayed overnight in hotel Radisson Elisabete. After a short walk in old town where the Council hall was very nice decorated

we found a  place to have dinner, restaurant Province. A nice little place with good service by these 2 gentlemen.

The ambiance was very nice and they had nice lamps made out of old things.

Monday morning 05:00 I woke up to a winter wonderland.

Time to go to Tallin to do a HSC on Princess Anastasia.

In the terminal I met two colleagues from Estonia and two from Finland were already onboard. In the reception area they have this nice thing standing. Took me a while to figure out that it was a barrel organ, I have never seen one in real life

Winter is difficult on ships, the decks outside are like iceskating rinks when it is snowing so the crew are busy clearing the decks

There is also a risk that LSA(Life Saving Appliances) and fire fighting equipment are freezing. Here the Chief Officer is checking that the fire hydrants are working as the should.

Onboard this Ship they have the Baltic seas best Pizza place

In the evening after work me and my two Finnish colleagues went to the Karaoke bar where these to girls are working

and the Karaoke Hostess

They have the cutest Teddy bear onboard

And of course they have Christmas trees. This is the nicest one, I wish I had one like this😍

This was my last job for this year, now it is time to go home and start the Christmas  preps🎄🥖🍰🎁🎉

This week it was time for a HSC on  Silja Symphony, one of a few Swedish flagged ships.  There is no difference  in the inspection but it is Finland who makes the report.  I boarded in Stockholm on Tuesday evening to be in place when my Finnish colleagues cane onboard in Helsinki on arrival.

Coffee is ready for the morning meeting

One of the Captains is a Moose hunter and in the Officers conference/dayroom his trophy no 63 just moved in.

On the bridge they have this nice piece

In the Engine room there is maintenance going on on one of the main engines

Tis is what it it looks like when it is up and running

All ships has to have a special place  for Pilots to come onboard. On this ship it looks like this

Very soon it is time for a drydock including a facelift so this could be the last time the entrance to the nightclub looks like this

And of course they have a Christmas tree

Tuesday evening it was time to go onboard Amorella. To me it always feels a bit strange to go to work at 17:00. This evening it was snowing and it was windy.

We cancelled the Fast Resque Boat drill because of the weather. It is important that the crew are safe during drills.

Lifeboat drill was held in the dark alongside in Turku early in the morning.

Good morning Turku!

It is not many minutes per day that this Bridge is empty.

On are way back to Stockholm the sun came out for a while and it actually became daylight😎

The cutest mascots on the Baltic Sea are these two😍

Monday morning I had to get up early to get onboard Rosella on arrival in Kapellskär. This ship is a bit different from the others in the company because she only runs between Mariehamn and Kapellskär. Wintertime two roundtrips per day.

During the three hours stay  Kapellskär in the morning we managed to do a lifeboat drill

 

Open lifeboats are not easy to handle but these guys knows what to do. They also get a gold star for using safety harness.

This is a small and old Ship so the bridge is not very big

It also has open bridgewings wich is freezing cold for the Captain and his Officers in the winter.

Firedrill is mandatory and this day they practiced on our car

This is a perfect Ship for those who want to go for a cruise to eat, drink and dance but want to come home in the evening again.

Even I can go home and sleep in my own bed, good night😴

Good morning Helsinki!

Wednesday morning we started working as soon as Mariella came alongside. It is always exciting to try to get in to the port of Helsinki but this time it took only 15 minutes😁 After a meeting to plan the day we started our tests and drills.

This day we had both a Lifeboat and the Fast Rescue Boat in the water at the same time.

Prepairing the boats  is a very important job and the guys doing it doesn’t seem scared at all

even if it is very high up. I guess that is real Finnish Sisu.

During the Simulated Black out test the Captain himself was down in the Emergecy Steering room.

The firedrill included a new item for this Ship, a Fireblanket size BIG

A very smart invention for fires in passenger cars.

 

In the evening I won the music quiz 😁

I had a very nice dinner, served by this gentleman.

But I do wonder where Santa is?????

After arrival in Stockholm I went to the office do make my reports

and now I’m finished working for this week.

Have a nice weekend!