This week started off with lots of rain, lots of wind, and lots of swells. We did some recoveries in some pretty nasty weather followed up by a break in operations while waiting for some heavy swells to pass. During this time, I got to shadow some other departments including engineering and the galley.

Down in engineering I got to learn a skill I have always wanted to learn but have never had to opportunity to. To repurpose some of the weights onboard intended for HWCP deployments to use for DAP deployments, we must weld them together as they are solid 15lb cylinders. The DAP will require 25 of these weights, and we will weld together circles of 5 to be looped together with chain running down the middle. Because of this, I got to try my hand at stick welding in the shop.

5 cylinder bundle (left), stick welding on a practice tab (right)

Upstairs in the galley I got to fill in for our mess attendant one evening cleaning up the mess deck and doing the dishes during and after dinner. I also got to send some kiwis up the elevator for restocking.

kiwis in ship elevator (left), dishwasher (right)

The next evening, I got to shadow the chief steward (head chef) and prepare dinner. We made meat pies, squash, brussels sprouts, and spinach pies with a finale of chocolate chip cookies. I was responsible for the spinach pies consisting of sautéed spinach and a blend of feta and ricotta stuffed and folded into phyllo dough brushed with melted ghee. I helped top off the meat pies by torching the tops to crust the cheese and added a dusting of paprika and ship-grown thyme to the top. I learned how to keep the galley squared away and clean, how to setup the buffet line, and how much goes into the meals on this ship.

Torching cheese topping on meat pies (left), the full meal display (center), spinach pie construction (top right), finalized meat pies (bottom right)

We also celebrated Halloween on the ship and the 3rd engineer and I decorated the mess hall for some overall ship morale boosting as we come into the end of our long haul cruise. Unfortunately there were no photos taken showcasing our efforts.

While I don’t have any bird photos to showcase this week (sigh) please enjoy some other phenomena captured. This salt was made by our wonderful chief steward from water collected at the bottom of the trench (10,000m deep!)

sea salt made from the bottom of the Kermadec Trench