Antwerp - Finland
DAY 2
- by Nikki and Pol
- Saturday, July 16, 2022
The alarm clock went off at 7 a.m., we immediately took a shower, poked our noses outside to discover that it was very windy but very mild, and around 8 a.m. we sat down at the table for a breakfast with strong Dutch accents (chocolate sprinkles and mice, Verkade rusks, peanut and cumin cheeses, even sugar bread and "Christmas bread" with almond paste...). Tasty? Sure!
Then we get into a conversation with Arnout Van den Bossche. One of the reasons he chose this trip was "not to be recognized". So that works out well, because a little to his surprise... we don't know him. As soon as we have internet again, I can google him and complete this report.
The supplement: Arnout Van den Bossche (°1974) is a civil engineer and stand-up comedian. In 2009 he won Humo's Comedy Cup. His style is characterized by the use of flipchart, beamer and projection screen, and his tailored suit with colourfully combined tie, glasses and shoes. He toured the Netherlands and Belgium from 2010 to 2015 with his show The Relative Listener. One aired that show on October 1, 2014. His second show Burnout for Beginners premiered in 2016 and is still running. On January 31 and February 1, 2020, Arnout, "least known of all known Flemings", performed twice in a sold-out Lotto Arena (2 x 5,000 spectators!).
Meanwhile, the Timca was sailing north at its maximum speed of about 40 km/h.
The strong wind "we make ourselves," says first mate Joris, due to the speed of the ship. But the sea is calm and the temperature pleasant. Very far away, you can vaguely see the Dutch coast, and later the Wadden Islands. Closer up, a few other ships, some drilling platforms and one large cruise ship, the Enchanted Princess, offer variety.
This brand new Enchanted Princess, christened in December 2021, is 330 meters long, accommodates 3,660 passengers and about 1,350 crew members, and has 25 restaurants and bars, indoor and outdoor pools, numerous spas and a hammam, a casino, a theater, an outdoor cinema, a comedy cafe, a sports deck, and so on and so forth... Trade for our spot on the Timca? No way!
At 10:45 a.m. sharp, first mate Joris picked up our group of six for a guided tour. It starts on the bridge, where we ask him a lot of questions, too many to repeat here. Interesting though: the Timca has (only) 22 crew members. The officers (mostly Dutch, but also Russians and Estonians) stay on board for 8 weeks and then have an 8 week vacation.
The Filipino sailors stay on board for 8 and sometimes 10... months and then have 2 months of vacation. The cabins we stay in as passengers are actually intended for 'drivers', traveling truck drivers. Renting out those cabins to paying passengers is an initiative of the shipping company, in which the crew has no say. And an unwritten rule is that 'sensitive subjects' are avoided on board. So no conversations, let alone discussions, about politics or religion. "We have only one nationality here: seaman," summarizes Russian 3rd Officer Dimitri.
In doing so, he does not even violate gender neutrality, as the crew does not include women.
The subsequent tour of the 205-meter-long ship explains once again why passengers are asked for a medical certificate proving their fitness. It goes up steep stairs and down steep ones, up ladders and down ladders, with passages that seriously test the agility of slightly older participants. But what we hear and see is incredibly fascinating. On a ship like this, the scale of things is different (those gigantic anchor chains! those arm-thick mooring lines! those three huge decks for the moving cargo!). Joris lets us feel how in the bow of the Timca the movements of the ship can be felt more clearly, and he shows us the place where more than 300 gas cylinders with CO2 are placed to, when water from the sprinklers is not enough, extinguish a fire by pulling oxygen from the air. What strikes us all: everywhere on the Timca, everything is spotless, no mess left lying around. When we notice this, Joris is visibly proud: maintenance in the broad sense is one of his responsibilities.
Half an hour later than planned, we arrive in the mess hall for lunch, which reportedly causes chef Auke some stress. And if, after last night's pita, that lunch is a harbinger of what we're still going to eat here, that's bad news for the scales. Broccoli soup, tomato stuffed with tuna, pork chops with rice and potatoes and green beans with cashew nuts (good!), and for dessert fresh pineapple with whipped cream and coulis...
Afterwards, that calls for a breath of fresh air. So we go to the bridge with Arnout, where we meet captain Paul. He teaches us how the Timca sometimes carries up to 4,000 tons of water as ballast in its 'double bottom' and how the rules for discharging this water differ from country to country, even within Europe. Just as there are different rules about filtering the ship's exhaust gases: it sails on a crude, hardly refined fuel, so those gases contain a lot of sulfur. Strangely enough, Finland, for example, does not require that the sulfur be filtered out and collected....
That fuel costs 500 euros per ton.
In Antwerp, the Timca refueled 1,000 tons from a barge that was alongside the ship. A refueling that took longer than usual because the viscous oil was insufficiently preheated and therefore more difficult to pump up. At the maximum speed of 22 knots the Timca consumes 106 tons of fuel per day. Reducing the speed by 3 to 4 knots would reduce that consumption to 70 tons per 24 hours. But the customers want their containers and trucks to be transported from A to B as quickly as possible (because you and I want our Internet purchase to be delivered the next day). And the customers pay, so....
That captain and mate prefer the longer trip around Skagen, rather than sailing through the Kiel Canal, has to do with the amount of work and the tight schedule. On the longer trip around Denmark, the ship can maintain its speed, so it is possible to predict exactly when it will arrive where. If they sail through the canal, they never know how much time they will lose at the locks, while on top of that the sailors - who would otherwise have a free weekend - have to work there.
Empty, the Timca "weighs" 17,000 tons (that weight is actually the water displacement). On this trip from Antwerp to Hanko, it carries some 10,000 tons of cargo and ballast. And despite that weight, despite the relatively calm sea, despite its six-meter-long "wings" that it has spread underwater, the ship has started to move more and more fiercely as the day progresses. But not so much that we had to reach for the pills.
Spaghetti with balls in tomato sauce for dinner, and then one last look at the foam heads as we brace ourselves against the fierce wind around the bridge. We are almost at the height of Denmark. Tonight we round Skagen and sail through the Kattegat. Then it's on to the Sound, the narrow strait between Denmark and Sweden, and one of the most exciting passages on this trip. Hopefully it will stay sunny and dry.
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