Lord Nelson's naked bottom and poo pipes- Dry dock and Maintenance in Fremantle, Western Australia

I joined the SV Lord Nelson (Nelly) when she was in dry dock in a BAE yard in Fremantle (near Perth, Australia). Seeing her naked hull for the first time I couldn’t help thinking that she looked a little vulnerable and exposed. Dry dock was busy and made busier when some of the BAE yard workers sandblasted a couple of holes in the bow of the ship so that, standing in the fo'c’sle heads you could see a 2 foot diameter circle of daylight on either side. I was just glad that we had found the weakness in the hull in dry dock and not when we were bumping into ice in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica!

SV Lord Nelson (Nelly) in Dry Dock in Fremantle, Western Australia

Each day started at 0530hrs when we woke and drove to the yard in full PPE to turn on the breakers and the water pump. The days ended at around 1800hrs although some days were disrupted when they painted the hull with anti-foul paint (which is poisonous). Dry dock work included; changing pumps, rebuilding sewage pipework, removing poo filled 4” diameter metal pipes from the fo'c’sle to allow the hole in the hull to be repaired etc.

On the final dry dock day we all started a little and BAE workers also came on board as we all rushed around doing our respective last minute work and pre-departure checks. The engineering department was particularly busy with checks before we entered the water. Hull integrity is a major part of the engineering remit and we had had a lot of work done on many of the valves that connect the sea to the inside of the ship! We scattered volunteers in all areas of the bilge where we had done work so that they were ready to let us know immediately if any leaks occurred. The ship was moved onto the platform and slowly lowered into the water…..We had leaks in every single compartment!...Nightmare! Needless to say there was a lot of frantic activity and onlookers watched Nelly go into the water, come back out of the water and go back into the water a couple of times before everything was sealed and we had engines on and were floating. We moved onto the next door berth for a few hours to wait for the pilot and after a 10minute lunch we all set about to work again so that we worked straight through until the pilot came and we sailed into Fremantle. We arrived, exhausted, at 1900hrs and had just started to close the ship down for the evening when the harbour staff informed us that we would had to move again! ….An hour and a half later and we were finally able to take some rest in our bar! It was a long day of hard work, but the prospect of a lie in for a 0830hrs breakfast kept spirits high throughout.

Between the dry dock and the first two days alongside in Freo, I was mostly climbing underneath and between the tanks in the forward pump room measuring up new pipes to connect the black water pump and the black water tanks….Yes, I was making new poo pipes. This was made particularly difficult by: the small spaces involved in the forward pump room, the large (and reasonably heavy) blue piping and the high that I kept getting off the glue! We were restricted to using the outside male toilets during dry dock and had to use “porta-potties” and nearby public toilets until I finished the piping. However, I eventually got it all connected and was rewarded by hugs from most of the volunteers! To top off my day I was allocated as NOB (duty officer), which meant that I couldn’t drink and had to spend the evening locking up and checking the ship.

The next day ended up being just as long; morning NOB duties, rounds, finishing off the blue poo pipe, cleaning and re-commissioning the sewage plant and removing the cooler from one of the engines. The only rest bite was a surprise lunch time visit from an engineering buddy which gave me an excuse to get off the ship for 30mins and have good coffee and a chat with a friend. (Once again proving that it is the small things in life that keep us all happy and sane). 

Blue poo pipes!!!!

The poo theme continued with the fo’csle poo pipes taking up a couple of days, bleaching and re-painting the sewage plant taking up a couple of days and a broken black water pump taking up another. I also spent a couple of days where my primary task was prepping both of the foc’sle heads which involved sitting on the stern platform in the pouring rain, scrubbing the toilets with a wire brush and grinder….living the dream. The “pooey jobs” were interspersed with other jobs such as taking on 1400 litres of fuel (bunkering), doing daily rounds, maintaining the fire fighting gear and generally running around like a blue arsed fly trying to assist the Chief engineer and the volunteer maintainers. 

On another night I enjoyed an incredibly random visit from a friend I hadn’t seen for over eleven years! We had nearly met up on a number of occasions in random cities over the world- between my offshore work and her work in mining we were rarely in our respective native countries (UK and New Zealand) so it seemed appropriate that we met up in the neutral land of Australia! Working internationally is great, but it does make keeping up with friends/sports clubs/volunteer work etc. extremely difficult.

We “finished” maintenance (as much as maintenance is ever finished) with a two day visit from an MCA surveyor. He inspected the ship to check that it would be safe for us to sail to Antarctica and carried out the annual audit of our safety management system. This meant that we carried out a fire drill and evacuation drill and (for an added challenge) he covered up the face mask of me and my fellow fire fighter (Jim, the Bosun) so we had to feel our way down the ladder and around into the passageway to fight the (simulated) fire. Once we retreated from the fire location we had to hastily remove our fire fighting kit and don our immersion suits (also known as the “telly tubby outfits”). Three of the volunteer maintainers were asked to pretend that they were wheel chair users so that we could prove that, as a ship, we are able to get our disabled crew to safety too. The MCA surveyor stressed the challenges that we will face sailing in Antarctic Waters and highlighted a number of ways that we could adapt our current practices in order to work in this harsh environment.  

I’ve been pretty good (ish) at waking up early to go for a run in the mornings and I’ve even found a nice beach that I can run along to try and get some dune training in for the MdS! It’s really hard work especially when my day job is quite physically demanding too. However, I’m running for a good cause (JST) and it’s going to be an amazing experience! (http://www.justgiving.com/Tam-at-Sea)

We finished maintenance with an extremely long day trying to finish up everything that needing getting ready for the next voyage crew to arrive. Of course nothing ever goes to plan and lots of extra things (including tasks that the MCA surveyor needed us to carry out) kept adding to the mayhem. On top of this, the two main engines decided that they didn’t want to turn on! So I shall leave you with the cliff hanger where it is 2030hrs and there are four very hungry and tired engineers (including the engine specialist and the technical manager) standing at the top of the staircase discussing the next actions required to work out why the engines won’t start and how to rectify the problem in time to sail out for the next voyage to Adelaide…..

…TO BE CONTINUED