Category: On a Slow Boat to China

Port of Houston, 6 June

Short rain showers came and went as we waited on board the Rickmers New Orleans for the last of the cargo to be loaded.

General cargo ships carry items that cannot be transported in containers. In our case, we watched at Port Houston as two yachts and an experimental windmill blade (among other large items that were unrecognizable as they were packed in large crates) were loaded via giant cranes.

As we pulled away from the dock just before 8 pm, Henry noticed a rainbow arcing in our direction of travel toward Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, happy omen! Even a virgin sacrifice could not have been a better start to our voyage!

As the sun set and a nearly full moon emerged, we turned with the help of a tug boat and set out through the awe-inspiring nighttime landscape of the Houston Ship Channel and surroundings.

Intellectually, we knew this area was a huge industrial center, but it’s almost impossible to invoke its immensity – for almost 50 miles of channel and as far as the eye can see on each side stretch refineries, treatment and storage facilities, processing plants, hangars, loading docks, ships from all over (Singapore! Panama! Valletta! Madeira! Hong Kong! Doha!), barges, ancillary vessels – bright lights, twinkly lights and flaring gas jets.

What a thrill to be perched in our jammies on the pilot deck of our new abode, knowing that we will enter and leave many more ports and travel vast stretches of ocean before coming to roost again.

At the San Jacinto monument and Battleship Texas site, we bid farewell to our home state……. and shortly after midnight, one last row of lights near Galveston outlines the darkness of the Gulf ahead.

Gulf of Mexico, 7 June

Practical matters – we are the only passengers on board the ship, with one other to join in Philadelphia for the Atlantic crossing. Crew members are Filipino, and officers are mostly Romanian; all have been very nice and accommodating. The food is basic – some of it pretty tasty – but not quite as much in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables as we usually eat. Our systems will have to adapt. So far, we have been eating alone, although the “port captain” who supervises loading/unloading has joined us a couple of times and we have enjoyed chatting with him.

The schedule has already changed – original plan was to arrive in New Orleans for 2 nights on the 7th; instead we will arrive the 8th and spend 4 nights! Working on a shopping list of things we need to get there – fluffy towels, a few cheap and colorful posters to lighten up our quarters, some apples and oranges, a small fan and a couple of boxes of wine, late-night nibbles (dinner starts at 5:30 pm!), gentle toilet paper….. and Henry needs a haircut.

There are plenty of areas on board we can access – the pilot deck is large and has open and covered areas for viewing over all sides; there is a minuscule pool that reportedly will be filled with sea water when we are out at sea;

an indoor “bar” area has built-in seating and lots of windows , which will provide a nice place to be in bad weather;

a small and smoky indoor lounge is probably somewhere we will not spend much time; and of course our cabins which are quite comfy, but not oversized. We have two single cabins – one for sleeping and the other will be our “day” room – each with private bath bigger than what we anticipated.

We’ve seen the galley (kitchen) which is manned by Mark (chef) and Francisco (mess man and porter), the bridge (briefly – hope to spend much more time there), but not the engine room so far – may have to wait until after Philadelphia for that. We have also not yet had a chance to traverse the length of the ship through the cargo areas and down toward the bow.

The ship is currently traveling 15 knots…. about 17 miles per hour…. Due to arrive New Orleans on 8 June around 11 am.

Mississippi River, 8 June

I would be remiss if I did not mention our dinner last night….. which was a piece of beef that truly defined the term “hockey puck”; never have I had to saw with such fervor in order to hack off something only quasi-edible.

Truly, food has otherwise been pretty good.

 

It took about 12 hours to move up the delta from the Gulf to New Orleans.

Once we docked, it took a couple of hours to figure out how we were to get off the ship – at one point, we were told we couldn’t leave since we didn’t have the appropriate clearance to be on the dock.  However the local transfer agent was able to clarify that we would be able to disembark with our passports, and he was kind enough to give us a ride to the delightful B&B where we stayed – La Belle Esplanade in the Treme district.

First night we had a great meal and listened to some Zydeco music.  Next day, to the City Park sculpture and botanical gardens.

Henry got his hair cut!

Enjoyed walking the neighborhoods (avoiding the tackiness of the French Quarter)

Visited the Audubon Zoo.

And ate oysters at Pascal’s Manale.

Picked up all the supplies we needed… and a good thing, too.  We were originally told we would be leaving Monday, but we got a call from the captain Sunday morning that we would be getting under way Sunday afternoon.  So we are preparing a frantic rush to get back to the ship.  Lesson learned – don’t make plans in advance!

On toward Savannah – hopefully can update from there!

15 June, Savannah, GA

Awaiting departure from the wharf in New Orleans, we saw a Carnival cruise ship overwhelming the skyline, and later passing us as our tugboats stood by, patiently waiting to turn us back toward the Gulf.

Hmmmm….. almost 4,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members. And here we are, with 2 passengers and 20 crew members – a much higher crew to guest ratio! And our verandah is bigger than the Carnival casino! Dinner, however, probably not so impressive:

More on food – breakfast is either eggs or cereal…. No fresh fruit, although the crew likes “juice drinks” at every meal. Lunch is the main meal – always a soup (and so far they have been quite good), fresh salad, entree, side dish and then we might see fruit. Dinner is light – again, more salad and an entree, usually with a vegetable side. That’s it. No dessert, which seems surprising for working people, but good for us in that we hopefully won’t gain too much weight here.

Our first night out of New Orleans seemed to be a bit of a celebration for the crew. The Filipino workers have a separate mess area, and they invited us to join them for a beer after dinner, to listen to them perform….. Karaoke! A couple of them were quite good; others not so much. The repertoire tends toward slow ballads that we have never heard before. We resisted offers to take the microphone, but may not be able to hold out whenever the next festive occasion arises.

We had an emergency muster practice one afternoon – the crew takes it seriously, thank goodness, and we got to actually climb into the lifeboat and strap down. Will take pictures next time…..

We also finally had a chance to venture to the fore part of the ship while at sea. It felt like quite an adventure, with lots of lines and equipment lying about. The “king of the world” section at the front was quiet but for the whoosh of the water, and we saw some flying fish.

Arrived in Savannah early this morning:

A pretty town with lots of lovely squares, but a really active tourist scene…. hard to go anywhere without running into clumps of people wearing matching T-shirts.  We chose to splurge on a nice B&B with great air conditioning.

We re-board the ship tomorrow with treats for the crew.  A few more days, then we visit Philadelphia, and a new passenger will be joining us for the Atlantic crossing.

18 June – Off the coast of North America

Okay – traveling this way is not always exciting, but it has so far not been bereft of delights and epiphanies.

Mundane observation first – the standard greeting from the ship’s officers and crew members is “Good appetite” or something that sounds like “bon appetit”.  Wishes are continually expressed that we should enjoy our meals… from Filipino deck hands, the Chinese engineer, Romanian officers….coming and going. To be fair, we normally see the crew at meal time, but the greeting does provoke some thought.  Is this an acknowledgement that the food really isn’t very good, but hopefully you will find something to appreciate nonetheless?  Could it mean, “Well, if you can eat this stuff, then at least you’re not sea-sick”?  And is it a standard that exists across the ocean-going shipping industry, or is it simply a custom that arose on this particular ship or cargo line as a positive statement that can apply across cultural lines?  After all, who can argue with savoring one’s food, whether it’s hockey-puck roast beef or fish-heads for breakfast?

Going from the mundane to the sublime…… several nights ago when we were well away from the North America coastline, it was a perfectly clear night.  We went out on deck after dinner (eaten with all the appetite we could muster) and our evening’s entertainment (8th in a series of sleep-inducing oceanography lectures) to the kind of spangled heaven that most of us rarely see…. ever.  Our heads fell back, mouths gaped open, awe-struck “wows” whispered.  We briefly thought about sleeping out on deck, but the depth of the star-show, the sweep of the Milky Way were actually overwhelming after a while.  We crept to bed with the hope that we will be given the opportunity to witness the phenomenon again soon, and will be better prepared to cope with it.  (Sorry no pictures of this – impossible to capture with normal human media.)

As we approached Philadelphia, the port pilot leapt on board the ship, which is (for the uninitiated) quite a thrilling process.

Once he was on board, we journeyed with one of the crew (Jerry) to the very front point of the ship.  Watched hopefully, and – yes, there!  A dolphin surfacing in our path.  We didn’t see a lot of them, but a couple of times one leapt up just in front of the bow of the ship, apparently to show us the way.

Our approach in to Philadelphia was at least as extraordinary as our transit through the Houston ship channel.  The weather was pleasant and breezy, a lovely soft evening.  So fascinating to watch the shoreline change, to drift under many bridges and see the lights of the city pass by so closely.  (Here is a photo, but it does not even begin to capture the mood.)

We docked in the early morning hours; will disembark in the morning and spend the next 3 nights in the Philadelphia area.

 

 

21 June – Philadelphia, PA

Never thought of Philadelphia as a port before, but the Delaware River extends between New Jersey and Delaware right up to the City of Brotherly Love.

We were allowed to disembark the ship without escort and looked for a place where we could call a cab.  The food truck guy on the wharf offered to drive us to town – we were really stoked to think we would be able to ride into town on a “roach coach”!

However, we were chagrined to find that he was only offering to take us in his private vehicle, a ride we nonetheless accepted to get to the high-rise apartment in downtown Philly which would be home base for our stay.

The next day, we rented a couple of bicycles so we could venture into the countryside surrounding the big city.  We headed along the Schuylkill (pronounced skool-kill) River Trail northwest, through Valley Forge and on to Phoenixville, about 30 miles from where we started.  

We spent the night in Phoenixville, an old mill and industrial town that has gentrified and is now a hub for financial and tech industries.  It was a pretty ride, mostly along the river and through some pleasant woods, although rather too warm.

Returned to the city a bit weary and drained from the outing.  We will be gathering a few more items for the onward journey.  The plan is to board the ship on the 22nd (tomorrow) to depart from North America on our way to Europe.  We will be on the North Atlantic for 8 days or so…. the schedule has us making a brief overnight stop in the Netherlands before going on to Antwerp.

Hope all is well with everybody at home – it will likely be 10 or more days before we will have the band-width to do another post……

4 July 2017 – Shipboard, Port of Vlissingen, Netherlands

Happy U.S. Independence Day! Hope you kept in mind the Jack Marshall maxim, “To have a happy 4th, buy a 5th on the 3rd!”

Completed the crossing of the Atlantic from Philadelphia on July 2 in only 10+ days! One last shot of the city and the locomotive loaded onto the ship there.

This trip doesn’t compare to the convenience of hopping across the pond on a plane, but it seems few experiences can bestow a greater appreciation for the vastness of this Earth of ours than chugging along at about 17 miles per hour (15 knots) for days with a seeming endless and unobstructed horizon in all directions…

Some observations after long days at sea:

One thing we were not prepared for is being regularly overwhelmed by the desire to sleep. We’ve had naps as early as 9 am! Here’s how Henry explains it:

“As we lumber east across the North Atlantic… we lose an hour almost every day….(the cabin clocks change automatically) Plus with the gentle rocking of the boat and the low rumble and throbbing vibration from the 21,000 HP diesel engine, we have fallen into a malaise which causes us to feel sleepy at odd times of day. The only recourse is to take a nap!!

Captain… says this is because we have left the “bad vibrations” of living on land behind. The sea, he says, is a peaceful place with the dolphins, whales and other creatures living in harmony… the water on ship is distilled from the sea and the air is as clean as air can be…… No TV, no internet to surf, no external worries…..It does feel different…I do not miss the 6 o’clock news ….”

Hoping to have an opportunity to sleep out on the deck to watch the stars, we prepared by purchasing a couple of very cool air pods, but haven’t used them yet as nights on the Atlantic have been mostly overcast, very windy and/or cold and damp. Should have ample opportunity later in the journey.

The third day out from Philadelphia, the captain threw a party for crew and guests (we have been joined for a short time by a third passenger, Sophia – a young French woman who is returning from Canada to pursue her PhD studies at home).  The Filipino crew took over both the grill and the Karaoke set-up for the evening, fueled by beer and natural enthusiasm! Best food we’ve had on the ship so far…..

We have visited the Engine Room to check out the …. engine. Here’s the Chief Engineer and his baby:

The Bridge is open to us at all times (except during loading and approaches/departures from port) – we check in there regularly to see what may be on the radar and exactly where we are on the charts….

Safety musters are held every Saturday and are fully attended and seriously taken.

With limited activities available and frequent fugue states, we both were getting foggy physically and mentally. To translate that into Fitbit-speak, out-of-port days on the ship were yielding less than 5000 steps per day! We tried doing some of the 7-minute body-weight workouts so popular now, but have found a better option – incorporating those moves along with some of our own while walking the length of the ship alongside the cargo holds. The ship is 631 feet from end to end, with several stair wells along the way. Eight laps a day get us past the 10,000-step mark (and around 60-90 stairways) and help to stimulate flagging metabolisms.

Every time we get to the bow, we examine the waters ahead to see if our friends the dolphins are around – we have seen groups of 2 to 6 and more playing just in front of the prow:

There can’t possibly be any practical reason for them to do this; just the sheer joy of the rush of water and air as they show off their swimming and jumping skills – it’s a thrill (and almost as much of a joy) simply to be witness to their exuberant displays.

Henry has been using his time to start cataloging and editing about 14,000 photos he has taken but not organized over the last 15+ years. Robbie has read books, solved some crosswords and finished several yarn-related projects.

We had planned to leave the ship here in Vlissingen to check out the countryside; unfortunately, we are moored along the pier in such a way that no one is allowed to disembark, so we will wait for 3+ days to unload some nasty-looking lead-based material, then work our way down the channel to Antwerp.

The ship should arrive there on the 6th; we will get a rental car and tootle around the Low Country until we rejoin the ship in Hamburg on 13 July. The ship’s chief engineer was good enough to point out that the G-20 summit will be taking place in Hamburg 7-8 July; another good reason for us to pretend to be Canadian and avoid urban areas for a while, eh?

14 July – Hamburg, Germany

Happy French Independence Day!  

As we approached our first European stop after the Atlantic crossing and extended stay at the dock in Vlissingen, it would appear our on-board food supplies dwindled, certainly fresh fruit and vegetables – and Henry enjoyed sampling the fare favored by the Filipino crew:

Antwerp by cargo ship is accessed through a lock in the heart of a huge industrial shipping center:

Finally we arrived in Europe on the 6th of July and found accommodations in a 16th century house near the city center (that’s Henry grappling with the ancient lock and key).  Hard to tell from the photo, but past this door is a narrow garden leading to a charming B&B with all the modern conveniences except air conditioning…..

Although not too close to the G-20 action, Antwerp was nonetheless under heightened security, both military and canine:

Antwerp has some interesting folk heroes.  A Roman soldier named Barbo faced off with a mean giant who was restricting trade on the river.  Barbo ended the giant’s domination by cutting off his hand and throwing it in the water; the name Antwerp means “hand thrown”.  They sell Belgian chocolate through-out in the shape of little hands, and this depiction of the incident is in the town square:

Another local folk hero is a character whose mischievous antics included interfering in children’s games and stealing breast milk (!).  His name is Lange Wapper.  ‘Nuff said.

We rented a car and drove to Bruges, a lovely town but a little too full of tourists for our taste.  

From there we elected to travel back roads, enjoying the countryside with cultivated fields and livestock.  We stopped in Godinne, Belgium, along the banks of the Meuse River, the site of a major battle of World War I:

 Our home there was a B&B that once belonged to the prime minister of Belgium who is credited with master-minding the concept of the European Union back in the ’50s.

Vianden in the small country of Luxembourg was our next stop; it has a complex World War II history; the inn where we stayed served as headquarters for the Nazis and later the Allies in the area as well; resistance fighters made a stand at the local chateau:

In the Netherlands, we stopped in Baarlo (near Venlo), then Urk on the coast (with a lighthouse literally just outside our B&B):

The weather has been very nice for this part of the world, and the countryside with cultivated crops and livestock provided wonderful viewing.

This part of the world is really made for bicycling; some of the back roads we took are not maintained nearly as well as the bike trails!

We finally arrived in Hamburg, where we were to re-join the ship, which has been delayed for a few days.  We finally rented a couple of bicycles to look around; even the city is well adapted for bicycling; we were not afraid of being mown down!

Although we have had the best possible place to view shipping activities from our freighter, we nonetheless elected to stay in a Hamburg inn with an incredible view of the boats plying the River Elbe

Upon learning of an additional delay in the Rickmers New Orleans schedule, we have decided not to re-board the ship here in Hamburg.  Instead, we will drive to Genoa where we will eventually board the containership Vela for our onward journey on 31 July; in the meantime, we will meet up with Henry’s daughter Holly and her family in Italy for a week near the Alps!

Will post again from somewhere along the road from Hamburg to Genoa.  We will miss our Rickmers freighter “family”; will not see them again until Shanghai in September!

Alles gute!

18 July

The morning of the 14th, we saw the New Orleans coming down the Elbe River on her way to port from the window of our inn:

It was thrilling to see her “in action” now that we felt like we knew her so well.

Having decided to disembark in Hamburg, we spent the night of the 14th onboard to pack up our gear.  It was a nice reunion with the crew, but a slightly sad departure the next day, knowing at best we would see some of them again when we rejoin the New Orleans in September.

In any event, we set off to the south to cross Germany on our way to Italy via Switzerland.  We stopped in the small town of Bodenwerder, home of the original Baron Munchausen who inspired fantastical fictional stories that occasionally involved disturbing and macabre treatment of animals.

We finally had some Indian food that night in the medium-sized town of Paderborn, moving on the next day to a small inn in the Black Forest:

We entered into Switzerland to spend the night in Lucerne.  Stayed in an historic old hotel overlooking the town and the lake on which it sits.

A notable landmark in Lucerne is a statue dedicated to members of the Swiss Guard who were slaughtered while defending the royals from the mobs during the French revolution in 1789.  It shows a dying lion; Mark Twain (probably an animal lover) called it one of the saddest sculptures he had ever seen:

Perhaps this incident taught the Swiss people their lesson not to interfere with the politics of other countries and inspired their determination to remain neutral (pretty successfully!) through subsequent conflicts.

Late that night we received a message from Henry’s daughter Holly that she and her family were cutting short their stay in Milan to meet us in Italy the next day, 18 July!  A swift acceleration of planning ensued…. and we dashed across the rest of Switzerland on the 18th, traversing the Alps on our way to the rendezvous point west of Milan.  Along the way, our route took the usual zig-zag over mountains:

But then we were surprised when we were brought to a station where you drive your car onto a train car for a ferry ride through the Simplon Pass into Italy, by-passing some of those tortuous roadways.

Henry got into some trouble with the border agent who observed him taking videos coming out of the tunnel.  They thought he might be planning some sort of subversive activity!

In any event, we arrived safely 18 July at the Castello de San Giuseppe near Ivrea in Italy, as did Holly and her brood, for the family phase of our overland adventure in Europe.

27 July – Somma Lombardo (near Milan)

Holly, Matt and their kids Caleb (12) and Lily (10), still a bit jet-lagged, met up with us on the 18th at Castello San Giuseppe, a former 17th-century convent on a hill near the lakes in the Canavese area of Italy, west of Milan.  A wonderful place to rest after the long flight and a stint in the hot and crowded city.

During our 9 days together, we tried to provide the family with a sampling of different types of places (mostly Alpine and cool!) in northeastern Italy, with side trips to France and Switzerland.  After the Castello, we moved on to a basic bed and breakfast in Salza di Pinerolo, a tiny hamlet in the hills where we enjoyed the proprietor’s simple but incredibly good local fare and  visited the talc mine.

Pressed on into the Alps and some serious switch-back driving, with snow-capped mountains as a backdrop.  Stayed in the family ski resort of Tignes, France, and sampled the local specialty of tartiflette, a sinful combination of cheese, potatoes and bacon (with maybe a soupçon of cream).

After that, our special experience was to be a stay in the Whitepods overlooking Monthey, Switzerland.  (These are ecologically-friendly luxury tents, accessible only by foot.). The view was spectacular the afternoon of our arrival, but was then marred by two solid days of off-and-on torrential rain, fog and clouds.

Weather improved dramatically when we returned to Italy for a visit to Cogne and the Grand Paradiso National Park:

 

Our last night together was spent near the Milan airport in a B&B with magnificent views over the Ticino River.  (This is an agricultural B&B that raises blueberries!)

It was a treat to share this time with Holly, Matt, Caleb and Lily.  Hope they will have good memories as they return to the hot climes of Tatum, Texas!