Fernando to Suriname

Heading back to the boat after our last day ashore we could see that water was being pumped out of the boat in a big hurry. Someone asked if it was the grey water being pumped out and the answer from the maritime crew driving the tender was yes. There had been an issue with a grey water tank and everyone knew that the engineer had been working on it.
The next day we were supposed to leave but we remained at anchor. Some students came to me and asked about the water that was being pumped out of the boat. They could see it leaving an oily sheen on the water. I explained that it was likely that the engine room bilge was being pumped out and that there is often a bit of oil that drips from the engine in the bilge. The students were concerned that the boat would get another fine because in Amsterdam there had been a diesel spill when we were fueling and a subsequent fine at that time. The students were upset about the oil going into the water.
We left Fernando around noon and motored towards Paramaribo. It was so hot onboard that night, I couldn’t sleep or stay in my stifling cabin. Lying in my bunk I could also hear that the bilge was being pumped quite often and a lot of water was coming out. I got up around midnight and noticed that the captain was still up. I also saw that we were heading SW towards Brazil instead of towards Paramaribo. We were motoring quite quickly compared to usual at about 7.7 knots. I spoke to Gaia, the AB on watch about it and she said that yes she had the same observations but that she hadn’t been told anything about what was happening. The students were in the bridge doing their usual job of plotting our position on the paper chart. I could hear them asking the first mate why were we heading towards the Brazil coast now instead of Paramaribo? They wanted to know what was going on. I could hear the first mate telling them that they didn’t need to know and them protesting that they should know what is happening because they live on the boat and it affects them. The students were sent off the bridge without an explanation.
Siobhan was up as well as our cabin was a sauna and we had a midnight snack of hard boiled eggs and crackers and watched the engineer, captain and first mate have closed door meetings on the bridge.
I went to bed just after 0200 and then was up again before 0600 because of the heat. As I came on deck I noticed that the survival suits had been hauled up into the aft salon and there were bottles of water sitting there as well. I went up to the crew mess and could see that they had pulled the flare box and first aid kit out of their cupboard on the bridge. I asked the captain if there was anything that I should be preparing and I was told no. Still no explanation for all the emergency equipment was given. I thought that this was completely ridiculous, we are sinking and it’s a big secret. I went down below and woke up Cody and Collin to let them know what I had seen and that I couldn’t get any explanation for it. Cody got up to go to the bridge and I went to pack up the students medication and extra supplies that aren’t in the grab bag. In the scenario of an abandon ship situation where there is no time, the grab bag of medication will have to suffice but in this situation there was time to prepare. I gathered additional medical supplies.
In talking to Sam, the AB turned engineers mate to help with the broken freezer problem that was also a sinking ship problem, he told me that the leak came from the sea cock for the emergency fire pump and that he and the engineer had been able to isolate the leaking valve and stop the leak. So in the end we didn’t have to abandon ship which is obviously the best option.
Once that all got settled down things went pretty much back to normal. The survival suits got put away and we started heading for Suriname once more. We crossed the equator again. Interestingly we crossed the equator on the solstice, so we experienced both the summer solstice and the winter solstice! Of course being at the equator meant that day and night are equal but it is kinda cool to think about.
There wasn’t much sea life on this trip but we did see a couple schools of tuna in a feeding frenzy. They were leaping right out of the water which looked like a boiling pot with all the activity underneath the surface. On feeding frenzy day, I caught my first fish! A yellowfin tuna! We were all trying to gather on the foredeck to take a Christmas photo with Santa hats on when I heard an odd noise from the aft deck. I went back there and saw Cody reeling in one of the fishing lines, he said that he was trying to get everyone assembled for the photo but that we weren’t supposed to leave the fishing lines out unattended. So I started reeling in the second fishing line which was out as well. Cody reeled his in and then left to go to the foredeck. I kept reeling in my fishing line and it felt oddly heavy considering that I knew they only baited them with a plastic squid. There was a lot of line out and I felt like I was reeling it in forever when it started to bounce around, I almost dropped the reel! I realized that there was a fish on the hook! I got the fish pulled up to the top of the bulwark and then it was flailing around like crazy. I was having trouble getting it over the lip of the bulwark onto the deck. I yelled up forward a few times but everyone was up there getting their picture taken and no one could hear me. The fish dropped back down to the water a couple times and I reeled it back up. Then Cody came back looking for me since I hadn’t appeared for the photo. I was yelling “I caught a fish and I don’t know what to do now!” He reached over the side and hauled the fish on board. I was super excited to bring the fish up forward and show everyone, it was awesome!

I don’t know anything about cleaning fish so the students taught me. I ate some tuna sushi, super fresh. Leslie the chef taught me how to cut out the bloodline and sear the tuna Hawaiian style, it tasted fantastic!

Christmas Day was a break from school for the students and a bit of a sleep in for everyone except those on watch. One of the students had organized a secret Santa gift exchange and everyone onboard bought or made a gift for someone else. The teachers and I helped prepare and clean up the Christmas dinner as a gift to the students to give them a little more of a break.

The Guinea Current was pushing us northwest towards Suriname giving us a couple more knots and speeding up our journey. We arrived early to the mouth of the Suriname River and the plan was to anchor for two nights until our berth was available in Paramaribo on December 29th.

A few hours after anchoring an alarm sounded from the bridge indicating that we were dragging. There was a decent breeze (17-21 knots) and some waves so we were moving backwards. More chain was put out but it didn’t hold us so the plan was to haul up the anchor and move to another spot. As the pump for the windlass was turned on it lost all pressure. At this time one of the students was sent to get the bosun and asked me if I knew what cabin she was in. I said that I’d show the student the bosun’s cabin. As we descended the forward steps to the crew cabins, I saw what I initially thought was water pooled on the floor but then realized that it was oil from the windlass dripping through the ceiling. I just was sending the student to inform the bridge when Sam the AB stuck his head down the stairs and we told him about all the oil. He had just been operating the windlass so the oil leak confirmed his suspicions about a leak in the hydraulic system. We got the bosun and started to get the oil cleaning materials from the engine room.
At this point we were still dragging anchor and were heading towards a large fishing vessel. The fishing vessel was alerted and moved out of the way. Then we dropped the starboard anchor as well and stopped dragging. Then we had two anchors and a whole bunch of chain down and no way to haul them up.

We sat there for two days while various attempts were made at fixing the hydraulic line that had broken making the windlass unusable. The pilot boat came out and brought us some parts which unfortunately didn’t work. Several of our crew members took the zodiac over to the fishing boats anchored nearby to see if they had any parts that would help us but to no avail. Keep in mind that we are still under the crazy regime where we can’t talk about anything that is broken so we are having whispered conversations about the progress/lack of progress and nobody can talk about the problem out loud! I found myself being strangely calm about the whole affair. I was just glad that we were no longer sinking and seeing as we had a trip to the rainforest already booked I figured that Class Afloat would hire another boat to ferry us off the Gulden Leeuw if the hydraulics didn’t get fixed in time. Then the pilot boat was able to bring us not only the correct parts but someone with the expertise in fixing hydraulic lines and the repair job held! Both anchors were hauled up and we made our way up the Suriname River to Paramaribo.