The really deep and dreamy end

Bon Journo.

Well its been a week since I left the Middle East and I thought it was high time I wrote something. It’s been an adventure of the rather large persuasion. I don’t live an ordinary life but I guess I never have.

I got out of Qatar in one piece. In an odd turn of events it rained solidly the whole day that I left. There was some nice poetry in that. I landed in Roma in the evening. It took me days to get across the airport. My NZ cap is as good as diplomatic immunity in Italy at least. I’m not even sure passport control stamped me in.

I had a short flight to Pisa and then I waited for a while for Dan, one of my new colleagues to pick me. We had a drive to La Spezia where I finally got on board my new home. Now I have signed a confidentiality agreement, but I have a pretty good understanding of how these things work. I don’t think will be treading on anyones toes by sharing a little bit here on this very blog.

First impressions, an overpowering desire to append wow to every sentence. She is a stunning boat and everything is so shiny and new. I have spent the last week getting lost on an hourly basis but I am slowly starting to get a feel for things. We had a fire drill yesterday and I found my way to my muster station without too much hassle, so that is good to know.

The crew accommodation is top notch and I have a positively cavernous cabin to myself. This is a big plus as given our size we do not tie up that often.

my cabin

My department is a subset of Engineering. There are four of us in our office which is broadly speaking Electrical and AVIT. Having spent many years in offices, it is both satisfying and comforting to return to one even if it is a bit chaotic. Rest assured I have my label maker out and am making gentle improvements.

My desk

We have a staggering amount of Apple equipment on board. We have a staggering amount of everything for that matter. Sadly there are a few mountains to climb with regards to the AV system but there is a plan and if I can make a good impression over the next few weeks the next year will be a very exciting time.

That is not to say things have not been exciting. Oh no. We had a sea trial on Tuesday which was heart in the mouth stuff and I am glad that I had been here for a couple of days otherwise I might have packed my bags and left. My wife used to always say “All I want is a normal boat” I thought about this on Tuesday evening “Honey all boats are crazy”

We left on Tuesday for Gibraltar, the passage was quite bumpy and there was a bit of spontaneous reorganisation all over the vessel. Our office was shaken up a bit, thankfully we have an unending supply of cable ties.

Gibraltar yesterday was an anticlimax. We only had a berth for 8 hours as there was a ferry coming in. I did get to go ashore and stock up on Protein powder. It was very odd to see shops openly selling alcohol. It was hilarious to see an English magazine in the crew mess with a tops bums of the year feature this morning.

The highlight for me so far? This morning we raised the helicopter pad to take on our helicopter. I took a couple of photos.