Todays Note

Yesterday evening and throughout the night we had gale force winds and intermittent lashing horizontal rain. I'm glad that I was not out there on the Irish Sea on a ferry as its a 100% certainty that I would be sick. Although I have made quite a few ferry and cruise trips I have only actually been sick twice, the first time was the worse, I was on the high speed ferry from Phi-Phi to Phuket, Thailand in 1998 and was fine until we left the shelter of the islands. I ended up at the back of the ship trying to find a space at the rail  between similarly ill feeling people. About half way back I was suffering.as was everyone else. I think I was the first person to be sick which set off quite a few people around me, getting back on land was fantastic. The second and last time was on the Costa Classica on the South China Sea on route to Kuantan. Despite it being perfectly calm I was sick - This was my first day at sea and I blame this on the 24hrs travelling the day before.

As noted yesterday I have found out that Arklow Shipping’s General Cargo Ship are being renamed following a change of operator / manager. They were previously owned by BBS Bulk of the Netherlands but operated by Arklow Shipping and they are now coming under the ownership of BBS Bulk and Koppervik Fleet Management of Norway. The ships in the fleet will have the Arklow part of their name changed to BBS and apparently this has happened to a number of ships already. Arklow named ships were some of the first ships I saw when  I was based near Liverpool docks in 2006 and it will be a shame that I won't be adding more to my list.