Near Journeys end

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Hello everyone,



So it definitely seems I'm not very good at all this blog writing business but that aside, you can have a big one now.



I write as we sail out of Portree, Isle of Skye heading for Kirkwall and the last port of call this trip. We arrive back into Newcastle on Tuesday July 25th where it is finally home time after 5+ months onboard having joined the ship back in February in Southampton. Since then we have steamed 33,462 miles, visited 13 countries (including Greenland), 19 different cruises, see polar bears, puffins and many whales and had one two week dry dock in Falmouth. Going from a snow covered Norway to summer in Lapland and everything in between. Its all been quite an adventure.

It all start on a cold, dark February morning in Southampton at 0500 when I joined Bolette and head out for.....delightful Falmouth and a two week dry dock. What a way to start. These were probable the hardest weeks, with lots of feelings of loneliness, doubting the career choice and a huge sense of being very overwhelmed by everything that was happening. I spent the dry dock working on the lifeboat (mustard yellow is now a band colour in any future home!) as well as the classic cadet job of chipping and painting one of the life raft platforms. We were the largest ship in 60 years to use the Queen Elizabeth dry dock, they even had to cut huge holes in the dock side so we could extent our stabilisers. Seeing the ship out of the water was a pretty impressive thing to see.

Once back to sea we headed for our new homeport of Newcastle for the first of maiden calls to new port of Bolette this season. The first two cruises were to Norway for the Northern Lights where I was lucky enough to see them three times over the two cruises. Onboard my days were spent doing lots of familiarisation stuff and learning the ship as well as checking fire extinguishers and painting...lots of it! Also during these cruises I starting assisting some of the officers with the chartwork talks which are given to the guests as part of Fred Olsen's 'Ship and the Sea' Programme. As we progressed, it was proven that I was very good at these talks. Since April. Ive done each one, solo with raving reviews from the Captain and guests. The first time they have ever let a cadet (let alone a first trip cadet) go solo giving these talks! I quite enjoy that sort of thing so its no surprise. Ives included a few shots of me in action delivering them. I even now feature on the website. Anyway, enough about chartwork talks!

After Norway trips included Iceland, Faeroe Islands, more Norway and the Baltic. In early April I was allowed onto my first watch, solo with one of the Second Officers. I first started off on Mid watch (0900-1300/1900-2300) on this watch included us taking Bolette through Great Belt in the Baltic, a Port state inspection (Ofsted to the teachers amongst you) that appeared in Aarhus, Denmark and more Norwegian Fjords. Once we reached Helsinki another officer joined so I went back to day work for a few cruises and chartwork talks! However, come early May I was back on Mid, for another Baltic cruise with another Second Officer who would very soon become an excellent mentor and colleague. The highlight of this trip was well.....Great Belt....19kts....squat of 3m....and just 2.5m under the keel! We passed Cunard's Queen Victoria doing 12 kts with a pilot coming the other way...Great Belt, Bolette....pilots are for wimps apparently! Anyway for context we had to do 700+ miles back from Germany to Newcastle in just 36hrs so a high speed was needed. For more context most ships do that run over a two day period! In between all this I became Assistant Area Training Officer to South West Area and responsible for training of over 400 cadets from over 50 units! Data connection quickly was becoming my best friend!

As mid May arrived and 12 weeks away, the parents decided to come onboard for a week long trip to the Scottish Islands! A lovely week spent with them. Some work but the Safety Officer and Staff Captain let me go back to day work for the week so I could spend time with them. Including dinner each evening in the main restaurant. Over there trip we visited Kirkwall, Stornoway, Portree and Lerwick. Luckily in Lerwick, Shetland no crime cases required investigation of BBCs 'Shetland'!

After the parents disembarked it was back for two cruises to Norway (are we noticing a theme yet with these itineraries!) which included a double visit to Flam in a one week! Trust me, Oil rigs become fascinating when they are all you see as you cross the empty North Sea! Next up was ' the big cruise' as it became know. A 23nt grand exploration of the Arctic to Norway (theme!), Svalbard, Iceland and Greenland! With a new cruise brought a new watch, a move to arrival watch beckoned (0400-0900 (guest buffet breakfast!)/1300-1600) which made the three week voyage fly by as the days were very packed in. Over the cruise we got to spend three days in Svalbard which was an amazing experience. I got to go Husky riding, saw Reindeer in their natural habitat and scenic cruising the impressive Tuna Glacier! As we headed for Iceland we cruised by Jan Mayan Island, a deserted Norwegian island with only a radio station on, pleasantries were exchanged with the inhabitants via VHF as we passed. As we approached Greenland things started to get interesting! We had spent the last three weeks closely monitoring the Danish Ice Charts and could see the ice moving south around Cape Farewell very quickly. We had already had to cancel one port due to advice from the Greenland Pilots and the thick ice concentrations. We ploughed on never the less! As we attempted our call to Qaqortoq we got surrounded by ice and regularly had to change our route to go around the ice edge. The night before arrival was apparently a disaster with an average speed of just 4kts, as we took the watch at 0400 captain was already on the bridge, surround by ice and thick fog (by this time arrivals watch had gained the nickname the 'foggers' due to use having spent the last week pretty much entirely surrounded in fog on sea days during our watch) we decided to abort out call and make one last attempt at a Greenland Port...Narsaqu. However we had to do a medical evacuation...in the fog and ice in Greenland. A tense 5hours followed as we completed the operation. Thank goodness for RADAR, at some points we couldn't see 50m in front of us but the RADAR and pilots allowed us to carry on...blind! At some points there were 300m long Icebergs (for context Bolette is just 238m) only 1-2 cables (182.5m) off our side and we couldn't see them! We made it to Narsaqu, minus some paint on the bow and were able to give our guests 24hrs in Greenland. We had to tender the guests from a controlled drifting position (too deep to anchor) 45mins through an ice flow to the town. We managed it although at some points it was definitely firbeglass tender vs million year old Ice! We won...just. After the excitement of Greenland a 4 day passage back to Newcastle followed where watch time was spent doing 'Proper Flag Inventory' as nicknamed by the Bridge Manager as the two of us sorted all the ships flags and got them all ready for itineraries up to 2025. If anyone wants a dutch flag....we have 48 of them! Anyone would have thought the ship was once owned by Holland America!

The next few cruises seemed very bland compared to the adventures of Greenland. After a nice day ashore in Newcastle it was time for another watch shift...this time a 12hr one. Much to the disappointment of the Bridge Manager I was requested to move to Departure Watch (1600-1900/2300-0400) back with my second officer mentor, we took the ship to Norway with visits to two newer ports including Geiranger and Andalsnes before another Baltic adventure called this time to Lapland...in summer. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Santa (in these hard times, one obviously cant afford to only work one month of the year!) It was defiantly a very different cruise up into the Gulf of Bothnia with visits to Turku (where Captain Degalund came to say hello) and onwards to the delights of Oulu, Kemi, Sundsvall and many more before a final transit through Great Belt and a call to Aarhus. Here we started to loose officers to vacation so a final swap back to arrival watch came as we sailed for Newcastle. I will say going from arrival to departure was far easier sleep wise than going the other way round! That then brings us round to now...another Scottish Isles cruises with a call at Belfast. Where I got to visit the Titanic Museum (best one Ive every visited and definitely recommend a visit), alot of scenic cruising...including castles....in scaffolding. That's brings us right to the present. A summer evening, sailing out of Portree for Kirkwall and into the final two days onboard....one of which will ofcourse feature my final chart reading talk!

Other adventures have included a visit to Amsterdam and an meet up with Balmoral, Reindeer riding in Alta and many amazing sunsets and sunrises that make each day amazing. Food, well that's a discussion for another time! With Easter Sunday spent in a fantastically sunny Flam!

The last 5 months have for sure been turbulent but a great learning opportunity at the same time, having met some amazing officers, crew and guests in the process. In two days a well deserved vacation begins with time to catch up with people, a trip to the Lake Districts and Jersey and seeing friends before its back to Southampton and Warsash to begin Phase 3! Ill try and keep this more up to date but there you are, fully up to speed with the highs, lows and close calls of Bolette 2023!

Till Next time!

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