Seattle and back to Panama

Wednesday 14^th January

Arrived at Seattle 02.00 this morning. I was on cargo watch with the 3^rd Officer from 08.00 till 18.00. Billy and the “sec” came on at 18.00 till 03.00. That night seemed to be “detective night” on Seattle TV and before going to bed sat through Cannon, Ironside and a detective movie!

Thursday 15^th January

After working the cargo watch in the morning I went ashore in the afternoon to see the film Jaws which was very good and also frightening. I will think twice about swimming in the sea in the future. The evening was spent walking around admiring the “bright lights”. Unfortunately the drinking age here is 21 and picture identification is needed before you get served anywhere!

Friday 16^th January

After working the 8 – 12 cargo watch this morning it was obvious that loading would not be completed in time for the intended sailing time. Thus I also worked the 18.00 to 24.00 at night. The night gang were less efficient and more than once a whole pallet of fruit was dropped. Each time the mark and number of boxes had to be recorded and the gangs watched to check none of the damaged fruit came on board.

Saturday 17^th January

Work up to find we were at sea and had sailed at 03.00. I was on the 8 to 12 this morning as a look out due to the fog and mist which kept creeping up on us. I also took bearings of the coast plotting our position. The rest of the day I had off.

Monday 19^th January

All morning was spent with the crew oiling all wires on the derricks etc. and overhauling the shackles i.e. cleaning them up, greasing them and replacing the bonding wire. In the afternoon I was at the wheel during the 12 to 4. The automatic steering mechanism has broken down and so until we can get it repaired (Probably during the Panama Canal transit) we will be on the manual steering. Starting tomorrow I will be on the 4 to 8 watch.

Tuesday 20^th – Saturday 24^th January

The two hours of each watch when I was not steering were occupied doing various tasks or correspondence work. The Chief Officer showed me how to work out the times of sunrise and sunset, also working out the Local Hour Angle of the stars. Each watch my first job was to work out the time of sunrise and sunset and thus stars, then take an azimuth on both Standard and Gyro compasses to check for error.

When the Chief Officer took the star sights I noted the times. One day we passed close to a school of dolphins. There were over 100 altogether and they were all leaping out of the water together. It was a fantastic sight to see and we could think of no explanation for why they should be doing it.

Sunday 25^th January

It was on the 4 to 6 this morning when we first sighted land. We sailed quite close in all day, arriving and anchoring in Panama Bay during the 4 to 8 in the evening. We anchored with other ships all around us, requiring a short turn to starboard to manoeuvre us into position. This technique involves going half ahead, hard a starboard till the ship starts to swing and then full astern, wheel amidships to keep her steady. We were told that we would be entering the canal at 05.30 tomorrow.