m/v Africa Mercy update no. 7 - 21-11-05

Right first thing I have to do is apologise. It`s not bad. I am typing this on a French Keyboard. (Yes I am in France) and for some unknown reason the French have decided to really mess up the Keyboard by moving all the keys around on the keyboard! Silly French people. Anyway the reason I am telling you this is that my spelling maybe much worse today than it is normally!

Right now that that is outta the way, I can get on with letting you guys/gals know what episodes are going down in the life of the Waldron. Well it has been another 3 week period since I last wrote.

Well I haven't injured myself recently you'll be pleased to hear, I think the Shipyard Medic may be missing me!

The ship has actually moved twice since I last wrote. Well moved I use mildly! We got towed into the Dry Dock about 150m and then two weeks later moved back to the Tyne! Dry Dock is when the whole ship moves into a really large swimming pool, about 40 foot deep and 250m long, then all the water gets drained out and the ship is left sat on a few blocks of wood! A bit like getting all its wheels stolen! It's a bit weird to think that the ship is balancing on some wood, but thankfully it doesn't topple over, no matter how much you try and push it, I didn't try.
That week I was on night watch so at least I didn't have to check for water leaks coming onto the ship!

I managed to escape off the ship when it moved into Dry dock but when we left I offered my services as a Deckhand. So I got to help with the mooring lines which was a really great experience, even if very very scary. Thankfully none of the lines broke - which does often happen when moving ships, I've seen one break and it is not pretty. Basically you see a lot of people run like mad. A breaking line can easily slice someone in two! Also checkout the Blog on the link below to see a photo of my great leaning tower of mooring lines!

Then the rest of the time I have been completing the pressure testing of the Medical Gas. Yes I am still going and yes I am still not finished! To date I have got the three largest systems complete, so now it is just the two smaller systems to finish off. Thankfully.

General Shipyard updates/Answers to prayer.
Well after depressing two weeks of not seeing any work done on the ship as all the subcontractors were released due to contractual and shipyard finance reasons. We received news on Wednesday that there has been major positive progress made and they should all be starting work again this week. And they have kinda assured us that they should be finished by the end of March. Which will put all of our original plans back into action about the ship visiting London and then to Rotterdam in April before we go to Ghana and meet up with the Anastasis.

Having a few days out at the moment visiting Vicky in France. So spent Saturday in Paris and then the next few days in Orleans and back to Paris again on Wednesday to fly back to Newcastle. I love Easyjet!!! The French Architecture is amazing and they really know how to build Cathedrals.

Right keep safe my friends.

Keep in touch and incase you haven't recieved my txt already my mobile number has changed to: ********** I think! I'll still have the other one with me for another few months but will gradually use it less and less. The new mobile is on Vodafone but doesn't have any cross network minutes, so give us a ring as I won't be able to anymore!

Vaya Con Dios.

Paulus