On Thursday, December 15
we started our journey by flying to Athens, Greece. When we arrived on Friday,
we were immediately taken to St. Theodore, Greece where the Maersk Peary was
docked.
We stayed at dock for the night and most of the next day. On Saturday, we were given a tour of the ship by the first engineer, Jim. He also allowed to starting exploring in the Engine Room. Ben and Loren, the second and third engineer, took us to Loutraki on Saturday night. Ben and Loren took us to walk along the beach, and Abi and Will decided to take a swim.
We continued to walk throughout the town, got some 2 euro gyros, and stopped at few of the many little bakeries in town. Then we went back to the ship for the night. That night we moved from port to anchor right outside of Piraeus, Greece. Sunday, was our first day of actual work. We helped as much as we could in the engine room, such as applying lubricants to various pieces of machinery. On Monday, we were told that we would be split up into deck cadets and engine cadets. Muriel and I are deck cadets for the next two weeks while Will and Abi are engine cadets. As deck cadets, Muriel and I work on the deck for half of our day and stand watch in the bridge for the other half. Will and Abi work on various projects down in the engine room. Monday night, we took a trip to Athens via the train and were able to see the Acropolis at night. It was beautifully lit up and although the park was closed you could walk all the way around it from the bottom.
We
walked around and had dinner before returning to the ship. The next morning,
there was another launch to go ashore, so we went to visit the Acropolis again
in daylight. There were breath-taking views of the city of Athens.
On our way back to the
ship, we made sure to buy tons and tons of baklava for the engineers. By 1230
we were back on the ship and ready to work. Muriel and I returned to work on
the deck with the Bosun, Ron. Abi and Will went down to work in the engine
room. At 1800, the anchor was being pulled
up so that we could set sail. Muriel and I got to go up the bridge and watch
the captain maneuver out of the port, while Will and Abi helped out with
starting up the engine.
Will and Abi were working
down in the engine room and had to deal with the problems of the sewage system.
There was a massive clog in a pipe that needed to be removed, and they got covered in poop. In other words,
Muriel and I lucked out on being the deck cadets first.
We stood watch and
learned how to plot positions on paper charts. I am also learning how to do
celestial navigation using a sextant.
On December 23, we
started crossing the Suez Canal. We began at 5 or 6 in the morning. A pilot
boarded our ship to help navigate our way through. Following close behind us
was a tug boat and two patrol boats as well as a few cars on land that followed
us all the way through the Canal. We got to see some pretty cool stuff while we
were passing through.
