Disembarkation!

On February 14th we disembarked as part of a crew change before the ship continued on to Singapore and Korea. The ship drifted a few miles offshore while a service boat came alongside and transferred personnel via the accommodation ladder. 

Imagine being a pilot and doing this in 10 ft seas and 35 knot winds! Sea level certainly offers a different perspective on the ship

Last picture of the Apollonia before she sailed off over the horizon!

The city of Cape Town from the water. Table Mountain is in the central background, Lion's Head on the right, and Signal Hill  (the one we hiked) is the smaller one in the central foreground.

Container ship action at the port as we pulled in

Signal Hill Hike

Luckily, we had the afternoon to explore part of Cape Town before going home that evening. The majority of the city is built around the base of Signal Hill, and a short hike to the top granted us amazing views of the surrounding area. Over the course of the afternoon we experienced beautiful weather accompanied by a pleasant sea breeze and even managed to get a slight sunburn before heading home to the polar tundras of Michigan and Maine.

Table Mountain, the most easily recognizable geographic feature of the Cape Town area.

A nice valley between Lion's Head and Table Mountain.

The 2010 Fifa World Cup stadium and part of the waterfront.

At the top of Signal Hill lies a monument called "Sunstar". It is constructed from the fencing that formerly enclosed the Robben Island prison, which was an infamous symbol of the apartheid era. It was located on a small island visible from Cape Town and is a location where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years.

And so we conclude our sea term. We are very grateful to all who helped make this extraordinary experience possible! Many thanks to the crew of the Apollonia for welcoming us into their team and taking the time to share their knowledge with us. This sea term was a great adventure both technically and culturally and the skills learned will be highly valuable in our academic and professional careers.

Welcome to the Jungle

Loading Cargo in Equatorial Guinea

On February 6th the Apollonia arrived at the Punta Europa LNG terminal on an island off the coast of west-central Africa. There we loaded 160,000 cubic meters of LNG that will likely be shipped to South Korea over the next three weeks.

Equatorial Guinea is your typical African authoritarian state and petroleum products account for 97% of its exports by value. Its human rights record is abysmal, freedom of press is highly restricted, and there is only one political party. The "president" is worth about $600 million and has been in power for longer than any other non-royal ruler in the world. Meanwhile, 50% of the population don't have access to clean drinking water and one in five children die before reaching the age of five.

The question is, whose responsibility is it to ensure that wealth from a nation's natural resources is distributed fairly among the population? His properties and assets in America and France have been seized in the past. Business still proceeds as usual though and millions of dollars worth of in natural resources are exported every day. Despite the circumstances, literacy rates are rising as more children attend school and public health is slowly getting better. The road to development for third world countries can be a bumpy one indeed.

A suspension bridge that supports the cargo pipelines that run from the facility to the jetty. Although we were not able to go ashore at this port, ship was close enough to land to see that the jungle looked very wild .

Engine Work

A view inside the crankcase of one of the V-12 engines. Visible are a pair of connecting rods mounted on the crankshaft. For a sense of scale, the opening is about 2 x 2 feet. A visual inspection of the crankcases is done weekly.

A main injection pump (left) for a cylinder on one of the V-12 engines. It is controlled by the fuel rack (throttle) and driven by the camshaft that is directly below the assembly shown. The two black columns enclose the pushrods for the intake and exhaust valves.

The pilot fuel pump mounted on the non-driving end of the engine. It supplies diesel to the pilot fuel common rail system at 900 bar (13,000 psi) of pressure!

This is a partially disassembled pressure regulating unit from a pilot fuel pump. Every few days this unit triggers alarms because of a fouled filter (bottom right) and must be cleaned and replaced to continue running in gas mode. The problem is suspected to be caused by bacterial or fungal growth in the fuel system.