D-7 days...

Darren and I got invited to the Team House one last time to have dinner with Barry and Cheryl before they fly away for holiday tomorrow. It was great to enjoy a good African meal off the ship - of course it had fruits, veggies, plantain and fish in it. I am slowly getting used to it... :)

They were great friends and team members, I will truly miss them and their British sense of humour! :)

Sailing - the highlights + video

We were sailing for 10 days, left Lomé, Togo on 15th June and arrived to Tenerife, Canary Islands (Spain) on 25th June. Here are just some highlights of what happened while we were at sea.

Some of the pictures are taken by my good friend, Debra, you'll see her signature on them. The rest are mine.

I made some short videos during the sail and edited them together with Enya's Sail Away song - one of my favourites. (BTW ever since I heard this song a good 10 years ago I decided to visit all the places she mentions in the song - and I am almost finished!)




Yes, we had some impressive waves, but sadly only for a few days. We had some dolphins, too, click here for Darren's video.

Captain Jon on the bridge

Deckies working on the mooring lines at the bow

Gangway being lifted up

The last 3 lines that connect us to Togo

Tug boat to help us turn

"Arm Guards" - I suppose they meant to say they have guns to protect themselves

Leaving the port area

Pilot climbing down the rope ladder



Leaving Togo and our wedding location - a bit sad :(



All the Landies are on deck 8. 

We enjoyed the waves and beautiful sunsets on the bow every evening

Since it was a long voyage we had some fun activities every evening. As you can see Pirates Night was a big hit among the children (and some older children) :)

Most of us went with the black and red colours, some fake tattoos and scars and head cover. I bought Darren that blue Muslim head cover in Kara, the northern part of Togo a few months back. Most people questioned him, so we explained that most of the pirates are from the very Muslim Somalia who more likely to look like this than Johnny Depp :))  

We had a little "chat" with the Captain and Chief Mate.
I think I made my point clear...

We needed a pirate captain to be a proper Pirate Team so we borrowed Captain Luke Davies. Notice the Angry Bird both Luke and I have on our shoulders...

The other pirates playing the famous dice game from the Pirates of the C. movie.

Me with a cigar, hubby with his tea. To each of its own...

And yes, we took over the ship as well when we stormed the bridge. :)
What a night...!

We also had some drills, one of them was a Man Overboard drill. Unlike on Doulos here we used only a brown paper bag and not "Ray, the dummy". Still, we were able to observe how fast this huge shipc an turn around - it's quite impressive!

In case you were wondering, the answer is YES. The ocean IS INDEED BLUE!
The 2 little dark spots are Darren and me standing at the railing.

Wedding  :)

Capturing the sun in my hand

US :)



The PR Shot



Worship at the bow at sunset :)

Charlie's Angels on AFM
(from left: Debra B, Darren, me and Lesley B) 



Jumping into the sunset :)



Flying Land Rovers - video

This is the most visible and fun part of our preparations for sail. I posted a picture on facebook and several people reacted with such amazement that I had to remind myself, this is indeed an unusual sight for many. For us? Just another day on the Africa Mercy...

Here are some stills and 2 videos. I recorded them at fast speed to save space on my card, but I also think it's more fun this way. In real life it took them less than 5 minutes from lowering the ropes, drive the vehicle onto the net, lift it up and drive it to it's assigned position on deck 8. Our Deckies really know what they are doing! :)

visit to the HSV2 - Swift

We were at the beach on Saturday. Usually there are 40+ big vessels anchoring outside of the port waiting for a berth to free up so seeing ships while we swim is non unusual by any means here.

However among the drifting ships there was one that was moving FAST! Now THAT was unusual!! We took a few pictures from the distance and decided to go back to the port - we had a pretty good guess where she would be docked at! Yes, you guessed it well - right behind us!!! :)

The Swift is the second from the right

We just got back in time to witness the arrival and were told that a possible tour would be available maybe sometime on Sunday before they leave...

Woman with a 50 cal. machine gun to greet us :)

This little US plane came from Ghana and was circling around and above the ship as they came in.

I rarely have the opportunity to watch my fav. Formula 1 race on TV so I was quite excited to do that today. 30 minutes before the start Darren came running to me with my camera - "there are 2 officers from the Swift on board and they are offering a tour right now!" Formula one ditched I went with him and about 20 others to board that ship. Yay!!! :)

This text is from wikipedia, but the officer who gave us the tour said pretty much the same thing:

"HSV-2 Swift is a non-commissioned, hybrid catamaran originally leased by the United States Navy as a mine countermeasures and sea basing test platform. She is now privately owned and operated by Sealift Inc. and chartered to the United States Navy Military Sealift Command. She is primarily used for fleet support and humanitarian partnership missions. The HSV stands for "High Speed Vessel", and its home port is Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek in Norfolk, Virginia. The vessel has two CONMAR crews that typically rotate every three months to keep the ship deployed eleven months per year. The minimum crew size is 35; 18 are military with the balance civilian, provided through American Maritime Officers and Seafarers International Union.

They couldn't use the normal ramp, which can be used for even tanks!
We walked up on a narrow gangway borrowed from the port.

2 of the 4 water jets that gives her this incredible speed.

our "welcome committee"

the empty cargo hold/deck with aluminum walls

Modified containers to be training classrooms where they train local military people

The ship was constructed by the Australian shipbuilder Incat in Hobart, Tasmania, and was leased to the U.S. Navy. She was the second catamaran the Navy leased to test new technologies and concepts associated with the Chief of Naval Operations's "Seapower 21" plan. The contract value for the first year was $21.7 million.

Swift is the fourth Incat-built high-speed wave piercing catamaran to enter military service, following behind HMAS Jervis Bay, U.S. Army Vessel (USAV) Theater Support Vessel Spearhead (TSV-X1) and HSV-X1 Joint Venture."

The Bridge with the Africa Mercy in front of us

What's wrong with this picture? Darren is controlling this VERY expensive ship with a small joystick in a Mercy Ships shirt
while the Navy officer is taking pictures...

Reka's new video game! :)

The Bridge

It is a wave-piercing, aluminum-hulled, commercial catamaran with military enhancements, such as a helicopter flight deck, strengthened vehicle deck, small boat and unmanned vehicle launch and recovery capability, and an enhanced communications suite. It features a new, modular design, which will allow the ship to be refitted to support any mission without requiring long shipyard periods. While from the front the vessels appear to look like a trimaran, the centre hull does not rest in the water and is not used for buoyancy. As a logistics vessel, it does not have water-tight compartments or weapons systems. Its propulsion is provided by directional water jets, so it doesn't have propellers or a rudder for steering and can maneuver in twelve feet of water."

Sleeping arrangements - triple bunk beds and 18 men / cabin...

The Doc and his "hospital" on board. Hehe, ours is a tad bit bigger and dare I say, better?!

Flight deck with capacity for Helicopters to land.

50 cal machine guns on each side. This ship is not equipped for attack, only for self defense,
however it's great to scare pirates away we were told!

They didn't let me carry this M4 :((((((

We asked repeatedly how fast she can go, but we never got a straight answer. Based on public information, she can sail with at least 50 knots and can travel around 1000 km/day if necessary. 

They were here for only 30 hours and as I type they are on their way to Congo, which will take them only 1 day to get there... :)

 They pulled out and were gone in 35 minutes! A fun Sunday afternoon on the Africa Mercy.