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“The postings on this site are my own and don't represent Norden's position, strategies or opinions. All views are my own”
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Sunday 1st of December 2024 and I wake up at 6 o'clock even though I just had a few hours of sleep. Still tired but impossible to fall asleep, good, it will  hopefully be easy to fall a sleep tonight and I will be full of VIM tomorrow.
We are loading “STEP 2” of the gasoline blend. No one knows when we are going to be ready, the Cargo Representant say that this is the slowest terminal in Houston area. We were delayed at the anchorage waiting for the ship loading. They loaded 100000 Bbls and they were delayed by more than 1 day. So, we will see when we can leave Houston for Bahamas. I go to the bridge to see if there are any birds after lunch. Today there are 9 turtles on the rocks around the Neotropic Cormorant enjoying the sun.  Snowy Egret
 Snowy Egret
 Great White Egret
 Snowy Egret
 Neotropic Cormorant
 Laughing Gull
They stopped the loading of the 2nd step 6900 bbls before we got the 112000 Bbls. They cannot discharge the rest in the shore tank. So we started the 3rd parcel after that our Blending guy and I made a new blending plan. Expect to completed the 3rd step tomorrow night, if we get everything we should. They might stop before because of problem with their vapour lines ashore. +++++++++++++++
Monday 2nd of November 2024 and we are still loading the 3rd step of the gasoline blend, we expect to complete at 8 o'clock in the evening. And we need to know how much we are going to load before that so we can make a new blending plan.
I spotted 3 Turkey Vultures in the afternoon and I had a little something to report to eBird.  Turkey Vulture
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Tuesday 3rd of November 2024 and we could leave Kinder Morgan Dock #2 just before 8 o'clock in the evening. We expect to arrive to Bahamas in the morning of the 7th of December.
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Wednesday 4th of November 2024 and strong head wind and we are steaming towards SE when I come on the bridge at 4 o'clock in the morning. No birds to report during the morning and I was a little bit disappointed.
We inspected ballast 3 STB after breakfast and I completed my paper work just in time for lunch. Coming on the bridge quarter to 4 in the afternoon and there are two Brown Boobies hunting in front of the boat. 30 minutes later and there were 5 of them and they stayed until it got dark. +++++++++++++++
Friday 6th of November 2024 and we will arrive to Bahamas tomorrow morning and we will need to completed the ballast tank inspection today. Ballast tank 3 Port is the last to inspect, should have been done last month.
Last time on Bahamas, had the fans running to go down after the breakfast, but they called from Buckeye Terminal and we had to come alongside and we had to cancel the job. And there really have been no time to do it since then. But we did 3 Stb after leaving Houston and today it will be 3 Port. We reached Straits of Florida around 5 thirty this morning. A few minutes before 7 o'clock and suddenly, two Brown Boobies started to hunt in front of the boat. Most likely been sleeping on our anchor and they woke up and they threw themselves out over the water to hunt for fresh breakfast.  I have lined up for my sign off on Bahamas. I will stay on Bahamas, Grand Bahama Island and then fly to Nassau for some bird watching before flying to Panama, and I have lined up a bird watching tour for 4 or 5 days in Panama. Then I will be off for 10 to 14 days of bird watching in Costa Rica before flying home to Bangkok, so I was in a good mood. I was in my office doing the tank inspection report when I got to know that the office had forgot to apply for visa for the on signers so all my sign off plans was down the drain. +++++++++++++++
Saturday 7th of November 2024 and we are approaching Freeport when I come on the bridge 4 o'clock in the morning. The Surveyor is coming onboard 12 minutes after 6 o'clock when we start drifting 3 km west of the terminal.
He is here to take samples and he leave us again after an hour or so. They have found a Chief Officer from India and they will try to get him here on Monday. So, my bird watching tour is on again and I will try to find hotels and flights. Nassau to Panama City is full until 27th of December so I might skip the bird watching in Nassau and fly from Grand Bahama Island. We were drifting south when I come on the bridge quarter to 4 in the afternoon. We are drifting towards south and 10 minutes before 4 we started the engine to go back towards the Buckeye Terminal in the north. Starting the engine and we must have startled a Brown Booby, suddenly, there was a Brown Booby in front of the ship. The bird disappeared and I suspected that the bird landed on the anchor again. At least it looked like it. Suddenly the bird was gone and I had not seen it leaving. I asked the watch man to bring the explosion proof camera in my office and to go try to see if the Brown Booby was sitting on the anchor, and if it was, try to get some pictures.  Booby Brown
 Booby Brown
 Booby Brown on the anchor
Picture by Mr. Ashly
 Booby Brown on the anchor
Picture by Mr. Ashly
 Booby Brown on the anchor
Picture by Mr. Ashly
I got some pictures from the bridge and I have pictures to attach to my eBird report. We are steaming north towards the Buckeye Terminal when they call us. Proceed to the pilot area to get the pilot. We are waiting for 2 hours before the pilot board us and we have all fast at jetty #8 at 20:00. I will sign off and I decided to complete my eBird trip report: New York to Houston / Houston to Bahamas after having changed Jacksonville to Bahamas. Next trip report will hopefully be Bahamas, Panama and Costa Rica
I went to bed around midnight, we are waiting for the lab analyse of the cargo before we can start discharging. The lab here on Bahamas have burnt down so they have to send the samples to Florida. So, it will take longer to get the result. +++++++++++++++
Sunday 8th of November 2024 and they called me at 5 o'clock and we started to discharge at 05:18. We will do two line displacement before we can start the bulk discharge.
I managed to book my hotels and flights in the evening. • Freeport, Bahamas - 3 nights and two days of birding • Flight from Freeport to Nassau • Nassau, Bahamas - 2 nights and one day of birding • Flight from Nassau to Panama City • Panama City - 5 nights and four days of birding • Flight Panama City to San Jose, Costa Rica • 13 days in Costa Rica - Hotels to be confirmed • Flying to New York • New York - One night at airport hotel • Flight from New York to Singapore • Singapore - One night at airport hotel • Landing in Bangkok 4 January 2025 So, I was a wee bit excited when I went to bed way after my normal bed time at 8 thirty. The new Chief Officer will arrive tomorrow afternoon and it is the same guy that relieved me on Nord Superior back at the shipyard in China earlier this year.  +++++++++++++++
Monday 9th of December 2024 and I have completed all the paper work for the new Chief Officer. Just the last paper work when we completed the discharging. Then we will do the pre loading checks. And of course, if we start to load before I go home, the paper work with the Loading Master before loading.
New Chief Officer and the new Electrician came onboard early afternoon and as it look now, we will not start loading until tomorrow. So, there is a lot of time to familiarize himself before I leave tomorrow morning. We had completed discharging just before lunch time and we completed paper work in the late afternoon. Now they have to circulate the cargo in the shore tank for 4 hours before they can take the samples. Their laboratories burnt down 3 weeks ago so they have to send the samples to USA for analyse. The airport close when it is getting dark so we expect the result late tomorrow night and if the test pass, we can reload the cargo as gasoline, now for Jacksonville as New York is cancelled. +++++++++++++++
Tuesday 10th of December 2024 and I woke up around 2 o'clock in the morning, excited for my up coming bird watching adventure? Nah, maybe, but most likely because I sent to bed early yesterday evening.
Plenty time to pack my bags and we will leave at 7 o'clock when the launch come to pick us up.  2nd Engineer get a bonus hug
I am in the CCR at 6 o'clock and I discover that someone have taken my safety shoes. What the  ? Who the duck? I was not in a very good mood, going from good mood to bad mood in zero point one.
I kept my boilersuit and safety shoes in my office as we are required to have long arms passing through the terminal when we come ashore with the service launch. Buckeye Terminal has a boat going from the terminal to the sea berths every hour or so. This is a free boat and the crew use it when they go ashore. The boat will be here at 7, and then it was “leaving the terminal at 7” and it was way after 7 when we spotted the boat, and the boat drove past us. The boat is full of people and they are going to the sea berth next to us.  More hugs before leaving the ship
I was getting hungry and our Trainee OS came back, he had been for breakfast as he had got hungry while waiting for the boat. I went in to the mess room and I had some black Danish bread  and a freshly made bun.
I could see that the boat was coming our way when I was back on deck with my bread. I grabbed a DIET drink from my bag in the net with our luggage. I had half the bun remaining that I was chewing on when I jumped onboard the service launch. Five of us a signing off and as soon as we were on the launch they lowered our luggage and we brought out the luggage from the net sling in a few seconds.  Our luggage and my diet drinks
 Our luggage and my diet drinks
    We took off leaving m/t Nord Swift behind. Coming ashore and we had to wait for our van for a couple of minutes. They had started with the Christmas decorations along the roads going in to  Freeport. Christmas is on coming, and I will hopefully be in the Costa Rican jungle on Christmas, far away from any Christmas carols.
They dropped me at Castaways Resort and Suites after 10 minutes or so before the rest of the off signers continued to the airport. 9 o'clock in the morning, but it was not any problem to check in. There was a mini mart at the hotel, but no milk so I have to walk across the road to the shopping centre to buy milk for my tea. But first a shower and a quick power nap. Checking internet for bird watching hotels in Costa Rica, I am booked at Arte de Plumas birding lodge for 5 nights. But I need a room for my first 5 nights and my last 3 nights. I managed to get a room at Hotel de Montaña Suria and I saved a couple of hundred dollars. The first hotel only had 1 room left for 180 US$ per night. I wrote an email to ask if they had air port shuttle service. I got a quick reply. I went online to book a room, but now it was fully booked and I was getting worried. Do I have to sleep on the road side? But I found Hotel de Montaña Suria and now I only need to find a room for the last few days, and it should be close to the airport. I went to have a look for a grocery shop and I stopped in the reception to ask for shops having shirts in a manly size. She did not know, but she suggested the shopping mall down the road.  View from my room
 The room is OK, but I have stayed in better rooms
 The room is OK, but I have stayed in better rooms
 The room is OK, but I have stayed in better rooms
My room, well, I have for sure stayed at better hotel rooms, but it is OK, but for this price I had expected a wee bit more. But I will only sleep, I am just happy that I have managed to get a room and a bird guide for 2 days before going to Nassau. The lady in the reception had pointed me in the opposite direction from what I thought was the shopping center. She told me to walk towards the Christmas decoration. I can report 4 Feral Pigeons during my walk towards the RayVin Mall. The mall, well, what a disappointment. It was more like a bazar and my hope to find any shirts disappeared very quickly. One girl was leaving when I arrived and she said hi. I stopped to look at a shop selling mens clothes, but it was closed. The girl came to ask what I was looking for. Turned out that she was the owner and she would be back in 5 minutes, she was just going to deliver a suit. I was back after 5 minutes, during this time I had covered the whole RayVin Mall.  Christmas at RayVin Mall
The girl only had one shirt in my size and she will cut of the long sleeves and I will come back tomorrow to pick up the shirt. I ask if she know any grocery store and there is a mini mart across the road from my hotel so I walked there to buy some water and milk so I can make tea. The girl will look around to see if she can find any manly sized shirts for tomorrow. She will call around to see what she could find. She had sent her last manly sized shirts to a shop on Nassau a couple of days ago. My hotel, it is for sure not looking very nice looking at it from the road. There is a high-rise apartment building across the road from my hotel. The building is abandoned and it looks to start falling apart. and there are signs with pictures of condos and “SOON TO COME” So the building will soon be gone.  I walk past my hotel
 I walk past my hotel
 Abandoned building across from my hotel
 Abandoned building across from my hotel
I cross the road and I end up at the shopping center. There is a liquor store, some gaming place and a pizzeria. I am only interested in the mini mart and I pull to open the door, closed. I tried to push the button next to the door and I was buzzed inside. Lucky that I brought my last Pepsi with me ashore this morning, there was no Pepsi to be seen in the mini mart. But they had milk and water so I can enjoy my tea in the room. Some orange juice and I was soon on my way back to the hotel.  Shopping area
 Shopping area
I had problem to pay, my DANSK BANK card is cancelled by the bank. I bought my ticket with Singapore Airlines and the purchase was flagged as suspicious and my card was cancelled. Not the  first time this happen, and that is even though I have to approve the purchase with CR code and bank ID.
So it took me a while before I could pay for my stuff, my third card worked and I could grab my stuff. It was very embarrassing, but now I have milk to last me until I fly to Nassau and I will hopefully not have to come back again.
Leaving the shop and I walk back to Castaways Resort and Suites across the road. And the hotel does not look any better from the front side. Crossing the road and by now the late afternoon traffic is getting heavy, and there is also a big roundabout outside the hotel. Making a cup of tea first thing that I enjoy with a brie cheese.  Castaways Resort and Suites
 Castaways Resort and Suites
My Guide will come to pick me up at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. I look forward to the tour around Grand Bahama Island, two days should be more than enough to cover the whole island. You just need to click HERE to find out everything about that adventure. 
    
  You are visitor no.
To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011
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Species lifer: First time that someone observes a species in their life
Photo lifer: First time that someone photographs a species in their life
Audio lifer: First time that someone audio records a species in their life
Naturalized: Exotic population is self-sustaining, breeding in the wild, persisting for many years, and not maintained through ongoing releases (including vagrants from Naturalized populations). These count in official eBird totals and, where applicable, have been accepted by regional bird records committee(s).
Provisional: Either: 1) member of exotic population that is breeding in the wild, self-propagating, and has persisted for multiple years, but not yet Naturalized; 2) rarity of uncertain provenance, with natural vagrancy or captive provenance both considered plausible.
Escapee: Exotic species known or suspected to be escaped or released, including those that have
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