The love and hate for drydocks!

Being on board of a ship in the midst of a refurbishment phase right now, I realize once again: Most people just shake their heads, when I say I LOVE DOCKINGS.

Especially when we are right in the middle of one. People just can't wait to get back into operation mode. So I'm often alone with my passion for this nerve-wrecking, life-shortening, hair-greying construction times.

But it is such an opportunity
Dry docks are a fantastic opportunity to get a ship in shape.

• The possibility to tackle maintenance and repair works that were pending for months or even years. As soon as the guests are off the ship, we can start to work. Loud, deconstructive, dirty and with little respect for the "guests" - us workers.
• The chance to see people from the industry, that you haven't seen in years. Or since last dry dock. And the crew that knows their ship and what "the lady"
  Treeus.

The special effects during refurbishment times:

Situations change on a regular basis, even hourly:

• The gangway can change its location suddenly and you need some time to find your way out.
• The ship needs to be moved to/from the dock and you lose a day, waiting for water to come or disappear in the dock
• Cranes are not working when you need them most, because it is too windy, the crane is broken, or you just don't have the operators or riggers.
• Your normal way from the cabin in the morning, is absolutely inaccessible at lunch time, because some refurbishment works just turned the area into a full-blast construction site.
• Complete areas or fire zones are shut-off and you need to find a detour over two decks.
• Whatever wall or ceiling panel you remove, hatch you open or floor plate you lift - you never find what you expect and were hoping for.
• When you finally get to lunch or dinner time, you might need to figure out in which area the restaurant/mess room is today.
• You are racing against surrealistic time lines - and make it anyway.
• You catch yourself hoping, that someone else will be the reason for the ship departure to be delayed. Anyone else but just not you and your team!
• Continuous fights with and between yard, contractors, ship, project managers and still call it cooperation. Latest after finishing all and sharing about a full success on social media.
• 24 hours ago, every deck looked like a war field. And almost overnight, all areas are nice and sexy and guest ready.

But to make it even more fun, on a dally basis, you re dealing with

• changing your cabin on a regular basis
• no tresh water for hours and/or days in a row
• no toilets, when you already struggle due to the one-sided diet
• no heating when you are docking in Norway
• no cooling when you are docking in banamas
• no AC and often sleeping with open cabin doors
• DIack-out, when you need to use all kind or electrical tools
• no working air, when all your tools are air-driven

And all this, whilst you are working 25 nours a day
But you keep in shape and lose a kilo or ten during just a couple of weeks

But, the reality is..

I never feel more alive than during these "dry dock wars".
And yes, I admit, even I have moments where I want to go home and just sleep for 2 weeks straight.
But it is usually not, when I'm exhausted and dog-tired. It's when these fresh people start appearing on board: Entertainers, dancers, guest relations, medical teams… all shiny and full of excitement to welcome guests again. They appear so neat and cultivated. Something I haven't been or seen in weeks.

They seem like from another planet. And somehow, there is no way, that we will have any common topics we can talk about right now.

THAT is the moment when I want to go nome.
And sleep.
For about 3 days.
And after those 3 days, I'm already hoping to have a next refurbishment project soon. ©

Let me know your feelings for dry docks.
Hope to see some love, too.

Fair winds to all of you - Stay save and enjoy what you do!