As I said at the end of yesterday’s post, I have been struck down with a horrible cold. I guess it’s a bit like the dreaded ‘freshers ‘flu’ that you tend to get with a large number of people coming together from all over the place and living together in close proximity in a large community. I ran out of pills during the night, so this morning I went to see the ship’s doctor. Since I hadn’t actually lost a limb, I was seen by the nurse, who issued me with a ration of paracetamol. This really reminded me that whilst the ship is in port, it’s perfectly easy to pop ashore and go to the shops, but when at sea, it must be completely self-sufficient. Apart from anything else, this is pretty large logistical challenge – there are a lot of mouths to feed, clothes to wash and stuff like that!

Many of the volunteers aboard have not yet sailed on Logos Hope – they joined the ship in Køge. There are daily reminders to begin securing items in cabins and a ship-wide effort to lash down anything large that can move around and cause damage or injury if it gets loose. It’s going to be a whole different environment when the ship is moving about!

Today, there was a follow-up inspection by the surveyor from Lloyds register to check that some issues previously highlighted had been sorted out. One of the bigger (literally) things to sort out was the starboard anchor windlass. It had been discovered that when the brake was let off, the anchor wasn’t able to fall freely into the sea as it should. When the team was trying to fix it, the crane that they need to use to lift bits of it (weighing a couple of tonnes) broke. Late Tuesday night, the team working in the cold and snow completed the re-assembly of the windlass and watched the anchor drop into the sea without hinderance, just as it should.