Spirit of Resolution - GC Ship

After weeks in Australia working on a ship and then around the coast of New Zealand on the Cement Ship I then did some time on a type of ship that I never thought I would work on. During my interview for my Spirit of New Zealand Cadetship I told them that they would never see me on a container ship. Well March 2007 I worked on the Pacifica Coastal General Cargo Ship the Spirit of Resolution, the sister ship to the Spirit of Competition. My time spent on this ship was on the bridge doing the 12-4 watches at sea and on deck doing the 10-4 cargo watches. Long days that ended in spending hours doing my cargo assignment before getting off to sleep. This was an awesome opportunity to see what its like to work on a small G.C. container ship. The Spirit of Resolution is only 100m in length so she just felt like any other ship I had worked on; only on this one the 2nd Mate was 23 years old and not that tall either. Because he was young the Master put me on watch with him. So we had some really nice long chats at 2am in the morning on the bridge, which made the 12-4 watch go really fast.

Golden Bay - Cement Ship

The Golden Bay Cement Ship works around the coast of New Zealand. Who would have thought that working on a small bulk carrier on the NZ coast would be so interesting? and the question you have to ask yourself is: "How is it possible to transport dry cement on ships, isn’t cement allergic to water, wont it react in a bad way if coming in contact with the sea?" well we will just have to take the risk and try it.I joined the MV Golden Bay in March 2007 for 5 weeks. The first ship that I had worked on that wasn’t a ferry and didn’t carry containers.The first ship that I have ever worked on that all the crew, every single crew member loves their job and loves working on that ship. The crew do a roster time of 1 month on board and then 1 month off. I did a month on board with 'A' swing. The crew ranged from an ex-maritime school lecturer, ex-Master from the MV Doulos, My granddads old school rugby buddy, ex-cruise ship engineers, and merchant navy guys. A total crew capacity of 17.

Tasmanian Achiever - Toll Australia Roro Ferry

Tasmanian Achiever is a Toll Shipping Ro Ro Ferry that runs between Melbourne and Burnie in Tasmanian. I went on board this ship for 6 weeks in January/February in 2007.My time here was really hard to start off with. I mean I am used to working on Rail Ferries where there are heaps and heaps of people, not much time to rest and uniform worn on the bridge at all times. This ship was a crew of 17, all really older than me; one guy was in his 30's and the rest, well yeah... But overall they were a great bunch of guys. We had a great Captain - a really nice guy, really good ship handler and has heaps pf stories from when he first went to sea. It was great to be able to plan working in a structured sort of way with highly skilled and talented Officers.

Inter Islander Ferries - 2nd Mates Cadetship

ARATERE - The Ferry with the best stability on Cook Strait.

ARATERE - The Ferry with the best stability on Cook Strait.This is where my career at sea really starts on big ships. A 3 years and 6 months cadetship that I will finish in 2 years and 4 months. Started on August 1st 2005. Joined the Arahura for 3 weeks before switching to the Aratere and sailing to Brisbane-Australia for 9 weeks for drydock. It was such an awesome experience being involved with a drydock for a ship that large instead of just a little sailing ship.All the crew were divided into 2 groups. Deck crew and engineers and split into 2 hotels on different sides of the Brisbane Toll Bridge. We were in the Garden City Travel Lodge Hotel.Ii had come to realise what I had stepped into, a male dominated environment that requires you to be strong within yourself, be confident, be able to stand up and put yourself forward and be willing to start at the bottom - hang in there and work your way up. Hearing all the stories of other females that have tried and are now ashore with kids and families this kind of showed me that yes I can do this, I can make a mark for future woman seafarers.Arriving in Australia to my surprise there were 200 workers waiting for us. All guys that love their beer and girlsthis made me more determined to make a stand for woman and not give in to my surroundings.

I spent most of the Drydock learning as much as I could while the ship was out of the water. Learning about the removal of the Port Rudder, Propeller and Shaft and the tests to be done on them, to sand blasting and re-painting/anti-fouling the ships hull, end-for-ending the life boat davit wires, ripping out the cinema and doing a new renovation, re-writing manuals and procedures for the bridge navigation equipment, inspecting the ballast and fresh water tanks, observing the chock fast being poured in to hold the new gear bow in place and so much more...Having experienced a drydock at the start of my cadetship and before I had started school was a huge advantage on my behalf when I did start school. Having seen and been apart of a drydock has been the best ever start to my career that I could have ever wished for.

Pacific Link voyage to Fiji

March 2005 I joined the Pacific Link - a medical missionary ship for 9 weeks as Mate up in Fiji. http://www.marinereach.com/ a medical ship involved with YWAM and outreaching to the Islands. My time on this ship changed my life completely and has set me up for life. Starting the journey on April 1st, we sailed from Tauranga in New Zealand; I was the 2nd mate for 6 days until we reached Fiji. This was my first experience of taking a 4 hour watch by myself on an ocean crossing. The sextant and calculator got a bit of a work out and I bet it was pleased when we reached Fiji to give it a bit of rest. We arrived in Lautoka 6 days later on the 6th April. Arriving DTS students met us at the wharf waiting in anticipation and excitement for the little ship that they were about to spend their next 2 weeks aboard, and call it home. The first islands that we were to visit were the Southern Lau Group. There a few islands in the southern Lau group. The first one was Matuku Island. Such a beautiful small island. Second was Totoya after stopping in at Suva for a replenishment of stores and fuel. Following Totoya we proceeded on towards Moala Island. That’s where the stories begin. Back to Suva for more replenishments and Student changes. Before heading to Levuka on Ovalau Island, the id Capital of Fiji. From Ovalau Island we finished up there and voyaged back to Lautoka for the DTS student’s graduation and crew change. Whooa! That was a lot. Now I will explain more in detail.

It all Started on the Spirit of New Zealand

Hey well where do I start. I guess ill start from the beginning. Not from Adam and Eve, come forward a bit - the birth and death of Jesus, no further than that. Forward to 1986. That’s when I was born. 16 years later in august 2002 I went on the Youth Development Sailing Ship the Spirit of New Zealand. I absolutely loved the 10 days on the ship that I went back on during the Americas Cup for 2 months. this was such an awesome experience as I was working everywhere from on deck, in galley, up the mast, stowing and setting sails, waitressing, bartending, steering the ship, navigating, cleaning and just about everything. It was awesome. Then in March I had to go back to school and start 6th form. Spent most of 6th form working on the Sealink - Subritzky ferry from Auckland to great barrier island. This was going experience. Working on the bridge, observing Masters Ship handling, and cargo operations. as well as working as a volunteer on the Maritime Museums ships the Ted Ashby and Breeze and the Soren Larsen. From day sails, to overnight voyages and general long hard days of maintenance.January 10th 2004 I started as a cadet on the Spirit of New Zealand. This was a 13 month cadetship. It started out really hard, I mean come on I was only 17 years old when I started. Most of the trainees were older than me.