Voyaging around the beautiful New Zealand Coast...

Working on a product tanker for 9 weeks on the 4-8 watch your my body clock had to adjust to a daily start of 0330. Taking down a piece of marmite on toast and black coffee, I now have my kick to keep me awake and alert for the next 4 hours. Whether it is on bridge watch in uniform or cargo watch in overalls, I would now be the sole deck officer in charge for the next 4 hours.Such a peaceful feeling being on the bridge of a ship for the sunrise each morning, a nice way to start the day. And then to top off a hard day at work I get to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the sunset each evening. Oh and people say life is hard and work isn’t fun. Well I’m happy to say I love my life and my career. It has its moments but the joys out weigh the downtimes. This photo is taken from the bridge of the Kakariki when I was on watch one evening. The voyage was when we were heading to Botany Bay in Australia. Beautiful westerly winds and sunset. That’s the deck of the Kakariki at the bottom of the photo. A pretty large product tanker. She carriers products such as PMS, RMS, AGO, HFO, LFO, JET and Bitumen, various grades of each. In short I call the products premium, regular, diesel, Ferry Fuel, Skinny fuel and Plan Juice... :-)My times served on the tankers were great. I have some great memories from the 4-8 watches. Places visited and times on board with the crew. No desire to pursue a career on tankers though. I need to have people around me who I can talk to. I’m not anti-social, far from it. So cruise ships and ferries is more my seen. And having other Woman around me to will be so great.