Lloyd’s List- Lloyd’s List Intelligence: data snapshot
- A case for special treatment
- US heads for a watershed year on ballast water legislation
- Ignorance is not bliss for shipping
- Stashed cash can be a source of Greek hope
- A chill wind blows across the Elbe
- VLCC newbuilding deliveries hit 36-year high in January
- Bulk carrier demand boosted by 20% rise in Chinese coastal trade last year
- Central Shipping orders product tankers at STX Dalian yard
- RS Platou Markets downgrades a third of shipping stocks
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Fuelling the crew
Our ship's stewardess - Svetlana Kuznetsova
Working in these conditions requires a serious amount of energy, which is provided twice a day from the galley.
The crew and officer meals are prepared by the cook, Igor, with the help of the stewardess, Svetlana. Between them they prepare about 50 meals a day, every day for the ten week tour. The food is what I would call wholesome. It is on one level tasty but also basic and straightforward. Ideal to fuel 25 men who are out working in the arctic conditions.
The days start with a breakfast of porridge, although it was replaced today with a plate of fried eggs and bacon. There’s a soup made each day, and available for lunch and dinner; a thick broth of vegetable with meat, or fish. This could be a meal in itself. Though there is then a second plate. This could be a lamb shank with rice, a roasted pepper stuffed with rice and mince, or a casserole with bulgur or potato. My sensitive English palette though drew the line when I was served braised ox-tongue with mashed potato. The mashed potato was divine.
Every meal includes a jug of what I was told was dried fruit, mainly apple, compot. Though to me it tasted more like prune juice.
Today’s lunch was a bean and vegetable soup followed by fried halibut with prawn and cucumber salad.
The cook - Igor Solovco
There’s no weight watchers here. This is food for a working ship, not food for lengthy socialising over. Meal times in the officer mess are short and functional. They come in, eat, talk a bit and then leave, many of them chewing raw onion and garlic with their soup, and eating from the ever present basket of bread. The raw garlic and onion is another thing I quietly declined to indulge in, but the enjoyment of the crew makes me wonder if I am missing something.
If you have a multi million pound asset to run, it pays to fuel the humans that have the arduous job of running it.
The galley is typical of a ship’s galley. Everything is bolted down, the frier is levered to safely pour food out, the pans are secured on an industrial stove and large work areas are made of stainless steel. The tiled floor can be hosed clean every day and down a set of stairs is a well stocker cold provision room.