Arrival in Freetown

On the website of Mercy Ships is a nice slideshow of our arrival in Freetown, Sierra Leone. In it is a photo with Andre .. just cute!

http://www.mercyships.org/blog/entry/the-africa-mercy-arrives-in-sierra-leone/#

Lia

Sail Activities and Arrival in Freetown

Arrival in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Sail Olympics Team Samarai!
"This is a drill ... this is a drill"

The Sail to Sierra Leone

The sail to Freetown, Sierra Leone was, thank God, very smooth without any major problems. There was still a lot of tweaking, adjusting etc to be done at the new engines, which kept Ananda real busy.

There was not a lot of sea life but we did manage to spot some great dolphin action. We had some great worship times on the bow and we crossed the equator.

Hello Cape Town

We stopped in Cape Town for a brief visit. What a beautiful city! We were docked right at the V&A Waterfront.

Goodbye Durban

At the beginning of February we finally sailed out of Durban, South Africa to make our way to Sierra Leone, our next field of service for the next 10 months.

Goodbye Appelsbosch, Hello Home

After 5 months of living in a remote place called Appelsbosch, a college campus that had been empty for a long time (about 1 1/2 hour outside Durban, South Africa), we moved back to the ship end January.

So many thing have been achieved during our time in Shipyard that it is almost impossible to list all..therefore a few things;

Replacement of 6 old, generators with 4 super efficient, more economical and environmentally friendly brand new MAN generators;

Replacement of 2 old and unreliable air conditioning SABRO units with 2 shiny new and reliable Carrier units;

New engine room piping for cooling salt water, fire mains, heavy fuel, diesel fuel, fresh water, etc;

Replacement of engine controls in engine room and bridge;

7km of new cables between engines and bridge;

Modification of electrical switchboard;

New shelving in Deck 6 and Deck 2 food stores;

All lifeboats, life-rafts, and lifeboat davits serviced and all cables renewed;

Elevator converted from manual to electronic, with fancy new controls;

All fire-fighting and SCUBA equipment repaired/serviced;

New Mercy Ships logo on funnel and along side;

Pool modified with installation of wave catchers;

More sprinklers installed in cargo hold;

Damaged windows replaced with new ones;

Main engines overhauled;

Tons and tons of provisions loaded;

All Land Rovers and Nissans repaired and serviced;

Ananda worked onboard during the week and came to Appelsbosch during the weekend to be with the family. We are glad that we are back together onboard reunited not only as a family but also with the rest of our ship family!