needle guns and snow showers

The work on board has continued at pace this week and it has been a very noisy place many days.

Many of you will probably have never seen or heard a needle gun going flat out. The needle guns use air pressure to fire multiple steel rods and are very effective at removing old paint from the steel. They make a lot of noise which is particularly bad if it is happening in the main lobby near the ship's switchboard and paging system - check out the video below. The older guy is called Gunnar from Norway. He is here as a project worker and actually taught me all about working on deck on the Doulos when I first joined in 1985! I thought he was old then. He is here for 3 months and must be in his 70's now. A great example.

Friday evening we had a farewell meal for 2 of our ship family. Heather and I are ship parents to a group of 7 young people and 2 of them are leaving in the next week so we got together to say goodbye. They are a great bunch and we meet each week to have fun and do a whole range of activities. This picture was taken at Christmas.

This week I have been trying to get more exercise and have been out for several long walks. This morning, Heather went for a 5 mile run and rest of us all cycled alongside. It was the furthest the kids have ever been on their bikes but they did well.

We just got back before the snow showers started. It is quite funny when you have people from the caribbean and other tropical places that don't see snow. Even though it didn't lie, they were all excited and out dancing around in it.

We had a group of 30 youngsters came down this weekend from Copenhagen. They were all working away today including this group out washing the decks in the snow.

It's Liam's birthday on Monday so he has been getting excited for a week already. A full report and pictures on that to follow.

Our blog goes global

One of the most exciting things we have seen in the past couple of weeks is how many people are starting to read this blog right across the world. Thanks to the wonders of Google Analytics, I can see that since the start of the year we have had visits from 25 countries on 6 continents. So welcome to our blog if you are reading this anywhere from Chile to Japan. Please say hi using the comments section below, we'd love to know who you are.
This week we are having a lot of discussions about what happens when we leave Kiel. We hope the ship will sail from here on 24th April and head to a drydock in Sweden. That depends on whether we have received a generator onboard that is coming from India. The main reason for the drydock is to cut a hole in the side and load the generator. We should know in the next couple of weeks if we will get that in time. Then we hope to go to Copenhagen for a couple of months to complete the outfit works.
We are getting excited about a team of 12 coming from our church in Edinburgh on 9th Feb to work on board for a week. I am planning to take some time out to get alongside and help them get into the work.
Liam is getting very excited about his birthday on Monday, 4th. We have been planning what form his party should take and of course it will always be difficult to get it right so as not to upset some kid somewhere.
Logos 2 is getting ready to sail to the Caribbean next week. They loaded 40 tonnes of food and provisions and 300 pallets of books over the weekend. We hope everyone needed to sail will be in place by next week so she can sail on 6th.
That's all for today - remember to say hi if you are reading this for the first time.