A Long Journey Towards Saldanha Bay
Deck Cadet, Fahad Faishal Ridoy
MV. AQUA VENTURE’s first destination was to Saldanha Bay, South Africa after my joining onboard. I am deck cadet Fahad Faishal Ridoy, from Bangladesh. The journey started 4th January, 2017. With the fresh new wind of a new day, we started our journey towards a long voyage to South Africa. It was the beginning of my sea career. I was really very excited about this. Through the Yellow Sea we started our journey. Soon I found out the vastness of the sea. Everywhere you see only water is visible. Every crossing ship became a matter of excitement to me.
It was decided that we would be anchoring at Singapore for bunkering. On 14th January we reached Singapore. We dropped our anchor and wait for bunkering to commence. There were so many ships anchored. Planes were flying over our head. We could see the city from far and its tall buildings. At night the lightings from the buildings make the city look more beautiful. On 15th we started our journey again towards South Africa. I knew that this was going to be a long voyage but I didn’t know that this would turn out to be so long.
We were sailing through the Indian Ocean. The life onboard is maintained through a much disciplined manner. Everything has a particular time. At day we do the deck work. And at night I always go to the navigation bridge. At the very beginning I didn’t know that much about the bridge and the maintenance works. But with the help of the crew members I began to learn everything. And the Officers were so co-operative that I really liked to spend time in bridge with them. With their help I am learning a lot.
The food we have onboard is very different from my country food. At the beginning it seemed to me difficult to adjust. But slowly I started to get adjusted. And it’s really an interesting thing for me. I always wanted to know about different countries and coming here I found that it is a great chance for me to get acquainted with Chinese culture.
I feel myself lucky as after joining, I got to experience the Chinese Lunar New Year with some very much friendly people. We had a lot of fun that time. We had different types of food. We played table tennis. It was an amazing time for me.
On 4th of February, we reached Saldanha Bay. It was also the one month completion of my joining onboard. Surroundings were a beauty of nature while we were entering. There were hills around us. Seagulls were flying with the ship. The whole scenario was overwhelmingly beautiful. I was pretty much excited to come into network coverage area, because I will be able to communicate with my family. I did really miss them. On 5th February we went to visit Saldanha bay. Did some shopping. The buildings in the town were very nice. The people were also very good and friendly. This was my first shore leave after joining onboard. It did feel great to have land under your feet after a long month.
On 6th February, after completion of loading cargo we again started our sailing towards China. Beginning the chapter of my life’s second voyage.
