The Blue Banana

Last week, Gumer (pronounced Goomer, don’t ask I’ll tell you another day) and I popped out to the Bay of Gibraltar to undertake a DNV annual performance survey for radio gear on behalf of the vessel owners. Being a low budget refrigeration ship built in Poland, we weren’t expecting much except rust and a lot of communication issues.

The crew were a mixture of Russian, Ukrainian and Polish of varying degrees of seniority from Captain all the way down to Bilge Rat. Now, this vessel was about twenty years old but she was in pretty good shape all round considering the invariably hard life she had led. There were a few issues atop of the superstructure such as the MF/HF radio antennae wasn’t connected to the transceiver which made contacting anything further away than several feet nigh on impossible, and the receiver DSC receiver antennae was a bit worse for wear but I digress.

The crew were a happy lot going about their duties with care and pride, always eager to help and their English was pretty good, certainly better than anything remotely Slavikesque or Balkanlike that I could let roll off my tongue even with a few good vodkas.

I got talking to a few of the guy’s and asked them if they wished to be on a more modern vessel with a bespoke computer room, better SatComms or even a gym as some of the snazzier ships have been festooned with. Their answer was surprising. Yes, they would prefer all the creature comforts to a degree but then they couldn’t have had their beloved bar which they would miss immensely.

You see, Next door to the Captains office and crew mess was a small space devised for drinking and socializing between shifts etc. There was no alcohol (that I could spot!....ha ha) but the whole home built arrangement had been well and truly stamped with the personality o f the Captain and crew throughout the life this vessel had led since its launch in 1990 and indeed made the ship feel at once a home for these lads. Look at the photos, it’s not much but you will see a plethora of bank notes from countries such as Turkey, Malta, Greece, America, Ecuador, Panama, Italy to name a few, uch the same way you would find photos of wives, girlfriends and family in the crew cabins.

No, despite the age of the ship, the cheesy Formica and Vinyl coverings, this bar is a microcosm of life at sea for this vessel and anyone tasked with sailing under her flag of convenience. It’s not much but it’s their home resplendent with the Blue Banana and they love it.