Planned Maintenance

Yesterday i wrote about the engineers busy with their maintenance. On deck we have our maintenance plans as well of course. Every item which is safety related or used for rigging and slinging is certified on board. All shackles, wires, blocks, hooks, you name it, it comes with paperwork. All these certificates describe exactly what kind of working load you can apply safely, where it was made, the grade of steel, etc. But how do you know what shackle belongs to to what certificate?. This is done by numbers stamped in the material. Our medium- and bigger sized shackles have their own color code, so we can see from the bridge what shackles are used. So they are painted and you guessed it right; after three layers of fresh paint nobody can see the numbers anymore. Next week we will arrive in Rotterdam, where all our lifting and rigging appliances will be annually tested and checked. Time for our bosun and his A/B's to clean all our medium sized shackles as you can see on this picture. The bigger towing shackles are needed for the last stretch to Rotterdam so they will do those later. A lot of work, but they won't hesitate a second painting them again if testing is completed. By the way; try to sit like these guys for a couple of hours, I'll bet it will be minutes instead of hours before collapsing.