June 7th 2009 - Name Giving

June 7th 2009

Gas trial, double name giving and a launching - busy week !

Last friday (May 29th) the shipyard handed over ship no. 7 to us, which meant that after 9 months, my work came to its final week-long exam last Sunday. Well - not really my work ... the shipyards work and my tough supervision!! It was the start of the gas trial, where the ships cargo plant is tested with real gas. My job during the gas trial is to assist the gas engineers and crew - I don't really have any specific job during the tests, but am kept busy anyway, getting hold of tools and spares and trying to get the shipyard to rectify the small problems which invariably occur. It's nice to see so much work finally come to an end - especially because it all ran fairly smooth this time.

Paula and the girls got together for lunch at Ballentines on Thursday, to say goodbye or - who knows - auf wiedersehen to Hazian. There was a good turnout and I wasn't really neglected, as I was out on the ship at anchorage the whole day anyway. Below a few photos from the Hazian's goodbye lunch.

The gas trial finished on Friday, so TGE (the design office in charge of the basic ship design and detailed cargo plant design) invited us out for dinner at Outback Steakhouse. TGE had 4 people out here for the gas trial, including Ingo and Jorg.

Saturday was a day which had been planned long time in advance. Two of our vessels had to have their names officially given to them and the last vessel in the series was planned to be launched in the afternoon. Lots of business partners and people from the Copenhagen and Singapore Lauritzen offices (my company) had taken the trip to Ulsan to join in the festivities. That meant that I had to wear a tie.... always a problem! My colleague Fernando was kind enough to give me a graphical explanation of how to do a Wilson knot. It did the trick in 5th try !!

We started off in Onsan Harbour where Leonora Kosan was taking a well deserved rest after the gas trial. The guests arrived in a bus from Busan, business cards were swapped, speeches delivered and the champagne bottle broken. After a bit of socializing, the tour of the ship started. It ended with a ribbon shearing ceremony at the bridge and the traditional blowing of the horn. But the horn didn't want to let up again ! It was stuck ......!!

Then back to the shipyard for lunch, more speeches and exchanges of gifts before we continued to the second name giving. This time for Victoria Kosan, which should be delivered in about 6 weeks time. This time the horn worked, but it took about 4 tries to break the bottle of champagne on the hull. Isn't that a bad omen ??? One time the bottle bounced off the hull and came flying back inches from the Godmothers head ....

The last item of the day went 100% according to plan. No 30 second salutes and no bottle-attacks! The launching of the last of our vessels was clock-work. Just to explain a little - the ship is build on a slipway on land. The steel blocks which make up the vessel are placed like Lego bricks on top of several wooden supports. When the steel blocks have been welded together and the vessel will be able to float, the supports which are not on top of small railway wagons are removed, so the vessel is resting entirely on a ... small train, you could say! At the word GO, the brakes are removed, the tug boat gives a little pull and the vessel starts to roll into the water. And the shipyard is paid 20% of their money !!!

Sunday we had auto-invited ourselves for breakfast at Wayne and Teresa's once again. I'm good with auto-invitations! Colin, Jamie, Gokhan and Mari were also there, and we managed to plan out the whole of next week so that we wouldnt spend more than 20 hours without seeing eachother !! A film club was started, yoga sessions and bowling tournaments were organized and next Sunday's breakfast was delegated to ... us!

After breakfast I went for a mtb ride with Ingo and in the evening we hooked up with some colleagues for dinner at .... Ballentines!