Captain's Diary: Family On Board “Pacific X-Press”

I am in command of m.v.”Pacific X-Press” from May 2012.  My wife Subitha, and daughter, Stephanie  joined the ship  on June 11,2012, at the port of Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico. They sailed with me for one week. During this time the ship called two ports: Acajutla in El Salvador and Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala.

My daughter’s birthday is on 10th of June. We celebrated the same  at sea on the 13th of June. 

 All Officer’s and the Ratings other than the Watch Keepers attended the party. I am sure for Stephanie this will be a memorable birthday celebration. It all started with following traditions: cutting the birthday cake.  Only thing is our Chief Cook has forgotten to remove it on time from the cold room, and we all had to patiently wait until it thawed and we were able to cut it.

All the Officer’s and Ratings on board are from Sri Lanka.

It took a while for the party to gather momentum. Well, then it was usual drinking, singing and dancing. .. And,  with all the fun they were having, all Officers and Ratings attended the party were alert all the time, bearing in mind that all of us are on board a ship and the ship was at sea. 

Chief Engineer, who likes to dance, opened the floor.  He is a great dancer, too. Well, it was stag-dancing all the way, and I am sure they all missed some female company! 

There is a drum-set made on board by a former Bosun: Roshan Mendis, a Sri Lanka. And, also there was one guitar. The Engine Cadet could do a little bit of rhythm.  But over all singing, mostly Sinhala pop and baila was great. Baila also called Kaffringa is a kind of Portuguese music.  Portuguese had invaded and ruled part Sri Lanka in 1500 century.  These are a part of Portuguese culture that had been induced in Sri Lankans living in Coast al areas. 

The party started at around 7.30 PM and around 10.30 PM I decided say, “Good night and God bless”, and left the party with my wife and daughter. However, as a practice, about ten minutes prior to leaving I informed the Chief Officer and the Chief Engineer and officially handed over further proceedings of the party to them. It was great party! Thanks to Chief Officer and Chief Engineer.

I am very proud to announce that this vessel has a well disciplined and very hard working and reliable set of Officers and Crew. Sri Lanka Officers, and ratings, generally are like that.

Thereafter, it was good and peaceful sailing for my wife and daughter, until effects  of the nearby hurricane changed the sea and wind. My wife was feeling a little bit sick and I advised her to go and get some fresh on a bridge wing. It was about 2200 hours and I too went with her. Oh, it was more than fresh air. The wind speed was about 40 to 45 knots. After little while my wife was feeling good and we proceed to my day room.

They managed to spend a little time out in both ports. Apart from a excellent sea-food dinner, there was the opportunity of listening to good Spanish music provided by a Quartet at the table-side.  It was good show – we all like Spanish music and dancing.