This was my second time service with Mercy Ships. This time, I was going to be on Africa Mercy, sailing from madagascar to South Africa. Just like the last time, my role onboard was a Firefighter, with the responsibility of quality control and training of an organisation of 20+ firefighters on board. In parrallel with that, I was going to be part of the navigational watch which includes partaking in deck operations.
Prior to stepping on aboard, I explored Madagascar a bit, landing in Antananarivo and then going to the West coast to see the Baobab Avenue and the coastal village of Morondava. Then, I made my way to Toamasina, and came on board just in time before the Christmas celebrations more or less halted the preparation work for the voyage.
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| Lena Wilderäng, on board Africa Mercy. Dec 2025 - Jan 2026 |
It was great to be on board Mercy Ships, as I throroughly enjoyed the previous time I served - a month I've done in Cadiz and Freetown, Sierra Leone. I was looking forward to the sail, the hard work, the late nights and early mornings.
This time, there was another person that had the same responsibilities as myself, but he was wishing to change positions, so he took the chance to transfer to another department. Just shortly after I came, we had a fire alarm with smoke development and it reminded everyone about the seriousness of the tasks. Now, this time it was OK, the cause was found quickly, the engines were switched off and root cause rectified. But it gave an opportunity to train "for real" and also showed a few areas that could pose fire hazards in the future.
Just before departure, there was an accident where a colleague got badly injured. We had worked together on Global Mercy, and shared the ride from Tana to Toamasina and to the ship. The emergency teams worked swiftly, and he was rushed off to a hospital and then transferred further with a medevac to get some specialized help. I arrived early at the scene and helped out with receiving the ambulance, who came from the local healthcare.
Luckily, there were no other serious issues before and during the sail. We did the drills, the stowaway search and the rest of the departure related tasks needed to be done. No show stoppers, so we could focus on reaching Durban on time. There were only three engines out of four that were functional, so the ship was slower than normal. But the weather was good and we had good going.
I spent several hours per day at the helm. With a tonnage of 16,572 GT, this ship is a big girl. Originally a railway ferry from Denmark, she rights herself up pretty quickly in most seas. When it comes to steering, there is of course a lot of latency, so one needs to get used to that. A fair bit of the steering hours were at night, and sometimes I'd go for steering on instruments only just to practice sailing with poor visibility - or without instruments, to practice sailing when technology fails. I also got to instruct other crew.
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| At the helm of Africa Mercy |
I had quite a lot of free time some of the days (for instance around Christmas when nobody seemed to work), so I made sure to do some courses to formalize the skills I already had, and to learn new ones. So I've done a full list of maritime training courses including crane operations.
The practical work included being part of the mooring and anchor parties while leaving the dock and arriving. The process is in principle the same as with smaller craft - but of course, the gear is much larger. Also, since the crew is consisting of a lot of people with different backgrounds, training from different countries and different skippers, the actual handling of the gear may differ greatly. On the other hand, it's definitely not my job to instruct unless told so, and so I took this as a learning opportunity. The fact is, you cannot expect everyone to act in a uniform way unless you continuosly train them in that way. It was exactly the same with the firefighting - to get everyone on the same page, you have to put hours into training basic stuff together and delivering feedback, making sure people understand why it's important to do stuff in a certain way.
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| Grabbing some rest and some photos between mooring operations |
The organisation culture differed quite a lot from Global Mercy. I an guessing that it depends a lot on who is working on board at the moment, as well as what the organisation has been focusing on with this particular ship.
The captain was an experienced Dutch sailor, and it was great to get his perspective on sailing in action. My colleagues were from many different countries, so it was interesting to share knowledge and explore the different culture takes.
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| View of the ship's deck from the funnel tower |
During the sail, a lot of crew experienced sea sickness. Surely there was a bit of wave action - but as I am used to much smaller boats, normally under sails, this was barely noticeable. The sea sickness took its toll on the staff, and many people could simply not work. I made sure to help out wherever I could. One of the crisis areas was the galley, where people were thrown around in a confined space and felt very queasy very fast. Me and a few others made sure to spend some time there helping them to prepare food, because otherwise we would just get sandwiches for dinner...
After a few days, the wave action was calmer and people got a bit more used. Also, there was a huge improvement of the skills of lashing down and securing gear so it does not fly away so easily. Hope this competence stays on board until the next sail.
New Year was spent on board. There was a low-key hangout in the midships area. Me, the captain, and those who had the watch celebrated in the dark and quiet of the bridge. I brought some alcohol free champagne from midships to the bridge, and everyone got a sip. Captain blew the ship's horn at the turn of the midnight, and we got some traffic on the VHF Ch 16 from a cargo ship nearby saying happy new year to all.
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| View of the bow while sailing. A crew memeber is carrying out work |
Anew routine was monitoring the body temperature of all on board as an extra task ordered by the Health department in South Africa. No, nobody had developed a fever and had to be put in quarantine. But if you did not show up, it was almost more serious than that. So there was a bit of searching for some crew that were a bit sleepy because of the sea sickness (and probably the sea sickness medication that also causes drowsiness).
Arrival to Durban was quite interesting, as it's a huge harbour and requires skill and planning. We had a pilot on board and two tugs helping out. It all went well, and finally we could step onto the dock. But not wandering off too far! First, the clearing in procedure had to be done, and then there was more work.
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Africa Mercy, safely alongside the customs dock.
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I stayed on board until just after we arrived. allowing for a couple days of work. Together with a few crew, we headed out to a restaurant in Durban - otherwise, it was not really allowed to roam around in the area. Then, it was a matter of heading straight for the airport from the ship, as the seafarer visa did not allow any travelling around South Africa. Which was really a shame, because I would have loved to see more of this exciting country.
The ship's management was very particular about safety and security while in port, which is great. A local police chief came to do a presentation about the dangers around here, and some points were a bit of an eye-opener. I've been to many dangerous places, including war zones, but there were some new learnings here, that I had never thought about. Changing lanes while passing under bridges at night, not stopping at red lights, never ever stopping to help at traffic accidents... Yes, a bit mind-boggling, especially in connection to the news hedlines around this area which reminded of how real this all is.
I'll definitely go back to this part of the world, hoping to find more adventure and learn more about culture here. Maybe in a smaller sailing boat next time? Time will tell!
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