Just a quick one today because I don't want to spend too much time on the computer.

It's been another busy couple of days. Yesterday, we thought we'd lost someone over the side. Someone reported hearing a splash at night time, so we have to account for everyone. It was done really quickly and smoothly and fortunately we haven't lost anyone. It was probably a dolphin or something.

We've seen plenty of wildlife out here. The other day I saw a humped-back whale, which is something of a rarity. And yesterday there was a pod of about 100 dolphins, some were doing flips and somersalts. One of the strangest things I've seen was a sail fish. I could have watched that all day.

Unfortunately we become infested with Black African crickets. They are all over the upperdeck making that cricket noise that is incessant all day and night. They are big buggers and I really don't like them! It makes running interesting trying to avoid standing on them so that they don't crunch under your trainers. And they've started jumping at people which is really freaky! It's not so nice to go and sit on the upperdeck now. We've been back at sea for over a week now and there is no sign of them dying out. If anything they are getting more numerous, probably being blown/flown in from the nearby river.

MP3 player still not working and today my office computer died. I'm a good person and don't deserve this bad luck. I must have pissed someone off in a previous life.

I said it wouldn't be long and it won't. Just one thing to say and that's tonight is quiz night and BBQ on the upperdeck although I might give it a wide berth (see above).

So I hope you are all well and taking it easy. Let me know what you think of my ramblings as well - I want to beat the Presidents Desk for popularity!!!

Bye :)

Hello again :)

I can't believe that it's nearly two weeks since we sailed! It feels more like two months!

Anyway, we're alongside in sunny Dakar, Senegal. The weather is absolutely baking, humidity is high and the smell is awful. My tan is very, very slow in coming on. I spent yesterday at the pool in one of the hotels and my skin is so pale I think that the sun reflects off it rather than absorb it! Not even a tiny bit of sunburn. I suppose that's a good thing though, what with skin cancer on the rise and all that.

Dakar is not great. It's not safe, certainly not for a girl or by yourself. I wouldn't recommend this as a holiday destination. Like I said, I went to one of the hotels yesterday, which was alright actually. Fairly peaceful, not being hassled by the locals and nice surroundings and amenities. Unfortunately we had to get a taxi back to the ship. If you can call it that! The windscreen was cracked, there were no seatbelts and it looked like it had just got out of an Indy 500 race. And the locals have no concept of safe driving, give way or even stop. A hair raising 30 minute journey. At least we weren't held at gunpoint by our taxi driver. Not like some of the lads the other day!

Today, five of us risked walking into town to see what was there. You have to keep your wits about you. One of the locals will tag along with you and act as a guide, take you to his family's shop and get rid of other people who pester you. He's blantantly a con and just after money, but when he is saying to watch out for pickpockets then you listen to what he says. We had all sorts pestering us. Kids, women selling bracelets, men selling 'Okley' sunglasses claiming they were genuine. He didn't know what I was on about when I pointed out the spelling mistake. There was raw meat in the street, the stench was awful and you had to be careful that you didn't get knocked down. One guy 'gave' me a necklace claiming it would keep me safe. When I gave him money for it he said that he didn't want it because he was insulted. So insulted was he, that he took the money and said he was going to pray for me and that he would be right back. Needless to say, I never saw him again and I was £1 lighter. I don't mind though because I knew what he was doing and £1 to me is nothing. I was glad to get back on board.

I've not even been running here because it's too dangerous. I've had to make do with doing my own thing on the flight deck.

It's actually been a pretty crap week really. I had a major falling out with my best friend on board. He leaves soon and I was trying to give him a kick up the backside and get him to sort his life out. I really want the best for him and I know that he can do anything that he wants to do, but he's a bit down and doesn't see it that way. We'd had a few drinks and I said something that I didn't realise he'd told me in confidence - a misunderstanding. He said some very nasty things, but I didn't react and let him know how much that hurt. I was so gutted that we had fallen out and I didn't want to lose his friendship. I pestered him all the next day and again got some very harsh, nasty words, but I thought that if I wanted that friendship back then I would have to work on it. So we finally talked and sort of made up. We're talking now, although it's different. I think that things may return to normal eventually - his friendship means a lot to me. Being away from home affects people in different ways. Especially when you come to a place like this and you can't even go for a walk in peace and quiet.

I'm going to leave this for now, because I don't think you want to read masses of text. We sail tomorrow and no doubt I'll be as busy as ever but I'll do my best to post a message soon.

Be happy :)

Oops sorry I've not posted in a while. I've been working nights (and quite a few hours in the day) and I've really not had the time or the energy to log on. I've just emailed home for the first time since we sailed. My mum and dad will be worrying.

As parents do, especially in this job when I'm not exactly forthcoming with the truth about what I do. My parents are great and if they do worry they try and not show it so as not to make me worry.

So the last week in summary. We continued our transit south at best speed. We stopped off in Morocco over the weekend. I was quite surprised with what I saw. A fairly well developed country with plenty of resources and facilities. I went on an organised tour of Marrakech. That was a long journey there but very interesting. I enjoy seeing other cultures but I did get annoyed by some locals bothering me for money. They wanted paying for anything from shaking hands to taking a photo of a snake. I didn't like seeing the cobras that had obviously been drugged or mistreated or milked being treated like that. There were also monkeys on leads - one had a nappy on and they looked so unhappy.

We sailed on Sunday and have continued south for our next visit to Senegal. I think this will be more of the same, but that's the beauty of this job, that you can go to some places that you're never going to visit again and make your own opinion. I saw about 100 pilot whales the other day. That was quite a spectacle. They were heading north and they just kept appearing for about 10minutes! Not much other wildlife unless you count the idiots running and doing circuits. Myself included. You know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen... Today I had a good run, even though it was probably too hot to train. It was very dry and the only wind was a bit of breeze as you ran down the port side. I don't think they'll be much chance to run in Senegal but we'll see when we get there.

The weather has been scorchio. Some fools 'forgot' that we weren't in Portsmouth anymore and sunbathed on the upperdeck without suntan lotion on. Are they paying for that now! They looked stupid. Bright red faces and red stripes on the front of there legs. They'll struggle to get rid of that now over the remainder of the trip.

Still no joy with my MP3 player. I think I've got to download a patch from the internet. I might have a go of that when we get alongside. I can't see myself doing a great deal ashore. It's Ramadan and there's a cholera epidemic so it's not exactly going to be a laugh a minute. You never know, and I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I've got to go because I've got to get up at 3 in the morning!

Hope everyone is well. Take it easy!!!

So here we are in our first foreign run ashore since we came out of refit over 12 months ago. We arrived in Casablanca this morning and had the standard things to do when we get anywhere. Connect up water and power cables, meet local liaison people, ditch gash (rubbish) and we had a security brief as well. Nothing earth shattering; just basic common sense. We're only here for a short time so hopefully there won't be any trouble.

There is a lot of grumblings about wearing the right sort of clothes and what you can and can't do. It's Ramadan at the moment and I suppose we have to respect other peoples culture. There were plenty of people scrambling around for long shorts or cotton trousers because all they'd brought with them were shorts. We've been told that we can't wear those.

Despite that, about a dozen of the regulars went for a run as soon as we could. It's part of the experience going jogging in a completely different place. We ran for about an hour. I must admit it was a bit warmer than I thought and very dusty. But the people we passed were very friendly and weren't offensive in any way, even though we were running during Ramadan in training kit. When we got back some of the lads continued their training with weights and some did situps and pushups. I did my stretching routine because I like to stay supple. And then we all sat on the flight deck drinking tea and chatting. All very pleasant.

Some have gone ashore now to sample the Casablanca culture. I'm stopping on board - I need to save my money for tomorrow and the organised trip that I'm going on. I don't think that there's actually much here that will interest the ship's company because we're from different cultures. But the trip tomorrow will be good because we'll get to see the best side of it.

This evening I need to sort a few personal issues out. Important things like tidying my locker so that I can get to some of the stuff at the bottom of it! We only get a small locker and I'm terrible at keeping it organised. I'd get so much more in there if I sorted it, but it's difficult to put stuff away when it's dark in the cabin because my cabin oppo is in bed!

And speaking of personal issues, I mentioned yesterday about my MP3 player and how great they are. Well I've put the kiss of death on that. I went to switch it on today and it came up with something about organising the library. And then an error message about firmware. It wouldn't switch off and the lcd backlight was on permanently. I reset it and now there's a menu about reloading firmware. It will not work!!!!!!!! I didn't bring any music CDs with me or the software that came with the mp3 player so I can't fix it. I don't want to reformat the drive because I'll lose everything. One of the lads had the same problem and it took him ages and many emails to sort out. In the end the company just sent him a new one. But that's not the point because you spend hours putting your CD collection on to it. Has anyone any ideas that doesn't involve downloading patches from the web?

Anyway gotta go. We're having a few beers in the mess and putting a film on. Take it easy :)

It's coming towards the end of the day but I've still got one or two things to finish - this being one of them!

The bulk of today was directed towards war fighting. All good stuff and I had a good few hours training my new operators who are a bit rusty and nervous about practising things like this. We were able to practice air defence exercises, submarine exercises, picture compilation and this all led up to the reactions that we would take if we took a hit. A good day. I enjoy training my lads, I get a lot of satisfaction from it, especially when I can stand back and watch them crack on without any help from me.

We continue are transit south. And what a difference to yesterday! The weather has been quite warm, the sea calm, and the sun has been out. I've not had any time to get any fresh air, but I can see out the window. On Monday we should move into our tropical rig. It's always a bit of a giggle and a little childish when we all put our shorts on for the first time and see everyone's knobbly knees - especially mine! But that soon passes.

We will have our first foreign run ashore in almost 18months tomorrow. I don't think it's going to be that exciting but at my stage of this career I try and look at it in a positive manner and get out of it what I can. So I'm going on one of the organised trips on Saturday. There are loads of people going so it should be pretty good. I'll save all the details and write about them afterwards.

In preparation of going there, we've started taking malaria tablets. I think it's a wise precaution as malaria and plenty of other nasties are prevalent. We had so sit through a fairly nasty brief of all the diseases that you can catch in this neck of the woods, and means of preventing them. Some gruesome photos. I won't be eating seafood, rice, drinking the water or swimming in stagnant pools!

So this evening, I'm going to chill out for an hour. Maybe organise the music on my MP3 player. Those things are a godsend! Thankyou Mr Apple for starting it all (although mine isn't an ipod). I bought mine in the summer - 20Gb - and it saves me having to bring a handful of CDs with me that take up space. You can appreciate that space is at a premium.

In the mess tonight the lads are trying out a new poker game that we bought before we sailed. It looks pretty gucci and has all the bits that you need to play. I'm not sure that anyone knows how to play; I certainly don't, so I'll watch them for a while to see if I can pick it up. The mess is so much social when they switch the one-eyed god off, and do something together.

I only had three hours sleep last night so I'm won't be up late. Maybe have a beer before I go to bed.

So I'll sign off now and hopefully catch you tomorrow. Ta ra!!