The engine room – a place full of mysteries

Date: 06th of March 2024
Geographical Position: 31°20.5′ N 069°45.9′ W
Etmal: 128 nm
Total: 8455 nm
Ship: Regina Maris

We have been on the Reggie for over four months and even though it’s an important part of our daily lives and watch routine, there has never been a daily report about the engine room. When asking my watch officer Kilian what to write about and he suggested the engine room. So here goes nothing!

Engine Room Checks

During our watches, we do regular engine room checks depending on what kind of machinery is running and what’s turned off. To enter the engine room, you first open the white hedge next to the wheelhouse and the helm, then you climb inside.

If you have managed to survive the slippery, steel stairs leading you inside, you’ll find yourself in a hot, loud (don’t forget the earphones!), oily room. It is crammed with all the supplies the ship needs. The shelves are full of spanners and other equipment, sometimes wet shoes, the list goes on. A wonderful place to be (Though it is a lot nicer once it gets very cold outside).

In this daily report, I’ll present to you the most important things to know, skills we need every day.

The Generators

Let’s start with the generator. We have two of them, they’re creatively named: Generator 1 and Generator 2. Not both of them are running at the same time; we only use one at a time. Also, we turn them off during the night since they are quite loud and the battery we have provides us with enough energy.

At night, we don’t use kitchen equipment and the laundry machine after all. These generators make energy out of diesel using the four-stroke system. When doing engine room checks you look after their cooling liquid, so they don’t overheat.

The Watermaker

The next thing we use every day is the watermaker: It only runs in combination with one of the generators, as it uses up too much energy for the battery. But letting it run half of the day is enough as well and it’s really loud so it’s rather practical we don’t use it at night.

Turning on the watermaker is a bit tricky, but luckily, there’s a manual taped to the wall right next to it. Our watermaker is a bit of a „Problemkind“: It’s as good at making trouble as it is at making water.

Sometimes the watermaker doesn’t want to turn on. Sometimes the little pressure bar wanders over 60 Bar. Sometimes it doesn’t suck in saltwater but air instead… but it’s never been anything too drastic. That’s what engine room checks are for after all.

The Engine

The last thing I am introducing today is the engine, which we have often used as well despite being on a sailing ship. The wind isn’t always ideal, after all. Right in the middle of the engine room, there’s a big yellow thing. That’s the engine.

It uses the four-stroke system just as the Generators, simply a bit bigger. When checking the engine room, you make sure there’s enough cooling liquid left and the exhaust temperature doesn’t exceed 400 degrees.

If it does, you inform the watch officer and usually go a bit slower to avoid overheating the engine. When being in a lot of wind and current against you, this might actually lead to the ship going backwards (this happened to us once, when we were in the English Channel).

Conclusion

I hope this daily report made our beloved engine room seem a little bit less mysterious to you. Following now is a short recap of what happened today. See you next time!

The day began with psychology on board followed by German lessons and free learning. The first feedback talks are starting to be held, as we are headed toward Bermuda. In the evening, shortly before my watch from nine to one, we watched an episode of Family Guy in the messroom.

Greetings:

Liebe Grüße an alle Zuhause, so lang ist es ja nicht mehr!