Hold Fast To Dreams. . .: I live on a ship!

When I say I live on a ship, people often ask me if I get seasick. The answer is "No", but in reality the ship I live on is docked for 10 months and is actually at sea only a few weeks of the year. At the end of the 10 month field service the ship leaves the port of the country where services have been provided and sails to a summer location to have an annual mandatory inspection and renovations completed. Most of the time that summer location has been in the Canary Islands, off the Northwest coast of Africa but actually a part of Spain. Work teams arrive to complete a vast list of maintenance and repairs that may require being in dry dock (out of the water) for part of the time, as is the case for this summer's renovations.
Living in a port city is different. To go anywhere in the city you have to leave the port, a 20 minute walk from the gangway to the port gate here in Pointe Noire, Congo. There is heavy equipment moving all the time as well as cars and trucks that must be avoided. We always are to walk with another person. On the weekends a shuttle will take us out of the port gate and then we can walk into town , to the beach or take a taxi to the market.
It is not a common occurrence for a ship to stay more than a few days in one spot while in the port. We are the exception. Neighbors come and go while our ship stays in one place. It is fascinating to sit and watch from the windows. There are so many different kinds of ships but our usual neighbors are RoRo's (Roll on, Roll off) that are vehicle transporters), container ships, logging ships and of course we watch as the fishing boats bring in their catch of the day. A few weeks ago we were delighted to watch an Italian Naval Aircraft Carrier, named Cavour, dock across from us and we were invited aboard to see it. It was amazing!