Friday 8th July 2011

Up early as usual and did some housekeeping work on notes from meetings and writing the blog posts. Still having a frustrating time with the camera. The new camera needs a Flash Card Reader which i don't have so I am not able, at this point to get either the pictures from the new or the old camera.

After breakfast we were picked up in the omni-present minibus and were taken on the 20 minute drive to the Pudong location of the Hudong Zhonghua Shipyard (HZ). The weather was forecast to be slightly cooler today and traffic for some reason was light.We arrived at the yard and were shown into the main boardroom where we met with various members of the yard staff to discuss the ACL G-4 project. After breaking for a usual 'light' Chinese lunch at about 11.30 a.m. we departed for a yard tour. First we were made to watch a safety video to ensure that we did not have any accident. We ere then given fetching boiler suits, safety belts, stout shoes and nice blue helmets before setting out. We began our tour at the Pudong location where some LNG carriers are being built. We saw the engine shed and some of the prefabrication areas.

Then it was 'back on the bus' and off to the Chongming Isalnd yard. This is a new yard which is in Phase 1 of development and which will be huge when it is complete. the road took us into a 9 km tunnel under part of the Yangtze estuary and onto the island. We took a short tour of the yard and then boarded the OOCL Canada a newly completed 8,888 TEU container ship which will be delivered to its owners OOCL on 15th July 2011. The ship is very smart and we toured the engine room and the bridge. The vessel carries containers 9-high on deck!!!! By the time we had toured the vessel we were all in our usual sweat-soaked state. So then we set off back to the Pudong yard office to disrobe. We wrapped up our meeting with a good presentation from the Quality Control group and then a short meeting with ABS who are resident in the yard, mainly supervising the LNG new-buildings.

Then back to the hotel, a couple of cold beers and a review of the day plus some strategizing about how to proceed in the future. I think we have an outline plan mapped out and we will just need to 'pu the flesh on it'.

We repaired to the Nadaman Japanese restaurant in the hotel for an excellent Japanese meal accompanied by sake and beer, a really good way to end the day. Off to bed, to prepare for our last working day in China for this trip.