On March 17, 2008 the good ship MV Freedom made her maiden voyage into Mumbai, India. She was the first vessel in the ARC fleet to ever make a port call into India. Needless to say, there was a lot of work put into the voyage to see that it went off well.
Mumbai is a huge city of over 15 million people. The city is a constant scene of commotion and the crowds are are difficult to describe. It is the only city I've ever been to where the port complex is actually less chaotic than the city proper. This trip to Mumbai accompanying the MV Freedom was my second time to the city with the first being just a few weeks prior in order to lay the ground work for her arrival.
After two days of meetings with partners, agents, and customers in Mumbai to be sure that everyone was where they needed to be, we were anxious to get the ship along side and operations underway. The weather was on our side and the MV Freedom berthed right on schedule during the early morning hours. We had the ramp down and lashing gangs aboard for an 0830 start. With ceremonial flowers hung on the stern ramp railing (an offering to the Gods in thanks for the vessel's safe arrival), we were ready to get to work.
The first order of the day was to discharge the cargo that we had loaded at the port of Jebel Ali in the U.A.E. With the minor exception of a finicky crawler crane whose transmission seemed stuck in reverse, the operations went well with a mix of heavy equipment and steel plates all brought off by late morning.
With discharge complete it was time to get started on the one thousand cars and buses to be loaded. It was critical to get the loading operations underway as soon as possible so as to be able to make our scheduled departure of midnight.
Tradition at the Indian ports is that prior to the first cargo being loaded, a coconut is smashed at the base of the vessels ramp and the first vehicle loaded is driven over the broken shell to ensure a successful and safe operation. With the remenants of the coconut at the ramp, the longshoremen got down to the business of loading and lashing the vehicles.
With the last vehicle securely lashed down, the MV Freedom was ready to sail by late evening. With the ramp up and the pilot on board, the line handlers cast off the Freedom's last line at 2330 hours. A course was plotted out across the Indian Ocean, through the pirate infested waters off the coast of Somalia and into the Red Sea. The next port of call will be Jeddah, Saudi Arabia followed by Alexandria, Egypt and Gioia Tauro, Italy. Upon completion of operations in Italy she will sail out of the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic Ocean bound for the United States of America.
