Grande Congo

This evening I visited the neighbouring ship, Grimaldi line's Grande Congo, which is only 6 months old and still in immaculate condition. Built by Hyundai in Korea, it is nearly 4 times the size of the Africa Mercy, can carry up to 1000 cars and trucks and 300 containers, and has only 26 crew of Italian officers and Filipino...err...non-officers.

Some of the cars on Deck 12 destined for Lagos, Nigeria:

Some of the containers on the forward deck, taken from the bridge:

The ultra-modern bridge:

The Africa Mercy, taken from deck 12:

Engine control room, Deck 1:

The main engine. Only one engine; one propeller shaft and one propeller. Two bow thrusters and one stern thrusters. Three generators.

She sails between the UK, Holland, Germany and Belgium, picking up cars and trucks and containers, and then calling at Senegal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ghana before heading back to Europe. Another fascinating blog entry (with a cool photo of the Africa Mercy) by Olly.