The coldest weather I have experienced since I been here was last night! 3 hours (at least) of unloading 3 of our freezers on the ship into 2 freezer containers on the dock. We are talking about big walk-in freezers, not ones you may have bought and put in your garage.
It was estimated we moved 20 tons of food.
How did we do it? First the Captain canceled shore leave so no one could leave the ship, then we asked for volunteers. We formed a line from the freezer unit on the dock up the gangway, in the ship, down 2 hallways and 2 flights of stairs to the cargo freezers. It was also estimated the line of workers included 180+ people.
Some of the food actually had to be thrown away and I am afraid it will not be a good ‘smell’ condition on the dock if the 2 big dumpsters are not emptied today. A lot of fish and melted ice cream will be heating up out on the dock…what a smell that will be, rotten fish and spoiled dairy product.
What is the good news? We have successfully saved the rest of the food and I believe the fish and ice cream we threw away were mostly donations…so the organization personally did not lose a lot of money on these items.
I am not a technical refrigeration person but the way it was explained to me was that the system has sea water in it and it had to be shut down to find the leak and repair it, then refill the refrigeration with whatever kind of chemical/gas it is that runs it.
