Chief Engineer
Chief Engineer "Big Kev" Kowalski
Gdańsk via Liverpool
Strong feelings on lubricant viscosity. Calls the engine 'my girl'.
Six foot four, three identical grey boiler suits, and one loud Hawaiian shirt reserved for sea days on which nothing is on fire. Learned English from the crew of a Liverpool tug in 1994 and has not updated the vocabulary since. If you compliment the engine, he will nod once. If you compliment it twice, he will assume you want something.
Portrait is a comic book invention. Under the conditions of my passage, no likeness of the working crew may appear here, names have been changed and faces drawn from memory.
14 August 2026The Engine Room at Full Noise
Two hours below with Big Kev, ear defenders that did not entirely work, and a machine so large it stops being a machine and becomes weather.
12 August 2026The Floating Container
A rusted box in the water off the port bow, a very short period of genuine alarm, and a lesson in how routinely the sea eats cargo.
26 July 2026Gulls, Diesel and a Peach Cobbler: 22 to 26 July
Tiny fished off the stern, Kev finally opened the engine room, the sky went a ridiculous blue, and Elena produced a peach cobbler that has rearranged my priorities.
21 July 2026The Laundry, the Engine Room, and a Pie I Did Not Share
I found the laundry, lost the argument about outdoor drying, missed driving, and told Big Kev about my turbocharged Miata. He was unimpressed.