01 May 2013; San Diego, USA.

at 04.20 we hopped over the border from Mexico and put the brakes on shortly after, to pick up the pilot at the San Diego Sea – buoy.  Being so early meant that there was hardly any traffic out there and that always helps.  Lately it seems that the navy is doing late night exercises and not early morning things and that leaves the sea completely to us alone.  When coming in, we had some security boats giving a demonstration of “boys with toys”, e.g. racing around at full speed for no apparent reason but the pilot thought it might have had something to do with the departure of two Air craft carriers; one at 09.00 and one at 11.00 At least that was on the schedule. In the end nothing happened but there must have been some plans to do something as these boats were not there for my benefit.  We docked without much excitement and then settled down for the day. An unusual day as it was a part change over port and part regular port of call. Not so easy for the ship, as you have to work around the guest expectation (those staying on board) of having a regular port day and the need to get the rest of the ship ready for those boarding. On top of that we had our annual USCG inspection, which altogether resulted in an interesting cocktail of events. Luckily the weather was very nice for a day ashore or for lugging suitcases as it was not too warm.

So everybody went about their business while the deck dept. waited for the USCG to board. Although it involves all departments on board for the drills, the focus is also on the state of the safety equipment and that is for a large part the job of the deck officers on here.  They also inspect the engine room of course and have a keen interest in bunker procedures and what we do with waste streams and other left overs.  That is also the one area where there are always discussions, as the requirements and the views of the USCG, USPH and USDA cannot always be reconciled.  One looks at the safety side, the other at the Health & cleanliness side and the third wants to insure that nothing comes ashore that is not wanted ashore.

So we rolled from drill to drill trying to do it at the times that least inconveniences the shipboard operation. The USCG is always very helpful here as they are there to verify that we operate according to standards and not to try to find fault. On a turnover day that is already difficult as there is always a crew change (today we had over 50) and that might mean that during the port day a lifeboat is without a commander or another key crewmember. All will be manned by 3 pm. again but the drills are mostly in the morning.

I am now involved with USCG drills for 34 years and it is interesting to see how the inspection focus moves with the times. In the beginning the focus was really on crew training and equipment compliance. Then by the mid nineties that was mostly (and with that I mean the total average of all shipping, not the cruise ships) at an acceptable standard and then the focus went to environmental compliance. Holland America responded to that by installing Zenon plants on board. These filter waste water to a higher standard of cleanliness than most shore plants and that has remained the case ever since.

9/11 gave a push into the security realm for a number of years so that was a very hot topic. Again we lived up to compliance of course but here we have the interesting anomaly that our security plans are confidential. The law has been setup this way to ensure that “those from outside” cannot get a handle on our procedures and plan for something by knowing what we exactly do. That gives the interesting fact that also the Auditors, including USCG, do not know what we do and can do. They have to use the international rules, called ISPS, to verify that what we do is correct and up to standard. But we do not and cannot reveal all the things we can and will do if necessary.

Currently the emphasis is on a bit of everything. And we complied with everything. So the 7 inspectors left the ship happy and satisfied by the end of the day and we had our certificate that we need to be able to sail through US waters and call at US ports. Team Statendam had once again performed up and beyond the expected standards.

We pulled out in the evening while looking at the beautifully lit up skyline of San Diego. Tonight we will sail between the islands of the Californian coast and then re enter the North Pacific Ocean to go north.