Cruise ships call at Livorno because it is a convenient port for the ships tours to Florence, Sienna, Pisa, and other places in scenic Tuscany. The port itself is very busy with ferry and cargo ships going in and out twenty four hours a day. The entrance to the port is rather narrow and requires at 90o turn to get into and for somebody who has never seen it, it can be quite unsettling to see the big ships bow sweeping just past the breakwater. However the Veendam can turn on a dime so it is just a matter of lining her up correctly.

In this port two pilots come on board. While one is doing the navigation from on side of the bridge wing, the other is at the other side of the bridge, calling out distances. We were docking in the old section of the port and that requires a maneuver astern through a narrow opening. An opening which leaves less then a ships width clearance at either side. We position ourselves people as well to double check on the pilot’s decision and information. Although the pilots are very capable, when things go wrong it is still the Masters fault, so it is always advisable to have a second opinion from one of the navigators stationed aft, forward and in the side.

In order to make these maneuvers go smoothly and without hiccups, each member of the docking team has to know exactly what is going on, what to do when and to understand what the captain is doing with the ship during the evolution. To accomplish this, we have a meeting the day before and then we go through the whole maneuver. This is called Bridge Resource Management and the idea is that each member of the team hears what is going on and also has the chance to give input. The senior navigator explains the approach requirements, who to notify, when to call on the VHF, what the local requirements are for speed, the no go zones and any other issues. This is followed by the captain who explains his planned maneuver and where he needs people to be on standby and what information he needs from the bow and the stern in order to get the maneuver done as intended. This is followed by the chief officer, for where to position gangways, security issues, planned maintenance etc etc.

During this meeting everybody has a chance to bring issues forward and I have been in port preparations where I found out that the only officers who had ever been to a certain port where the 4th officer and the cadet. So their observations are very valuable as well, and are directly incorporated in the docking plan. Sometimes none of us have ever been to a port (see our call at Koper last week, which was a completely new call for Holland America Line) and then we all try to envision what problems might occur during docking and what the essential issues are that we have to keep an eye on.

The weather let us down a little bit today, here in Livorno, as it was mainly overcast with showers, thus not the most perfect weather for sightseeing but at least it was not cold. Maybe tomorrow it will be better in Monte Carlo.