And so began my next adventure within Holland America. Part time in the office, part time at sea. It took a little bit longer than expected but that was due to the fact that it was realized that I needed a different sort of Visa. There are about 10 different sort of US non-immigrant visas out there and as I am going from being a full time sailor to a part time sailor, I was upgraded from a C1-D visa to a L1 visa which gives me the right to leave the ship without being required to fly directly out of the USA. I am also allowed to do work ashore. Hence my arrival in the office without having any issues when I came through Immigration at Seattle Airport.
My only previous office experience was in 1998, when I spent about a month in the head office writing the security manual for the company but for the rest this is going to be a whole new experience. In the coming period I will blog about how a cruise company office operates and what departments there are and what they are doing. I am of course part of the nautical department which looks are all the navigation aspects and the deck maintenance. As part of the structure also Medical and Security fall under the nautical umbrella. In some other company’s those are independent departments but at Holland America, they fall under Nautical. The logic behind that is that in emergencies, they need to have direct access to the Master of the vessel. On board the ships the medical department and security fall under the responsibility of the Staff Captain, who reports directly to the Master and both are part of the nautical department.
This is the main entrance to our office, located at 300 Elliott Avenue
West in Seattle. About half the building is in use by Holland America and Seabourn
Thus in the coming days I will be busy with finding my way around the office and starting up my training projects before I will go to the ships. There is a great need for extra training and support out there in the fleet and that is due partly to the expansion of the fleet and the regular turnover of the crew. But also partly due to the fact that a whole raft of new legislation is coming to play. That is to a certain extent caused by the Costa Concordia affair but to a large extent due to the fact that the IMO is rolling out new guidelines as part of Solas.
Solas (Saving of lives at Sea) falls under the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) which is part of the United Nations. Since the Titanic caused Solas to come into being after 1912, the IMO took Solas under its wing when it was founded as part of the whole United Nations charter. Since then it has been busy with constantly upgrading Solas and adapting it to modern times. There were no Gas tankers in 1912 but they are here now and it is not a good idea that these ships would sail without being regulated. After Solas came Marpol (Marine Pollution) then SCTW (licensing and training) and recently the 2006 Marine Labour Convention. I have blogged about that in the recent past. All come with new rules and all needs training
Currently all the cruise ships are busy with the implementation of two major components that form part of the latest updates. Upgrading the lifeboat drill routines and integrating new requirements in the bridge watch procedures with the emphasis of all the new radar & nautical chart equipment that is currently being introduced and what will become compulsory to use in the very near future. With roughly 25,000 deep sea going ships out there things do happen, and all that information comes to the IMO. If it is observed that new regulation would prevent an accident from happening again, such a new regulation will eventually be implemented. As a result even a company as Holland America, which has a very good safety record still has to implement and conform to these new rules which have been the result from an occurrence somewhere else.
My first focus will be to assist in implementing an enhanced Crew Lifeboat training and drill system. Basically it is an upgrade of what we currently have in place. And what we have currently in place is an upgrade of a former upgrade etc. etc. Since I joined Holland America in 1981, I have seen at least 10 of these upgrades. Some large, some small. Sometimes needed due to new legislation and sometimes needed due to the arrival of new equipment and new ships. Now the rules have changed again and thus a new upgrade will be introduced.
I expect that I will be in the office for approximate 3 to 4 weeks and then I will go out to spread “the wisdom” over the fleet.
June 7, 2014 at 6:55 pm
Welcome Back, Captain! Many of us have missed you.
charles
June 7, 2014 at 10:15 pm
Nice to see you back again, I am looking forward to your posts from your ” New Life”
A huge change for you, Good Luck, in your new ” Adventure” best wishes Robina
June 8, 2014 at 6:19 pm
Thank you for this informative note ! I/ we wish you a good start in this new adventure of your career !
Here is a question:
Dividing time between office and ships sounds quite different, than the usual “3 mos. on / 2 mos off” -type contract ! With one foot in 2 quite different contract systems, plus the office being in Seattle, while maintaining residence in England : how can you make this work for you in the long run ?
A.R.E.
June 9, 2014 at 8:07 pm
Good morning,
it is easier than it looks. I will be on a sort of 3 on 3 off, leaning into 4 on 2 off, depending on how the days work out. The day count is being kept and is then later reviewed against the office/sea days.
When it is then convienient for the schedule, I can take my days. So by the end of the first year, there should be a balance again.
thank you for reading my blog
Capt. Albert
June 9, 2014 at 1:08 pm
Thank you for sharing your new experiences with us. I know I speak for many people when I say that we enjoy your blog so much!
June 9, 2014 at 3:44 pm
Congratulations, Captain ! This means all went well, and soon some of us will see you again on Netherlands soil while crossing the many international waters. In the meantime, I have noticed some alarm changes in the Lifeboat drill for crew and passengers (?)
Off the topic, Captain; in the past I seem to remember that a passenger ship (merchant marines in general?) had a flag in a specific place for the country she came from/was registered in, and a specific place for the national flag of the country she was sailing to. Is that still correct?
Also, with the HAL ships I have seen the national flag always up front on the bow mast, in the back on the stern mast and up top (location?) Lately, I have seen the HAL flag up front on the bow mast? Is that nowadays allowed?
June 9, 2014 at 8:03 pm
Good morning,
I will do a blog in the coming days about the boatdrills and the Flags, as it is too much to answer in a one liner.
Thank you for still reading my blog.
Best regards
Capt. Albert
June 9, 2014 at 9:30 pm
Welcome back to Seattle!!
It is good to see a new blog post again 🙂 Perhaps there will be a little insight into any piloting, docking, or navigation issues for Seattle?
I’m sure you’ve noticed the anchor to the south side of the building 😉
If the people at HQ are good Seattle residents, many people in the office have already made their recommendations for restaurants. I do recommend walking around the old Ballard neighborhood (too many good places to list) and making a stop at the Ballard Locks to observe mariners of various skill levels passing through. There’s a nice little park and a couple of restaurants just west of Pier 90/91 where you can observe the ships and hear the lifeboat drills. There’s a store on 15th avenue that sells nautical charts and books (not ure how good the book selection is.).
June 11, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Thank you for that fast reply to our “on/off” question.
Here is another question: :-))
When your sea-schedule is set, will you publish it in the blog, as you did previously? I am sure that it would be interesting to many of your “blog-readers” to know, when you are on which ship, and, if you , while on board, give a talk to the guests about the changes being instituted.
Thank you !
A.R.E.
June 12, 2014 at 1:16 pm
I will certainly. I will announce it. If all goes well I should be back on the fleet by june 28.
Best regards
Capt. Albert
June 12, 2014 at 2:13 pm
Great !! Good to know ! :-))
Thank you, and best regards to both you and your “Roving Reporter” !
A.R.E.
June 13, 2014 at 8:29 am
Dear Captain Albert, first of all thank you very much for your insight on the HAL and the ships.
Unfortunately my remark does not relate to the contents of your blogs, it is more a technical issue. It seems that I do not receive any e-mails anymore from the server announcing the new blog is posted. When trying to re-subscribe, I got the message that I already have a subscription. Any thoughts how to proceed? In the meantime I will follow your interesting and informative blogs via the blog website.
With the kindest regards,
Marc
June 13, 2014 at 7:48 pm
Hallo Marc,
thank you for reading my blog. It is an issue that has been bothering the blog for awhile and I have asked the IT guru’s to have a look at it. I hope that it will be resolved in the enar future.
Best regards
Capt. Albert