07 January 2010; Dry- dock, Freeport Bahamas.

The ship is now officially in day 3 and we have progressed from controlled chaos to full regular dry dock operations. Everybody is busy with his or her assigned work (mainly his as I have thus far counted only about 10 ladies onboard) and as this is day three, we are now in the period that everything has been pulled apart or ripped open or dismantled in order to repair, renew of completely reconstruct a certain area or item. To make this all possible, in a more or less coordinated way there are a number of systems and functions in place to make it all run smoothly.

Because we are adding a new part to the ship (22 new cabins at the stern) the dry-dock operation is divided into two groups. There is the new building (or SOE as it is part of our Signature of Excellence program) and there is the regular dry – dock group for repair and refurbishment of the existing ship. Because it all happens in regards to one ships hull, the groups are not strictly separated. Especially not as shipside has to deal with both parts of the dry dock work. Each morning there are two meetings to coordinate all the work. One for the new part and one for the regular work. For the rest of the day all the supervisors are reachable on UHF to make sure that everybody can continue working without interfering (and upsetting) other work.

There are a number of functions that you might not directly expect during a dry -dock. We have a special person whose duty it is to keep track of the timely arrival of containers, pallets and other supplies as we could not load everything onboard before dry – dock started. This is not a simple job as the containers come to Freeport by ship, then have to be landed and cleared by customs and then have to be driven to the ship and loaded on board. The last part is very challenging as the dry dock only has two big cranes and some smaller mobile ones…..and everybody wants those cranes at the same time. Hence our logistic expert is a much harassed man. Harassed by the yard people, harassed by the 32 different sub-contracting groups we have on board and harassed by the ships company.

One of the ships company who also has a keen interest in cranes is our Environmental Officer (EO) who is in charge of the recyclables, hazardous waste and general garbage. He also needs those cranes to get the open top containers and dumpsters on and off the ship. As Holland America recycles whatever it can and hazardous waste streams have to be separated in accordance with the rules and regulations it is a full time job to have it all done properly. As soon as these containers are ashore, the shipyard inspects them on proper separation and then transports them for further processing. So if the cranes are not available there are a lot of unhappy people around including our EO.

This afternoon was such an unhappy time as far as crane availability was concerned. None were available. However this was for a good reason. The new aft section was being hoisted in position and because of the weight, the two big dock cranes had to work in tandem. In the last three days, the shipyard had been busy with cutting away all the steel obstructions and the steel stern rim at the aft end of the ship. A subcontractor had been busy with removing all the wooden deck planks around the swimming pool and on the deck behind the Dining room.

The module standing in the dry dock behind the stern of the Prinsendam. shortly the crane hooks will be attached the whole section lifted up.

The two cranes have have now lifted the module above the ship and are rolling slowly forward to bring it in position. Luckily it was a nearly windless day today, so no ropes were needed to keep the module from swinging in the wind.

The module almost in position. This last step took a lot of time as it had to be moved into position on the exact right spot. The pillars at the underside have to rest exactly on the supports welded on the decks below. It took nearly two hours before the module was resting correctly on the deck and the welding could start.

By 4 pm. this had all been accomplished and slowly but steadily the new piece was hoisted into position. From that moment it will take 14 hours before the new piece is completely welded to the existing ships super structure. So by early tomorrow morning the cranes should be available again for regular work and at once everybody will start calling and begging for their assistance.

Tomorrow will be the 4th. day of dry dock with another 5 to go and that means that most sub contractors will now be in the phase of starting to put back, complete or build up what they had come onboard for. To ensure that this is being done properly and correctly we have some more peculiar functions on board.