The wind died down during the night and there was only a gentle breeze left. So I hope we are on a good three day cycle again which will give us a gentle to moderate North Easterly Breeze tomorrow so we have a perfect day in Half Moon Cay.
Today was a big day for the Zuiderdam as it had its six monthly USCG inspection. Twice a year the USCG carries out an inspection of each cruise ship which visits an USA port. Even if you only visit once a year, you will get an inspection. The Annual inspection consists of an in depth inspection of the ship including multiple tests of the safety equipment and checking everything a ship might need in an emergency. 5 to 10 Safety Inspectors (depending the size of the ship) will take a whole day to accomplish it. The following six month inspection is limited to a walk through, a fire and boat drill and an observation of the passenger safety drill. That normally takes half a day. The challenge is that it happens most of the time in the home port which is normally the changeover port. Then on top of the controlled mayhem, we also have the situation that all crew are pulled out of this change over cycle for the drills.
But it is, what it is, and with good planning we are always able to minimize the disturbance to the guests on board and also the USCG is keen to plan the drills as soon as most guests are off the ship and well ahead of the new guests coming on board. And that happened today as well. By 09.30 the last groups were being called to disembark and behind them the alarms started indicating that the engine room was on fire and that the USCG would like to see how we were going to put it out. Once that had been observed, it was time to lower the lifeboats to see if they worked and if the crew knew how to handle them. Today the Harbormaster threw a spanner in the wheel as at that moment a container ship was entering the port and had to sail past us, to go to a dock higher up the Intracoastal. So we could not do the 15 minute lifeboat sail around that is part of the drill to ensure the engines are not only working, but continue to work as well. Thus the boats went down and the boats came up again. Something none of the crew inside the lifeboats had any problems with.
At the end they observed the passenger boat drill and all was well in the world. They made some very complimentary remarks about it all to the captain and that concluded the inspection. Sometimes they find issues on board and if things are bad, they can even detain the ship and that still happens on occasion. Often it concerns issues of where the ship is quite helpless in doing anything about, either structural issues or “waiting for equipment to repair” issues, but sometimes they are not happy with the knowledge of the crew or the way they go about their business and then they can re-order the complete drill sequence. That can set back the embarkation time of the new guests or their lunch. (I do not know which one gives more complaints). But today we had a happy ship, a happy USCG as everything went very well. Kudos to the Zuiderdam crew.
Two big black hulled yachts on arrival. The portside one is just being lowered by the ships heavy cranes. In the background the Coral Princess.
While this was going on, and interesting thing was happening at Pier 21. Normally there is a cruise ship parked there, often a HAL ship but today there were plenty docks empty and they had now scheduled a cargo ship there. It was its cargo which was of interest. Yachts and big ones. There are two Dutch companies who run a regular liner service between Florida and Europe carrying sailing and motor yachts of owners who want to play around in Europe. Most owners think their yachts too small to sail them across, or do not have the knowledge and experience or do not have the time. However these big ones, were different. They are normally manned by capable crew and are sea worthy enough not to be afraid of a few North Atlantic waves. Maybe this is cheaper than crewing a long crossing, it is certainly better for the boats maintenance than running for two weeks or so in a hostile and salty environment.
Tomorrow we are in Half Moon Cay, our private island. Weather forecast: Partly cloudy with winds from the North East at 12 knots and temperatures of 27 oC or 80 oF. We might have caught our perfect 3 day weather cycle. And we will be gone before the next weather front is coming through.
Leave a Reply