13 May 2012; San Diego, USA.

 I arrived 30 minutes earlier at the pilot station than normal because we were going to the other pier. Long time experience has taught me that the moment you do something other than routine, you have to allow extra time, even if the whole world says you don’t. Murphy (always on board) jumps to the challenge when a ship goes out of routine and he will always find a spanner to throw into the wheel. (By the way, I wonder why Murphy is a HE ?) With a 05.30 arrival at the pilot station, we always have everything up and running by 06.30 at B street pier for an official 07.00 start. Now by arriving at 05.00 pilot station I hoped to achieve the same for Broadway Pier. Coming alongside by 06.00 and then having 30 minutes up my sleeve to let everybody fuss around and then still be ready to start around 06.45 – 07.00. It would not be the first time that bringing the ship in position alongside, that the bow suddenly has to go 1 foot forward and then stern 2 feet aft or that shore side has 4 feet in the meter and ships side only three. I was glad that I did arrive earlier as we needed those 30 minutes. As soon as we were inside the harbor entrance, coming into the shelter of Punta Loma, the wind died off and we sailed straight for the dock. 45 minutes behind us was the Amsterdam who was going to our regular dock as that ship is about 30 feet longer. According to the planning we were going to stick out already by 15 feet at the Broadway pier so if the Amsterdam had gone there she would have been sticking out even more. Getting into Broadway North is entering a much tighter spot as you have to go in between B Street pier and Broadway; while at our regular dock you have a vast open expanse of water to the North. Still nothing to worry about; I have docked in smaller gaps. 

Without delay we came alongside and then the fun and games started. First the dock security did not let the linesmen (needed to pull the ropes ashore) go through the dock fence but had them go through security in the building. A five minute detour. Then of course the bow was too far forward and the stern too far aft. So I came astern a bit, making the B deck gangway fit but then the main passenger gangway did not fit. However, that gangway can move and eventually it rolled itself into position. Then we had to shift the aft spring line as it was blocking the last provision door. All in all we were fussing around for a good 30 minutes before everything was settled to everybody’s satisfaction and we could roll for the day.

Great Terminal location for getting into town and a great forecourt for the coaches.

Then I also found out why my stern had to stick out. I cannot go further in because the sightseeing boats are docking there. That is a whole fleet of busy boats that need to dock and need to get in or out all day long. Good for the local economy but not good for a cruise terminal. The Statendam is one of the smaller cruise ships and you cannot always expect that a cruise company will send those to your port. So as long as these sightseeing boats are there, this pier is going to be a bit of a white elephant as it cannot really service a changeover day of a larger vessel. That made me realize why the Carnival Spirit prefers to dock at B pier south and prefers to make do without a cruise terminal at all. Plus the loading area aft is too small for a heavy provisioning day; luckily we had light loading today.

Not much room in the back for parking trucks that have to unload.

My suggestion would be: Relocate the sightseeing boats as there is a lot of un-developed dock area nearby, so that they can get a better terminal; and/or extend the Broadway dock by 300 feet. (Please do the B pier at the same time as well) These piers were built in the days that the longest ship made barely 500 feet but with modern shipping 500 feet is small. With no sightseeing boats I can go another 200 feet in, and also larger cruise ships can then dock there. The only real good part is the coach parking in front of the building, plenty of space.

The location of the two cruise piers is great, easy access for everybody to get to town and a good road system for coaches and supply trucks to get in. San Diego is a great port of call and a great change over port with the airport on the doorstep but with any ship over 700 feet it gets a bit challenging. The people on the docks are great to work with and everyone tries to do their best with the limitations put upon them. We will be back in October for another good winter season.

So we had a great day and by 17.00 hrs we sailed with a full house again. We will now have two days at sea and the weather looks good. Not much wind until late into the 15th when we should get a flow from the North, with about 20 knots of wind. For the moment there will only be some swell that will make the ship wobble. With flat seas it will be easy to spot the wildlife, so hopefully we will see whales, dolphins and plenty of seabirds.