The cold front kept confusing the meteorologists as their wind prediction was off again. With a wind supposed to be around 16 knots, we had around 25 to 30 knots blowing, while entering the Key West entrance channel. Thus docking was a windy affair again. This time we had the Fascination behind us and that ship is a little bit shorter than the Disney Magic or the Westerdam from previous visits and thus I had a bit more room to play with when docking. I should say the Carnival Fascination as all ships now all carry the Carnival prefix as part of a company rebranding operation. It remained a relatively cold day for Key West standards and on departure there was a distinctive absence of shorts and T-shirts on Mallory square and a lot of windbreakers present.
This was the last call of this month at Key West that we have to share the port with another ship; next week we will be all by ourselves but we will still dock at Mallory square and that is great for the guests.
You might have read a comment that came in yesterday about Holland America winning a travel UK prize and with it the query what is sea-scrubber technology? Holland America is experimenting with a new technology that washes sulpher dioxide and particulate matter out of the engine exhaust. We have a scrubber installed on the Zaandam for trial purposes and if it works it will most likely be rolled out to all the ships. Ashore scrubber technology is already much longer in use, especially at power plants. At sea it is a novicum and takes a lot of experimenting to see if it is feasible. Ashore a power plant runs on steady capacity output but on a ship the power plant output varies, depending whether the ship is in port or what speed it is making at sea. This makes it a bit more complicate to operate a scrubber system and hence the trial on the Zaandam.
A seawater scrubber is basically a washing machine that is connected to the exhaust pipe of the ship. On the Zaandam the installation is built into the funnel and the exhaust gases from the engines are being let through the scrubber and the sulpher dioxide and particulate matter are being separated or “washed out”. The cleaner exhaust gases then leave the ships funnel in the normal way. The idea is to reduce the emissions by 95% eventually. Apart from Holland America Line investing in this technology, also research grants have been given by: The United States Environmental Protection Agency: $300,000 dollars; Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, $100,000. Environment Canada; $35,000 and the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment and the Clean Air Research Fund with $38,000. Both the Port of Vancouver, B.C and the Port of Seattle Washington have provided $50,000 each. The total cost of this technology demonstration project will be more than $1,300,000.
Photo courtesy Holland America Line
The wash water that collected the sulpher dioxide and the particle matter then goes through a hydrocyclone unit which uses centrifugal force to separate the particulate matter from the water. The cleaned wash water can then be discharged overboard. The particulate sludge that is generated by the hydrocyclone will be given ashore to specialized receivers.
The company is now in the testing program for about a year and the installation is still being fine tuned to get the best performance. No doubt the results will be announced sometime in the future.
We left Key West on time heading south for Belize. The weather will be interesting to watch in the coming days as behind us is a second weather front, followed by a 3rd one. The first one is supposed to stall over Cuba and then to merge with number two and three.
November 18, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Capt, follow-up question on the lifeboat capacity please; how many crew members besides the sailor ‘driving’ the boat are assigned to the (tender-sizel) and (regular-size) lifeboats? Also, have you ever been in a situation where the sea state made it impossible/too dangerous for the pilot to come onboard via the ‘Jacob’s’ ladder? What do/did you do in a situation like that? Cancel the port of call? What if is your ‘home’ or turn-around port?
November 19, 2008 at 1:07 pm
No wonder HAL has won the Travel UK prize. I’m not trying to be nationalistic, you understand; but, “Hup Holland”! (I saw this slogan on a batik cloth hung up in a porthole on the Oosterdam) . . .
It’s also good to find out that the province of BC hasn’t lost interest in protecting its environment.
The sea scrubber is so simply explained again that it must get boring to read over and over again how good a teacher you are !
November 20, 2008 at 3:21 am
Many thanks for the sea scrubber enlightenment, Captain Albert, it was very interesting. I guess that as home owners and drivers we are all going to have to be a lot more fixated on reducing energy consumption and CO2/other kinds of pollution emission and it is really interesting to see HAL as one of the leaders in this field.