20 May 2017 Boston, USA.

My little operation came in action yesterday and I spent most of the day behind the computer preparing for two training courses the ship has asked me to give. Apart from hammering on the keyboard it also meant running around and talking to everybody as organizing something on a ship is as if you are trying to solve an equation with at least six unknown factors.  Everything hooks into the other and everything I do should be done in such a way that it does not affect the operation of the ship, not affect the work and rest hours of the crew and also does not interfere with other trainings or exercises which might have been planned by somebody else.  But we are now well organized and scheduled to add 20 more lifeboat certificates and 5 more tender operators to the pool of experienced people on board. At least if they have passed their exams just before I leave the ship on 10 June in Montreal.  And now I am patiently waiting for requests to have my proposed schedules changed again as something has come up here or there. That is life on board, it needs constant adjustment.

We docked by 08.00 in Boston at the Falcon Terminal. Ahead of us was the Veendam and that meant the complete S-class was in port as the Statendam and Ryndam are now sailing from Aussie Land for P&O Australia. Going into Boston has one peculiar thing, the airport. Or better said: the airplane approach path to the airport. The Falcon terminal is a side arm of the main channel leading into Boston and the ship has to make a 90o turn to enter this side arm. Right at the moment when the ship is in the flight path of airplanes descending towards Boston airport.  To avoid scary situations the pilot is normally in contact with the flight tower to check for gaps between approaching air planes so the ship can make the turn towards the dock without upsetting any pilots. Most of the time it works out fine and there is not an airplane to be seen.  But through the years we have had situations when a plane was right above us while we were turning.  If you look up from below to the underside of the plane it is hard to judge distances but at times it looked as if the wheels of the planes almost touched the strings lights between the mast and the funnel.  I wonder what the perspective of the pilot in the cockpit was and if he/she enjoyed flying over a smoking funnel.

During one of the coming calls here in Boston we will have another challenge, the Tall Ships will be in port. That will give two challenges for the ship: a. The roads from the Cruise Terminal to town and from there to the airport will be clogged so for the incoming guests it might take some extra time to reach the ship b; the harbor will be full of Sunday sailors and Six pack navigators all milling around and being in the way. The USCG and the Water Police always try their utmost to keep the route for the large ships clear but it is a challenge. Taking selfie’s with ships in the background is nowadays a very popular activity and a lot of these selfie takers forget that the ship behind them moves. I think that those who will be in charge of keeping order on the waves that day are already having headaches.  But we will see.

From Boston to Bar Harbor is not a long distance, it is just around the corner. And therefore we can arrive early and have the tender service going by 07.00 hrs. That is a time we really have to adhere to in order to get the full day tours off the ship on time. The distance between Bar Harbor and Halifax is a lot longer and if we do not leave Bar Harbor by 15.00 hrs. then it gets very tight to make Halifax on time. In Bar Harbor we will anchor as there is no cruise ship dock. The locals are having discussions about it; either to build a 2 ship finger pier, or to use the ferry pier on the North side of the town or doing something else. But not much has happened yet, while Bar Harbor is becoming more and more popular with cruise ships.  There are only two good anchorages so you cannot keep piling the numbers up.

The weather for tomorrow should be good again, more of the same as we had today. Sunny but still with a cool breeze, so the chance of reduced visibility remains small. And that is a good thing as running a tender service without seeing anything is not much fun.