23 March 2013; At Sea.

When coming from Puerto Caldera you have to sail by a whole group of countries to get to Mexico and Hualtalco. During the course of the day we passed Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, until by midnight, we will pass the border with Mexico. Then the crossing of the Golfo de Tehantepec will start but as it is nice weather for a change it will be no different from the sailing mode. That current weather is more or less wind still and very warm. Today we did not have more than a wind force 1 most of the time. Just a small ripple on the top of a smooth sea. The sea was smooth but not flat, as a long low rolling swell was coming in from the North West, all the way from Alaska. The area west of Kodiak is still processing a nasty storm every three days, something that will not change until the end of April. Hence the fact that we are not sailing with the ship to Seward until the middle of May. Part of it is the fact that the Alaskan Interior only starts to open up in early May. All the Holland America Hotels, buses and trains have to be gotten out of hibernation and the roads have to be fully passable again. The other part is that it is not really a bright idea to sail with the ship through a Gulf of Alaska storm as part of the cruise experience, if it is not necessary to do so.

The Fixed Dam option. The problem here is that is can obstruct shipping traffic.

Although that stormy area is thousands of miles away, the ripple effect reaches all the way down the Mexican coast, even almost down to the Panama Canal approaches. Maybe one day somebody will find a way to harness that ocean power and turn it into electricity.  It is already happening on a smaller scale in areas where there are high tides. The first tidal generators and power plant were installed in St. Malo France about 40 years ago and also in Scotland they are experimenting by having submerged turbines in the Lochs and channels where there are strong tides running.

But they are still very small efforts compared with what is possible and what is available out there.

Freestanding turbine as used in waterways with high currents.

 If one sees how successful electricity generation from dams in rivers already is, what must it be, if we could harness the movement of water by Ebb and Flood & Wind around the world?  As long as there is a sun and a moon, tidal and wind energy will be there as well. Still most of the harvesting of tidal energy is in its infancy compared with fossil and nuclear output but no doubt it will get there.  

 Also on the ships alternative energy sources are being sought.

There are study’s being conducted to see if sails would be a reliable and economical solution; but what is very much under investigation is the application of solar panels on the ships. Cruise ships spend a lot of time in sunny areas and that sun is burning mercilessly onto the ships hulls. As they are made from steel, they heat quickly and hence the need for Air Conditioning inside the ship. Much more air conditioning than a similar structure of concrete would need. Thus the sun is there, so why not harvest it.

Solstice Class Roof Solar Panels.

Celebrity cruises started experiments with solar Panels when the Zenith Class came in service. Flat areas, where nobody would walk were given over to panels. When the Solstice Class came into service that was expanded with  panels on the Magrodome and the flat area’s behind the funnels.  I have not heard yet whether it is a very great success or that it just works and looks good towards the guests. Solar Panels are getting better and better and for the ship they have to be very strong, as the ship flexes due to the movement of the ocean and there is ever present salt that corrodes and causes everything to rust way.   

If those solar panels survive the onslaught of Mother Nature for a prolonged time then no doubt all the future cruise ships will be equipped with them. It is just a matter of economics, investment and maintenance costs versus the yield of energy that is being generated. We will have to see what the future will bring.

Our direct future is tomorrow, visiting Hualtalco de Santa Cruz. I expect to be at the pilot station at 10.30 and alongside by 11.30 for an afternoon call until 1700 hrs. The weather looks very good and it should be a beautiful day.

All illustrations courtesy of the internet.