24 Sept. 2014; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

It did not look very good when the ship came closer and closer to the pilot station. 40 to 50 knots of wind; not pleasant at all and once at the pilot station it was still blowing a good 35 knots.  However the pilot brought the good news that it was blowing less than 20 knots once inside the bay and thus we sailed in. It turned out to be a very nice day in the end. Sunny but with a nippy wind blowing, this time from the SE and thus mainly over the bow and it made it possible to sit outside at the aft end of the ship. We seem to have a higher number of smokers on board this cruise than on average so at least a number of people were very happy with a windless and sunny corner.  This was my 2^nd day of being buried in the dungeons of the ship where we have the ships training room. Here my four groups of trainee’s went through the exciting training of how to lower a lifeboat.

The old fashioned but simple Gravity Davit System.

The challenge is that the systems are not the same for every ship in the fleet. Bring back the good old days when there was one sort of davit. A gravity davit. (Those are the arms in which a lifeboat hangs) They might have looked different; but the principle was always the same. Lift the brake and the lifeboat would descend under its own weight. As gravity is always with us, the system always worked, as long as you kept everything well-greased and rust free.

Now with the optimization of the ships interior, the lifesaving systems are built around the space in use for the Hotel operation. That means that gravity davits do not always fit in. They have to be positioned under the right angle to ensure that the lifeboat slides down and ends up exactly in line with the embarkation deck. Now we have systems that are constructed in such a way that they fit in the space left over for them.  They are as safe and as good as the simple gravity davit but they are more complex in construction and to operate.

The Veendam davits project straight out of the ship.

Hence, the crew has to learn more. The S- class, to which the Veendam belongs, has what is called a stored – power – telescopic davit system.  This means that two cylinders push the davit arms horizontally out of the ship until the lifeboat is clear of the hull and then it descends on gravity.  As it is mechanical –Hydraulically made  (the cylinders work on gas under pressure stored in large bottles) and thus can break; it needs a backup system and that makes it more complicated. Gravity does not need that, it is always there. For the rest it is a beautiful system as the davit operator can very easily control the exact movement of the davits and the lowering of the lifeboat, and if its lowered a little bit too far down it can be corrected very easily as it operates on power.

Then there are strict protocols for making the lifeboat ready for the embarkation of the passengers, strict protocols to ensure the boat descends safely into the water and then there is a whole list of things about survival at sea. What fascinates the trainee’s the most is the food in the lifeboats. The lifeboat rations as it is called. Rations because you are supposed to ration the handouts, so they last for as long as it takes to rescue the boat. For some reason everybody thinks that is must be horrible stuff but it is not. The rations come in the form of square tablets about the size of 4 lumps of sugar together and the taste like Scottish Shortbread.  I was told once by a man who wore a kilt, so he must have been an expert on Scotland, that Scottish Shortbread was also a sort of survival ration, made for in case that you got stuck on a mountain in the highlands waiting for the weather to get better.

Tomorrow there is one more theoretical session before we start with the practical stuff. For that I need nice weather in the ports so I am keeping my fingers crossed, as it getting late in the season. The day after tomorrow the crew indoctrination process for the new three alarm system starts. I will hold two sessions for the crew in the show lounge and they will have to attend one or the other ensuring that all 609 onboard will have gotten the message. Then there are a number of breakout sessions with in depth training for the various functions.  That entails a lot of Crowd Control and the crew immensely enjoys that as they find out that they can order the guests around.

Tomorrow we sail up the St. Lawrence River. It is supposed to be very windy again but it should die down in the afternoon. Not exactly cruise ship weather but then this is not the Caribbean either.

For nostalgia sakes: Lifeboat drill on board the ss Statendam in 1900.

Imagine what it must have been to do this in bad weather with a rolling ship !!!!