We arrive here very early due to the tight schedule between Puerto Caldera and Huatalco and that means a pilot station ETA of 05.00. As the port itself starts working about an hour later, when it gets day light, we always have a challenge to contact Port Control to confirm our arrival time. We already have the confirmation from the agent that all has been arranged but you have to make sure that pilot and port control also gets the confirmation from our side. This means that the officers on the bridge start calling on the VHF about an hour before arrival to see if anybody is awake. This time is was about 20 minutes before 05.00 when somebody suddenly woke up and in rapid Spanish started to create some excitement on the radio waves. My Spanish is not that good but I could easily follow the gist of the conversation; being that this gentleman was rather shocked to suddenly to see the Statendam looming over the breakwater. I had simply parked the Statendam on the pilot station and that had the desired result. If that does not help, then there is always the option to start blowing the whistle.
The pilot boat was duly dispatched and the pilot brought the good news that I was allowed to sail into the port. He also confirmed that we had record tides today with the message that the ship would go up and down during the day with about 3 meters/ 12 feet. Normally the pier height is just right so we can survive with B deck gangway all day long. We sometimes have to deballast the bow (which brings the threshold of B deck up by 2 feet) and or list the ship to port (each degree list, gives a foot of threshold raise) and we manage. With 12 feet of tide that does not work and that means we have to rig up our main deck gangway for awhile. That is un-pleasant as it is fairly steep.
Our luck today was that low tide time was at 10.30 so we were able to get all the tours off from the B deck – dock level- gangway and then switch to Main Deck. Most guests were on tour today and that meant that the inconvenience could be kept to a minimum. By noon time the tide had come back up again to enable us to use B deck again for when the tours were coming back. It all worked out in the end but it kept the Staff Captain and his sailor’s busy for most of the morning.
Today we also finished out yearly inspection for the renewal of the ships passport or the PSSC (Passenger ship Safety Certificate). Together with the license from the Dutch government it gives us the right to sail around the world. For 7 days two Lloyds Register Inspectors went through the ship with a fine toothcomb. They observed the whole crew in fire and boat drill, tested all the Fire screen doors (all 250 of them) all water tight doors, lowered all the lifeboats, all engine safety machinery, including emergency stops and shutdown options, all inventory of the lifeboats (12 of them) saw all the boats go in the water and driven around; etc.etc.. Anything item that had in the slightest a safety job to do, was inspected and tested. So it were 7 very busy days. Today they delivered their verdict; everything in good operational order and found the ship in a very impressive state of condition for a 20 year old one.
We now have our preliminary certificates which are valid until dry dock. In dry dock the underwater ship will be inspected plus all the double bottom tanks (which are now full of oil, potable and ballast water) and if that is also good, we get our papers for the next 3 years. (With only a yearly endorsement needed) I knew that the Statendam was in good order, my officers and crew have worked very hard for that, but to pass though without any observations, was above expectations. Inspectors normally find something; otherwise they think they have not done a good job. The few things that they did remark about, we corrected before the inspection was over and thus the sheet was clean, when they left.
Now we can prepare the ship for dry dock and in the coming weeks it should become clear what will be done in dry dock, apart from the 20 year PSSC survey, and what we will have to do to make it a success. First we will have the 30 day South Pacific cruise followed by the Christmas Trans Canal cruise back to Florida.
We left Caldera slightly late, as two tour buses got muddled up in traffic but then we raced out of the port towards Huatalco. I am keeping a close eye on the weather, as Tehantepec is in turmoil again
November 17, 2012 at 10:37 pm
so i went on MS rotterdam earlier in year – the gangways was always on A deck except deck 2 when at Rottedam – but MS rotterdam never uses B deck gangways
November 18, 2012 at 6:48 pm
Good morning,
I wish that I could do the same. Except the S-class does not have an A deck break for a gangway. We only have B and Main deck doors.
Thank you for reading my blog.
Captain Albert