With the cruise industry being so popular and there only being three major shipbuilders (with several subsidiaries) at the moment, shipyards are churning cruise ships out as if they are building cars. This means there is the advantage of cost reduction through standardization but also the challenge of still delivering a ship which can be identified with the company that ordered it and is hopefully still unique among all the other ships coming out around the same time.  Holland America with its new building program is of course right in the middle of it.

The standardization part is taken care of by Carnival Corporation. They have a large office in each Fincantieri shipyard and these people ensure every ship is built to not only the same legal standards but also the same company – corporation- standards. Where possible the same equipment and material is used. Thus a bow thruster in a Carnival ship will be the same as a bow thruster in a Holland America ship. This does not have any influence on the guest experience and thus it does not need to be brand specific. The same goes for a myriad of other things. For the ships interior and the operational side things differ and then the company’s needs are built into the specification. Interiors are unique and it is up to each company to use a preferred designer. The actual installation work is carried out by sub – contractors and they can be arranged by the yard/carnival office but they can also be company preferred.   We have now contractors at work, who both work on the Koningsdam and on the Seabourn Encore which is docked behind us.

The Queens lounge as seen from Balcony level. It still looks a mess but it only needs the protective covers to be taken away.

The big puzzle is now for the shipyard, for Carnival office and for the Hal people at the yard is how to get all the work done in the right sequence. As long as only the hull is being constructed, it is not as complicated but as soon as the fitting out starts it does get complicated. A simple thing as installing a door will involve several different companies.

A. somebody builds the frame work: B. somebody delivers the door: C. somebody installs the door: D. somebody installs the door lock: E. somebody installs the safety notice on the inside of the door.  F. somebody installs the door number, and during the whole process there are several somebodies who are constantly checking is it is being done and if it is being done according to specifications and without damage. ……………. And that is only something as simple as a door.

What is almost finished is the Jewelery shop. It still needs some cleaning and the inventory and we are ready for business.

This all results in constant meetings and questions (everybody on their cell phones!!!) in order to streamline the work as much as possible and to avoid parties being in each other’s way. It is not unknown for one contractor to barge over or through a freshly painted area or new installed tiling belonging to another contractor. All the officers and staff assigned to the new building are in between this all, as in the end they have to check if everything is really “their ship” and if it works and if they can work with it.

What is complete and ready, pending the storing of the inventory, is the Ships Infirmary.

As a result of all these conflicting interests and requirements some areas are further towards completion than others. In the end it will all come together but at the moment it is not yet visible. Then there are some area’s which look incomplete but what is only missing is the lighting, the props and the furniture.

Getting things together is taking on an even greater urgency as tomorrow we are supposed to go on board and start living on the ship. March 10 is stipulated in the contract and the yard wishes to stick to the contract. Cancelling at the last minute is really not an option as the leases for the apartments expire and for the hotels arrangements end and all the new crew coming to the ship will then go directly on onboard.

So tomorrow is the big day when the ship goes from a building site to being a passenger ship, although the passengers are for the moment officers and crew. The weather gods seem to favor us as tomorrow is predicted to be a sunny day with temperatures around 14oC / 58oF.

One always connects Venice with sunshine and gondola’s lazily moving through the canals as a perfect example of Italian “La Dolce Vita”. Well, today it did not look like it at all. It was miserable and grey with a constant drizzle coming down when I arrived at the shipyard. Not really a place you associate with cruise ships. But then Venice has a very large industrial hinterland which we do not think off as we say Venice. But the shipyard is located in Marghera and this one of those areas considered to be part of greater Venice.

Some decks are nearly finished, apart from the art/decoration in the corridors. Hence it being possible for the officers and crew to live on board by the end of this week.

As there are only 3 days to go before the crew is going on board, I have been parked in a hotel in the nearby town of Mestre. Not an exciting place either but there is a big shopping Centre just across the road which makes the crew very happy.  For a few days now the first regular crew are arriving and they are staying in  various hotels in the area including mine. The officers who are part of the new building team have been here since last September, or even before, and they live in apartments in the area around Marghera. Marghera is the actual name of the town where the shipyard is located which is just south of Venice. Hence you always see the ships going through Venice itself when leaving the shipyard. It is at the moment the only way out although the local authorities are thinking about a canal which will provide a direct connection with the sea and which will then alleviate the need of having very large ships sailing through the old city. Not so nice for the cruise ship guests but much better for the islands of Venice as the ships wash  can affect /erode the swampy land upon which the whole of Venice has been built.

The two story high Lido deck. Fairly quiet as far as work is concerned as they were busy with laying the deck covering.

But leaving is still more than three weeks away and this morning Captain Emiel de Vries, Master designate for the Koningsdam, picked me up from the hotel and plunged me directly into the “controlled mayhem” of an Italian shipyard.  I have worked in French and German shipyards so I know what hectic is but here this is taken  to a new level.  The closer a ship comes to completion, the more people are milling around to finish everything off and I have never seen more workers per square yard as I saw this morning.  One always observes in a shipyard more chiefs than Indians (or at least a number of people acting as chiefs) but with the arrival of the Cell-phone this seems to have been taken to a whole new level.  Everybody is working hard; everybody is on the phone at the same time which then results in directing everybody else who happens not to be on the phone at that same moment.  I just wonder if everything would come to a grinding halt if the cell phone network would stop all of a sudden.  Better not, as the ship has to sail on April the 4^th.

There are things in life which a simple sailor will never understand. But these balloons have something to do with the eventual installing of the art on this pedestal.

My immediate task in the coming days is to study & learn the ship in detail and create search plans for the ship. These are plans which the Master assists in being able to arrange a fast, comprehensive and in depth search of the ship in case it is needed. Guests missing, property lost on board, stowaway reports etc. etc. These plans are normally made by a very experienced person who understands how a HAL ship operates, how all the sub departments and fiefdoms work; and who can figure out of who is exactly in charge of a particular locker, space or corridor. So while I am doing my familiarization of the ship, I might as well create a checklist at the same time and do it all from the perspective of the Captain. It will take a fair bit of walking around as the Pinnacle Class (Koningsdam & TBA-dam) is considerably different than previous Signature class. More about this in the coming days.

The show room at sea is nearly finished and the testing of the 270o digital background is in full swing.

With the arrival of the first crew there is now manpower to start storing the ship. All the cold rooms are filled up and other store room areas are slowly being taken into use as well. The company has a large warehouse where everything is received and from there distributed to the ship. Except for perishables; they go directly from the delivery van to the cold rooms. After the weekend more and more of that will happen as with sufficient crew available, more and more can be received directly on board.  I just hope for the local weather to improve.

We are not the only ship that creates a lot of fuss and Italian excitement as behind us lays the Seabourn Encore which recently was floated out from dry dock.  For this ship the finishing off is now starting as well and two ships nearing their finishing stages do create for a lively atmosphere.

Weather for tomorrow: Rain and overcast in the morning and then clearing in the afternoon and then Thursday should be a sunny day.

The nice weather held and we arrived this morning with sunny skies and a cool breeze blowing from the North East. A bit of a cool wind is not bad at all for Half Moon Cay as it makes it less warm later in the day and this indeed happened. Nice sunny weather with bearable temperatures while on the beach. My class had been up and about for a while already as they were involved in the General Closure procedure for all the Fire Screen Doors.  The Nieuw Amsterdam is divided in seven safety sections called Main Fire Zones or Main Vertical Zones and these are separated from each other by Fire Resistant bulkheads. There are a lot of holes in these bulkheads as everybody must be able to walk through the ship. In case of fire when we want to isolate the section on fire we close the Fire Screen Doors which will then plug those holes. 

Holes as in corridors; as in the big open spaces of the public rooms; as in access to store rooms; AC Stations, Engine Spaces, etc. etc. The law requires the testing of these doors on a regular basis. Closing and opening locally, closing one by one from the bridge, closing by vertical section from the bridge and closing them all at the same time. The latter is called a General Closure. The challenge is when to do this because A. most of the time there are guests and crew walking around creating a chance of an accident and B. if guests or crew keep going through you cannot see from the bridge if the door is really closed. The indicator will not stay on green = safe = closed.  Through the years we have figured out that the best time is around 05.00 in the morning. The late night revelers have gone to bed, and the early morning risers have not risen yet.

All the doors in the process of closing. Done from the bridge and now going from Red to Green. Over the top of the console tracing paper has been placed so the Safety Officer can mark those doors which might need attention

Still we have officers and crew everywhere to monitor the situation and six extra hands for this evolution is always much appreciated. Hence at 05.00 we were all in position when the switch was flipped and the doors closed. With so many Fire screen doors there is always one that will need re-adjusting or for which the controlling light on the bridge has flunked out.  This is then corrected the same morning by the Safety Officer and his staff.

The Half Moon Clipper approaching with the Zuiderdam in the background.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that all the material for the days stay comes from the ship(s) and nearly all the service staff as well. For that purpose the Half Moon Clipper comes alongside to collect all the food and drink needed on the island. As soon as the ship is on location the tender service starts while at the same time the Half Moon Clipper is loaded. Everything goes to the island where small trucks are waiting to bring it to the various venues. When the day is done the left overs are returned to the ship(s).

How about this? A whole pallet of Hamburger buns going ashore.

Our Culinary Staff are very skillful in calculating how much will be used during the day, so very little comes back.  They know exactly how much our guests eat (a lot) and what they like (steak, burgers, fish and freshly cooked vegetables). What is harder to predict is the amount of beverages being consumed as that depends on a lot of factors. Thus we see quite a few bottles returning. According to one Steward there was today a low interest in various Rums but a high interest in Light Beers. Next week might be different.

All the luggage crates have been loaded by means of the crane from the Half Moon Clipper and ready to depart.

Today also my class came to an end. For 14 days I tried my best to transfer as much information and experience as possible. Some of the routines and topics might have looked be a bit mundane but later on they will realize that safe working comes with knowledge of routines and doing it and then it will all make sense. They will now return home and then wait for their first assignment.

Holland America: Here We Come.

I will fly home as well to turn myself around and get ready for the other part of my job the On Board Team Support Officer.  Then on Monday 7 march I will fly to Italy to join the Koningsdam. Thus for a few days my blogging will stop and then I hope to dispense some interesting facts about how a new and empty ship is being manned and is getting ready (I think the Navy uses the word “worked up’) for service. We have about three weeks to get all the crew singing the same tune before the first cruise starts. A lot of crew come from the other ships and that means we have to mold S-Class, R-Class, Vista Class and Signature Class routines and service into a new Pinnacle Class operation.

Tomorrow morning we will be docked in Ft. Lauderdale around 07.30 am. and we will have the same busy day as usual.  I will be “on the blog” again in seven days.

This is cruising at its best. It is not too warm outside, courtesy of a cool north Atlantic breeze. The sun is shining and it is a following wind and thus the relative wind on deck is nothing more than a gentle breeze. I wish we could have this during every sea day. Yesterday on departure we saw flying fish around the ship, (and quite a few of them directly eaten by Black Starlings) and today the flying fish were there again but no Birds. It seems birds do not enjoy hanging around a ship with a following wind. Maybe it is too hard to fly or maneuver in the air if the wind comes from behind.

Half Moon Cay surrounded by other Bahamian Islands.

We are on the regular route in the North Atlantic Ocean and around 1700 hrs. today we were passing the Turks & Caicos Islands again. Now we will stay in open waters until early in the morning tomorrow when we sail between the various Bahama Islands and approach Half Moon Cay from the South. The  best known island in this region is San Salvador Island which is located just east of Half Moon Cay (which itself is part of Little San Salvador Island) It is one of the larger Bahamian Islands but away from the beaten track and not so easy to get to. Very famous for scuba diving due to the proximity of nice reefs and those same reefs also make it difficult for larger ships to go there.

If there was an easy way to get larger ships to the island, no doubt we would have built a pier there in the same way as on Grand Turk Island. Apart from the excellent beaches it also has the Columbus Monument. The island lays claim to fame due to the fact that Columbus discovered the New World here in 1492. If this is true I do not know because several other islands claim the same thing. For a cruise ship always a nice attraction to provide the guests with. But maybe not a place for Holland America to be as one of our previous Captains, Commodore Verhoog made a whole study about this in the 1950’s and came to the conclusion that due to the prevailing current Columbus must have landed somewhere else. And we have to believe our Captains of course so Holland America could possibly  not call somewhere where it was proven by one of its own Masters that it is the wrong island. The island has several little harbors and marinas but nearly the whole island is surrounded by an extended reef and that means a long tender service and a ship which is not sheltered by the island itself. Not good for a safe tender operation and Guest Satisfaction.

Two teams on deck, the forward one has the fire /water hose, the 2nd one the fire/foam hose.

None of the crew was bothered by all of this, as it was Fire drill time. Once a week the ship conducts, in accordance with Solas regulations, a First Emergency Response Drill. We always try to keep changing the scenario’s around to keep the interest and focus of our crew going. If you extinguish the same trash can every week then boredom tends to set in quite quickly. So today we practiced a Helicopter crash on deck. With the objectives: A. to save & protect the ship B. if possible save the people inside the helicopter.  I have been told that the new helicopters coming into service are less flammable and have better safety protection features than the ones before and thus we stand a better chance to help the occupants if something like this would happen. Thus far the helicopter pilots out there and the cruise industry have a 100% safety record and that is something to be proud about, but still we train and exercise.

Once the injured person is safely removed they are handed over to the stretcher team for transport. Here we see the team made up of Housekeeping Attendants with a Medical Officer putting our “victim” on the stretcher.

Thus we simulated a crash on the forward deck and exercised the correct approach with the objective to remove a “victim” / injured person. For that we use two teams; one with a hose with sea water and one with a hose with foam (against fuel spills). One team tries to maneuver itself in such a position that the victim can be safely removed while the 2^nd hose protects the team busy with that extraction. In the meantime there is another team a deck above who lets it “rain” foam over the crashed helicopter and a team below in case fire goes through the deck below. When the whole exercise was over there was a debriefing for lessons learned, followed by a short training to explain the whole sequence and what each and every team does, as often everybody only sees a small part of the whole evolution.

Tomorrow we will be in Half Moon Cay where we will be together with the Zuiderdam. For my school class it will be an early morning as at 05.00 hrs. the ship will conduct a General Closure of all the Fire Screen Doors in the ship. More about that tomorrow.

Because the time/distance between pilot station and docking is so short and the port layout is so simple, all the cruise ships arrive at nearly the same time. If there were traffic lights they would all be lined up behind each other waiting for their turn.  There is not a traffic light system of course  and so the port authority has to make sure the ships are scheduled in such a way that they can be handled by the pilots in the right order and that there are linesmen waiting on the dock for the ropes to come ashore.

When we arrived the Regal Princess was already docked, we came in second, followed by the Celebrity Summit and then followed as the last one of the visiting quartet, the Freedom of the Seas. This left two berths empty at the end of the East Pier. Thus in total St. Maarten can handle six ships of considerable size. In contrast to San Juan, they have the bollards better positioned here and thus little to complain about in regards to the pier. But sailors like to complain, so we will find something.  As mentioned yesterday the challenge of St. Maarten is to deal with the swell coming around the East point of the islands. This has always been an issue; hence they built the cargo port against the rocks / hill of the East point and completely out of the swell.  When the time came for constructing cruise piers there was not much lee side left anymore and now we just have to deal with it. If you are deep in or deep forward on the East pier then only your stern catches the swell a bit but the other berths can be fully exposed, depending on the angle of the swell.

Today the West pier was more exposed and both the Regal Princess and the Freedom of the Seas docked nose out so that any swell would hit the bow and the energy transferred into a pitching motion. Easier for the mooring ropes to deal with. If you dock nose, then the swell hits the stern and as that stern is squarer and blunt, the swells energy tends to be more converted into a cork screw swaying motion and mooring ropes do not like that at all.  It puts a variation of stresses on a rope and where they touch the ship it will eventually chafe through or find a weak strand among all the strands which make up a rope and it will break. The east pier was more sheltered thus Summit and NA docked nose in.

The beginning of the Pier and the entrance to Philipsburg. 1000’s of eager shoppers pass through the gates here each day.

Today we were the lucky one, with our nose all the way in and protected by the Celebrity Summit; it meant our ship was hardly riding along the pier. The Summit caught a bit of the swell with the stern, and was making more movements but not much to be concerned about.  So we all had a nice, quiet and sunny day, while at least 10,000 guests explored St. Maarten.

It is amazing what goes on, on a cruise ship, as far as training is concerned. Not just the training by the ship itself or my presence with a group of officers but what the company flies in from the outside. Last week we had a safety trainer to refresh technical skills for deck and engine and this week we had a Pest Management Specialist coming in: the cockroach guy, for his relevant training.  In the old days we used have a lot of cockroaches on the ships. The ships had a lot of real wood on board and were constructed with an eye on sturdiness and not exactly for easy cleaning options.  When I was a junior officer I was sometimes supervising the “the safari team” which was a group of sailors hunting for the bugs. Then the ships got less wood and construction also started to take into consideration “cracks and crevices”. The less of them, the less chance of having the bugs. Now the ships are vermin free but we still have the challenge to keep them off the ship. For that the relevant crew was trained this morning, Housekeeping Store rooms but also the shop ladies as they handle boxes with the shop stores coming from the shore side. Recognize what you see and what to do about it is of the utmost importance.

The German cockroach marches on board, The American Cockroach flies on board, and the bed bug hitches a ride to come on board. Important to know is where and when to expect this and half the battle is already won. Stop that from happening and you are in good shape.

On top of that we had our Hotel Director Renee Tuinman conduct an “Excellence Meeting” to help the crew to raise the level of service to an even higher level.  My team was of course present, first to soak in all the knowledge but also to understand the issues the other departments have to deal with.

I have four representatives from Holland on board, one from New Zealand and one from the UK. By handling all the mooring and anchor equipment they will get a bit routine insight of what goes on during mooring deck operations.

Soon enough it was departure time as the Nieuw Amsterdam sailed at 15.00 hrs. in order to make Half Moon Cay on time. The team is present at each mooring and unmooring and are building up more and more routine in the operation and we were there to cast off the lines.  Tomorrow will be a sea day and the weather looks good so we should have a good ride back towards Fort Lauderdale.

Our medical evacuation in Grand Turk yesterday caused a delay in departure and thus we arrived a bit later today in San Juan.  Nothing we can do about it; saving lives comes first at all times.  But the captain put the pedal to the metal and tried to make up as much of the lost time as possible. With lunch just behind us the good ship Nieuw Amsterdam sailed into San Juan under sunny skies. While it was outside quite windy, inside it was a lot better and by the time we docked it was almost windstill……. Relatively spoken as the wind was still blowing but we docked behind the Carnival Glory. That ship is bigger than the Nieuw Amsterdam and thus acted as a magnificent wind breaker. She will leave at 16.30 hrs. today but she was quite handy for our docking purposes today.

The Carnival Glory keeping us nicely out of the Easterly Trade Wind.

Today we docked at 3 West which is not our favorite dock as it only has one bollard for the stern lines which has to be shared by two ships. Why the designer and authorities did not put some extra bollards in, which would have made it possible to separate the lines of the Carnival Glory and the Nieuw Amsterdam, is anybody’s guess. Two big ships with all their stern lines on one bollard is not good practice. Today it is not much of a challenge as the wind is not too bad but on a very windy or stormy day putting all your eggs in one basket, e.g. putting all your lines on one bollard is not good seamanship.

The offending Bollard. There is more than enough room to have installed four of those on the large dolphin/platform.

However, cruise terminals are seldom designed by sailors but by shore side designers who put those “little bowling pins” where it looks pretty and aesthetically pleasing. Once the dock is opened up and the professionals arrive it is too late and we just have to live with whatever creativity has been put on display. And retro fitting is an uphill struggle which seldom comes to fruition. But enough moaning from my side for today.

The Royal Dutch Navy Frigate De Zeven Provincien docked at Pier 1 West.

Today San Juan had the pleasing presence of two Dutch ships. We had a Dutch warship in. The F802: an Air defense and Command Frigate with the very Dutch name of De Zeven Provincien. In English The Seven Provinces. A name harking back to the 16^th century when the Netherlands had only 7 counties’s or States of which Holland was the most important. It is a class of three ships with the other two named after Dutch Admirals who also in the 16^th. Century were very effective in hitting the British over the head.

The Dutch Royal Navy always has one or more ships stationed in the Caribbean as it maintains a base in Curacao. They play a very active part in trying to curtail the Drugs trade which comes out of South America and we regularly see them patrolling near the coast of Venezuela. In the same way as we see the USCG and the US navy.  I could not find what they were doing here but if they were involved in the anti-drug war, then normally San Juan is a stop on the way out or on the way home. Great for the crew; there is nearly always a dock available in downtown and then the “fleshpots of Babylon” are just across the road as my uncle would say. We always keep an eye out in case there is somebody waiting at the fantail to lower the flag in a proper greeting ceremony but nobody was on standby.” Across the road” was much more interesting I suppose.

We will stay in San Juan until 20.30 tonight, shorter than normal but then we have to go to St. Maarten this time and that is a much longer distance to travel than to St. Thomas where we dock during other cruises.  We will be arriving there at 7 am. in the morning and for all the navigators is always the big question there: what will the swell be like? The ships at the two big docks are fairly well protected against the wind but the swell tends to curve around the island and cause the ships to ride along the piers. Not good for stepping on and off the gangway and it causes mooring ropes to break.

We are expecting the Regal Princess, the Freedom of the Seas and the Celebrity Summit. According to the planning of the port we will be docking at the South pier on the North West side and that might just make it nice and sheltered as we will be lying in line as the most western ship of the four. Weather should be good, maybe a bit windy but with sunny skies and temperatures of 28oC / 83 0F.

The last cruise call at Grand Turk was a bit of a disappointment weather wise, at least for the operational side; too much wind, this week it was picture perfect.  Clear skies, gentle breeze and no swell. The only complaint we could make was, that we were not the only ship in port. Shortly after our arrival the Carnival Pride arrived. Luckily the Beach resort built together with the cruise ship pier is large enough to handle two or more big ships, thus there was no overcrowding to speak of. For a moment I was afraid that there would be three ships as the Regal Princess showed up and hovered off the dock, but they needed to land somebody and send a tender for the authorities.

Who was also very happy was the Staff Captain as he was able to lower lifeboats for training, which with the possible swell in this port is not always possible. This cruise can be very difficult in this respect, swell in Grand Turk, late arrival in San Juan, and swell in St.Maarten. It all leaves St. Thomas as the only reliable port where we seldom have issues.   Thus today the boats went down and we also drilled the life raft crew. This training was done by my school class who got their first official taste of un-aided work in front of a –very critical- audience.

A quick check on the cheat sheet in order not to forget anything and then it is time to train the newly boarded crew who will get a special “welcome instruction”

As we had worked, studied and trained for this for the last two days, it turned out not to be such a difficult thing and the regular ships officers were quite impressed. They had to learn it the hard way, as they joined Holland America before this program was in place. All went well, which was a great boost for the confidence of my trainees and at 1 pm. I had six smiling gentlemen sitting in front of me, who were quite pleased with themselves. Now it is a matter of gaining experiences and building on the initial experiences made. Hopefully they will not forget the wise lessons of this old captain who kept them busy for 14 days with all sorts of strange training and insights behind the scenes.

Spaghetti Junction. 8 ropes going ashore in Grand Turk to keep the ship alongside.

One of the most important insights to be gained takes place during the arrival and departure standbys on the mooring decks.  One of the regular duties of a 3^rd officer is to be at “stations” during arrival and departure for supervising the mooring of the vessel. The only way to get a real good insight into what exactly goes on, how to handle ropes safely and how to create an efficient team on the mooring deck is to have done it yourself.  When looking at the sailors going about their duties, it looks easy enough but once you get involved yourself your find out it is not. Basically you need eyes in the back of your head to keep a good overview. Most people only have eyes on the front, but when you start gaining experience and start to build up routine, you get a feeling, a sort of sixth sense of what is going to happen and so you – see – the situation before it occurs and can then prevent it.

Carnival “Priders” returning home.

So my guys are doing each and every arrival and departure which means getting up early every day but then they have to get used to it anyway. On departure today it gave them the chance to observe the contrast between Carnival and Holland America. Carnival with long lines at the gangway as everybody returned from the beach at the same time which took time to clear; Holland America guests all  back early but with an ambulance at the gangway for a medivac which took up our time.

Tomorrow we are at sea, heading for San Juan were we should arrive around lunch time. It should be another nice but hot day. 86oF / 30oC with high humidity.

As mentioned yesterday, this cruise is calling at St.Maarten instead of St. Thomas.

With extremely nice weather, both sun and sea, we are sailing north of the Bahamas towards Grand Turk Island. Because of the very nice seas we have a lot of cargo traffic around us, Cargo ships that have not opted this time for sailing through the Old Bahamas Channel. The old Bahama channel is a longer route as it goes south of the Bahamas and thus costs more fuel but it is also more sheltered and thus you can make more speed and that saves time. For a cargo captain a nice calculation to make and figure out what is the best for the ship. Our ships do the same if the weather gets very unpleasant in the North Atlantic, but it cannot get much better than this, e.g. what we have today.

In the meantime the training class has progressed to exploring the engine spaces. They are Navigation Officers and on a cruise ship it means that it is a completely different discipline than on cargo ships where a lot of functions are integrated. It simply comes with the fact that cruise ships are so complicated in construction and the functional needs in both disciplines so extensive. Our A.C. system is often bigger than an engine room on a fair sized container ship.

Although they do not directly work in the engine room for technical activities, deck officers are still very much involved. In case of fire they support and back up the Engine Fire fighting teams and most of the regular fire fighting equipment is maintained and tested by the Deck Department. For both reasons it is extremely important for deck officers to have a good knowledge of the layout of the machinery spaces, how to get to the correct location via the shortest route, and to understand the dangers which are always prevalent in these areas.

Thus it forms part of the training period. We start by looking at the Fire Control Plan. This gives a very good layout of the Engine Room and it lists in deep detail the location and layout of all the  fire prevention construction there is and all the systems which have been installed to protect the area’s in case of a fire. The challenge now comes, after studying the fire Control plans with all its diagrams, is to visualize it in reality. Not easy as with so many pumps, tanks, engines and other equipment around it is very difficult to relate to where you are exactly in the engine room.

The B deck level with the top layout of the six main engines. Top right is one of the boilers for steam production,

Signs to help you are everywhere, all meant to help with a quick orientation in an emergency but as there is no clear “bow – stern” recognition in the lay out, you have to study and practice.  The main engine room is laid out over B, C and D deck and takes up about half the length of the ship.  On B & C deck there are crew cabins in the fwd. area but on D deck there are tanks, such as the potable water tanks.

The mid level of the six main engines and now aux. engine spaces are visible as well. The four rectangles to the right are the four A.C units of the ship.

Still this half part of the ship is complicated enough to get lost in and disorientated. Thus training is of the essence. Also getting in is not easy as the whole area is locked in and blocked off. If you do not have the key or know the door, it is hard to find. If you are a visitor, then you first have to report to the Engine Control Room and sign in the Visitor log. Then you get scrutinized by the Engineer on Duty to see if you are wearing Safety shoes (steel noses) and hearing protection and if you know what you are doing. Sometimes permission is played up all the way to the Chief Engineer.

Then you can go in and do whatever job you have to do. We spent a few hours down there, trying to get somewhere as fast as possible via the safest route, to get out as quickly as possible (every space has an emergency exit) and also realize in what section of the ship we exactly where.

Tomorrow we are in Grand Turk. According to the latest information we are sharing the berth with a Carnival ship and thus we have to make sure that we are not arriving at the same time.  The weather is looking a bit variable with some scattered showers in the area but it will be warm. 810F / 27oC.

Today it was a very good day for being in Ft. Lauderdale, also as a turn over port. It was sunny but not too warm; there were plenty of cruise ships in but nothing on the road to slow down the procedures. For once the Nieuw Amsterdam only had to wait for the pilot to come on board on departure instead the pilot having to wait for last minute guests coming on board.  So today all was well in the world as far as turn- overs- were concerned.

My class was out and about today as I could not look after them in the morning due to having to go ashore again to be instrumental in obtaining the “zero count”. So I trundled off the ship at 10.30 with the last group and then trundled back on board again with the first group when embarkation started.   In the meantime the class went to observe chemical and recyclables off-loading with the Health and Sanitation Officer and afterwards reported to the First Officer to get involved in the noble activity of repairing Fire Dampers.

Together with Fire Screen Doors, the Fire Dampers are a major headache for each Safety Officer. Fire screen doors of which there are about 300 on board sometimes breakdown if they get hit by a trolley or a transport cart. The impact normally affects the closing mechanism and then the door does not fully close anymore. Thus the Safety Officer shows up with a hammer (for structural damage) and a screw driver for re-adjusting the closing speed. Fire screen doors you see everywhere in the Guest spaces especially around the staircases. They also are everywhere in the crew area’s and that is where there is the most repair work as the traffic (and the number of trolley’s) is the greatest here.

A few models of fire dampers we can find in the accommodation. Those for the engine room spaces can be up to 7 or 8 feet high.

Fire Dampers are normally not seen by the guests. They can be felt by a guest, if suddenly the A.C does not work anymore. If there is no general stoppage of the main system, then normally there is a blockage in a fan duct and quite often that turns out to be a Fire Damper that decided to close by itself. We can not always see this as the indication might still give the all clear. Each damper has an indicator on the remote switch and if that is green, then we do not know until we get a complaint or when carrying out a bi-monthly in depth inspection. We cannot do a more frequent inspection as there are too many of them.   Thus we normally get the complaint first.

What do Fire dampers do?  Basically they are little doors or flaps which close a duct where air flows through. Circulating air will fan & feed a fire and thus they help stopping a fire by cutting this circulation off.  They can be found anywhere in the ship where there is some sort of air circulation going on. Most ships have hundreds of them. The majority can be found in and near A.C stations which are everywhere on board, or in the engine room, or in locations where ventilation ducting goes through a fire bulkhead or main vertical zone. However the latter you only see on older ships as it is not really allowed anymore.

Every orange arrow indicates a name but also an item that can go wrong.

The smaller dampers are electrically operated and when activated seal off the ducts serving the accommodation areas. The damper itself might be one flap or several louvres which work in conjunction.  As there is cold or hot air flowing by and that air can still be tinged with salt, corrosion is an option and then they can get stuck. Also the little motor can burn out or the fuse can go.  Lots of small things which make damper maintenance a never ending enjoyment for the deck officers.

Thus today the Nieuw Amsterdam had six extra officers available to tinker with the dampers and to carry out a myriad of small repairs. Good for the ship and even better for them as these sort of repairs need a lot of experience and routine to do them fast and effective.

Tonight we go an hour forward and then tomorrow we are a full day at sea heading for Grand Turk Island. At the moment the weather looks good, so we hope that it will stay that way.

Today we were together with the Oosterdam and today was a little bit of a mixed blessing. For the guests the weather was great. Only after departure it started to cloud over and with a cool wind blowing it was nice on the island and not too warm even with the sun. The other side of the coin had more to do with the operational side. The cool wind, so nice for the guests was at times a wind force six in the open water where the two ships were. That meant that they could not be as close together as would have been convenient for the tender operation. So the Oosterdam settled down at the main anchorage closest to the port as it had to use its own tenders. The Nieuw Amsterdam went somewhat to the South, a slightly longer distance but then it had the benefit of the shore tenders.

The little Sting Ray disappearing under the bow of the Oosterdam

The rule at Half Moon Cay is that the largest ship with the largest number of guests on board will get the shore tenders allocated. In principle there are two of them, the Henry Hudson and the Anne Bonney.  So those two came to the Nieuw Amsterdam. Then there is the Sting Ray which is about half size of the other two but can help out and she went to the Oosterdam to augment their own tenders.  If one of the ships runs into issues then tenders can always be mixed and matched of course but there is a system for the initial setup.  Then there is a final tender, the Half Moon Cay which is more of a work horse. Built for the bad weather up in N.E Canada with only a limited passenger accommodation. But it has a large loading platform at the back with a crane and thus it is used for ferrying supplies to the island from the ships.

The two ships together brought just fewer than 4000 guests to the island and it can easily handle that. With only one ship in, the beach looks a bit sparse but with 2 ships the beach fills up at bit more and the rest of the guests are normally spread out over the island at the numerous attractions and so avoiding over crowding.  I believe everything was in full swing today except the Para Glider but that might have been due to the strong winds.

I sent my school class ashore for a few hours as this might be one of the very few opportunities they will have to see the island. We cannot always make the call due to the weather and the tender service takes up a lot of man power as well, leaving few options to have a good look around.  Half Moon Cay is very beautiful and is one of the nicest beachy-island destinations  there is. I have seen Princess Cay and Castaway Cay (Mickey Mouse) and without being biased ours is better.

For the ships the operational challenge there is that all the food and drink comes from the ship and goes ashore to be prepared and served by our own crew. That is a logistical nightmare as there is always a delay in delivery if something is forgotten. So the Hotel department is in a constant frenzy to ensure that everything goes ashore and nothing is forgotten. Not a mean feat considering there will be 4000 hungry guests descending on the cook-out at lunch time. Not a good idea if you are then suddenly running short of napkins.  Normally the ships divide the burden between them with one ship providing the food and the other the beverages while both deliver 50% of the crew. So for some of the crew it is also a sort of reunion as they meet up with collegues from previous contracts.

The final island tender coming back to the Nieuw Amsterdam.

For both ships it was 14.30 hrs. all back on board and both ships just managed to get ready to sail at 15.00 hrs. The Nieuw Amsterdam beat the Oosterdam to it as it had not anchored but had remained on the engines and drifting. The Oosterdam needed some extra time to get the anchor up but then she did have the advantage of having the better anchorage location.

Tomorrow we are back in Fort Lauderdale and a new cruise will start. Nearly the same as this one but with calling at St.Maarten instead of at St.Thomas. We will have the same ships in port and that will make for a crowded day again.