chengkp75

Under the IMO's SAR (Search and Rescue) Convention, certain nations take on responsibility for SAR activities around their coasts, and this is done for no charge to the person rescued/evacuated, nor to the ship or company. The USCG takes this responsibility for our coasts, and large swaths of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as well as most of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Commercial Life Flight helicopters do not train in either winch operations, nor in winching/landing on moving ships, so no Captain would allow these flights anywhere near their ships. Some European nations contract out their SAR responsibilities to commercial companies, but these are then trained for maritime operations, just like the governmental agencies.

Yes.

Sea water. There are actually three different cooling loops. The "high temp" fresh water system is in the engine itself (think of your car's cooling system) running at about 75*C. This is cooled by the "low temp" fresh water system, which also cools everything else in the engine room (engine oil coolers, air compressors, boiler condensers, etc) which runs at about 30*C. That system is then cooled by sea water, usually max about 25*C, but most ships can handle up to 30*C sea temps (Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean, those areas).

The hose at the dock is from the municipal supply, but since it is not tested monthly, they cannot call it "potable", and the terminal does not want to spend the money to have it tested monthly. What the ships use the non-potable, but actually potable, water for is engine room use (called "technical water"), like the fresh water cooling systems for the engines and auxiliary equipment. The cruise ships also use "technical water" for engine room use, but just like the ship's laundry, their technical water comes from the hundreds of tons of condensate from the AC system. And, in many cases that truck with "potable" water is actually delivering distilled water for the ship's boiler. I have taken water on cargo ships from many ports, where the dock representatives will tell us the water is "not potable", yet it comes from a city hydrant. We test the water, chlorinate it, and if it tests fine we have loaded it as potable water for decades. Cargo ships are not as constrained by public health regulations as cruise ships.

It is not only the sales tax that is involved. They are limiting the amount of "out of bond" liquor, that is being used in Canada. The Canadian excise tax, that is included in the price when a bar or person buys a bottle of spirits, amounts to between 20-30% on the wholesale price. Ohio, for example, your state, has an excise tax of $9.32/gallon on spirits, on top of any sales tax. As I said, they could just as easily follow the Texas model, and only allow liquor to be used that has paid the Canadian excise tax, which would increase the cost of drinks for the passengers, and limit the selection, as the ship is not going to pay tax on the entire stock onboard.

That is not correct. With the exception of the ship's main laundry, all water used on the ship is the same, potable water, whether for drinking, showering, galleys, pools, and deck, hull, and balcony cleaning. They would no more pay for fresh water for ballast than they would give you a free cruise. Sea water is ballast. The exception I mention is that the ship's main laundry uses condensate from the AC system to wash. Nearly every cruise ship takes on potable water in port at some time or another. Many times the itinerary does not allow for enough time at sea to make enough water to cover the usage over the cruise, so the balance is loaded in port. The actual hydrant used to load water has to have a water quality test done within 30 days (not just the general municipal system test), and there has to be residual chlorine present. The hoses are used strictly for loading potable water (even though they are fire hoses), and are sanitized in chlorine before use, and the water loaded is chlorinated before it goes into the ship's storage tanks, and that water cannot be used on the ship until a fecal coliform bacteria test is completed, which takes 18-24 hours. But, taking on drinking water is done all the time, on any ship.

Ask Guest Services to take the gallon jug to engineering, and have them fill it directly from the evaporator, and you will have pure distilled water. We got this request lots of times when I worked for NCL, before the use of CPAPs became widespread, and the lines did not regularly stock distilled water. Also, while I agree that the Pure Life water is not recommended for a CPAP, the amount of calcium carbonate (the ingredient in Tums) which is the only thing added to the distilled water that is made onboard is so low as to not really matter. Take the tap water, fill a pitcher, leave it set open for several hours to let the chlorine dissipate, and the water will be fine for a CPAP for the few days you are on cruise.

Again, even if the river was crystal clear, as it is where the Tapajos river meets the Amazon at Santarem, the ship cannot make water, from any source, while less than 12 miles from shore.

All water that is taken from shore, no matter where, or how well documented for health and safety, must be segregated from ship's usage until a fecal coliform test is completed, which takes 18-24 hours. I've taken water in Manaus, not real impressed with their hygiene practices, but with enough chlorine, all is well. The ship's laundry uses condensate from the AC system for water, but that is a totally separate system from the potable water circulated around the ship for cabins, bars, restaurants, galleys, and passenger laundries.

As noted above, not correct. The normal rotation of crew will continue, even in dry dock. Some will change out before the shipyard, some during, and some after. Essentially full crew will remain onboard. Only entertainers, concessionaires, and some cruise staff will go home, and those whose contract ends before or during docking will not be replaced until after. I don't believe that food or drinks will be limited, as the cold stores will continue to run during dock, and the food left from the last cruise can feed the crew and sub-contractors. Whether or not work will start during the TA, depends on how much they've scheduled for during the docking, and the time frame of the docking. Things could be disturbed either before, or after if they don't start before, but run overtime and need to work after leaving.

It's not due to the muddy river water, it's due to the fact that the ship is precluded from making any fresh water while less than 12 miles from shore.

The mailboat run will take you all the way out to Cliff Island, the farthest out inhabited island, so looking back, you will have views of all the islands and the Portland skyline. Look the other way, and the first land you'll see is Ireland. A story is that a German U-boat skipper spent so much time looking at Cliff Island through his periscope, that he moved there after the war. The mailboat run can run longer than the 2.5 hours, depending on the amount of cargo being taken to the islands. More cargo, more time at each island.

I will respectfully disagree. The Williamson turn, states that the initial turn is to be "hard over", or full helm toward the side the person is on. Any cruise ship that is traveling at better than 12 knots, when subjected to a "hard over" helm command will list in the 15-25* range, which will not only "toss the glasses", but toss the passengers. The Norwegian Sky, in 2001 did a hard over turn at sea speed, and injured 78 people, one person was seriously injured when a video game fell on him, and another had a broken pelvis from being washed out of the pool. Crown Princess also had a hard over turn at sea speed, with 284 injured. There is no way to turn hard over without first reducing speed that doesn't induce extreme turn induced heeling on a cruise ship. And, while you can be slowing the vessel during the Williamson maneuver, if the initial turn is "asap", then there will have been no reduction of speed.

I highly doubt that they pay taxes on this. When cruise ships replenish stores, things like liquor are bought "out of bond", as the ship is considered "foreign territory", they don't pay import duty when they bring anything in from outside of Canada (or wherever they are replenishing). Things shipped to the ship are considered to be "in transit" from the foreign country (let's say the US for liquor) to the foreign country (the ship), and so it never technically "enters" Canada. This goes for foodstuffs as well. So, the only thing they would pay taxes on are things that are purchased within Canada. This is one huge advantage of flying a flag of convenience. The area of the dock in Vancouver where the trucks show up for unloading to the ship is a "bonded warehouse", meaning it can handle items that have not had duty or taxes paid on them.

This actually seems to be a more "Canadian" approach. They could say that only Canadian taxed liquor could be sold, whereupon the cruise lines would do what they do in Texas, buy a limited selection and quantity of taxed liquor, and only serve that. But, that would require CBSA to go to every bar on the ship, check every bottle of spirits/wine on the bar and every bottle/can of beer in the fridges to have a Canadian tax stamp. So, instead, they just check to see that all bars outside of the allowed number are actually closed. Much more friendly.

It is a different approach to the same issue that Texas addresses; the selling of "out of bond" (meaning that no state/province liquor tax has been paid, nor any import duty). Texas addresses this by requiring that only liquor with Texas state tax stamps can be sold. Canada limits the number of bars on a cruise ship able to be open in port to 1 per 1000 passengers, or 1 per deck of hospitality service (non-cabin decks), whichever is greater. This approach apparently looks to force the passenger to go ashore for drinks, and buy Canadian liquor.

Yes, there is load shedding capability, but on a cruise ship, the galley is such a small part of the load that it isn't included in load shedding. It only takes into account the largest loads, like AC, thrusters, and half of the propulsion power. But, to be honest, the only time I seen load shedding actually working is when we have to test it annually. Typically, a new generator is online before a failing one drops off (early warning alarms), so the plant never gets to the need to shed load.

That is what they are, but many here on CC toss around "engine" and "propulsion" as if they were the same thing. That would depend on how far down you've taken the engine. If you are doing maintenance on the engine, then it could take days to get the engine back to running. But, virtually every ship keeps all their generators in standby (unless being worked on), because the automation will sense an alarm or failure of a generator online, and automatically start another to replace it. So, "standby" is the normal condition of a diesel generator. The cooling water is kept close to operating temperature, the lube oil is kept near operating temperature, and constantly circulated through centrifuges to remove contaminants, and fuel is circulated through the engine right up to the injectors, to keep the fuel from solidifying, so even if I just finished working on an engine, and wanted to test it, I could press the "start" button, and the lube oil pump would come on to pressurize the bearings, and the starter would engage in about 15 seconds. Once the engine is running at speed, it can provide full power immediately (it is not recommended, but is possible), and the process to synchronize the generator to the power bus is only a few seconds as well.

No, the big advantage to diesel electric propulsion is that the diesel generators can be used for anything. They all feed the same switchboard, which powers everything on the ship; propulsion, hotel load, engineering hotel load. Therefore, you can fine tailor the power capacity on line to the power demand more closely than if you only had generators for hotel load, and diesels for propulsion. This saves fuel. Most cargo ships these days have diesel engines that are directly connected to the propeller. These are "slow speed" diesels, that can run from 30-125 rpm, which is optimal for large propellers. The electric drive motors used on cruise ships, whether for azipods or for shafted propellers, need a frequency converter to operate. Since an AC motor operates at the frequency of the power (typically 60 Hz), it will only operate at one speed. The frequency converter takes the AC power, converts it to DC power, and then converts it back to AC power at the right frequency to drive the motor at the desired speed.

Depends on what you mean by "engine". Are you talking the azipod, or the diesel engine that drives the generator, that in turn drives the azipod? The diesel engines are maintained in a "standby" mode, so that if either the automation says it needs to start another generator due to an alarm, or the duty engineer pushes the button to start the engine to get ready to leave port, the engine will go from a standstill to full speed, synchronise itself online and be able to generate full power within about 45 seconds. The azipods are not in standby, and will have some automated sequences like running the oil pumps for a minute before starting the motor, and the frequency drive needs to be up and online before the motor can be started, but it's about 2 minutes.

Code Alpha involves more than just the Doctors and Nurses from the Medical Center, who do have radios, but who don't carry them around all the time (for instance, not when off duty), or have them on. Code Alpha also alerts the members of the stretcher teams (who are waiters, cabin stewards, bartenders, etc) to go to the Medical Center for assignment. Typically, there will be 3-4 teams of 5-6 on each team. But, even with announcing the cabin number, that still does not identify the passengers.

As noted above, downdraft from helo, which does not hover over the ship, but off to the side when not actively winching, could cause injuries to passengers on balconies. Also, possibility of FOD (foreign object debris) would be an increased danger to helicopter from people leaving balcony door open. They don't want photos taken, as even in daylight, the flash from cameras (and many don't turn the flash off on their phones in daylight) can distract the pilot. The number of times the helicopter was over the ship could be as noted by www3traveler, or the first could have been a "dry run" to check the relative wind, ship speed, ship motion, and turbulence from the ship's exhausts. An EMT/Flight nurse is lowered first, along with the rescue basket/litter. He/she will be the last lift up.

The various sized 700+ azipods in service have provided over 20 million operating hours to date. While I feel that in the marine industry, ABB provides a world class service, based on my years of experience with them, I can't, and shouldn't, extend that approval to something I have no knowledge of, like EV charging stations, nor should criticism go the other way.

The propeller of an azipod has no gearing or clutches. The propeller is mounted to the shaft, which is also the motor shaft. The propeller and motor turn in a 1:1 ratio. There are two radial ball/roller bearings, and an axial tilting pad type thrust bearing. The only gearing is that the pod itself has a large ring gear, and there are two motors that drive small pinion gears to turn the ring gear and the pod. There are friction clutches that will slip and prevent damage to the azimuthing motors when the pod is prevented from turning. For nearly all large ocean-going vessels these days, of whatever type (container, tanker, cruise ship), or whatever propulsion means, there are no clutches or gearing between the propeller and the propulsive means (electric motor, diesel engine). LNG ships are about the only large ships that use steam turbines that need gearing to the propeller.

Historically, the azimuthing system (the only system with clutches and planetary gears) have not been an area of failure. And, the technology for these azimuthing systems is far more established than the azipod itself, being used a decade before azipods were invented in azimuthing thrusters and z-drives. And, the ABB group is a huge conglomerate that covers many industries, so poor quality control in one area does not translate into poor quality in another, as each industry is a separate corporate entity, many times, as in the Marine division, having purchased other companies to integrate those companies' products into their own line.