Pacific Explorer, Hobart, Dark MOFO, leaving the dock at midnight, returning 8am

[ELep]

Hello All, 

We are on the Pac Ex for the Dark MOFO cruise later this month. 48 hours docked in Hobart on Thursday 20/6 and Fri 21/6. I note that the ship will leave the dock at midnight on the Thursday and then returns to the dock at 9 am on Friday morning, where it stays until departure on Saturday morning at 8 am. 

Just wondering if any of the brains trust on here would know why that would be, and how far away from the dock would the ship go? I am hoping it would still stay in the river? Or would it have to head out to sea a little?

TIA for your input. 

 

[SeaDog-46]

There does not seem to be any ship arriving that requires that berth, but if there is is is not listed on expected arrivals.

 

Alternatively it could be ship requirement to dump black water at sea well off shore.  Many of the older vessels do not have much holding capacity.

[NSWP]

1 hour ago, SeaDog-46 said:

There does not seem to be any ship arriving that requires that berth, but if there is is is not listed on expected arrivals.

 

Alternatively it could be ship requirement to dump black water at sea well off shore.  Many of the older vessels do not have much holding capacity.

Perhaps some overnight maintenance to the berth? 

[Kiwi Kruzer]

2 hours ago, NSWP said:

Perhaps some overnight maintenance to the berth? 

........

Or maintenance to the ship which might require a sea trial or test run. 

[SeaDog-46]

Les she is actually leaving the berth at midnight & returns next morning.

Can't see Hobart Port doing work overnight.

David it could be a sea trial for onboard repairs.

I doubt we will ever know - another mystery of the deep!

Unless somebody onboard can find out.

Still think is is lack of space in black water tank as she is not departing until Saturday am.

[ELep]

10 hours ago, SeaDog-46 said:

There does not seem to be any ship arriving that requires that berth, but if there is is is not listed on expected arrivals.

 

Alternatively it could be ship requirement to dump black water at sea well off shore.  Many of the older vessels do not have much holding capacity.

This would (I hope) be treated black water? I was assuming that the ship could discharge it's effluent safely into the TAS sewage system, but I guess port fees would be even higher if that was the case?

[SeaDog-46]

Merchant ships including cruise ships do not pump out sewage [black water] to city sewage systems.

See International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships - MARPOL 1973/78.

Annex 4 deals with sewage.

 

You some times see a road tanker alongside your cruise ship - this is usually taking oil sludge from the Engine Room holding tank. 

[SinbadThePorter]

On 6/9/2019 at 10:38 AM, SeaDog-46 said:

Merchant ships including cruise ships do not pump out sewage [black water] to city sewage systems.

See International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships - MARPOL 1973/78.

Annex 4 deals with sewage.

 

That's very interesting. Like a lot of people I never gave much thought to where all the waste goes on a cruise.

 

From MARPOL it looks like treated sewage must be dumped more than 3 nautical miles out to sea and untreated sewage dumped more than 12 nautical miles out to sea.

 

Out in the middle of the Pacific where there aren't many nutrients, I imagine such dumpings could result in considerable plankton blooms.

[SeaDog-46]

Yes that looks like the requirements for sewage waste.

Every ship is different & holding capacity is less on the older ships.

I know on the old Statendam - the 3rd officer doing talks on ship operation - got an engineer [female] to explain the plumbing side & what happened to all waste.

On there all waste water went to a sort of septic tank & the overflow was held in another tank for eventual discharge overboard.

At least it does not all go straight over the side as it did in the old days - prior to 1973.

 

In Hobart here is another vessel that dumps waste - sludg from the Risdon metal refinery.  Also the bulk carrier that hit & brought down some of the bridge - is still were it sank.

I never eat local fish in Hobart.

 

 

[ELep]

Well just back from this trip on Explorer to Hobart for Dark MOFO. The ship did indeed leave Hobart at midnight on the Thursday and then returned and docked again at 9am on the Friday. Stayed in port until Saturday 8am. We just went straight out to sea and back in. No mention made as to the reason for this, so I suspect the need for a little "housekeeping" is the reason. I understand one fella did not make it back on board on time for the midnight departure and had an unscheduled overnight in Hobart. Would have been chilly if he was not able to organize some accommodation. Lucky for him the ship was back the next morning.

[MicCanberra]

19 hours ago, ELep said:

Well just back from this trip on Explorer to Hobart for Dark MOFO. The ship did indeed leave Hobart at midnight on the Thursday and then returned and docked again at 9am on the Friday. Stayed in port until Saturday 8am. We just went straight out to sea and back in. No mention made as to the reason for this, so I suspect the need for a little "housekeeping" is the reason. I understand one fella did not make it back on board on time for the midnight departure and had an unscheduled overnight in Hobart. Would have been chilly if he was not able to organize some accommodation. Lucky for him the ship was back the next morning.

Thanks for the update. That bloke might have been having such a good time he may not have even noticed that the ship was gone.

[ELep]

2 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Thanks for the update. That bloke might have been having such a good time he may not have even noticed that the ship was gone.

May have not noticed , but on-board gossip was that he was an older gent who just missed it. Not sure about the whole truth... Sat morning was all aboard by 7am, to depart at 8am for Sydney. They waited for a gent who strolled on at 7.42am. "welcome back sir, we nearly left without you, all aboard was at 7am" 

His reply "yeah, sorry about that". Apparently that's all you need to say when 6 crew are on the wharf looking for you, about 12 wharf workers are ready to go and the pilot is floating out on the river ready to direct proceedings... 

 

[MicCanberra]

6 minutes ago, ELep said:

May have not noticed , but on-board gossip was that he was an older gent who just missed it. Not sure about the whole truth... Sat morning was all aboard by 7am, to depart at 8am for Sydney. They waited for a gent who strolled on at 7.42am. "welcome back sir, we nearly left without you, all aboard was at 7am" 

His reply "yeah, sorry about that". Apparently that's all you need to say when 6 crew are on the wharf looking for you, about 12 wharf workers are ready to go and the pilot is floating out on the river ready to direct proceedings... 

 

He was lucky indeed.

[OzKiwiJJ]

8 minutes ago, ELep said:

May have not noticed , but on-board gossip was that he was an older gent who just missed it. Not sure about the whole truth... Sat morning was all aboard by 7am, to depart at 8am for Sydney. They waited for a gent who strolled on at 7.42am. "welcome back sir, we nearly left without you, all aboard was at 7am" 

His reply "yeah, sorry about that". Apparently that's all you need to say when 6 crew are on the wharf looking for you, about 12 wharf workers are ready to go and the pilot is floating out on the river ready to direct proceedings... 

 

That's just pure arrogance! 😡