Guessing the correct weather for Ketchikan is a lot easier than winning the lottery. The chance that you get it right is 332 (days) out of the 365 is quite achievable. During those 332 there will be some rain. Varying from Horizontal Rain, Torrential Rain, Steady Rain, to Showers, Drizzle & Drip. Today we had drizzle and drip which they do not consider rain at all in Ketchikan and can thus be ignored and considered a dry day.
So we had a dry day for most of the day with only an occasional increase from drizzle and drip to shower. The good ship Statendam arrived at Ketchikan dock just after 07.00 and we were assigned the best dock in port again, dock 2. Right on top of the Tongass Store, and with everything else right across the street. In port as well were the Pacific Princess from Princess Cruises and the Infinity from Celebrity. That left one berth, berth 4, empty for the day. Berth 4 is the berth the farthest from the town and is thus the least used.
I was up and about very early as I had offered to do a photo shoot for the company’s simulator. For a number of years now Carnival Corporation’s UK branch had a Simulator in the Netherlands (The company is called C-Smart) in the town of Almere. Almere is a new built city sitting on reclaimed land to the East of Amsterdam. And as about half of the rest of Holland it sits below water level. However as long as the dykes are holding, everything is safe. And we have good dykes in Holland. The best in the world to be honest, we even export them all over the world.
All of us attend nearly every year one or more classes at this Simulator and the courses are based on Bridge Team Management in all its forms and possibilities. It is a busy training facility as with 110 cruise ships in the fleet there are a lot of officers who have to go through the classes. More recent is the addition of an Engine Room simulator and that means even more officers are in class. As a result the place became too small and now there is a new build coming in the same town about 4 times as big and with a complete hotel next to it. Until now C-Smart used three hotels in Almere, one in downtown and two at the outskirts but everything is now being brought under one roof. I do not think the hotels will be very happy about this but for us it is an improvement as we do not have the constant shuttle service to get to and from the Hotel. (The taxi company is probably not very happy either)
The bridge simulator as currently in use. The new one will be a lot fancier.
With the new simulator (although there are several, so more classes can run at the same time) comes the desire and need for upgrades. The biggest challenge is to make a simulator as realistic as possible. The more real it looks, the easier it is for the team inside the simulator to get into the groove and forget that it is only a simulator. One of the simulations that are being run is the approach to Ketchikan; as it is quite a complicated area (lots of rocks and currents). Thus the idea was to take a continuous series of photos from the pilot station all the way to the dock with the idea to improve the view of the Simulator “scenery” when the Ketchikan simulation is being run. As it is for a very good cause Yours Truly was in position the moment we sailed past the pilot station at 05.30 and then I happily clicked away for a good 90 minutes. 3 photos every 30 seconds for the duration of the 90 minute transit should give the developers of the software enough material to keep them busy during the coming winter.
On departure I did the same again, although for a shorter period as the drizzle & drip changed into genuine rain, and getting pneumonia was not part of the arrangement. So hopefully the next simulator upgrade will be even more life like than what it already is.
Tonight and tomorrow we will be sailing the Alaskan Inside Passage and tomorrow afternoon we will visit Tracy Arm to look at a few Glaciers.
Weather for tomorrow: Most likely light rain but as glaciers have their own micro climate it is hard to predict.
Some links about C-Smart as a picture paints a 1000 words.
www.csmartalmere.com
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nehlRhovbnE
July 30, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Looked at the YouTube presentation … Mighty impressive, Captain. No wonder some of your Deck Officers had to work 9 years before getting their 3 bars and a krulletje.
Did I see Elianne, Captain, and her newly acquired wedding band?