While here at home, I am busy with creating a number of training modules that will eventually be presented on the fleet to support the Master in his work. One of those modules is dealing with Flag State legislation. This legislation ensures that only qualified seafarers are working on board the ship. The legislative world in which ships are operating can be a complete nightmare as is usual in the shipping business, the Master is directly responsible for everything. That does not mean that he is not supported and protected by the head office. Far from that, but, in the same way as in European football or soccer, the keeper gets the ball first shot at him and behind him is a safety net. Continue reading
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Thus with all the brands under the Carnival Umbrella doing their own thing in developing checklists, somewhere along the line the enlightenment came that Emergency’s are not exactly Brand specific and thus checklists do not need to be Brand specific. That insight came from an un-expected angle; a training centre in the Netherlands.
Continue reading
23 March; 2014, The Magic World of Checklists part 1.
The work that will form the bulk of the Travelling Trainer Job will be in relation to the safety drills and implementation of new procedures on board. There is a slow but constant shift going on in the cruise industry and that is mostly due to the fact that more electronic support is becoming available. The old paper log book has disappeared and instead the assistant of the Watch is now typing directly what is needed into an Electronic file; which we call an E- log. The same is the case for fire fighting. We are moving away from the safety plan under a Perspex plate (so we can draw on it) to a large screen that displays everything digitally. The challenge for all of us in the Industry is to manage this process in the most effective way possible. Continue reading
Dear All,
I have been quiet for much too long for which my apologies. However in the past period an un-expected and exciting development took place with the result that my career is making a partial turn. Not that I will leave the sea behind but I will be at sea in a different way. Continue reading
Good morning All,
No doubt you will have seen that the company is in progress with re-designing the HAL blog site. Although I have always been a -sideways- connected part of it, it also affects the Captain Albert Blog. This redesign is still in process and will take another few days to complete. In the mean time we all, including me, have to patiently wait until this whole process has been completed.
I am working with the head office to ensure that the Captain Albert blog will have everything that it had before. So I am asking for your patience and understanding until the blog site is fully “on the right course” again.
I hope to start adding more material as soon as all the links inside the blog have been re-established.
Best regards from windy England.
Capt. Albert
Well, I have some catching up to do to finish my blog properly before going home. Yesterday I could only manage a one liner as I spent most of the night and the day and the following night on the bridge. On the 27th we called at Ketchikan and it was the proverbial silence before the storm. Coming down from Glacier Bay, the forecast was already getting gloomier and gloomier but a quick calculation showed that we could call at Ketchikan without any issues. The problem was only starting in the night of the 27th and the day of the 28th. Getting back to Vancouver on time was the challenge. So while the ship was happily docked on a dry Ketchikan day (a good reason to be happy) I worked out a plan how to have the least impact of the coming weather. Continue reading
Good morning,
As I always write my blog a day later, I have to skip this one, as today 28 Sept. we are trying to avoid the bad weather that is going on and that means long hours and standby’s on the bridge.
My apologies and I hope to catch up in the coming days.
Capt. Albert
Glacier Bay is just around the corner from Skagway. As a matter of fact it is on the other side of the mountain range. A mountain range with an ice field on top. So to get to Glacier Bay we have to sail around it. Hence during the night we sailed down a very windy Lynn Canal again, turned west into Icy Strait and then to the north into Glacier Bay. The Norwegian Pearl was scheduled to be ahead of us with a Ranger pickup at 07.00 hrs. and we followed with 07.10 hrs. That made life for the pilot and the navigators easy. Stay 10 minutes behind the Pearl, monitor their speed and let them do the work. On a night like this it really does not matter but when there are lots of fishing boats it is always handy to have somebody ahead of you, trailblazing a path and then just follow them at your convenience. Continue reading
Today there were only two ships in Skagway. Us and the Norwegian Pearl. A sure sign that the season is ending. Because we were only two, we were both docked at the Rail Road Dock as this is the best dock for being out of the wind. Also on this dock the trains can stop right in front of the gangway. This is always nice as some of our guests are not in the long distance running group anymore. The weather forecast had been a mixed bag but after a gloomy arrival, it turned into a dry but very chilly day. Winter is definitely on the way. Continue reading
While crossing over to Alaska, the swell was sufficiently enough on the port side that it caused more rolling than pitching and that is always good as the stabilizers can deal with that. Still the ship moved quite a bit, so I was quite happy with my decision to go for the inside route. Going outside would have been quite un-pleasant for the guests. The pilot boat was already waiting for us when we approached and by midnight American time we had our Alaskan Pilots on board. 5 minutes later we were flying. The current in the Inside Passage was favorable, sometimes you just have to have a bit of luck, and that meant that I started to make up the lost time from yesterday morning. Continue reading
Captain Albert
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