Sailed on the SS Norway out of Florida and around the Carribean as a passenger around 20 years ago. It was alright but I could help thinking as I lent on the handrails that I was usually getting paid to do that when I was at work . Had dinner at the Captains table and cocktails in the afternoons- very nice man but I heard he had died a few years later still quite a young man.
sounds like my household lol
My honeymoon was on one of the Princess ships going to Alaska in 2008. It was nice because the ship left out of Seattle where my ship was so I called my ship. We got a bunch of one finger salutes as we passed.
We were able to tour the bridge. My wife was like is your ship like this… "no, honey I work on the tanker equivalent of a '86 Chevy Caprice. The 2nd mate asked about my ship… “do you remember the rusty tanker leaving Seattle?..” “oh what delightfully ship”… Word must have gotten around because the deck cadet would seek us out…
I chatted with him about US vs. Foreign shipping.
I can’t wait until my kids are older so I can bore them on a cruise …
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I have, but my employers thought I was working.
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Twice out of Galveston. First time in an interior cabin. It sucked. Second time a cabin with a balcony. Wife loved it but me, not so much. Never again. The highlight was meeting a jack-up rig driver from Nawlins. We compared anchor tattoos while getting shitfaced at an open air bar.
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Taught some STCW courses to crew on NCL boats out of Honolulu years ago. Had passenger cabin and ID badge for full ship access so best of both worlds. Enjoyed it but not sure I would ever pay for a week on one.
That would be a pretty sweet gig.
It was a hoot but once done it was done and never went back. It was a one time sort of thing for old crew, new people had training done shoreside after that.
This idea needs to come back. How great would it be to get your certs done on the ship you are actually working on with the people you are actually working with? Gimme one good reason why this isn’t the obvious best way to do it?
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Now you can “sail” on the venerable liner QE2 again without getting seasick.
The QE2 is FINALLY ready to be resurrected as a floating hotel in Dubai:
http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/301603/iconic-qe2-finally-set-for-debut-as-floating-hotel
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Hours of rest requirements. Some people see actual compliance with these requirements as a step in the right direction.
Count me as one of them. But training still happens.
You asked for one reason why this method was not the best and most obvious way to do it. Sure, training still happens and learning still happens. It can even happen while I still get sufficient rest. Unfortunately, there may be a segment of the maritime management and/or training community that have little respect for a seafarers time. To those, it seems only logical that I would welcome the opportunity to sit in an eight-hour course after being on watch for twelve hours (or any other schedule depending on the vessel in question), all while being expected to promptly be on time for my next watch and ready to roll.
Let’s not bring the bottom of the barrel operators into this and try to use their style as a reason to dump on the idea of “training in place.”
Professional operators with a 3 watch system can provide the opportunity to use a 4 hour block of paid overtime for training purposes and not impose unreasonable or illegal demands on rest periods.
Shipyard periods often provide an opportunity to conduct onboard training as well.
My wife is sitting at the front left side. I am standing second from the left.
I made a cruise on the Greek passengership ‘Oceanos’ with my wife and members of the Lionsclub Rotterdam Harbour. The ship from a safety point of view was a disaster. All lifeboats gears and cables were totally rusted and obviously had not been lowered for many years. During the bridge tour nothing seemed to work. For instance I asked one of the bridge officers if I could see a working radar and got the answer that both radars were out of order. Echosounder also not working. They navigated by sight which was not too difficult with all those islands in the Aegean Sea, but what about fog? Then we anchor was the answer, but how do you do that without a reliable echosounder? He said he didnot know. I was glad to get of the ship…
Therefore later I was not at all surprised that the ship had sunk off the African coast. A detail which stands out and tells a lot is that the captain was the first person to leave the ship by helicopter! Later when asked why he did that he explained that he did that because he had to coördinate the rescue operation from shore.
The truth was that two entertainers (!), also no officers were to be found, managed the rescue until the last passenger left the ship. Only then they were also evacuated. They were the true heroes and the captain and ship officers the true cowards.
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May they rot in hell with Schettino.
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Isn’t that the same excuse Schettino used?! Do they teach that one in the academies over there or something??
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Yes, there are definitely similiarities in their behavior which we in Northern Europe attribute to the Southern European hang loose mentality. It is generalizing a bit but… It certainly is not the way we would handle such a situation. Forget about a United Europe, that will never work.
Winston Churchill said he preferred to sail on Italian ships because there was none of that nonsense about women and children first and the food was better.
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Yeah, but when a Brit tells you the food is better, its not like they are measuring from very high bar. Its no wonder they were motivated to go out and make an empire: profoundly unsatisfied with their own fare is my theory. It worked, too. Now they have curry.
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