Wanderung 25

Bob:

We received a surprise invitation to tour the bridge of the Crown Princess, so I roused myself from a morning nap to meet a lady security guard in the front part of Deck 14 where the bridge is located. She took the six of us through the security doors to meet with Captain Nash and the other officers and staff on duty on the bridge. The bridge ran from side to side of the front of Deck 14 and overlooked a crew recreation area complete with swimming pool and two Jacuzzis in the bow. Since the bridge extended from the "flying bridge" overlooking the port side all the way over to a similar one overlooking the starboard side, it was very spacious compared to an airplane cockpit. Everything was a neat as a pin, but there was sufficient space to have a couple of potted plants in the middle.

Monika:

Bob:

It turned out that our special invitation was the result of a Quixotic notion I had after the Captain joked during his address that for Greenland they were forced to use paper rather than the electronic charts and were trying to locate the parallel rulers, pencils, and so forth to do so. I had bought some nice plain wood pencils in England, so I wrote the Captain and First Officer's names on them and sent them off to be used on the bridge. This was, apparently, Captain Nash's way of repaying me for my Quixotic gesture!

Once on the bridge I was, of course, excited to see all the electronic gear, which resembles the electronic displays and controls on modern airliners, but on a much larger scale. The display screens on the Crown Princess, for example, were maybe 16 by 16 inches, whereas in an aircraft cockpit the same basic displays would typically be on maybe 8 by 8 inch screens. That may not sound like much of a difference, but it is effectively at least four times the display area. We were interested to hear that icebergs show up as yellow blobs whereas other commercial ships (with transponders, I assume) show up as triangles. One of our group was a sailor from Los Angeles who owned a 54-foot sailboat, and he asked a lot of pertinent questions whilst I avidly listened to the answers.

I did not know, for instance, that our foreign ships do not employ American sailors because the unions have locked up the merchant marine so that the ship must simply take the next available union member rather than picking the man they want to staff a position. The British and European unions apparently do not insist on such a restrictive system, so British, Canadian, and European officers mostly staff the ships. I did ask about navigating in the Bay of Fundy, however, and found out that they had to be very careful to enter the harbor only at the slack period right around flood tide so that there was sufficient water to float the Crown Princess and so that the tidal flow forces on the ship would be minimized as they maneuvered to the dock. It was a thrill to meet Captain Nash in person and hear him talk about the operation of the Crown Princess.

Monika:

Bob:

In the afternoon we had dance class with Val, a Pop Choir rehearsal, and the Pop Choir final performance, all of which went very well! Hurray for us!! The performance was followed by a champagne farewell party for the Pop Choir people, and it was surprisingly difficult to say good-bye to folks we had just gotten to know in one limited context over the last two weeks.

Monika:

Bob:

After dinner we had the last show by the ship's song and dance ensemble. It was different in that the music was provided by the ship's band who were situated as a backdrop on the stage rather than having any elaborate set. Instead, the song and dance numbers were just performed on the bare stage in front of the band. I did not mind the minimalist setting at all as it let me concentrate on the quality of the singing and dancing, both of which I judged to be generally first rate.

Monika: