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Messages - jnrawdon

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1
Shipping News and information / Re: ULSTEIN BRIDGE VISION
« on: October 16, 2012, 11:09:29 PM »
Some years ago (40) I travelled on the Bridge of an English Channel, Cross Channel Ferry into Cherbourg. Mariners from that part of the world know that tidal currents can be very fierce, I've measured 10knots on Springs. I was cobsmacked to see that the crew just had the rhumb line set in their autopilot with no attention paid to the tidal offsets, or anything else that affects their course. The ship speed was about 12.5knots. It was a French Crew but that's irrelevant, their landfall was about 15 miles out so the had to fight the tide for a couple of hours to get into Cherbourg. That is totally unprofessional and a waste of fuel.

2
Shipping News and information / Re: Captain Jack Sparrow goes to jail
« on: October 12, 2012, 10:11:23 PM »
How did the drunken 'Janet Sparrow' ever get near the passenger boat in the first place. The boat would have been tied up bow and stern with even a bow spring on , how did she get them free. Even if the engines were switched off , it would have taken someone 'in the know' how to start them , she must have been onboard beforehand doing a 'rekkie'.

They do not usually moor boats quayside on the Dart. Normal is Bow and Stern to buoys but in this case, and in her condition, it is more likely that they were alongside. Note that she didn't start the engines? She just drifted doing the damage.


3
Shipping News and information / Re: ULSTEIN BRIDGE VISION
« on: October 12, 2012, 09:48:41 PM »
Back in 1982 there was the British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to by its callsign Speedbird 9 or Jakarta incident. The plane flew into a cloud of Volcanic Ash and lost all its engines. The pilots went to their manuals and used their training, falling out of the sky. They fell from 37,000ft to 13,000ft then got one engine started. They had massive technology but they tried and tried their training and saved the plane.
That's where all this discussion comes from, the companies provide superb electronics but the guys on the bridge still need to know how to use the basics, like sextants.

4
QE2 aged so quickly.
I have a personal reason about her. Just after she was re-engined for the last time my mother was about to marry a close friend but they were worried about QE2 for their "honeymoon". Cunard were offering QE2 one way and Concorde back. I knew a very, very senior Cunard Captain at the time and they asked if I could sound him out. His reply was "Leave it a year", which says everything...........

5
Guys, the topic applies to "in service", QE2 lost that classification years ago and whilst it was pretty, so were many other ships of the same era. QE2 was an Ocean Liner and so were the Union Castle Ships which were just beautiful and they were also reliable! I remember the repeated problems of QE2, is a beauty with a faulty undercarriage something to behold?



6
Shipping News and information / Re: MSC Opera Engine failure
« on: May 16, 2011, 11:55:33 AM »
11.50 hrs GMT, passenger interviewed by BBC live. Passengers don't know exactly which Swedish port they are off. Ferry boat is attempting to evacuate passengers who believe they will be airlifted at 1830 hours from Stockholm. Next cruise for the Opera has been cancelled.

7
From the BBC:

"The Bibby Topaz was heading to the Gryphon oil field at about 0300 BST.

A Shetland Coastguard spokesman told BBC Scotland a tug had been sent to assist with the 106m-long vessel.

A spokesman for Aberdeen-based Bibby Offshore said: "None of the crew were injured and there has been no outflow of fuel or other pollution."


8
Shipping News and information / Re: Ship runs out of fuel
« on: April 04, 2010, 01:03:13 AM »
maybe the owner told the skipper that he had enough fuel?
they always know better..............................

9
Shipping News and information / Re: P&O Newbuild AZURA
« on: January 23, 2010, 11:23:13 AM »
My neighbour, who is 85, has been invited to the naming ceremony, so I guess that the ship is aimed at the more mature market. She has done the Round-the-World Cruise every year for 20 or 30 years but since the takeover she has become disenchanted with the company, eg after dinner coffee used to be free, now it's 1.60GBP, so on a 100 night trip, it's a big extra. In some ports the ship docked way out of town with no taxis or shuttle buses laid on This year she didn't go, maybe that's the reason for the invite. She prefers the traditional cruise so I will be interested to hear her impressions of this monster.

10
It's interesting to see that the pirates were taken out by snipers on the US warship.

11
Shipping News and information / Re: Cruise liner limps into Devonport
« on: February 24, 2008, 03:08:56 PM »
I am an ex Port Health Officer, the Q flag says "My Ship is Healthy, I request free Pratique", "Pratique" is the right to hold free intercourse with the port (usually taken totally literally by the crew).
If the ships is carrying persons suspected of having a Quarantinable Disease, it would display flag "L" not "Q"
I am not up to date on the current quarantinable diseases but last time I looked, they were:
Plague
Cholera
Smallpox (that ages me)
Typhus (note, not Typhoid)
Yellow Fever
Louse Borne Relapsing Fever
In other words, these diseases were most threatening.
If there were an unexplained death on board we were usually notified by radio in advance of arrival.

12
Shipping News and information / Re: MSC NAPOLI SPLIT IN HALF
« on: July 17, 2007, 06:06:38 PM »
and the BBC continue to call it the 'Napoli'

13
1000hrs, BBC reported that she has been refloated

14
Shipping News and information / Re: Exxon Valdez
« on: March 24, 2007, 09:35:36 PM »
It is also the 40th anniversary of the grounding of the Torrey Canyon off Cornwall today, 24, March 2007, that was a massive oil spill.

15
Shipping News and information / Re: MSC Napoli Sinking
« on: February 11, 2007, 12:34:55 AM »
I agree that Yacht keels do not generally "drop off" but it is not unknown, I remember Simon le Bon's maxi, Drum, who's keel dropped off followed very quickly by a capsize in the 1980's:
http://www.drumreunion.co.uk/history.html

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