Bridge

January 24 was a pretty nice day. Seas were a bit calmer than they've been recently, and we had a last little bit of warm air before we get closer to Japan and it gets cold again. I hear it's a bit nasty back home; please comment and let me know what's going on back in VA with the weather or anything else.

I signed up for a tour of the bridge and have been looking forward to this for the entire ship thus far. Twenty minutes, about 15 people at a time, and we get to have a crew member punch in a security code and open the door to the bridge. It's a room at the front of the ship with a huge linear row of flat-glass panels across the front span of the ship, a much bigger version of the windshield of your own car or pickup truck. In some ways the bridge is like a library: there are computers, lots of papers and charts, and a desk to sit down and chart the course if for some reason all the power was out (of course, if power were out there probably wouldn't be any propulsion, but I didn't ask about that).

The bridge also has lots of switches, radar screens, and in the middle two captain's chairs with a small steering wheel and throttle control. These aren't really used much of the time because so much of the journey is on autopilot, but I believe the captain uses the manual controls as the ship is maneuvered into position by tugboats as we dock.

Part of the purpose of all the screens, computers, radar, etc. is to chart the smoothest journey and avoid other ships within 35 nautical miles, avoid whales, and navigate around storm systems. A few days back I reported that we camped out at Honolulu for an extra evening to bypass some storms, and to make up some extra time there was a third engine brought online to boost the speed, so we're motoring pretty quickly through the water. I asked and found out that the ship can run on one engine at lower speeds, two at typical speeds up to about 20 knots, three engines at our present speed of 23 knots, and when the MV Explorer really wants to fly the fourth engine kicks in. The bridge personnel reported with the fourth engine fired up, we can hit 30 knots and outrun most pirates. Even then, we have water cannons and door locks to keep pirates out. So far, no pirates have come after us on this or any other SAS excursions.

We also were invited to a UVa dinner with the captain that evening, and it was formal dress and a sit-down meal with appetizers, soup, salad, dinner, wine, and dessert. I could get used to that.



Hope everyone back home is doing well. Feel free to comment so I can hear from you, or write to me at scott.ramsey.sp13@semesteratsea.org.