Monday, 25 January 1999
As of 0800 this morning, the Empire State was making final preparations for getting underway from Bridgetown, Barbados. The weather at her position was partly cloudy, wind out of the East @ 8 knots, air temp 80 degrees F, water temperature 82 degrees F. The barometric pressure was 1017 millibars and steady.
CAPTAINS LOG:
I awoke early this morning ready to get underway for Aruba and found many equally anxious cadets already pacing the decks. We were reviewing the use of the ship's anchor or "poor man's tug", for leaving the pier when I was notified that a large cruise ship would dock just ahead of us. The event proved to be another learning experience. If our entry into port taught the cadets anything about the old ways of ship handling then our departure gave them an insightful glimpse of the modern.
At 0630, the Princess Dawn entered the breakwater, proceeded into the harbor and stopped slightly ahead of Empire State. What a sight; 850 feet of absolutely gorgeous, gleaming white ship towering over us. She has no less than ten decks above the waterline and they are crammed with every comfort known to man.
In addition to creature comforts, she is equipped with the most advanced navigation and ship handling technology available today. Her bridge is fully instrumented with a dual axis, sonar speed log that indicates speed to one-hundredth of a knot and rates of turn to a tenth of a degree. Her propulsion system includes twin, Azipod directional, kort nozzle propellers of the latest design. They permit the captain to maneuver the vessel in much shallower water than is possible with traditional propellers and they provide a measure of athwart ship thrust not generated by more traditional ones.
Princess Dawn is also fitted with dual, bow and stern thrusters. These powerful motors push the ship directly to port or starboard as the piloting situation demands. This morning the Captain stopped the ship and ordered the bow thrusters on to starboard, stern thrusters on to port. The Princess Dawn slowly twisted in place until she was aligned with the pier. Then he ordered all thrusters to port, pushing the ship slowly against the pier. Beautifully done. Not a tugboat touched her and her crew simply handed the lines over to the dock. What a show she put on for the cadets. No fewer than five of them commented that Princess Dawn would make a great replacement for Patriot State. I agree, but at approximately four hundred million dollars a copy that isn't likely, but it is enlightening to see how the industry lives.
Well, back to reality. At 0918 we took departure, said our farewells to beautiful Barbados, and headed out to the next great adventure, and Aruba.