Captain’s Log: Turning on a Dime on the Tyne

Capt. Jeroen van Donselaar

Hello again from the Fincantieri Yards in Marghera where the Eurodam is nearing completion!

As you may have gathered from the various other articles and images on this Web site, progress of the public areas has been very good the last two weeks. More and more areas, front of the house and back of the house, are now accepted by the “owner,” which is us, and are ready to be moved into.

Personally, I am also very happy because a couple of days ago my wife Pam arrived in Venice. She will sail with me the next few months. Prior to her arrival certain individuals in the HAL office here in the yard jokingly commented, “Today you are still the captain, but tomorrow you will have to answer to the commander-in-chief!”

Every day more and more crew members and officers arrive at the yard. We still have all of them put up in hotels and apartments, but because of the increasing numbers this is becoming more and more of a logistical challenge in terms of transportation, lodging and office space. So until the day we move on board, which will be Saturday May 31, we will have to manage somehow.

The official handover of Eurodam from Fincantieri to Holland America Line is set for June 16 at 11 a.m. Until that time we will be guests of Fincantieri on board. Our departure has been set at 4 p.m. on June 20. We will briefly call at Malaga, Spain, to load more supplies and to discharge waste before we head for Southampton, U.K.

As for myself, in addition to my daily walk-throughs on board I am heavily involved with the preparations for the inaugural festivities and the voyage planning for the inaugural season. This involves not only liaising with Third Officer Tim Lodder, who has been tasked with the actual plotting of the tracklines in the navigational computers and charts, but also communicating with the various agencies and authorities of the ports that we will be visiting.

Some ports are easy and straightforward, while others are a little more involved, such as Newcastle, U.K., for instance. The Eurodam is quite big for this new — at least for Holland America — destination. The cruise terminal is located on the river Tyne, and our arrival has to be timed around slack tide to avoid the brunt of the current and the ferry traffic. Based on this I have decided to arrive at the breakwaters one hour before our scheduled arrival, both on July 11 and July 31. This will give us sufficient time to sail about a half-mile past our berth to the widest part of the Tyne, turn the vessel there and berth bow to sea, portside alongside the Northumbrian Quay.

This turning area is only 350 meters in diameter and since the Eurodam’s length overall is 285 meters, this is a precision maneuver. The most import thing when executing a “One-Eighty” in tight quarters is to first stop the ship completely versus starting the turn with headway still on. Of course, positioning the ship in the middle of the turning space before the start of the turn is crucial as well.

The Eurodam is a highly maneuverable ship. Just like the Vista-class ships she has three bow thrusters and two Azipods. Identical controls of the Azipods and thrusters are located on each of the two bridge wings.

These bridge wings give us a better view of the side of the ship when docking. During a turning maneuver, depending in which way we have to turn, one of the Azipods will be facing inboard at 90 degrees to provide the maximum efficiency thrusting the stern sideways. The bowthrusters will be operated in the other direction and this will make the ship turn “on a dime” or better said, within 285 meters!