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!

Captain’s Log: First Impressions of Eurodam

Capt. Jeroen van Donselaar

This is the end of my first week at the Fincantieri Yard in Marghera. Time has gone fast and I have learned a lot about the Eurodam.

I have met all of the Holland America Line officers that are part of the newbuilding team as well as several inspectors of CCS, which is Carnival Corporate Shipbuilding, the organization that does the actual quality control and acceptance of areas delivered. And not to forget, of course, the Fincantieri top brass.

There is a very friendly atmosphere here and everyone has gone out of their way to make the “commandante” feel welcome.

I am happy to report that the Eurodam will be absolutely stunning both on the inside and on the outside! I had seen some computer generated artist’s impressions and designs before, but one has to see the real thing in order to fully appreciate the architects’ vision. In particular, the darker woods and laminates that have been used in the guest staterooms are gorgeous.

The feel of the ship is very spacious, and with the redesigned layouts of main public areas on decks 2 and 3, the natural “flow” has been improved. The views from the Tamarind and Canaletto restaurants as well as from the Crow’s Nest — which is higher up than on Vista — are amazing.

The ship at this time is in various stages of completion. Some areas, such as the Main Dining Room, are as good as finished, others such as the Northern Lights Disco, are not so advanced. But these are relatively small public spaces and Fincantieri and the subcontractors should be able to complete these well on time.

The ship is berthed portside alongside the fitting-out quay and there are three massive cranes almost constantly putting loads of materials on board and taking garbage off. Two of these cranes can reach the highest decks. An additional crane is positioned near the stern to service the temporary loading platforms that are attached to certain rear-facing balconies.

There are hundreds of yard workers on board and there is activity in many areas. Some areas that have been finished are now protected with plastic and plywood, so it is difficult to see what the end product will look like.

A whole army with vacuum cleaners, buckets and mops is also on board to clean up some building dust, so to speak!

There are a number of Hotel Department crew at the yard as well, and they have made a start with loading owner’s supplies into some of the lockers and storerooms that have been delivered and accepted already.

The wheelhouse, or bridge, as we prefer to call it, is nearly completed too. There is some ceiling paneling left to be installed as well as some trim around the windows. Similar to the staterooms, a darker wood has been used for the back wall and the cabinets, which is very pleasing to the eye. The consoles have the usual green color and most of the navigational equipment is situated in the same locations as it is on the Vista ships.

For the most part the same manufacturers as on the Vista ships have been used for equipment such as the radars, GPS, speed logs and depth-sounders. Even the controls for the Azipods and the bow thrusters look reassuringly familiar!

From the centerline and the bridge wings the views and lines of sight are the same as on Vista, the exception is the “bubble” on Deck 4 forward, the additional accommodation which houses the gym for the officers and crew as well as the officer’s lounge and additional storage spaces. Although the Eurodam is higher than the Vista, this is not so apparent from the bridge.

Captain’s Log: Navigating with GPS

Eurodam’s bridge looks a lot closer to ready than it did the first time we saw it.

Today Captain Jeroen van Donselaar explains some of the finer points of nautical navigation:

GPS is short for “global positioning system.” It is a satellite-based navigation system that was commercially introduced in the early 1990s. It is based on the principle of measuring time differences between signals sent from three or more satellites that are “visible” at the location of the receiver. This receiver can be a built-in navigation system in a car, a ship or an airplane. These days there are even hand-held receivers.

Before GPS, other, much less accurate navigation systems were used such as NNSS (Navy Navigation Satellite System, the forerunner of GPS, only gave a “fix” every 90 minutes), Loran C, Omega, Decca and Consol. Other means of “position finding” are RDF (radio direction finding), visual/radar bearings in combination with radar distances.

The major difference between the older systems and GPS is that GPS provides a continuous and very accurate real-time position versus a somewhat accurate position every now and again. GPS works regardless of weather conditions, visibility and at any latitude, and is extremely reliable. I say latitude because most of the other systems were not available in the very northern or southern regions of the globe.

GPS has taken the guesswork out of navigation, so to speak. This is somewhat unappreciated sometimes by our younger deck officers who always have had the luxury of never having any doubt about the ship’s location. Myself and the chief officer are probably the only ones on board who started our careers before the advent of GPS, so we certainly appreciate the difference it has made!

In the early days GPS was just a box that would display latitude and longitude and course and speed over the ground. We would have to take this information and plot it on a paper chart in the same way we did with the other systems, only with much greater accuracy. During the first Gulf War the accuracy of GPS was further increased when the deliberate inaccuracy effect called “dithering” was turned off, supposedly for the benefit of guided missiles. These days I would say GPS is accurate to within 10 feet.

Nowadays our GPS receivers are more advanced and are at the heart of our integrated bridge systems. Although we still use paper charts as a backup, our primary navigation is now done via ECDIS, which means Electronic Chart Display Information System. The STN Atlas integrated bridge system on the Vista- and Signature-class ships takes it a step further and also superimposes a radar image including the AIS, or Automatic Identification System labels of other ships on the same screen.

In my office on the ship, which is located between the bridge and my quarters, I have a large flat-screen monitor that is basically a repeater of the main navigation display on the bridge. In this way while I am working at my desk I can keep an eye on things.

Captain’s Log: Getting to the Ship

Today we start a new feature, “Captain’s Log,” with regular updates from Eurodam’s master, Jeroen van Donselaar, who has just joined Eurodam in Marghera.

Greetings Eurodamnews.com readers!

After Blog Board Member Chief Engineer Frank de Vries’ contribution about my arrival at the yard in Marghera today, I would like to take this opportunity to personally say hello to you all! It will be my pleasure to update you on the Eurodam from my perspective and perhaps even to welcome you on board during the inaugural season!

Today, April 30th, has been the first day of a long but exciting assignment that will see me all the way through to October 1st.

After having been appointed the master-designate of the first Signature-class ship now more than a year ago, I have been looking forward to seeing the Eurodam myself and today is the day!

The last few days have been busy for me with packing and traveling. I left our new home on Long Island last Saturday and was dropped off at JFK Airport by my wife Pam, who will join me in a few weeks, to catch the late KLM flight to Amsterdam, arriving there at noon on Sunday.

While in The Netherlands on Sunday night I took the opportunity to have dinner with my parents whom I had not seen since February. On Monday morning I went to Rotterdam to get my annual physical done, which, next to having a certificate of competence or CoC as Master, is a requirement in order to take command of a ship. Although Holland America Line will not actually own the Eurodam until mid June and I will not take command until then, I will probably not have another opportunity to travel back to Holland and get this done.

On Monday afternoon I had meetings over at HAL’s office in Rotterdam with the directors of human resources and nautical operations to go over the upcoming events. I also met the harbormaster as well as some representatives of “Cruise Rotterdam,” which is an organization involved with the Eurodam’s visit to Rotterdam and the events that will take place there.

I was very relieved to learn that I will have to dock the Eurodam portside alongside the pier. Not only is this considered “good seamanship” to moor “bow out,” this was the “default” berthing side along this pier for the many years HAL ships regularly docked there. It also makes for a more graceful departure when we will be able to come off the berth and make headway rather than sternway.

The reason for Eurodam’s portside docking is that in this way the bow with the name of the ship will be better positioned for the christening ceremony, which will take place on a podium between the Rotterdam Port Control Centre building and the passenger terminal itself.

After having inspected the terminal at the Wilhelminakade and the dockside itself, I returned to my hotel at Schiphol Airport.

On Tuesday afternoon I once again boarded a KLM plane for a short flight to Venice. I had not been there since 1999/2000 when I was the supervising chief officer during construction of the Zaandam. Nevertheless, it was familiar ground.

I was greeted at the Venice airport by Eurodam’s Chief Officer Andre van Schoonhoven and First Officer Dan Wardle, both of whom I have worked with before and am very happy to have on the team.

As the ship is as of yet uninhabitable, all officers and crew are staying in local apartments or hotels until we are able to move on board. In my case a room was reserved at a nice downtown hotel in Mestre, adjacent to the yard in Marghera, until June 1, which is the tentative date for us to move on board. The company also supplies me with a car so I can move about freely.