Heidi13

Just checked some of my photos and it looks like 5009 is about 2 cabins aft of the bridge wing and 1 deck lower. The bridge wing will block some of the stars at night, but you should see all the horizon on the stbd side.

Even with the light pollution from cruise ships, you will see plenty stars on a clear night, but if you live in a rural area, you may have better views at home. Scope out the upper decks at night to find a spot with the least light.

It depends on how many ships are in port that day. I recall previous visits with 2 or more ships at anchor in Juneau.

Same on commercial ships, I recall our son telling me prior to his first sea phase that he would get a full day and another 1/2 day off each week. He also had the misconception that ships had back-ups to the back-ups, so couldn't conceive how a ship could black out, or all navigation aids fail. Sadly, this is what they were taught in college, but he quickly learned reality, once he had completed a couple of sea phases. Also recall getting a young officer right out of college, who proudly advised, "Captain, you can cover up the windows and I can navigate dock to dock." My response was welcome to sea, here you learn to navigate by looking out the windows without any electronics. Once you are proficient looking out the windows, we can introduce electronic aids. He didn't have a good day.😁

That's the reason we only spent 6 months at college learning to pass the exams, but 2 to 3 years at sea, as a cadet, learning how to do the job. Yes, we learned the theory of celestial navigation at college, but how to use a sextant proficiently while at sea. You just can't experience and learn how to manage all the challenges of celestial navigation in a classroom.

I'm surprised that you didn't have at least a LORAN system, as we had a Decca system on most of the ships, even the couple of cargo ships I sailed on. On SS Oriana, we had one of the first SatNavs on commercial ships, but at the time it was the equivalent of a mainframe computer, requiring a computer ticker tape to turn it on and program it. As a cadet, we could look at it, but not touch. We only got to use the sextants and the Decca/RDF when in coastal waters.

A very pleasant river front pub. Haven't eaten there, but have enjoyed a few pints. Well worth the walk along the river from the Cutty Sark.

I did 2MFG at South Shields: -- Sept to December 1976, stayed in Flag House, which was a college house across the street - April to July 1978, stayed in Winterbottom Hall

We covered Long by Chron at South Shields, but on both General Cargo & Pax Division, all the officers used MSH. Never did try out long/chron at sea.

On our preferred cruise line, the 2023 prices are the same as 2022

I believe it is only available in N/America & Europe, at this time.

Jim, I recently read the new Carnival ship took a full load for a cruise in about 6 hrs, at a rate of 1,000 m3 per hour.

I learned the old-fashioned way with Norrie's Nautical Tables and never did move to sight reductions tables, or navigation calculators. When I did my Masters in Vancouver, I was the only one with significant deep-sea time, who had lots of sights practice. The others were all discussing the pros/cons of various formula, but I could calculate sights faster with Norries, the Almanac and my pro-forma worksheet. Sadly, our son with about 15 yrs at sea, has never had to use a sextant in earnest.

Getting accuracy of 1/4 miles takes some luck, as well as skill. As MBP&O2/O explained on cargo ships they normally took a morning sight once the sun had a reasonable altitude to reduce errors and then crossed it with the Latitude from Meridian Altitude. This only had 2 position lines, so where they crossed was the position. With the multiple position lines of the cruise ship method, the position lines never crossed at exactly the same spot, giving what is known as a "Cocked Hat". The cocked hat would invariably be greater than 1/4 mile spread, so the Navigator picked a spot for the position somewhere within the cocked hat. On a good day we got within 1 mile and thought we did well. The conditions also greatly impacted the accuracy.

On the cruise ships we needed to know our Noon position before Noon, so the Captain could provide the position and distance/speed travelled. Therefore, our AM sights really were a running fix. Even on a really good day, we were only with 1 to 2 miles of the SatNav's position.

I always tendered in Sitka, but they now have a terminal capable of handling up to 2 cruise ships. Only the largest ships need to anchor these days.

Using the sextant is the easy part, determining a position from the altitude is the part we learned over 3 years, back when we were cadets. Unless planning to use a navigation calculator, you will also need Norrie's tables, Nautical Almanac, an estimated position, a corrected chronometer, plotting sheet, charting tools, ability to determine MerAlt and the azimuth. Our pre-GPS Noon procedure on cruise ships: - Calculate time of Mer Alt - Calculate estimated position (EP) for Noon - Planning to take sights at 08:30, 09:00, 09:30, 10:00 and if required 10:30, we calculated EP's for each of those times. We pre-worked most of the calculations. - Using a spotter, just prior to each sight, we brought the sun down to the horizon with the sextant, holding it at the horizon. The spotter provided a countdown and at the precise time, we recorded the altitude and azimuth - The resulting position line and intercept were drawn on the plotting sheet - Additional sights were taken as planned, calculated and the PL & intercept were drawn on the plotting sheet. - We usually aimed to have Mer Alt before ship Noon to get the Latitude. If before Noon, we drew that on the plotting sheet and determined the Noon position from the "Cocked Hat". The daily run and info provided at Noon was then calculated. - If Mer Alt was after ship Noon, we had sufficient sights and provided the cocked hat was fairly tight, we got a reasonable Noon position. For star sights, we used 6 stars and pre-calculated the approximate altitude and azimulth. The stars were found by setting the sextant and looking along the azimuth until we found the star. Brightest/dimmest stars were used first or last depending on sunrise/sunset. All results again drawn on a plotting sheet and the position determined from the cocked hat. Good luck

Jim, I'm sure the Chief will add some expert opinion, but I did a little research prior to retirement, as my last command headed to a S/Y for LNG conversion, shortly after I retired. Has now been operational for over 5-years. The bunker tanks must be deep tanks, not connected to the hull, and they must have a substantial vent to atmosphere to prevent over-pressure in the event the fuel heats up. They must also carry diesel, as the engines are started on diesel and when they switch over to LNG, they still inject some diesel for combustion. When bunkering an empty tank, the initial process is very slow, as the tank must be chilled by loading the LNG slowly. Once the tank has chilled they can ramp up the loading rate. We bunkered by road tankers that drive onto the car deck at night, so no pax onboard. On the cruise ships, I believe most are using LNG bunker barges/tankers and they will be bunkering with pax aboard. Normal precautions will be in force, with outboard decks closed off, in the vicinity of the barge.

I concur that a 1-way to/from Vancouver that should be considered. Whether you go N'bd or S'nd depends on your priorities and the available itineraries. Inside Passage - unfortunately, unless you are on a small, luxury ship you see very little of the Inside Passage these days. The section between Vancouver Island and the mainland is very scenic. However, N'bd cruises do this at night, so you miss the scenic cruising. S'bd cruises have amazing scenic cruising on the last afternoon. This is one of the pros for S'bd cruises Glaciers - Glacier Bay is my favourite; however, it may not be the best. With well over 20 - 30 Alaska cruises, I have never failed to get into Glacier Bay and always saw at least 1 glacier. As an added benefit, the Park Rangers provide amazing commentary. Most impressive glacier is probably Hubbard, but at times ice in the water does prevent the ship getting into the inlet. Leat favourite is Tracy Arm, mostly because we hardly ever got the ship into the channel, never mind up to the glacier. Been up to the glacier only once. Prince William Sound/College Fjord is amazing, very scenic cruising. Lots of glaciers. Only available on 1-way cruises Smaller ports can be less crowded - Valdez, Kodiak, Icy Point Straight Enjoy the research and selecting another itinerary.

The reason the Viking insurance does not cover the value of the voucher is because you are only paying the premium based on the cash used. Therefore, the voucher is not insured. You should be able to contact any of the 3rd party insurers to check which ones will accept the risk.

Sorry, should have specified. Only on a World Cruise.

The Canadian "Inside Passage" continues all the way up the coast to Dixon Entrance (Prince Rupert). Unfortunately, these days, very few cruise ships use the "Inside Passage" north of Queen Charlotte Sound. While most of the Vancouver based cruise ships navigate Johnstone Channel, between the Mainland and Vancouver Island, a class of Princess ships does not. The Royal Princess class of ships have a conventional propulsion system and Carnival went cheap, installing only basic spade rudders, instead of a high lift rudder. Therefore, this class of ship displays poor directional stability at low speed and the ships don't even respond to a kick ahead. Due to the poor manoeuvrability, the BC Coast Pilots and the ship's Masters, do not navigate through Johnstone Strait, due to the more challenging sections at Seymour Narrows, Race/Current Passage and Blakney Passage. On departing Vancouver, these ships must take a pilot to Brotchie Ledge, then sail out Juan de Fuca and up the West Coast.

Those infernal walkie talkies that don't work unless in line of sight.

We only ever purchased bottles of wine, as when we requested full bottles of spirits for the cabin, they were delivered free. We did receive the discount on the bottles of wine purchased. When comparing ship and shore prices, even when the ship's price is comparable to store price ashore, we need to remember the ship's price still includes a huge markup. Back in my days, we purchased Moet for about UK Sterling 2 and Dom Perignon was really expensive at UK Sterling 3 or 4. Prices have certainly increased, but even 10 yrs ago our son was paying less the $8 for 30 oz bottle.

It varies depending on the ship and the type of tasting.