SST: June 30, 2009
30 June 2009
SST 2009 – Update #7 The transit home – Belfast to New York
NOON POSITION REPORT – 29 JUNE 2009
T/S EMPIRE STATE KKFW
LAT: 52° – 06.7’ N LONG: 006° – 12.4’ W
COURSE: 232°
DIST BY OBS: 174.8 NM/ 174.8 NM
ENGINE DISTANCE: 177.3/ 177.3
SLIP: 1.4/ 1.4
LENGTH OF DAY: 17.5 HRS/ 17.5 HRS
AVE SPEED: 9.9 KTS/ 9.9 KTS
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 173 BBLS/ 173 BBLS
FUEL ROB: 7528 BBLS
MDO ROB: 563 BBLS
POTABLE WATER ROB: 724 T
DISTILLED WATER ROB: 150.6 T
SEA STATE: Calm
WIND: Lt. Airs
NEXT PORT: Fort Schuyler, New York
DIST TO GO: 2992.7 NM
ETA: 0100 LT/ 10 July 2009
Westward bound:
At sea, to be successful you have to have one very basic skill – and that is
good situational awareness and focus. Initiative, drive and determination, the
ability to work with people, and common sense certainly do not hurt, but an awareness
of one’s surroundings and that sixth sense, intuition, separate those in this profession
from most others. This sense is developed through the many hours, weeks, and yes, even years of standing watch on a bridge or in an engine room and observing your surroundings and the result of one action and its effect on another. The seafaring profession in actuality is not something learned through reading a book or sitting through a class, it is as much
an apprenticeship as it was at the onset. The cruise is where this invaluable experience
is gained and where the profession, in reality, is learned.
The final leg of cruise is where everything comes together. A culmination of knowledge that started in the classroom back in the fall and continued into the spring semester; practical training carried out by Indoctrination Officers the very first day of INDOC for our newest apprentice deck and engineering cadets; and perhaps even fused by a remarkable process that has always been the catalyst for it all – the continued development of maturity that has come about due to added responsibility. All in all it is a remarkable and very noticeable change.
This first week on our way home marks the last week of class, and for our senior Engineering cadets this is a very critical time in their license process – their final seminar exams. Seminar is the formal course which prepares these cadets for their upcoming license examination. Those graduating in September will sit for the Coast Guard exam the week after our return to New York, those graduating in January or May will sit for this exam in January. They can only sit however when they have been qualified for the exam, which means successfully passing seminar. As best expressed by the Chief Cadet Engineer, Cadet Jackie McCarron, one of the problems is that the questions sometimes are more
Academic versus operational, and if you have not been on a motor ship as an example, you are forced to memorize questions versus having actually been exposed to the concept. Having seminar on top of maintenance, watch standing and the normal everyday schedule onboard forces a rigid routine and a dedicated regime of time-management.
For the staff onboard, the transit home is marked by completing maintenance tasks, starting to get things together for off-load, and securing for the year. For the operational crew, it is all about stressing safety, and focusing on the job at hand. Focus prevents accidents, and safety is a constant concern with a large number of first-year apprentices onboard, most especially during this leg. The senior ship’s staff (Chief Engineer, Chief Mate and Captain) are finishing up cruise reports, and write-ups for the upcoming dry-dock of EMPIRE STATE later this September. All in all a busy time as we wrap up the cruise.
Walking Around Belfast:
Belfast was a good walking city, very compact and organized. Unlike Sao Miguel and Gibraltar, they actually had wide sidewalks. This made walking fairly safe, except for the darn traffic moving in the wrong direction. Three days isn’t enough time to get used to cars coming at you on the left side of the road.
The busses from the Ship left us in the heart of Belfast, right by the City Hall and there was plenty to see and do in the immediate area. Most of the shopping is within several blocks of the City center. There are two malls right there, Victoria Square and the Castle Court and several smaller arcades. Most of the shopping district is either new construction or beautiful restored Victorian buildings. The area has been re-invigorated since the Peace of 1998 made the area safe again. For almost 30 years it was an armed camp with roadblocks that wouldn’t allow traffic into the zone and pedestrian checkpoints. Unfortunately, the re-construction process is continuing and there are lots of what they term “diversions” (detours) that you had to maneuver around.
Other things to see nearby are the Albert Clock Tower which is listing to one side after 120 years, The St. Anne’s Cathedral as well as the many other beautiful churches around town, the Linen Hall Library and the Big Wheel Ferris wheel next to the City Hall. And of course, there are the City’s famous pubs. The one most tourists have to see is the Crown Liquor Saloon near the City Hall.
Outside the City center, in the working-class residential areas of the west, one can walk around the former battle zones and see the Peace Walls. These are huge murals painted on the sides of row houses commemorating events and personalities of what they call “the Troubles”. It was a horrible time for the people of Belfast and it pervades the psyche of the
whole population who lived through them. The murals are mostly in the areas known as Shankill (the Protestant area) and the Falls (the Catholic zone).
In the North Shankill district is the old Crumlin Road Prison, now closed as a prison and open to the public for tours. The complex is 164 years old and was used as an active prison until 1996. It was a terrifying place.
North and South of the City are the more upscale residential areas. Here are nice single family homes and garden apartment complexes with beautifully landscaped grounds. The City’s botanical gardens are in the south near the impressive Queens University.
We were able to see a lot in the three days we were there. It was a great
port to just roam around.
Richard Delbango
Ship's Librarian
Heading Home:
We left Belfast around 17:00 Sunday evening. That was late for a port departure for us, but we had to have a high tide to leave. The tugs hooked up and pulled us out backwards out of the Victoria Channel and then turned us around. As we pulled out, we got a clear view of the now dormant dry dock where the Titanic was built. Steaming ahead, we entered
the North Channel, rounded the Ards Peninsula and headed south into the Irish Sea toward the Atlantic and home. By Monday evening, we had past the southern tip of Ireland and left behind our last view of land until we see Sandy Hook. No more ports for us but home.
Everyone is busy finishing up their work. Finals will begin this week for the cadets’ classes. Projects are due. Things have to be packed up around the ship. Grades have to be submitted. Final cleaning and repairs have to be done to make us presentable. There is no down time until July 10th. We can rest when we get back to the Bronx.
Richard Delbango
Ship's Librarian
