Like Piccadilly Circus off the Devon coast today

[Hurricane]

Queen Mary 2 is just round the corner as well.

 

[Bigplumbs]

Them Ghost ships are getting about....... It must be most odd being on board

 

[vas]

Two in Souda bay (western Crete) saw them two weeks ago (anyway 2 big ghost ships they were) still there now!
EMPRESS OF THE SEAS and MEIN SCHIFF 3
half a kilometer in length combined ?

 

[Robih]

They don’t sit still for long, they go around and around in circles. Why? Emptying the pooh tank?

 

[simonfraser]

presumably that is out of the way of prevailing westerlies and southerlies ?

wonder what kind of anchor they use

 

[jrudge]

Whatever brand of anchor it is probably larger than most of our boats !

 

[BruceK]

They don’t sit still for long, they go around and around in circles. Why? Emptying the pooh tank?

Warm layup. Shutting down the engines while on the hook and not having shore power means shutting down services. On cruise ships this is a massive undertaking and can be more expensive than fuel burn especially in light of uncertainties w.r.t. how quickly they can return to operation.

 

[vas]

??? Bruce can these monsters have shore power???
I expect that they have a dozen generators and they run them according to loads.
So on hook, I'd expect they run a few and get on with life.
Obvs no idea how quickly the main engines can be functional.
I guess their pods (they all have pods no?) are NOT electric as that would be a moot point in terms of difficulty in returning back to operation

 

[Hurricane]

presumably that is out of the way of prevailing westerlies and southerlies ?

wonder what kind of anchor they use

They have been here for a few months now.
I watched one a couple of weeks ago through a telescope as she was anchoring.
Very similar process to our techniques - got the anchor on the sea bed and reversed up paying out as she went.
But then a couple of days later, we had some strong winds and she obviously dragged (could see it on the AIS history) within a couple of hours she had "up anchored" and gone for a little drive - came back late and anchored again.

 

[Hurricane]

??? Bruce can these monsters have shore power???
I expect that they have a dozen generators and they run them according to loads.
So on hook, I'd expect they run a few and get on with life.
Obvs no idea how quickly the main engines can be functional.
I guess their pods (they all have pods no?) are NOT electric as that would be a moot point in terms of difficulty in returning back to operation

These things don't have generators - they have power stations! - big enough to power a small city.
The one in the foreground is Arcadia.
SWMBO and I took my Mum and Dad on Arcadia's maiden voyage - from Southampton to Southampton - VIA a cruise into the north - Norway etc.
Here's a pic - the joke at the time was that the ship didn't dock up to the town - the town docked up to the ship.
I took this photo wondering if she was taking on fuel!!!



And a few pics from the inside

Reception


The Theatre




Scenic (external) elevator


Cabins with a view.


Everywhere we went, she towered over the the places we visited.






And finally, you have to understand that Arcadia is one of the SMALL ones!!!
Only 84,000 tons!!
Over the last few weeks our regular visitors have been Ventura (who you can see in the left of my first photo) at 116,000 tons
And Azura at 115,000 tons - seems to be docked in Southampton at the moment - maybe she is getting back to work.

Anyway, we have been considering them part of the family over the last few months.

 

[MrB]

Nick posted a video a few days ago in Torbay.

In the Poole Bay anchorage there are Explorer of the Seas, Jewel of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. In Portland anchorage is Queen Elizabeth, Marella Discovery, Aurora, Britannia, Norwegian Bliss and Queen Victoria.

 

[Zing]

And all because of a tiny little bug.

 

[BruceK]

??? Bruce can these monsters have shore power???
I expect that they have a dozen generators and they run them according to loads.
So on hook, I'd expect they run a few and get on with life.
Obvs no idea how quickly the main engines can be functional.
I guess their pods (they all have pods no?) are NOT electric as that would be a moot point in terms of difficulty in returning back to operation

Vas, currently probably not for that size vessel, however haze and pollution in port city's from ships has always been an issue

more here

British Ports Calls for Initiative to Advance Shore Power For Ships

As for engines they take a significant sequence of steps to fire up and it's certainly not quick. I worked on a small 6000 ton ship and the procedure took nearly a 8 hour shift. But with cruiseliners it's far more complex. All the pipework for water etc to cabins etc need re-pressurizing, air con needs to be maintained to prevent condensation that would ruin furnishings etc. Just the task of linen / laundary / refrigeration etc is on an epic scale. You mention generators and yes they have a few but these in themselves take time to start and stop with a gradual reduction in load until you can actually throw the switched circuit breaker. Powering them on is an even bigger job requiring auxiliary generators before you can start the startup sequence.

 

[Hurricane]

Vas, currently probably not for that size vessel, however haze and pollution in port city's from ships has always been an issue

more here

British Ports Calls for Initiative to Advance Shore Power For Ships

As for engines they take a significant sequence of steps to fire up and it's certainly not quick. I worked on a small 6000 ton ship and the procedure took nearly a 8 hour shift. But with cruiseliners it's far more complex. All the pipework for water etc to cabins etc need re-pressurizing, air con needs to be maintained to prevent condensation that would ruin furnishings etc. Just the task of linen / laundary / refrigeration etc is on an epic scale. You mention generators and yes they have a few but these in themselves take time to start and stop with a gradual reduction in load until you can actually throw the switched circuit breaker. Powering them on is an even bigger job requiring auxiliary generators before you can start the startup sequence.

I accept that but watching these beasts daily, it is clear that about once a week, each one goes off for about a 50 to 80 mile run.
And that all of them - they all do it.
We assumed it was to keep everything in working order.

 

[Bajansailor]

I had a survey job on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Freedom of the Seas recently - she is one of four RCCL ships that are based here until they know where and when they are going to be cruising with passengers again.
This map should show the four of them -
MarineTraffic: Global Ship Tracking Intelligence | AIS Marine Traffic

Here is a link to Freedom - when she was built in 2006 she was the largest cruise ship in the world (for a little while) at 156,000 gross tons.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ai...906000/imo:9304033/vessel:FREEDOM_OF_THE_SEAS

Yet when I visited her she literally had a skeleton crew of 80 persons manning her - this was still considerably in excess of the minimum required by the Safe Manning Document.
They keep the air conditioning on everywhere in the passenger areas, as otherwise things would get mouldy fast - and every week, a small team spends a whole day going around the ship flushing all the loos in the passenger cabins and public spaces as part of their preventative maintenance programme.

 

[tico]

I wonder whether the weekly movements are to prevent fouling and subsequent increased fuel costs?
Normally these ships are continually moving so that barnacles have no chance to cling on, but when laid up they will quickly become fouled.

 

[LBRodders]

I wonder whether the weekly movements are to prevent fouling and subsequent increased fuel costs?
Normally these ships are continually moving so that barnacles have no chance to cling on, but when laid up they will quickly become fouled.

Possibly.

Could also be for turning the shafts to stop them 'sagging', lubricating the shaft seals or possibly ditching fluids and getting 'fresh seawater' on board for watermaking etc.

With ships this size, its easier to keep them 'operational' and at notice for sea than to mothball and then recommission.

I don't think its anything to do with power, you can see them [in NB's video] running diesels [gensets] whilst at anchor, they'll happily do that infinitum.

 

[[178529]]

Can't think of anything worse than sitting in a mobile block of flats polluting wherever I went. Suspect they have had their day.

 

[vas]

thanks for all the info, so I now know they don't have generators but diesel burning powerstations (hope there are no nuclear powered ones!)
how about waste treatment, anyone knows as it obviously cannot be dumping one gazzilion tons of raw waste in the sea!
Do they recycle fe grey waters and reuse them, where do solids (considering they ARE treating waste!) go and how? etc

 

[NoviceRod]

Warm layup. Shutting down the engines while on the hook and not having shore power means shutting down services. On cruise ships this is a massive undertaking and can be more expensive than fuel burn especially in light of uncertainties w.r.t. how quickly they can return to operation.

Judging by the way they are lit up at night (we can see them from our windows too, as we live just below Hurricane) they must be burning a lot of fuel with the generators.