You will find a pair on every bridge
Dring our convention cruise in the Western Mediterranean, I wrote briefly about our visit to the bridge of Celebrity Century. I wanted to expand a bit on that visit today because while it was easy to be impressed with all of the technology on this bridge. I was also impressed by what I saw still in use today.
In just about every nook and cranny of the bridge, I saw a pair of binoculars. I was told that you will find a pair on every bridge of every cruise ship. During our twenty minute visit, there were several members who would constantly stand the horizon. They were looking at ships they could see, plus looking for ones they could not. Ones that do not show up on radar like small fishing boats.
The staff on board has an excellent view not only out of the front windows but also along the sides of the ship by standing on the bridge wings. On these bridge wings, there are duplicated controls for docking.
I was also impressed that even with all of the computer’s used for navigation, position, etc. they still mark with a pencil every 30 minutes the position of the ship. They also manually write into the captain’s log. The computer logs position and is recording constantly, however they are still scanning the horizon and making sure the automatic steering is taking them in the direction they intend.
If you ever get an invite to visit the bridge of a cruiseship, take them up on it. You might come away with changes to your prior thinking. I sure did.
Chuck and Laura own The Flagg Agency in Canton, GA. Contact them when you are ready to plan your first or twenty-first cruise. Starting Sunday, visit us again when we will again be blogging live while we cruise the Mexican Riviera.
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