grk
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Post by grk on May 6, 2015 8:55:43 GMT -8
Gordon-I was able to check on the Solstice voyage while at work yesterday. The hinged portion of the mast was not changed since the summer of 2014, and her "air draft" is still greater than the clearance at Seymour Narrows. However, the ship was able to time her pass under the wires at the low water slack tide rather than the high water which is what the clearance is taken from. That gave her adequate clearance for that voyage. I think there might be another trip in the fall but I did not have time to check on that. For the rest of the season it appears that she is sailing the outer coast on her voyages from Seattle.
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Post by gordon on May 6, 2015 12:14:57 GMT -8
Thanks Thar would explain her slow sail around Bowen Island. It would be nice if those low hanging wires in Seymour Narrows could be dealt with
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Post by gordon on May 6, 2015 19:59:28 GMT -8
Th Grand Princess seems to be on sea trials she's heading north on somewhat the same course as the Coral Princes
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grk
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Post by grk on May 7, 2015 4:56:10 GMT -8
Grand Princess is on 3 days of sea trials and will remain south of Seymour Narrows, due back to Canada Place on Friday morning about 1000. There are no passengers aboard. First revenue sailing on Saturday.
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grk
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Post by grk on May 7, 2015 6:17:18 GMT -8
Gordon-During a dull moment I just checked on clearances. First Narrows-61 Meters Seymour Narrows-58 Meters. All measured from high water. Vessel air drafts: Ruby and Crown Princess 56.3 M; Celebrity Solstice 57.4 M; both this mast lowered. Thought you might be interested!
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grk
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Post by grk on May 10, 2015 17:59:28 GMT -8
I have never seen a cruise ship, loaded with passengers, sent to an anchorage for 12 hours. On Monday Agriculture Canada is sending Celebrity Millennium to Constance Bank anchorage off Victoria's waterfront, for a mandatory Asian Gypsy Moth inspections. The ship will arrive about noon from Russia via the north Pacific, be inspected, and hopefully sail about midnight to Vancouver for an "on time" arrival. Sitting at the anchorage will probably be frustrating for all those passengers!!
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on May 10, 2015 19:08:05 GMT -8
where in Victoria is this?
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grk
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Post by grk on May 10, 2015 19:53:02 GMT -8
Constance Bank is about 4 miles off shore; south of Clover Point. This bank is much shallower than the rest of the area, and there are 5 anchorages for deep sea vessels. There is almost always a ship or two out there, car ships waiting for berths up the Fraser, container ships for their turn at Delta Port, and some bulkers too, but never a cruise ship before.
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translinkfan
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Post by translinkfan on May 11, 2015 9:58:34 GMT -8
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on May 11, 2015 18:32:04 GMT -8
so why are they doing this? The Millennium was up here last year and I don't think they did this? She is off Clover Point right now! I am looking at her from the end of the breakwater! I saw one of her tenders come into Ogden Point but not sure why maybe that is how the inspectors are getting out there! It seems a long way to go on a tender though! The tender is heading back now!
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Post by gordon on Jun 3, 2015 6:57:29 GMT -8
Can the mega ships transit the northern half of the inside passage?
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grk
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Post by grk on Jun 7, 2015 10:31:04 GMT -8
There is only one restriction, and that is the requirement for a Pilot to be aboard. Many cruise lines have the pilot debarked at Pine Island just off Port Hardy, and they thus travel up Hecate Strait. Those that keep the Pilot on until Triple Island off Prince Rupert have the ability to transit portions of the inside passage. Most common would be in at Caamano Sound then up either Grenville or Principe Channels. It would be possible to go in Laredo Sound as well. It is up to vessel's Captain and Pilot to determine the routings and that depends a lot on projected currents, tides and other know marine traffic. Owing to timings, it is usually north bound vessels that do this as they pass by Port Hardy early in the morning and off Rupert in the evening. Southbound vessels tend to transit this in the overnight hours, and there would be no reason to take the inside.
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translinkfan
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Post by translinkfan on Jun 14, 2015 13:15:42 GMT -8
Was a 3 ship day yesterday and wondered what the hell the "L'Austral" was as it showed up on my ship tracker at Canada Place alongside the Star Princess and one of the HAL ships. After reading up on the ship, it's a French cruise line! Never seen or heard of them till now. Here's some shots from yesterday! Ponant- L'Austral-2 by Dannny29, on Flickr Ponant- L'Austral-2 by Dannny29, on Flickr Star Princess-1 by Dannny29, on Flickr
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Post by Low Light Mike on Jun 14, 2015 13:38:15 GMT -8
Was a 3 ship day yesterday and wondered what the hell the "L'Austral" was as it showed up on my ship tracker at Canada Place alongside the Star Princess and one of the HAL ships. After reading up on the ship, it's a French cruise line! Never seen or heard of them till now. Here's some shots from yesterday! Thanks for those shots. I was on a beach in Lantzville (north of Nanaimo) last night, and saw L'Austral in the distance, and then Star Princess. The relative sizes in your photos explains why from my vantage-point Star Princess was so easy to see at night, and L'Austral was barely visible in the dusk distance. From regular distance and in daylight, I like the look of L'Austral. A nice large-yacht (rather than a small cruise ship). Elegant, expensive, different.
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grk
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Post by grk on Jun 14, 2015 18:32:20 GMT -8
Notice the unusual arrangement of spaces at the stern. The docking deck for line handling etc is 3 levels up from the sea. The two lower levels have the large windows for the dining room, and there is a stern sports platform at water level for off the ship water activities.
For those that do not know, the galleys in ships may not have any windows. This is case of fire and the lack of windows would help the spread of a fire in a vertical direction. When ever you look at a cruise ship and see vast areas of metal plating rather than windows that is usually the galley and you would find the dining areas very close by. This is very evident forward of the dining rooms in the great shot in the above posts, and also very evident on Princess's Grand class.
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on Jul 12, 2015 20:24:42 GMT -8
Anyone know when the Statendam had her last refit??? She was in Victoria tonight and I noticed underneath the ship her balbous bow on top was all scraped and looked like there was all this slimey green stuff on it all along the sides on the bottoms looked like it really needed some TLC.
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grk
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Post by grk on Jul 13, 2015 15:39:29 GMT -8
Her last refit was 3 years ago! Statendam is on her last few cruises ever in the Pacific Northwest. On September7 she sails by way of Hawaii and some of the lesser known Marshall Islands and Guam on her way to Singapore. At near the same time Ryndam will sail her last Holland America voyage from Italy to Singapore via the Suez. Upon arrival the 2 sisters leave the Holland America fleet and are transferred to the P & O Australia fleet with new names and a much altered interior all done during a 2 month drydock and refit; thus all the growth on the hull at present. They were up for sale, but no potential buyers would spring for the big money being asked for, and thus the hand me down transfer to the down under fleet. Word in the industry is that both ships are in excellent shape having had very good maintenance over the years. Statendam did have an engine room fire a number of years ago as she passed under Lions Gate Bridge. She had to drift to anchor in English Bay and missed several cruises. The other two sisters Veendam and Maasdam must be close to leaving too; but Maasdam is here next summer replacing Statendam on the 14 day Alaskan sailings from Seattle, followed by a 23 day transpacific sailing to Sydney-one that I am booked on!!
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translinkfan
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Post by translinkfan on Jul 27, 2015 23:05:38 GMT -8
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Post by Starsteward on Jul 28, 2015 7:17:37 GMT -8
Her last refit was 3 years ago! Statendam is on her last few cruises ever in the Pacific Northwest. On September7 she sails by way of Hawaii and some of the lesser known Marshall Islands and Guam on her way to Singapore. At near the same time Ryndam will sail her last Holland America voyage from Italy to Singapore via the Suez. Upon arrival the 2 sisters leave the Holland America fleet and are transferred to the P & O Australia fleet with new names and a much altered interior all done during a 2 month drydock and refit; thus all the growth on the hull at present. They were up for sale, but no potential buyers would spring for the big money being asked for, and thus the hand me down transfer to the down under fleet. Word in the industry is that both ships are in excellent shape having had very good maintenance over the years. Statendam did have an engine room fire a number of years ago as she passed under Lions Gate Bridge. She had to drift to anchor in English Bay and missed several cruises. The other two sisters Veendam and Maasdam must be close to leaving too; but Maasdam is here next summer replacing Statendam on the 14 day Alaskan sailings from Seattle, followed by a 23 day transpacific sailing to Sydney-one that I am booked on!! I had forgotten about the transfer of those two Holland America ships to the P & O Australian fleet. The 'Statendam' and the 'Ryndam' are examples of cruise ships that are to my liking in terms of size, passenger capacity etc. It's refreshing to know that there are still ships out there that look and feel like 'ships' and not a glorified tourist resort at sea. Are we to see the 'Maasdam' and 'Volendam' sent off to the P & O Australia fleet as well? One thing about Holland America, even though they are sadly part of the Carnival group, is that the H.A. ships are still registered in The Netherlands, and not some third world banana republic used by so many other cruise ship operators.
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WettCoast
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Post by WettCoast on Sept 26, 2015 20:15:40 GMT -8
Another north west coast cruise ship season is almost done, with the last boat in Victoria being on September 30th*. Here is a photo taken this evening (Saturday, September 26th) at Victoria's Ogden Point, featuring HAL's Amsterdam & NCL's Norwegian Pearl, with a cameo by the Wave Venture & a host of smaller boats. Victoria has a busy outer harbour this evening. Busy Victoria Waterfront © WCK-JST by Jim Thorne, on Flickr*The Star Princess is actually the last vessel. That is on November 9th. It must be repositioning following a refit here?
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on Sept 26, 2015 21:14:42 GMT -8
The last ship to leave Canada Place is Dec 15th this year on the Ruby Princess! She arrives from a Coastal early Dec but no cruise back till Dec 15th so I have a feeling she might have some work done in that time she is here! Star Princess leaves Canada Place Nov 8th on a Coastal! She is doing a bunch of Coastals and Hawaii up until then from Vancouver!
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Post by Starsteward on Sept 27, 2015 6:12:32 GMT -8
Another north west coast cruise ship season is almost done, with the last boat in Victoria being on September 30th*. Here is a photo taken this evening (Saturday, September 26th) at Victoria's Ogden Point, featuring HAL's Amsterdam & NCL's Norwegian Pearl, with a cameo by the Wave Venture & a host of smaller boats. Victoria has a busy outer harbour this evening. Busy Victoria Waterfront © WCK-JST by Jim Thorne, on Flickr*The Star Princess is actually the last vessel. That is on November 9th. It must be repositioning following a refit here? The 'Wave Venture' is an interesting looking vessel, almost similar to a 'Bay Ferry' Great photo!
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on Sept 27, 2015 12:09:49 GMT -8
I think if I am correct she used to be a ferry? I heard that somewhere when she was overseas she used to be a ferry till she was converted!
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grk
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Post by grk on Nov 17, 2015 11:38:21 GMT -8
I see that Royal Caribbean is send one of their large ships to Nanaimo this spring. Explorer of the Seas is similar in size to Celebrity Solstice which so far has not submitted voyage plans for calling there this coming season. Explorer is making her way up to the West Coast from Australia. As she is too tall for Seymour Narrows and Lions Gate she will be based in Seattle replacing Jewel of the Seas. In my mind her age shows, not a modern looking as the Celebrity vessel, but still not as boxy as some of her contemporaries in other fleets. She is a little shorter than Solstice (1020 ft vs 1033 ft), and little wider (127 vs 121) and a little denser in passenger (3120 vs 2856). She will be an interesting sight for Nanaimo ship watchers.
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Koastal Karl
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Post by Koastal Karl on Dec 3, 2015 18:18:47 GMT -8
just FYI the Ruby Princess if off Dallas Road right now heading for Esquimalt Graving Dock. She is here till the 15th when she is scheduled on a 3 night Pacific Coastal from Vancouver. I would assume she arrived this morning from a northbound Pacific Coastal offloaded then headed for Esquimalt as the Pacific Pilotage site shows this
Dispatched 12/03/2015 11:30 RUBY PRINCESS 12/03/2015 11:30 CANADA PLACE EAST ESQUIMALT GRAVING DOCK PRINCESS CRUISES
I guess she will be meeting up with the Queen of Cumberland now which is also in Esquimalt!
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