This morning’s guest with Jason for Good Morning Westerdam was Noel O’Driscoll, the Staff Captain. He gave some interesting insights into the workings of the Bridge. The Westerdam is often the first of the HAL fleet to introduce new things and it is now the first ship to trial an automated man overboard warning. Currently the only way to know if someone has gone overboard is if there is a witness/bystander or search of the ship doesn’t find someone. Sensors have been placed so that any movement over the railings can be monitored and adjustments have had to be made so that birds don’t set off the alarms.
Only two trivia sessions today – travel trivia this morning and the last day of the 30 day cumulative trivia. Needless to say, we did not come first in either but we’ve had a lot of fun.
I’ve been using my netbook throughout the cruise to access the internet and post this blog and finally today I got my iPad talking to the internet service. Apparently the brightness has to be turned up to maximum so that the battery has the power to pick up the signal (or something along those lines). At home I always have the brightness turned down as it chews up battery life, hence not being able to access the internet.
This evening Jennie, Carole, Norm and John from my trivia team and I had a leisurely dinner in the Canaletto restaurant – obviously with Italian cuisine. It’s always very pleasant to have good company and swap travel tales.
Back in Papeete I mentioned we were docked between some mega yachts and here are some photos of them.
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| Golden Odyssey |
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| Pacific |
Most passengers were very taken, and fascinated, with the super sleek ‘Pacific’ which was right beside us, with its two heliports and own helicopter. We found out it is 2 years old, has 17 suites, is worth about $300 million and is privately owned by a very ‘under the radar’ Russian gentleman.
The ‘Pacific’ can be chartered for about $34,000 per week which sounded a lot until I worked out that if I shared the cost with others, filling up those suites, it would actually be quite reasonable. I’m sure though, that there would be very strict criteria as to who they chartered to and as I don’t have a Black Amex I guess I wouldn’t qualify.
This is probably more in my price range – but not as appealing!
what a wonderful blog. I am taking this cruise in December and have really enjoyed reading about your experience on all the islands. also the pictures are fantastic, especially of the fish and coral under the water.
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