Re: Blog updated and fixed

Hi Jim,

I fixed the typos in the months and in the paragraph you mentioned. It should read 3.3:1 reduction gear, of course, in both paragraphs and there is no "4" in "rpm".  5 Megawatts or more than 7000 HP is a lot of juice. A 200 amp service for one house will max out at 200a x 115w = 23 kw. So each 5000 kw engine can make the power for more than 200 houses, I suppose. There are more than 2 engines on Silver Whisper. Besides the two 5,000 kw main engines, there is the engine used for power plus an emergency generator diesel. The power station engine is 2,900 kw I seem to recall. I suspect the emergency generator is less than half of that since it is used for lights and essential systems only, not a/c or say the sewage plant. So the total power of the ship is something like 5000 + 5000 + 2900 + 1500 = 14,000 kw or over 600 houses worth.


The Silver Whisper is a pretty small ship as cruise ships go, 25,000 tons versus some of the bigger ones. The new Queen Mary 2 is 150,000 tons. Based on that figure, its engines--which are all electrical generators all the time since the propulsion is all by electric motors--could power a town of 3600 homes or maybe more than 10,000 people. This is a very simple calculation. The number could be much more since the QM 2 goes a lot faster and holds many more people for its size than Whisper. I'm sure you could find the actual numbers somewhere on the Internet, of course.

Cruise ships are cities when you think about it. They desalinate the sea water, process the sewage, and do all the other "municipal" services required by a city. There's a police force, maintenance folks, a newspaper, and lots of laundry for housekeeping, but it also requires a set of drivers (captain and bridge crew). Maybe that's like the mayor and staff. There's also a cable TV system complete with head end, radio and wired telecommunications system with telephone switch and Internet, of course, and lots, really a lot, of copying and printing machines. Think of all the power a big hotel might use and then consider that these hotels have to move pretty great distances, and then that is frequent.

As for United Airlines, they are probably no worse than the other "majors", Delta and American. United used to be "The Friendly Skies". Then they were, "What About Bankrupt Don't You Understand". Now they seem to be, "Our Job is to Turn the Aircraft Around So We Can Sell Your Seat Again Quickly." It's definitely not about providing reliable and comfortable transportation.

Oh well. What's the use of staying alone in your room...

'cbu/0

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 5:44 PM, <w4aba@comcast.net> wrote:

Glad to hear you're home safely, Mike----but sorry to hear your favorite United didn't live up to their past quality.  You've used them for--how many years now??

Your descriptions have always been interesting, and I especially enjoyed studying the computer screen in the Control Room.  Over 5000 kilowatts sure sounds like a LOT of power--hmmm:  how many houses will that power if it's coming from a stateside power station??   And that's "only" from one of two engines--wow!

Enjoy your rest for a few days---you deserve it.  Ummm--when's the next trip???    Hi!

73, Jim


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Borsuk" <mike@mborsuk.com>
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 6:13:56 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Blog updated and fixed

I'm home in Boulder after a great cruise. Although heavily jet lagged (actually "United Airlines Economy Abused"), I've fixed the bad formatting on a few of the blog/trip-journal entries and added the last two installments on the ship's Control Room visit that includes some geeky technical details and on the very brief visit to Hong Kong. I will get to the few typos and fix the bad grammar as soon as I can focus my eyes or stay awake at any rate.

Again, my blog/trip journal (the difference is that blogs--which this one is technically I suppose--read newest entry first) is at: http://cbu-sin.blogspot.com and Barbara is methodically writing her more complete and less, uh, wise ass version of the trip with her pictures at: barbaramaus.blogspot.com.

Thanks for "coming along" on the trip. I would appreciate any comments on the blog and hope to hear from you soon at any rate. You can read my previous blogs at the same site by clicking on my profile picture to get to the index.

Best from winter again,

Mike
--

"The (Other) Brain of the Ship"

Saturday, 13 February 2010, Deck 4 Secure Area, Silver Whisper (Gulf of Tonkin, South China Sea)

We were invited by the Chief Engineer during the penultimate formal dinner last week to visit the Silver Whisper's control room. More or less at the appropriate time, a deck hand escorted Barbara and me plus one very dour Scotsman guest through a "Staff Only" door and through a long fluorescent lit corridor to the most secure and secret area of the ship, the room where all the booze and wine are stored. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to stop there and instead went to the Main Control Room (there are others?). The "First Engineer" (there must be other engineers if not control rooms therefore), a delightfully nerdy Italian young man tore himself away from the Scotsman who was pelting him with arcane questions such as "Where were the valves manufactured, Finland?", etc. The young man explained with very focused choice of English words--the Captain is Italian and that is the unofficial language spoken for important communication to the engine room as the Chief Engineer is Italian as well--that this place is very important. He meant to say something else I believe when he explained with great gravitas, "The Captain says that the Bridge is the brain of the ship, but this control room is, uh, also the brain, too." We got the point anyway.

As Silver Whisper is 10 years old, the propulsion system is by conventional shaft driven propellers, but the props are variable pitch and can be driven electrically as well as directly from the engines through a transmission (actually a 3.3:1 reduction gear system). The combination of the transmission and controlled pitch allows for much more efficient use of the big assed diesel engines, and a system of clutches and motor/generator assemblies on the main shafts provide for symmetrical thrust when one of the main engines is off-line. The two bow thrusters are driven electrically from the main engines' generators, but they and even the main props can be driven in an emergency from the smaller diesel engine that provides the ship's electrical power or even from the Emergency Generator located on the topmost deck. (Don't ask why it's there. The answer is scary.) The main engines were each providing 7030 HP as we were underway at 17.5 knots enroute the completion of the cruise early Sunday morning at Hong Kong. [Geek note for those trying to decipher the control computer's screen: the port engine was delivering 5237 kw (conversion to HP is 746 watts per horse power), the propeller was turning at 151 rpm which was the 3.3:1 reduction from the engine rev of 494 rpm.] The other very modern feature was that all the monitoring and back ups--and there were lots of sensors and emergency systems--were completely automatic through an extensive PLC (Programmable Logic Controller, a local area network for sensors and controllers) network. I told you the 1st Engineer was nerdy, but I guess I led him on a bit when he found a fellow couple of nerds and didn't have to talk to the Scotsman any more. That guy was now showering the "2nd Engineer" with questions relating to the brand of oil and the size of the bunkering hoses. We didn't visit the Engine Room on this visit, although we did see it on the video monitor that showed various views of the more hot, smelly, and noisy areas. At any rate I had seen the engine room on an earlier cruise a couple of years ago and was impressed by how clean it was. You can see that on the monitor screen shot. The earlier visit to the engine room was actually on a tour of the booze and wine storage area. Make of that what you will.


Sunday, 14 February 2010, Hong Kong to Denver in One and a Half Hours

Got up at 5:30 am to watch the sail in by the magnificent skyline of Hong Kong but saw the inside of the very dense cloud that was enveloping Lunar New Years Day. (I don't know if that is an annual event--the fog, not the new year--but the rain might quiet down the firecrackers during the parade set for Sunday evening.) We left the ship at 9 am and by Sunday evening we were home in Boulder. United 862 departed HKG, my favorite airport in the "gigantic, high tech, so impersonal that it seems like a scene from Brasilia category" at 12:40 pm and arrived at DIA on United 714 from SFO at 2:10 pm the same day. Ain't the world small. Just like I feel today, Monday, as the jet lag seems to be getting worse.

Super cruise on now a bit dowdy ship. Best food and (complimentary) wine by far, mostly great service except for witless butler and a few brand new poorly trained staff, great weather and itinerary. United long haul flights were extremely uncomfortable in Economy, even in best and most coveted seats at forward bulkhead (747 exit rows act as lounge for crowds awaiting inadequate number of toilets). Flight attendants on UA 862 must have been very angry at their supervisors as they were taking it out on the customers (as United calls their passengers.) The attendants did what was required by the company, I believe, but so mechanically that they would go very quickly down the aisles mumbling, "water" or whatever but not stopping to actually deliver what they were carrying. They threw the mid-flight snacks onto up to then sleeping passengers' laps and made a loud announcement on the PA regarding the "Duty Free" sales during the middle of the night when all the lights were out and most were sleeping (up to then). But the flight arrived early. We got a lovely welcome to US soil by the dozen or so scowling heavily armed cops at the terminal end of the jetway. I did enjoy the "randomly chosen" patdowns at Hong Kong and San Francisco, however, and now have the phone numbers of a couple of security guards in case I want a date with either a short polite Chinese guy or a young black gentleman respectively.

No Question of Above the 17th Parallel - Haiphong

Friday, 12 February 2010, Haiphong, (North) Vietnam

If the people in Saigon felt they lost the war, the folks in North Vietnam got what they asked for. They have a stable and oddly enough hard working culture that evolved since they rebuilt the major port city of Vietnam after the war. With the new moon tomorrow, today is New Year's Eve in the lunar schedule. Tomorrow is Tet (yes, that one). So all of Haiphong was enjoying the beginning of a two week vacation. The gray weather (dimly) illuminated the gray city while everyone enjoyed a quiet holiday drive on their motorbikes, carrying the traditional kumquat and peach trees, a couple of their friends, and even a refrigerator for the celebrations. (No kidding).

The tour was guided by a lovely young lady who spoke little English but fortunately understood less. The ship's escort, Isabella, the supervisor of the on-board store on Whisper gave her helpful advise and asked probing questions (such as, "What do you mean when you say that the 'bus will be taken away at 40 minutes to 12 am?'"). We actually did have a nifty tour of the highlights of this town, visiting the quite lovely French colonial linear park, took pictures of very cute kids and ad hoc street chicken butchers and visited a 17th Century Buddhist temple and Chinese communal house dating to "long ago" according to our guide.

We may take the ship's shuttle bus later this evening to see the new years festivities in all its Maoist splendor as the ship sails for Hong Kong at midnight tonight. We arrive the day after tomorrow for the long ride home.

Ha Long Bay

Thursday, 11 February 2010, Ha Long City, Vietnam

We sailed into Ha Long Bay at about 11 am this morning. The view of the unique bay with thousands of odd shaped islands was just as spectacular as it was 14 years ago, but this time I didn't drop my Vietnamese visa in the ocean. The view was so spectacular that only a view guests on the ship felt it more important to continue their sodoku. Oh well, F. Scott Fitzgerald said that "the very, very rich are not like you or I."

Right after we anchored, the oddly named "Globetrot Princess" appeared in the anchorage site. It is apparently a Chinese cruise ship with a mosque on its stern.* Bet they have a great time onboard, but we decided to turn down any offers to visit and enjoy the service. The Globetrot Princess also appeared to be held together by rust and had a most noticeable list to port. Not ever a good sign.

After observing the view of the 4 year old bridge to China and the apparently 4 year old Ha Long City and of 4 year old resorts through our cabin's window, we took one of the dozen or so junks moored to a barge alongside the Silver Whisper on a "3 hour tour" of Ha Long Bay. We had a great day and ended the afternoon with a mai tai and a sunset from a table on the stern of Whisper. Pretty nifty.

*I researched the curious looking Globetrot Princess after getting home to Boulder. It is a Chinese owned "luxury cruise ship" that was doing essentially gambling two nighters out from Shanghai at least 4 years ago. An excellent review of the ship with some remarkable inside pictures that show that the guest areas are a lot nicer than the outside of the ship can be found at:

http://www.maritimematters.com/jiari.html

Note that the mosque like structure is not a religious building but a curious architectural feature that houses a restaurant. Also note that the pictures of the ship when newly refurbished 6 years ago still looked like it was held together by rust and the list appears to be part of the Jia Ri's (its real name) identity. 




--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Borsuk <mike@mborsuk.com>
Date: 2010/2/11
Subject: Re: Updates to trip journal posted
To: Phil Griffiths

Phil,

Super to hear from you. Still in the Gulf of Tonkin but back home in Colorado next week.

Lots of comments about Silversea but food is spectacular and service in general is very good. (Enjoy!).  Biggest problem is that the forward crew lift is broken so that all the butlers are using the guest one. Every time the door opens, it looks like a penguin convention.

Cheers,

Mike

2010/2/9 Phil Griffiths <pg@businessrisk.co.uk>

Mike

Looks as though Barbara and yourself are having a fun trip.

The blog is really entertaining – it brings back memories – particularly our discussions on board about the absurdity of Silversea protocols

It is also quite educational – I had never heard of Nha Trang.

I particularly love the signs –  looking forward to the final chapter of the trip

Kind regards

Phil

Ha Long Bay Photos #2

Ha Long Bay Photos #1

China Beach, Da Nang, Hoi An in 2010

Wednesday, 10 February 2010, Chan May, Vietnam

The all day tour to Da Nang (yes, that one), Historic Hoi An, and China Beach (yes, that one) started from Chan May, a very small undeveloped seemingly unused ocean going ship dock at the end of an unpaved road. Apparently this port was chosen by Silversea to give access for easy excursions to both Da Nang to the south and Hue (yes, that one) to the north. This part of the world has that SE Asian haze that makes watercolor paintings so nice and photography so Photoshop worthy. Our drive through the brand new 6 km (4 miles, actually) tunnel and by the brand new huge bridge passed through some areas that seemed to have modern teenagers eating pizza. But in a totalitarian Communist country, things are as they seem and not so much too. Huh?

First we visited a museum with all sorts of artifacts from a Hindu site that was bombed to flatness some years ago. The artifacts that remained were truly great however. Our guide--in typical obscuring fashion--told the group that there had been "some damage of the site from wars and weather." No kidding. We then passed the old American Da Nang compound which for some reason was left in all its decay while huge resort hotels ("for rich, old Japanese", said the guide) were being built all around it. Then to Marble Mountain which actually hundreds of statue shops displayed the most hideous combination of large pieces. The "workshop" had no carvers but lots of packed up shipping crates with clearly readable address labels for western European and American customers. It occurred to me after a good nights sleep that all the carvers must have left the area when the South fell, and that Mable Mountain was actually an historical site and that the shipping crates and labels were 35 years old.

Then on to Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a 1593 Japanese bridge and a number of Chinese temples--but without any Japanese population or Chinese worshipers respectively. The Chinese temples did have huge incense coils, all not showing any use, huge we were told because they "are lit to ward off disasters such as the big tsunami of some years ago." We then stopped at China Beach at the old R&R location for US soldiers and looked at the curious woven round coracle (follicle, oracle, Popsicle?) boats that the Owl and the Pussycat took some time ago. (That one was "a beautiful pea green in" color, I believe.) Actually, a number of those of us in our age group were not very comfortable at China Beach for some reason. We were even more uncomfortable when the guide said that Da Nang was so clean and safe because if anyone does anything wrong--like "throw litter" on the street--someone will mention it "AT THE NEXT WEEKLY COMMUNITY MEETING AND THEY WILL BE MADE TO STOP". Swell!

We got back to the ship minutes before scheduled sailing and watched the two Immigration Officials walk their portable Immigration Shack down the pier so that it can be stored for the next ship, if ever, to need rubber stamping for the guests' visas. A good day but one with lots of cognitive dissonance. We arrive on Thursday afternoon after sailing all night across the Gulf of Tonkin (yes, that one) to fantastic Ha Long Bay. Last time, in the mid 1960s, I had strep throat and dropped my visa in the ocean there. Hoping for a nicer visit this time.

By the way, I have identified the cause of the bad text formatting of a few earlier entries to this journal and will edit the text and fix and formatting after getting to less than 35 cents a minute access, probably early next week after arriving home. Sorry for the screw up (mine and Blogger).

Nha Trang or Where Am I?

Tuesday, 9 February 2010, Nha Trang, Vietnam

The sail in this morning to Nha Trang was under the "longest overwater cable car ride", and then it got more touristy and modern. I'm afraid to say I don't know what was of the original city, but I suspect that B-52s did a number on he place in the 1960s. At any rate this is an apparently thriving city of 330,000, most of whom work in the very modern Western beach hotels--the largest hotel along the 5 km (3 mile, honest) long white sand beach is a brand new Sheraton. The biggest development is a Disney like resort/amusement park at the far end of the cable car across the bay.

The "Nha Trang City and Cham Towers" included very quick stops at the Po Nagar Towers, 7th to 12th Century Hindu shrines, and the Long Son Pagoda (sic), actually a seemingly brand new 9.2 meter high (30 ft, really) Buddha on top of a natural hill and overlooking a very big reclining brand new Buddha. The feeling is that this town is a joint venture (which in Vietnam seems to mean that some big company from the developed countries has gambled a fortune hoping that their bribes will pay off in investment returns) for amusing German tourists. I believe I saw a field where they actually grow tour guides among chrysanthemums. Besides some weird signs and what really seemed to be a breeding place for cock fighting roosters, this time has the appeal of Estes Park but without Rocky Mountain National Park.

Actually, the old Hindu and the new Buddhist sights were most interesting (with clean but weirdly signed mensrooms), and one of the gift shop embroidery workshops kind of fascinating.

Tonight is the last formal night of the cruise. We are invited to the Chief Engineer's table. I would have turned him down, but we want the air conditioning to continue to work. It's 98 F (39 C, correctly converted). All day excursion tomorrow to Hoi An, a place supposedly full of world heritage sites besides the gift shops. I'm looking forward to a real Vietnamese meal.

Re: Trip Journals Updated (Again)

Hi John,

I was at the Saigon port 13 years ago on another cruise. I took the Vietnam war sites tour. We visited lots of places where according to the guide's narration,  "The Imperialists" caused death and destruction to the "good Communists patriots" and then to the Cu Chi tunnels where 10s of thousands of Viet Con soldiers attacked from. It was clear despite the narration that from the Viet Cong infrastructure that the capitalist but very corrupt South VN government was for sure going to fall, but the combination of the US world politics and bad intelligence (in all senses of the phrase) kept the war going on. The feelings in Saigon are that the South was the losers and are now suffering from a very corrupt and dysfunctional northern Hanoi rule, but they have been made so indolent and corrupt now as a result that it will take generations of the new Chinese attitude of "keep quiet about politics and we'll make you rich" that perhaps the damage from both sides may never be repaired. There is a huge black market for everything in the South now, but the penalties are severe and a kind of mafia has developed as an interface.

I felt very uncomfortable all day yesterday after the morning tour of the city center, which I hadn't visited last time. I think the affect on our youth (in our youth) during the war was hitting me finally. We were here overnight. Watching the cobbled boats on the river--a kind of free enterprise for those who, 1) can build a barge or little goods carrier boat, and 2) bribe enough officials for a "license"--was a little encouraging nevertheless. And this morning we took the ship's shuttle bus into town and walked around the block and dodged the millions of motorbikes. There were lots of people just hanging around, but there were also lots of smiles and little makeshift pho (noddle soup) stands and $10 Rolex displays. We watched a Hindu ceremony going on in an Indian temple and sat in the Rex Hotel lobby, the hotel were all the US reporters stayed. I don't feel as bad today.

We sail down the Mekong Delta for Nha Trang at 4 pm this afternoon. I've booked a tour of the 7th Century Buddhist "Cham Towers" and some ancient Chinese (the occupation of long ago) sites. The VN people have been under foreign control since they repulsed the Mongols a thousand years ago. So maybe they are doing better now, but the modern Chinese influence is awfully strong in the North as we will see in few days.

2010/2/8 Orr, John A. <orr@wpi.edu>

Your Saigon report brings back memories from very long ago.  It would be fascinating to visit.

John

From: Michael Borsuk [mailto:mike@mborsuk.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 4:04 AM

Subject: Trip Journals Updated (Again)

I just updated the cruise trip journal/blog with my first impressions of Saigon. Note the picture of me in front of a stock ticker at a security dealer's office. Make of that what you will.

My journal is at http://cbu-sin.blogspot.com

Barbara has posted a few more entries of past ports but in more detail at her blog at http://barbaramaus.blogspot.com

We fly back from Hong Kong a week from today (which is tomorrow in North America).

Mike