Right men... This is how it works... I'm pretty sure most of the info and facts are right, but I wouldn't bet your last paycheck on it.
There's a ship on the Rhine River called "MS Amachello". This is an Aria class vessel and carries a maximum of 150 people.
There's another vessel on the Rhone River called the "MS Amadagio". Also an Aria class ship. They refer to them as sister ships but they're not really. The Amadagio is quite a bit older than the Amachello with some slightly different design features. Something you really notice as a passenger when you go from one to the other.
Now, all this info refers to the Amadagio 'cause the Captain of the Amachello was a bit of a loner and not very approachable. Which is fine, as long as he keeps the ship afloat when I'm on it I'm not complaining.
Captain Chalk of the Amachello, and Captain Cheese of the Amadagio.
Length: 210 metres. The Captains' Certificates allow them to operate vessels up to a maximum of 220 metres. To operate on a German River you must speak German, and to operate on a French River you must speak French. (Makes perfect sense to me!). The road rules are very different on both Rivers, and a lot of that is to do with the average widths of the rivers and the volumes of traffic. Way, way more on the Rhine.
Main Power: 2 x Cummins Diesels, each develops 1150 horsepower. They use on average, 1400 litres of fuel per trip. Obviously more going upstream and less going down.
Average Speed upstream is 11 kph and downstream is 18 kph. Apparently you don't use knots as a speed reference on inland waterways. Top cruising speed is 22kph. If anyone knows what the top speed is they're not telling - 'cause if you know it means you've broken the law.
Drive Train: 360 degree Stern Drives with fixed props. These Stern Drives are computer controlled to stay in sync, and the ship can be steered using a single joystick, or each Stern Drive can be manipulated independently. Sorry to you boaties if I'm using the wrong terminology, but hopefully you know the bits I'm talkin' about.
There's a six cylinder Cummins Diesel in the bow, powering a single, reversible tunnel prop that acts as the bow thruster. When they crank it up you've got to make sure you've got a firm hold on your drink.
There are two other Cummins Generator units, one is used for the ship and the other is for the hotel, and then there is one other Cummins Generator unit that's classed as "emergency".
Each vessel's displacement is a little over 1500 tonne, the majority of which is ballast, all of which is fuel. The vessels carry enough fuel to perform their normal operations for a little under a month.
So, the wheelhouse...
Check this out...
The Amachello on the top and the Amadagio on the bottom. Spot the difference?
No wheelhouse and no radar mast visible on the Amadagio. They lower these as necessary to get under bridges. So now, here comes the good bit...
By the way, these photos coming up were taken with me sitting in a deck chair. I wasn't allowed to stand on the deck 'cause I would've bumped my head on the bridge. You'll see why in a tick...
Here's the Amadagio approaching a low bridge - which is not really a low bridge. The problem's high water. Anyway...
Here we are passing under the bridge...
This is looking backward towards the guy steering the ship...
And here we come out from under the bridge... That guy you can see is the Second Officer standing in the wheelhouse with his head out the top hatch.
And this is how they make the top deck fit under...
Deck chairs, handrails and canopies all collapsed flat.
The ship's speed going under this bridge was just a tad under 18 kph. I asked the Captain how they knew how much clearance they had and the answer I got... "We just know!"
So, here's the inside of the wheelhouse...
Straight in front, just off the floor: redundant radar systems with an electronic chart plotter in the middle. The flat screens are for real time performance information. The little wheels on each side are for individual steering control and in the centre of each wheel is a throttle lever for each engine. The joystick that pulls it all together is just behind the RHS steering wheel. You can see it in this next picture.
Pretty cool... Huh?
So, high water, flooding - sorta, debris in the water, and look what you find when you open the doors of the lock...
Mmmm... Gotta keep goin... No room to manoeuvre... How're we gonna get past this?
I know!! Let's use the bow thruster to push it all out in front of us.
Ok... Slowly slowly, now...
Whoa!! There's a bloody great log in the middle of that..
So, after about fifteen minutes of blasting the debris with the bow thruster and shaken' the s#^t out of the ship, this sailed out from underneath...
And off we went...
And now, off I go...
See ya.
No comments:
Post a Comment