Views from a Porthole

Louisville just loves their races.  They race just about everything and anything!  In Louisville, the 2 minutes of the Kentucky Derby has expanded into an entire month of events, festivals, and races.  Beginning in 1963, our sister boat, the Delta Queen competed in the first ever Great Steamboat Race against the Belle of Louisville, a race and rivalry that lasted until the Delta Queen was taken out of service just a few years ago.  Once the American Queen hit the river in 1995, she joined the race, just to stiffen the competition a bit more.  After Majestic America line stopped operating both the Delta Queen and the American Queen, the Belle of Louisville was left without competition.  The Belle of Cincinnati came to save the day and cruised down the river and they’ve been racing the against each other since, although on a few occasions others boats have joined in.  So for obvious reasons, when the American Queen entered service again just a few months ago, Louisville welcomed us with open arms to the line up for this years Great American Steamboat Race.

How does it work?  Well, this year, the Belle of Louisville, the Belle of Cincinnati and the American Queen all lined up under the Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in downtown Louisville.  Each Steamboat had to pick up a “local celebrity” and a flag along the way before turning around at 6-mile island to return to the bridge at the waterfront.  Spectators line the riverbank as well as ride on each boat.  The winner receives the “Silver Antlers” and holds them proudly until the following years competition (The antlers were once ‘gold’ which were retired when the Delta Queen was retired in 2009).

Most importantly….who won?  Well, sad to say the American Queen came in 2nd place this year, with the Belle of Louisville taking first place.  However….The American Queen will be back next year – and look out, the competition will be more fierce than ever!

Many times along our river journey, we are required to transit a lock. Often times this happens at night-it just happens to be the time that we are there, but this time it was a beautiful afternoon, and guests just lined the railings along the outer decks to experience this navigational necessity as if it were a tourist attraction. You see, for many, this was their first lock encounter. This particular lock near Louisville, Kentucky is part of the McAlpine Locks and Dam along the Ohio River. It was the first major engineering project on the Ohio River completed originally in 1830! It is considered a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark and I think is surrounded by some pretty beautiful green trees more noteworthy than the concrete walls that lift and lower tugs and boats by only 37 feet … yet important in order to make a smooth transition in an area known as the ‘Falls of the Ohio.’

Don’t worry… It’s not a real storm! The AQ has been preparing to welcome guests for the past 6 months, and within that for the past 5 weeks the Entertainment team has been rehearsing a set of production shows. Last night we welcomed a group of invited guests for a practice ‘shake-down’ cruise, but before they came on board we had a 2 hour sea trial on the river to make sure all was in order. It’s a rare time cruising with Crew only aboard and there was just a spectacular sun setting with a warm breeze.

Well, here it is….my next adventure! It may not have the allure of the Med, the best beaches, or the most exotic sites, but it was here the journey began and it feels good to be ‘home.’ Check back often for as soon we begin the cruising season I’ll be posting the new view Over the Paddlewheel! check out the boat and itinerary too… the American Queen

The mysterious and beautiful Halong Bay, Vietnam

I’ll never forget the first time I sailed through Halong Bay, Vietnam.  I had no idea what to expect.  Sadly, I don’t do as much research as I should when I come out for a new contract.  I never want to get too excited in case I can’t get off the ship.  Fast forward to New Year’s Day, I walked up to the office, and couldn’t believe the beautiful limestone mountains that grew out of the water.  On that particular day, I wasn’t able to get to my porthole to see the view from there, and we ended up docking in Cai Lan, which is in the bay itself.  So sadly, no ‘view from the porthole.’  However, on our next two visits into Halong Bay, we anchored – and used the ship’s tenders to get over to Cai Lan – providing me with a great view.  I grabbed this one just the other day.  I had planned to go ashore, however…one of the ship’s tenders broke down so the Captain said: “no shore leave for crew.”  I was pretty bummed, just one of many little examples of why it’s not always glamorous to work on a ship!  I have to say though….the view’s not too bad!

leaving the bustling Ho Chi Minh City

One of the great things about working on a ship is the opportunity to see some amazing places.  One of those places has definitely been Vietnam.  A few years ago, I never would have imagined the opportunity to travel to this country that I’ve only read about in my Political Science books and seen images on the History Channel.  Ho Chi Minh City (formally Saigon – still called Saigon by many locals) is a city that has a deep history of French Colonialism, but yet today has western flairs, American influences, and growth of infrastructure such as the beautiful bridge as seen through the Porthole!  This bridge is very familiar to the one we pass under in Bangkok as we sail away.  As we leave Ho Chi Minh, we sail down the river for about 2 and a half hours before we reach the South China Sea.  It’s usually a great opportunity to see bustling river traffic, and as the sun sets, all the fishermen’s boats with their green lights casting a glow across the water.

Christmas in Bangkok can be summed up in one word: Traffic!  Bangkok was a great city, with lots to discover – unfortunately too much for just the day and a half that we were there.  We have an absolutely fabulous Tour Agency that we deal with in Thailand, who was kind enough to invite some of the officers to a private club for Christmas lunch.  It was a set Thai menu, and it was amazing!  I was glad we went and it was good to get to meet him and his family – they are real Seabourn fans and very gracious people!

The port in Bangkok is in a location southeast of most of the sights, and there are quite a bit of security personnel that are along the dock area, including this man who I think enjoyed the lights from my Christmas tree.   So blessed and happy to have my husband with me here this year – it was a very special Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in so many ways, and I couldn’t have imagined it without him!  I’ll try and hit some of the sights we didn’t have a chance to see the next cruise, and send him all the pictures – maybe one day we can come back together when we have more time to explore the city and the countryside more in depth!

After our “Southern Repositioning” we have finally made it to Singapore – after offloading all guests, embarking approx 200 contractors, at 10 AM we left the cruise terminal and started cruising around the island to the northern end where the Sembawang Shipyard is located.  There was a very detailed plan launched, including releasing our lifeboats, tenders and zodiacs before entering the bay where the water was slowly released until the ship was placed on blocks and sat in a dry bay for 7 days.  It was nice to not have to put on make up, a uniform, and memorize guest names, yet at the same time – it was harder than actually cruising!  All the extra pieces and duties that we performed really stretched our energies to the max!  I think in many ways, I’m still recovering.  The sounds and noises that happened throughout the evening echoes down the steel hull of the vessel, without the water we normally have to “buffer” such sounds, coupled with the shutting down of the A/C and toilet system at random times, really made for a challenging dry dock.  I was so so happy to finally greet the next set of guests, even though I had to put on the make-up and uniform!  Here we are….Asia!

A shot of the ship …. lifted from the water to paint, repair, and inspect the belly of our vessel!  You can see some of the blue plastic on the railing that was used to protect the interior of the ship – making it very blue and smurf-like!

The Pride out of the water in the Sembawang Shipyard

industrial port in Oman

Traveling to Muscat was a very interesting experience.  First of all, we were still in a “Security Zone” and I really shouldn’t even have opened my porthole cover!  It had been days since I had natural sunlight in my cabin and since it was daytime and we were docked, I decided to open it up and see what was happening out there!   The port did not have a “terminal building” which means, we step off the ship and down the gangway and this is what we see before us.  From here, we get on a shuttle that takes us through the port’s industrial area to the gate where guests can get taxis, walk to town, etc.  Honestly, I was surprised to see this many goods waiting to be shipped from/to the Middle East here in Muscat, I would have expected a place like Dubai with a larger infrastructure to be handling most of the goods distribution.  However, geographically, I understand why there were so many goods here and it’s also a large type of employment for the people who live here.  I’m always curious to know what’s in the containers: Is it Medicine?  Clothing? Paper and Pencils?  Thinking about all the “big box” stores in the US, and that 90% of what is carried in them is made in a country other than the US – we often don’t or even can’t imagine places like this, with containers stacked 3 high filled with goods, stretching the entire length of the dock.  They do exist though…and this was an opportunity to remind myself how the process of creating and distributing goods worldwide happens.

When a ship such as ours travels through a “red zone” (this is an area categorized for high pirate activity and attacks) certain precautions have to be made in order to ensure a safe passage through the area.  For us on Deck 3, that means Black Out or covering all the portholes.  People may automatically assume that this is so a pirate or terrorist couldn’t fire a rocket through the glass, but actually it’s to keep light from going out.  Subsequently, all the outer decks have lights out or dimmed for the same reason/effect.  It’s been a bit tough having the porthole closed, I’m used to waking up with natural light in my cabin for example.  Also, when I can feel the motion of the ship or hear the water rushing by, I like to look out and see what it’s doing.  During our crossing when we had particularly rough weather and the portholes were closed, it drove me crazy not being able to see what the water was doing in order to toss the ship around like a plastic toy in a bathtub.

We are toward the end of our journey’s in the “red zone” having traveled in convoy through the Gulf of Aden and now toward the end of our southern repositioning, having also successfully made it through 5 days at sea with plenty of gas, munchies (oh yeah, and water too)!