Day 131 - Propulsion

I’m writing this quite early this morning as the late evening, when I usually put this together; I’m hoping to be asleep. We’re close enough now to California that I know we’ll make the 4am pilot call for tomorrow morning. I might waver about getting up at that hour, as there will be little to see. However, customs and immigration will come aboard at 5:30am and the captain told me this morning that they do want to see the passengers. Each port is slightly different, although mandatory attendance in the United States doesn’t really surprise me.

For pictures it has worked out well as today I will use the last of my reserve pictures. This is a small section of the engine system – the seven cylinders. The ship’s propeller is driven by a single drive shaft almost 8 meters in length. I know I’ve already mentioned it but the engine room is quite amazing. Even the fresh water unit is surprisingly small, using a vacuum system to produce more than enough fresh water for us every day.

Oh, and for anyone keeping track, I think the current arrival date in Houston is now May 19th. It’s wavered around that date a couple of times so it’s probably fairly accurate. I suspect until we’re actually leaving New Orleans I won’t know for sure though!