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Pier Damage in Sitka


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2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

https://www.kcaw.org/2022/05/12/damaged-mooring-dolphin-leaves-cruise-ship-terminal-at-half-capacity/

 

Looks like it'll require the 2nd ship that day to tender. 

 

I'm there June 7 on Serenade and Radiance (who did the damage) will be there too. I hope that means Radiance has to be the tender ship

The Ovation of the Seas was docked in port Sitka on May 17th but had to leave at 1 pm and anchor so that Celebrity Eclipse could dock. Ovation used their own boats to tender passengers until our departure.

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20 minutes ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

At the top tier event on Radiance on the LA to Vancouver cruise the captian mentioned he had requested to be moved to a larger class ship with Royal. I don't think this incedent is going to help his cause to move to a larger ship lol

His new assignment may well be 

Tired Episode 18 GIF by The Simpsons

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On 5/25/2022 at 12:40 AM, FrHoffard said:

All vessels have to have a Marine Pilot onboard that actually do the maneuvering of the ships in AK waters 😊  

We were told one time on a bridge tour that the Marine Pilot only advises and doesn't touch any of the ships controls...They don't have the ships specific skills to be trusted to maneuver the ship.  I'm also sure there must be some insurance liability issues.

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11 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Here's video of Harmony.

 

There's going to be some jobs on the line with this one as that's not an "oops" type mistake

 

 

Ugh, that didn't look good, we are scheduled to sail on Harmony on 6/12, I hope that didn't cause a tone of damage to the ship.

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On 5/18/2022 at 7:36 AM, smokeybandit said:

https://www.kcaw.org/2022/05/12/damaged-mooring-dolphin-leaves-cruise-ship-terminal-at-half-capacity/

 

Looks like it'll require the 2nd ship that day to tender. 

 

I'm there June 7 on Serenade and Radiance (who did the damage) will be there too. I hope that means Radiance has to be the tender ship

Yep, just got off of the Ovation last week and our last Alaska Port of Call was Sitka.  What they did was tie up to the pier, allow anyone to come and go until about 1:00 PM and then pulled the ship out to the middle of the sound and anchored or stabilized its location using gps and thrusters. This was done to let a Celebrity Cruise ship dock.  After that, those that wanted to come and go had to tender.  We got off and on long before the 1:00 PM tender schedule.  Sitka is a beautiful and clean little town.  I'd like to go back one day.  

BTW, workers were working hard on the pier.  And the tenders were the ship's lifeboats!

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1 hour ago, 10-42 said:

Yep, just got off of the Ovation last week and our last Alaska Port of Call was Sitka.  What they did was tie up to the pier, allow anyone to come and go until about 1:00 PM and then pulled the ship out to the middle of the sound and anchored or stabilized its location using gps and thrusters. This was done to let a Celebrity Cruise ship dock.  After that, those that wanted to come and go had to tender.  We got off and on long before the 1:00 PM tender schedule.  Sitka is a beautiful and clean little town.  I'd like to go back one day.  

BTW, workers were working hard on the pier.  And the tenders were the ship's lifeboats!

Here was one of the Ovation's lifeboat tenders going back to Sitka and the empty lifeboat cradles.

For some reason the tenders kept going back to Sitka empty. 😀766336781_Screenshot2022-05-26184932.thumb.jpg.5c4fd5818e08d6ff21da325e6c3db0b7.jpg

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8 minutes ago, rbdavis3591 said:

Here was one of the Ovation's lifeboat tenders going back to Sitka and the empty lifeboat cradles.

For some reason the tenders kept going back to Sitka empty. 😀766336781_Screenshot2022-05-26184932.thumb.jpg.5c4fd5818e08d6ff21da325e6c3db0b7.jpg

WOW, I didn't notice that.  But, I was enjoying copious amounts of adult beverage at the Schooner Bar, et al.

I think I remember seeing you on the ship if that's you in your avatar.  

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15 hours ago, Psycho and Barb said:

We were told one time on a bridge tour that the Marine Pilot only advises and doesn't touch any of the ships controls...They don't have the ships specific skills to be trusted to maneuver the ship.  I'm also sure there must be some insurance liability issues.

Sorry, incorrect - at least for the pilot's in Alaska.  The pilot's have US Coast Guard Merchant Mariners credentials with a Master endorsement for unlimited tonnage for the specific region in Alaska where they work.  They complete a lengthy,  unpaid, training program and are trained on many vessels, they have mandatory maneuvers that must be completed on cruise ships in order to complete their training and become licensed by the State Board of Marine Pilot's.  I am the Marine Pilot Coordinator for the State of Alaska Board of Marine Pilot's and I issue their state licenses 😊. The cruise ships aren't the only ones they are trained on, they complete about 2 years of training before being allowed at the controls of the vessels. 

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As it turns out I visited Sitka before and after the incident but didn't know it at the time.

The pier on approach from Serenade before the incident.

SitkaPier-1.jpg

"Dolphins" are the name used for these outlying structures that are used to secure the lines from the ship.  The "dolphin" support prior to the incident.

SitkaPier-2.jpg

On approach to the pier aboard Quantum on May 12.

SitkaPier-4.jpg

The same "dolphin" pictured above after the incident.

SitkaPier-3.jpg

SitkaPier-5.jpg

Quantum docked normally that day and I didn't realize or notice the damage until I read about it later on in the cruise.  I did see in a FB post a couple days after that they had a crew working on the dolphin.  It's probably fixed already by this point.

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21 hours ago, Psycho and Barb said:

We were told one time on a bridge tour that the Marine Pilot only advises and doesn't touch any of the ships controls...They don't have the ships specific skills to be trusted to maneuver the ship.  I'm also sure there must be some insurance liability issues.

There is a difference between non US ports of call and US based ports.  In the Caribbean for example the pilots are there as advisors and do not take command of the ship.  In the US when maneuvering in a US port the Captain's I've heard talk about it describe the pilot's function as "the pilot takes a more active role".  Captains being the type A that they are don't like to admit they aren't in full command.  In some Caribbean ports the pilots role is almost ceremonial and an excuse to charge the ship fees.  It's very different in a US port. 

The Panama Canal is an example of another special circumstance.  There the local pilot does take command and control of the ship and Panama also places its own people on board to handle the lines.  It's a unique circumstance where they do have full insurance to cover the time they are in control of the ship.  Ship crew are still there and deal with any ship issues if something isn't working but the ship crew become assistants to the Panamanian handlers.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

As a follow up the NTSB has released its findings in the case of Radiance striking the mooring dolphin in Sitka.

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MIR2310.pdf

Probable Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the contact of the cruise ship Radiance of the Seas with the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal pier was the master and bridge team’s overreliance on an electronic chart to identify the pier’s position relative to their planned rotation location, and the master’s misunderstanding of the clearance distances to the pier being called by the crewmember on the stern while the vessel was rotating. Contributing was the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal not reporting the extension of the pier into the waterway to the appropriate hydrographic authority in order to update the relevant navigational chart.

The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey is the hydrographic authority responsible for maintaining and issuing corrections to all US coastal nautical charts. NOAA had no record of the construction completed on the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal pier until after the casualty, when investigators informed them of the pier’s extension. NOAA staff told investigators that they would have updated the chart if they had been informed. They also stated that it is the responsibility of facility owners to inform them when permitted construction is complete and to provide drawings of the construction as built so that corrections and updates can be made to nautical charts for that area (neither the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal’s permit nor regulations required this). The electronic navigation chart (ENC) did not show the extended pier and added dolphins until September 8, 2022, when NOAA updated the chart.4

 

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24 minutes ago, twangster said:

As a follow up the NTSB has released its findings in the case of Radiance striking the mooring dolphin in Sitka.

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MIR2310.pdf

Probable Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the contact of the cruise ship Radiance of the Seas with the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal pier was the master and bridge team’s overreliance on an electronic chart to identify the pier’s position relative to their planned rotation location, and the master’s misunderstanding of the clearance distances to the pier being called by the crewmember on the stern while the vessel was rotating. Contributing was the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal not reporting the extension of the pier into the waterway to the appropriate hydrographic authority in order to update the relevant navigational chart.

The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey is the hydrographic authority responsible for maintaining and issuing corrections to all US coastal nautical charts. NOAA had no record of the construction completed on the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal pier until after the casualty, when investigators informed them of the pier’s extension. NOAA staff told investigators that they would have updated the chart if they had been informed. They also stated that it is the responsibility of facility owners to inform them when permitted construction is complete and to provide drawings of the construction as built so that corrections and updates can be made to nautical charts for that area (neither the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal’s permit nor regulations required this). The electronic navigation chart (ENC) did not show the extended pier and added dolphins until September 8, 2022, when NOAA updated the chart.4

 

Based on the information shared above, the NTSB got the probable root cause and contributing factor reversed. Root cause is the one factor that if eliminated would have prevented (or at least greatly minimized the chance of) the occurrence. It appears that our governmental agencies don't understand the concept.

The most probable root cause was the failure to report the extension. Had THAT been correct, the reliance on electronic charts would (likely) not have created the contact.

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