Room with a view

It may not spend much of it's life sailing but it certainly has a well equipped and spacious bridge. The Global Mercy typically spends nine months of every year docked in the country receiving medical and surgical help, two months in maintenance in Spain or Tenerife which leaves only one month, around 20 days, actually at sea!

The captain being one of the first people we met in the dinner queue on our first day and the fact that he is a ship pilot at Southampton docks has given us things in common (not to mention the model railway building activities on a Monday night - more on that later). So when I mentioned that the Hospitality team had missed the bridge out of our arrival tour (note to Alice ;-)) he was more than happy to give us a tour himself.

The view from up there is magnificent and the technology equally so. With two Azipod electric engines (meaning they can be turned through 360 degrees to provide propulsion in any direction) the ship is highly manoeuvrable and all the steering is through the turning of these engines. On the main panel above you can see on the right a control for each engine to control it's speed and direction. Once the ship is underway the steering is all through that tiny wooden helm (looks more like a Mini Cooper!)

Looking forward to seeing it manned and in use in exactly three weeks time when we depart Freetown for Cadiz - doesn't time fly!