Friday's schedule went out the window as speed trials, which were to be completed by Thursday afternoon, were still going on in the small hours of Friday. The team in charge of this test has been at their station for 24 hours and everyone was getting grumpy as the expected results were not materializing at the end of each speed run.
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| Steaming out past Grande Island |
The trial schedule called for the ship to make two runs (one North then one South) over a measured 2 nautical mile distance after making a run up of 5 miles. What the test team was doing was running a 30 mile leg, then the taking the speed by GPS over the last 2 miles. The speed trials were consequently 28 miles apart in waters with different weather, tide and current influences. As much as the AM tried to argue that they had were making an 'error in principle', including getting the Korean Dock-Master/Captain to explain, they refused to change the test procedure. If the ship doesn't meet her contractual speed, the Builders are required to compensate the Owners through a 'liquidated damages' formula. Data will be presented next week for scrutiny.
The Anchoring trial went OK but the Blackout test, when the Emergency Generator has to start and carry the essential safety and navigation load, was a Fail. The offending component was cannibalized from her sister-ship PN66 and brought out on a tug on Saturday morning. With several critical items still a 'Fail', the majority of the Filipino workers were disembarked on to a tug back to Subic and spares and more food were loaded for another day at sea.
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| A tropical squall came in over the ship as we were doing the Anchoring Test. Nice cloud formation |
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| Approaching the Yard, with sisters PN67, 68, 69 and 70 in Dock 6 (left) |
With 13 days to go until Delivery there is still a lot to do, and the AM harbors doubts that she will make the scheduled date. Some of the unfortunate Koreans were going out again the next day (Sunday) for another sea trial. After 4 days of long hours,crowded cabins and snatched sleep, morale among the Koreans was low and we were happy to get back to dock, off the ship and into a hotel for a night's sleep.
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| Back alongside, the run for the gangway |
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| AM and Ms AM, Subic Bay |
The Antipodean Mariner
Sorry to hear of the Fail items. Although ship building seems like a simple mechanical process of bolting bits together, there is still a lot of black magic when it comes to predicting how it will go for any individual ship.
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