{"id":425,"date":"2011-02-13T17:01:52","date_gmt":"2011-02-13T21:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/?p=425"},"modified":"2011-02-13T17:01:52","modified_gmt":"2011-02-13T21:01:52","slug":"view-from-the-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/2011\/02\/13\/view-from-the-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"View from the Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Melville Bridge<\/p><\/div>\n

I remember arriving at summer rental houses and during the initial excitement of running around exploring, I would \u201csave\u201d a room in the house to look at later on in the vacation.\u00a0 True to my past behaviors, I decided to reserve venturing up to the Melville\u2019s bridge until today.<\/p>\n

The bridge is located on the 03 level of the ship (the 04 level, or observation deck on top of the bridge, is the highest level).\u00a0 When I entered the room, I was overwhelmed with a sense of tranquility, and it took me until a conversation with Whitney later on in the day to realize why that was\u2014it\u2019s the only place I\u2019ve been in the ship where I can\u2019t hear the engine\u2019s humming\u2026it\u2019s quiet!\u00a0 The bridge houses the ship\u2019s navigational system and the captain and three mates rotate standing watch in the bridge.\u00a0 Large, immaculately clean windows (I am told they\u2019re cleaned daily) occupy three of the walls to allow for optimal visibility of the sea and the ship\u2019s exterior.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Joseph, the chief mate from China, Maine, showed me around the bridge today after dinner.\u00a0 He explained how there are several options for steering the ship, which include one bow and two stern thrusters, a joystick, and an autopilot system.\u00a0 The autopilot system is generally employed while traveling between stations, and once we\u2019re on station, the stern thrusters controlled by the joystick are used to help put us in the proper orientation relative to the wind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Beneath the windows on one wall I noticed a shelf with small cubbies, each occupied by a unique flag.\u00a0 While some of these flags belong to different countries, and are flown while in that country\u2019s port, other flags are associated with actions.\u00a0 The \u201chotel\u201d nautical flag is flown when there\u2019s a pilot aboard, like the South African pilot we will pick up \u00a0at 0700 on Wednesday morning to accompany us into port.\u00a0 The \u201cbravo\u201d flag is flown while the ship is refueling.\u00a0 Joseph pulled out a dust-covered box housed beneath the flags, and showed me the old-fashioned sextant inside.\u00a0 With today\u2019s technology, it seems hard to believe that such instruments are still used, but Joseph knows how to work it if needed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sextant<\/p><\/div>\n

Most people I\u2019ve told aboard the ship were surprised that I haven\u2019t been to the bridge before today, but I think it was a nice surprise to save for the trip\u2019s conclusion.\u00a0 Now that I think about it, I haven\u2019t seen the engine room either\u2026<\/p>\n

-Annie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember arriving at summer rental houses and during the initial excitement of running around exploring, I would \u201csave\u201d a room in the house to look at later on in the vacation.\u00a0 True to my past behaviors, I decided to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1673,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17554,17550,17553,1178],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/colbyatsea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}