'Voyages of Discovery - M/V Discovery severe engine trouble fixed (at last) - Page 110

**Ally** · 09-13-2008, 08:35 AM

The next big port that is included on the itinerary is Civitavecchia.

Bottom line is that she suffered a loss of speed in the early hours of yesterday before reaching Villefranche. She then appeared to struggle to get out of Villefranche harbour and then maintained around 9 knots all the way to Genoa, thus knocking out her visit to Santa Margherita/Portofino.

She has been docked nose in, which by any standards is very odd and it does seem to indicate that the loss of speed before Villefranche and subsequent lack of speed after leaving Villefranche has been brought about by some sort of mechanical problem over and above what we already know exists.

IIRC she did something similar before she was taken out of service in July. The main difference now is that in July she was at her homeport in the UK...whereas now if she has suffered further damage, VoD are left with a very difficult logistics problem, that being repatriation of passengers and the ship.

**Ally** · 09-13-2008, 09:08 AM

The clouds are gathering over Discovery & Genoa...

**Ally** · 09-13-2008, 09:39 AM

She does look odd sat there facing the wrong way....if she is going to make a move it will be in the next 90 minutes....Click on image twice to enlarge.

**Ally** · 09-13-2008, 10:41 AM

Just out of interest, seeing as her arrival in Genoa was unplanned and she was under obvious mechanical distress, can the Italians impound the ship if a repair cannot be made within a stipulated amount of time?

I am thinking that if the captain requests impounding or if he considers the ship beyond repair, could the ship be detained and would that be a reason for the odd docking direction?

**Ally** · 09-13-2008, 10:52 AM

1550 local time and she doesn't seem to be winding the elastic bands up yet...she is due to leave at 1600 local time. (Click image twice)

nonchalant · 09-13-2008, 11:11 AM

Nothig strange about my not coming back with a report on the cruise, Ally, it's just that I went away again (not on a cruise) 24 hours after reaching Harwich on 4 Sep. and am only now catching up with things!

In practice, the Baltic Explorer cruise passed without incident (obviously passengers knew nothing of the AIS issue). The only significant change to the itinerary was the outbound use of the Kiel Canal and a shortening of the full day planned for Tallinn (which led to the all-day excursion into deepest Estonia being chopped) - previous posts have referred to Mr Yellow's letter whuch was waiting for us in the cabin.

The return journey across the North Sea was indeed slowed down by rough weather. We were told on 3 Sep that ETA in Harwich would be 1000 (compared with the original 0830), but the captain announced the further delay during breakfast on 4 Sep we came alongside at about 1330.

We were told that the rarther grotty berth at Rostock was because the two big cruise ships had taken up almost all the space at the main Warnemuende quay.

I was interested to note that there was an inspection at Gdynia (we and most most other passengers went off to Gdansk so didn't see anything). But we left 30 mins late because a part (yes!) that had been ordered didn't materialise on time - what the part was, I don't know, but the captain was out on the mini-bridge and didn't deny it was connected to the engine problem.

Whatever the crew think of Yellow and Co, it didn't show through to the passengers. The atmosphere on the ship was good.

**Ally** · 09-13-2008, 11:22 AM

Great to have you back, Nonchalant, and thanks for your report too

I am pleased that the problems didn't spoil the atmosphere on board ship, it could so easily have been the case after so much going on. We didn't have any idea about the Gdynia inspection til after it appeared on the ParisMOU site, so that was a surprise to everyone. She was inspected again in Harwich once everyone had disembarked.

At Warnemunde, Carnival Splendor was around the corner, AidaBella was infront of her and she had space infront of her to fit Discovery...the other cruise ship there, Seabourn Pride, is tiny so she berthed out on the pier where the pleasure boats tie up. As to why you ended up in the back end of beyond is a mystery really. But at least you managed to see what you wanted to see, which would have been the main thing.

As you can possibly tell, overnight Discovery seems to have taken a turn for the worse again. It's a waiting game as to whether she does leave Genoa this evening or if the mechanicals have gotten worse, which could easily be the case, sadly

But its certainly great to hear from you after your experience in the Baltic, thank you for coming on and sharing your insight

**Ally** · 09-13-2008, 11:25 AM

Well its now 1625 local time, and no movement from Discovery as yet. She has been transmitting on AIS all day too, which is quite unusual too.

**Ally** · 09-13-2008, 11:36 AM

On the Genoa webcam you can see the images for 24 hours, at 0600 this morning Discovery wasn't in port, but by 0700 she had arrived and docked...

nonchalant · 09-13-2008, 12:04 PM

Thanks, Ally. I posted before reading through the entire thread, and if the cruise is coming to an unscheduled end in Genoa that's very sad indeed. As I ship, we liked her - just the right size for our tastes.

One other point perhaps worth mentioning.

I don't know what normal practice about using tugs is but I was surprised how much Discovery appeared to need them. She tended to berth with her bow facing the exit from the port, so it's probably reasonable to have a tug (often one at each end) pulling her astern into the berth. But every departure except (I think) Gdynia was assisted by tugs, even when it seemed a simple straight ahead departure. Something not right with her manoeuvring capability?