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Epic Interrupted

Briji04

By Briji04,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Rebels82

Rebels82

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Posted

We were in the Jade when we had mechanical problems and ended up in San Juan. They will move the ship to a ship yard away from the cruise traffic to be fixed. We were air chartered back the week of Thanksgiving. We were not allowed off the ship. Good luck to those of you on the EPIC now. Patience and positive thoughts will prevail.

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Newleno Great Review Rare

Newleno

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8 minutes ago, shof515 said:

Looks like Old San Juan, the usually place ships dock for a port of call visit

 

Untitled.png

Hmm while in San Juan that is the only dock you want to be at, the others are to far out of the way for easy access to walking around the forts, wonder if other ships will be docked elsewhere until dock is fixed.  bad all the way around

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mking8288 "Live from...." Rare

mking8288

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Almost directly opposite Sheraton Old San Juan & Senor Frog's, it's closer to the ferry terminal (portside)  ... I think they are right next to the "main" cruise terminal in downtown that NCL ships usually docked at (with the CBP & duty-free shops inside the building).  

 

Starbucks is 2 blocks away uphill, CVS is just diagonally across the street, lots of shops & stores in that area - (updated) and, they are allowed to come & go from the ship, until ...   Yay !!

Edited by mking8288
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kismet618

kismet618

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We have total freedom to come and go. We just need to be back onboard by 5:30pm local time tomorrow, 2/13/19(unless the repairs take longer).  We are enjoying. The staff could not be nicer across the board. 

Edited by kismet618
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eme

eme

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There were 2 tugs all the way in to the dock on the starboard side. We were watching them from our balcony. I'm guessing that the thrusters had power issues and they called in the tugs to help. Not sure who was responsible for the mooring hits.

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cruiserchris613

cruiserchris613

Posted
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15 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Are they German engines? The Epic was built in France and her last dry dock with the engine replacement was in France. 

Yes, she has 3 MaK 16M43(C) and 3 MaK 12M43(C) generator engines, German brand owned by Caterpillar. The emergency generator is also German, an MTU 16V4000.

 

https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/power-systems/marine-power-systems/commercial-propulsion-engines/18547468.html

 

There's no particular "propulsion engine", as all the engines function as generators, powering electric motors for the shafts and thrusters.

 

 

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AL3XCruise

AL3XCruise

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26 minutes ago, cruiserchris613 said:

 

There's no particular "propulsion engine", as all the engines function as generators, powering electric motors for the shafts and thrusters.

 

 

 

That was my understanding.  It makes me wonder if there was an issue distributing sufficient power given several engine/generators were offline, though I don't know enough about how those systems are set up to speculate too much.  

 

Hopefully the Chief has time to stop by and give us some knowledge!

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Cruz3r4life

Cruz3r4life

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23 minutes ago, AL3XCruise said:

 

That was my understanding.  It makes me wonder if there was an issue distributing sufficient power given several engine/generators were offline, though I don't know enough about how those systems are set up to speculate too much.  

 

Hopefully the Chief has time to stop by and give us some knowledge!

We should know more tomorrow once the engineers have been able to diagnose the issues and hopefully be able to make speedy repairs.  

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chengkp75

chengkp75

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10 hours ago, mking8288 said:

It came into San Juan port fairly slowly but appeared that the bow thrusters were not on until near/impact ?? as it should, before the 1st. pylon & railings were taken out, then the bow thrusters were ON at full power, apparently.  Too late and it continued onward & took out the 2nd. pylon & railings ... and, forward motion continued.  Hard to tell from the first video tweeted whether the stern thrusters were on or not.    

 

Our resident NCL ship expert, @chengkp75 can probably give us some background if & when he's around - I don't believe the ship's 4 bow and 2 stern thrusters are necessary affected by problems with the main propulsion systems ... and, they still had good daylight. 

 

One should think that all the officers are on the bridge and at their duty stations on their watch as the ship docked,  and on the wing's bridge that swing down (whatever it's called) by the front anchor at the bow ... did their portable 2 way radios also failed ?

Our internet onboard does not allow for streaming video 90% of the time, so I can't see the video, and I'll just go with your description.  Epic was a "throw-back" to shafted propellers, built when the issues with azipod bearings were at their height, so unless there was also an issue with the steering system (4 steering motors and two rudders), then the presence of tugs does not indicate anything wrong.  It may be a port requirement (not sure, never been to San Juan), it may have been decided by the pilot and Captain.  Frequently, ports require tugs to be "standing by" (and paid for) even if never used in docking.

 

Those are "mooring platforms" that swing down at the bow to let an officer see under the flare of the bow.  He may have been concentrating, as ordered, on the distance to the inner end of the pier, and not back along the side, which should have been visible from the bridge wing, and therefore more the responsibility of the Captain and pilot who will be on that bridge wing for docking.

 

No ship stops on a dime, even one going slowly for docking.  There are no brakes.  As the Epic has fixed pitch propellers, it takes a couple of seconds longer to reverse the propellers than it does with variable pitch propellers to reverse the pitch.  Also, again because I can't see the video, I can't say how fast she was coming in, but anytime you have forward or astern motion on the ship, the effect of bow and stern thrusters is reduced because of the water flow past the thruster tunnel mouth.  Any speed above 5 knots, and thrusters are virtually useless.  The thrusters will always "be on" during docking, they are variable pitch propellers, so they just spin with no pitch when not needed, and then the command will increase the pitch (and the thrust) in either direction.

6 hours ago, AL3XCruise said:

 

That was my understanding.  It makes me wonder if there was an issue distributing sufficient power given several engine/generators were offline, though I don't know enough about how those systems are set up to speculate too much.  

 

Hopefully the Chief has time to stop by and give us some knowledge!

Even with 2 diesels off line, there is full power to power consumers like thrusters.  With one diesel generator off line, the ship can still provide full power to hotel and thrusters, and about 90% power to propulsion.  Ships frequently sail with one engine down for overhaul (each gets overhauled about every 2 years), and these overhauls take 3-4 weeks.  No one notices, and itineraries are not affected.  Having a second engine down drops power to propulsion, but since the power to speed relationship is exponential, a 50% reduction in power available results in only about a 15-20% reduction in speed.

 

As for the dolphin collapsing, that is a result of "dynamic" force, as opposed to the "static" force the ship's lines exert on it when tied up.  A moving object exerts much more force than a stationary one.  Butt your car up to a concrete parking barrier and tromp on the gas, you likely won't move or do anything.  But back up 50 feet, floor the gas, and hit the barrier, and you'll likely smash it (and your car).

 

Looking at the damage to Epic's hull, neither dent shows significant damage to structure behind the hull plating (frames and longitudinals), so neither is very serious.  The first will likely be categorized by the class society as "repair at first practicable opportunity" or even "repair at first scheduled drydocking".  The second photo shows an even less severe dent, one that might not require repair for the life of the ship.  It's hard to tell unless I got up close and personal, but hull dents are allowed in ships (though cruise ships choose to remove dents for "cosmetic" reasons) if the angle of creasing isn't too severe, and the first dent looks like it is approaching that limit, by being rolled under a longitudinal stiffener.  Frames around dents don't need to be replaced either, even if deformed, if their deformations are relatively shallow and "smooth".  Many times if frames are bent, ships will cut out sections, and form new ones to meet the curvature of the dent, and leave the dent in the hull plating.  Even with full replacement of these dents, I would suspect that it could be done in a long turn-around day.

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eme

eme

Posted
Posted
On 2/11/2019 at 10:28 PM, dad son team said:

Leave the 13th to where?  Back to Port Canaveral?

Great Stirrup Cay is still on the schedule, last I knew. We will find out more when we get back to the ship later today. Too busy enjoying San Juan right now, lol

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tumblew467

tumblew467

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13 hours ago, Rebels82 said:

We were in the Jade when we had mechanical problems and ended up in San Juan. They will move the ship to a ship yard away from the cruise traffic to be fixed. We were air chartered back the week of Thanksgiving. We were not allowed off the ship. Good luck to those of you on the EPIC now. Patience and positive thoughts will prevail.

Why weren't you allowed off of the ship?

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PTC DAWG Holiday Sharing Rare

PTC DAWG

Posted
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3 minutes ago, tumblew467 said:

Why weren't you allowed off the ship?

The rest of their cruise was cancelled,  NCL went to finding air charters to fly the passengers home. My understanding is they didn't want people "scattering" around San Juan, etc..before flight arrangements were made.  

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