Engine Room Tour

We arrive in Safaga, Egypt at 4pm this afternoon, and will be docked until 11pm tomorrow evening – so a full 31 hours. The engine room tour was rescheduled and took place yesterday morning at 10:30 – it lasted until Noon. There were 6 of us interested in this tour, and what an education! It started one deck below the crew quarters, so we were really in the bowels of the ship. You begin in the master control room, which looks like something from Star Trek with all of the dials & gauges. It was impeccably clean & well-organized, elements that always impress me. Our tour guide was the man in charge of 100+ technicians who keep the ship going – a rather young gentleman (early 30’s) from Bombay. Looking at his curiously young frame, I thought to myself, how can this “kid” possibly understand all of this? As I’ve learned, looks & age can be deceiving. This young man proved to be exceptionally bright & very personable. As I spoke with him, he outlined his special education in ship propulsion which spanned 7 years in India, & he sure demonstrated his expertise as the tour progressed. Once out of the control room, we went down to where the real action was – like another city! The engine room encompasses not only the massive units that physically propel the ship, but all of the peripheral equipment. The engine room is actually 3 floors, approximately 350 feet long and 108 feet wide – it’s HALF of the bottom of the ship – absolutely massive. It contains five huge generators, the water purification system, sewage collection units, incinerators, heating & air conditioning, water pressure, plus backup systems & replacement parts for just about anything imaginable. There aren’t floors by standard definition, but rather a series & maze of steel ladders, planks, etc., that wind in-between and around all the equipment. Parts of it are extremely hot, some areas have a strong odor of diesel & oil, but every place we went was very clean. Technicians in white overalls could be seen climbing all over the equipment just performing routine maintenance – very impressive. Sitting in the peace & tranquility of your cabin, you don’t imagine that there are dozens of workers below you sitting on those massive engines running 24 hours a day without incident. Great tour – a newfound respect for the folks underneath – hat’s off!