I’ve returned from an amazing week. 

The week started with me traveling to Oslo while Hull Number 1363 (soon to be named Oasis of the Seas) was leaving Turku and heading for an area of the North Sea just off the coast of Sweden.  Many months ago, before the date for the trials was set, I was asked to give a keynote address and participate in a roundtable discussion at the Nor-Shipping Conference.  Nor-Shipping is a major global shipping conference and is opened by King Harald V.  I was surprised to find that the King not only attends the opening, but also stays for the entire early sessions.  I was also surprised and honored to find that Royal Caribbean was awarded the “Clean Oceans” environmental award for our Save the Waves program.  It was a real honor to participate in this way and especially to accept the award on behalf of the company and its employees.

But then it was time to rush from there to the ship.  I took a flight to Stockholm and then a helicopter out to the ship.  The helicopter also carried an electronics specialist and a bunch of spare parts that the ship needed. 

I was looking forward to seeing the ship from the air as I approached.  Unfortunately, despite it being summertime (in fact, only a week or so before Midsummer’s Night) the ship was totally engulfed in fog and it was very hard to see anything meaningful.  The crew was happy to regale me with stories of how magnificent the weather had been when they left Turku and I had to be satisfied with looking at pictures.

What an amazing time onboard.  There is so much to say that I don’t know where to begin.  In this posting, I’ll focus on the technical part of the trials.  In my next posting, I’ll focus more on the public spaces.  I’ll start by trying to describe the atmosphere which was unlike anything I am used to.  When you see the ship from outside, it looks so complete that one expects the onboard experience is like a cruise just with rough edges. 

Not a prayer.

The ship is still more like a construction site than a proper ship.  It even feels less finished than it did in the shipyard because the lighting onboard is so bad.  In the yard, they connect up an enormous array of work lights and cabling that lights everything up to a fare-thee-well.  It may not be pretty, but is very effective and all the workers have good task lighting to do their work.

But all that comes down during sea trials.  They want as little temporary equipment onboard as possible so it doesn’t move when the ship moves and/or interfere with their measurements.  In place of all this bright and clear lighting, they just leave the spaces dark or put up a few light sources just to provide illumination to walk around.  And, of course, with only 350 people onboard, it feels very cold and empty.  The exception is the crew dining room where we ate.  Here is a picture I took the first night.

So they give us all flashlights.  It is a little weird walking around.  Everyone was dressed in the blue safety jackets and carrying a flashlight.  The windows are all covered up so even though the ship normally seems very bright, it was brutally dark today.  And it was damp.  The rain starts that first afternoon and the whole ship was dark and damp. 

By mid afternoon, they have done their preliminary preparations and start speeding up the ship.  Soon we are moving at 24 knots and everyone on the bridge was smiling.  The ship still belongs to the yard and their captain was in command.  We also have three captains onboard led by Captain Bill Wright and Tor Olsen who will take command once the ship is ours.  Speed tests show that the ship goes about 0.7 knots faster than the contract requires and burns less fuel.  The yard management breathes a sigh of relief because they would have to pay a penalty if the ship was under spec.

We start our briefing.  We review the few tests they had already done and looked at the schedule for the rest of the week.  It is a daunting schedule and there are obvious conflicts that have to be coordinated.  The priority was to verify the main technical performance of the ship – speed, fuel consumption, sea keeping etc. 

Just as the meeting ended, they announce that they are about to start testing the ship’s handling characteristics which includes sharp turns at high speed.  Everyone was warned to hold on.  We are also told to watch that equipment around us is properly tied down (you don’t want an errant welding machine to roll over you when the ship heels). 

I remained on the bridge watching the instruments and waiting for the expected heeling.  And then NOTHING happens.  The instruments show we are making a hard starboard turn and my eyes confirm the bow has swung suddenly to the right.  But there is very little sensation of movement.  The ship handles the turn like a trooper and the navigation officers are overjoyed.

They kept doing this for 3 hours (frankly 3 boring hours) at the end of which they confirm that the ship handled even better than they had expected and their expectations were high.  In talking about it later, Bill Wright said the ship handled “beautifully.”  With respect to navigation, he kept using the term “predictable” which is one of his highest compliments.  From the point of view of a navigator, the key is knowing how a ship will respond to the controls.  Oasis apparently responds in a known and consistent manner and he seemed very pleased.

Here is a snapshot of Harri Kulovaara and the anchor windlass.  Note that each link weighs 250 kilos (550 lbs.).

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