A photo stop having just dropped off the Venice pilot.
The shipyard life is over. It has been emotional. All the hours, the meetings, the walks around a skeleton of a ship have culminated in Seabourn Encore. The months in Marghera and Mestre, many months for some are now over and as I write our first guests are in their suites.
Where on earth did the time go. I remember arriving at the yard on my very first day nearly 6 months ago. I was a little apprehensive but also immensely proud to be part of an amazing team of people from many disciplines all coming together to build this stunning vessel.
A very rare chance to get all the deck officers together.
The day before we left the shipyard for the very last time I together with the bridge officers gathered in the main dining room for lunch. It is rare to do this for some of them would otherwise be on the bridge in the normal life of the vessel.
On the morning of the 1st December we let go our ropes and slipped away from Fincantieri shipyard whilst our Godmother Sarah Brightman was piped singing Time to say goodbye with Andrea Bocelli. The yard workers were out waving us off, the foghorn was given a right good testing. We waved back. The sun shone. It was a cool and crisp morning. Perfect conditions to back the ship down the narrow canal to the turning basin where we swung through 90 degrees and headed for the open sea.
Myself and two pilots doing our very first manoeuvre on Seabourn Encore.
Perfect conditions on the Adriatic Sea.
How many offices have a view like mine!
The pilots left us and a drone pilot on board took some awesome shots of the ship whilst we were still at low speed. We headed for Piraeus for our very first docking manoeuvre. It was planned, replanned and just for good measure planned again. Just for good measure the tugs were on strike. Typical!
We docked. I relaxed. First one under my belt. It was time to reflect on the past months. What an awesome experience.
So thats it. This is my last posting from my shipyard blog. Time to open a new one for Seabourn Encores voyage to Aotearoa, New Zealand.