Cruising the Kimberley coast on Le Laperouse, Darwin to Broome

[sanne]

Definitely not good!

Am a very experienced cruiser both regular and expeditionary and something about his behaviour doesn’t seem right. Strikes of arrogance and poor form for a Captain.

 

[tgh]

My experience with cruise ships in general and expedition ships in particular is that all captains take their job very seriously.
Whenever guests are ashore in remote areas, or the inflatables are in the water the captain is on the bridge and on the job.
He will be in constant radio contact with the expedition leader and I have many anecdotal memories of a proactive captain managing his flock.
The imagery of the pretty boy captain swanning around on rooflyers cruise is quite amazing and gives me little confidence in the operator.

 

[Quickstatus]

Captain

Contrarian...

I'm not sure that talking to the captain is all that important.
Its like expecting an A380 captain to come and say hello
Its a 24hr round the clock job. There are others employed for the comfort and entertainment of the passengers.

But I have never been on a cruise so have nothing to make a comparison with

 

[Anna]

Experienced cruisers - what do you think?

Wouldn't be permitted on many cruise lines and smacks a bit of the Costa Concordia to me (captain so distracted by / showing off to his current 'squeeze' that he didn't do his job properly on the bridge and disaster ensued).

Probably nobody in the crew would be brave enough to tell him to stop it, seeing he's their boss and all.

Blatantly doing things in front of pax that the pax have been instructed not to do eg stand in forbidden places, is sheer arrogance. I would be annoyed by it if I was a pax. Not sure if I'd 'dob' though.

 

[RooFlyer]

I’ll get back to the proper trip report a bit later, but this morning here is our brave captain in his twin engine zodiac with his own naturalist ( and friend). And he heads off in the direction that the other zodiacs aren’t going to, which is a bird sanctuary a little way off the bow. Wonder what he’s doing? Ah! there a whales out there so he’s having a good private close-up look - lucky guy. My pics of the whales are on the other camera, so will upload in sequence in the TR.



The economy Class option ( pre loading)

Ta-ta

 

[tgh]

Little ships like the coral expeditions vessels with an open bridge allow almost daily contact with the captain although as soon a there is something of concern happening the bridge door is quickly closed.
SilverSea adopts the classical elitism of status and few low status guests will ever dine with the captain.
IIrc we have scored only once, but have had many dinners with the crew from the first officer down.
We had some very pleasant dinners but the dining obligation for the officers always seems an ordeal to me.
Of course there are all sorts of high status guests and some present as entitled opiniated up themselves pita's..and thats being kind...
Many captains will also casually circulate socially depending on the vessel but it is less common.

 

[RooFlyer]

He will be in constant radio contact with the expedition leader and I have many anecdotal memories of a proactive captain managing his flock.

The expeditionists are in constant radio contact with each-other, and some-one on the ship, letting them know where they are, especially in the vicinity of the vessel. That's OK with me.

I'm not sure that talking to the captain is all that important.
Its like expecting an A380 captain to come and say hello
Its a 24hr round the clock job. There are others employed for the comfort and entertainment of the passengers.

Fair comment; although A380 captains do occasionally 'mingle' and this is a 10 day cruise with plenty of opportunity to do it, if he wishes.

And clearly in his case, given all his trips off-ship, its not a 24hr around the clock job!

Little ships like the coral expeditions vessels with an open bridge allow almost daily contact with the captain although as soon a there is something of concern happening the bridge door is quickly closed.

The bridge is closed, I was told, 'due to covid protocols' - but it took them 4 days to tell me that - but there IS something being arranged after a fellow pax 'had words' (in general)

 

[Quickstatus]

brave captain in his twin engine zodiac with his own naturalist

I do agree that the optics of that are not good

Maybe that Captain’s Choice Zodiac is another Status Tier?

 

[RooFlyer]

Just for a bit of levity. At lunch, the head chef mans a 'live station' of some lovely dish of the day - roast lamb, suckling pig etc. Today its Salmon coulibiac and, not knowing any better, I asked if it came from a particular region in France. The chef grinned and said sheepishly, "I don't know - I'm from Belgium' He later came back to tell me it was Russian.

 

[JohnM]

I'm appalled by the behaviour of the Captain. It appears like sheer arrogance; certainly insensitive. I was also thinking Costa Concordia hubris.

On our recent Coral Expeditions voyage the Captain was very engaging and hands-on. He didn't go on any of the excursions but was often manning the roll-call station on the ship when we got back from an excursion. A very engaging and fun chap. I reckon he would have known most pax by name by the end of the voyage.

He also circulated at pre-dinner drinks time and many nights had dinner in the dining room, with pax being invited to his table in writing from the purser. I think many invitations centred around events such as birthdays or wedding anniversaries.

If we were under way at dinner time, then I imagine the Captain was on the bridge.

If he wasn't hosting a table, another senior officer would do so. I had my birthday on board and we were hosted by the Chief Engineer.

I've only done the one CE voyage so far, but another is coming up in November. I can't imagine that it would be any different.

We had open bridge plus at least two scheduled tours of the bridge, and the engine room, to explain the gear in considerable detail.

All my other voyages have been with Russian crews. They all had an open bridge policy, but the Captain did not engage with pax. The expedition leader was the sole intermediary.

 

[Port Power]

I am also appalled at the arrogance of the Captain. Okay, not every Captain wants to host dinners. On one of my Coral cruises, the new Captain loved to mingle at dinner, so was hosting a table just about every second night. All passengers had a turn at his table. Another Captain was not keen, so only hosted once. On all four Coral expeditions, the captain would often be throwing the rope as the Xplorer returned to the ship and then checking off passengers and at evening coughtails as @JohnM described. The bridge was only closed when there was actual Covid on one ship. However, being seen to be doing was is not permitted is even a worse example of poor leadership and appears as thumbing his nose at his guests (not that he appears to be thinking about his passengers at all).

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks JohnM; I think many on board are thinking what you are thinking; fortunately it hasn't really impacted our enjoyment, but a very bad look, at least.

Back to the fun stuff.

We began to navigate the narrow channels into Collier Bay and the Horizontal Waterfalls. Our trip on a fast boat had already been cancelled due to the accident some weeks before. Our expeditioners said what happened is that a tri-engine vessel had them all fail and they went head first into a rock. He's guessing a fuel problem. A number of cases of whiplash; no-one went into the water, according to him. We got a refund of the fee for the boat ride.

They have just resumed the 'fast boat' transits through the falls, but Ponant isn't buying (for now).

Today, we'd go close to the falls twice - first on the outgoing tide in the morning, and then on the in-bound tide in the late arvo. A 10.2m tide difference today!!

But first - breakfast and I went a bit extravagant, it was such a delightful day



Perfectly done.



At the top public deck (6) there is the Jules Verne lounge (with bar) with great forward views.



As usual, a perfect, windless day.







Zodiacs, prepare, as usual



There are several sea planes and about 6 small craft in the area, including the 'great Escape' guys (with helo) - you'll hear more about them, later.

 

[RooFlyer]

If anyone wonders why I'm posting this TR rather than sunning/drinking/excursioning, the excursion today only has bugs (AKA birds), and its a bit rough AND there are whales playing around the boat.

 

[JohnM]

Yesterday, at Horizontal Falls, there were 7 pax zodiacs in a queue waiting to go close (no transits through the falls being offered),

Never been an announcement from the bridge about whales being seen (there have been plenty) etc.

Experienced cruisers - what do you think?

Was any reason given for not transiting the Falls? I mean, that's the best bit! Damned appalling that the Captain blatantly did it in front of everyone.

Were any other expeditions there at the time and transiting the Falls?

I'm also astounded that significant wildlife sightings are not announced. On all the expedition-type voyages I've been on, wildlife has been one of the main reasons for being there. People drop everything for sightings.

My daughter-in-law's family has their 27m tub up there, currently further N than you, and I've seen some spectacular whale breaching pics.

 

[Port Power]

@RooFlyer , didn't you go through Horizontal Falls at all?!!!! I am amazed! That is a main highlight of any Kimberley cruise. Coral is allowed to go through the first opening themselves, but international ships are not. Coral has bosuns (at least, certified seamen/seawomen) piloting their zodiacs. However, the international ships send their passengers over to Seaplane Adventures who take them through on the fast boats, including through the second passage. That's where the big rock sticks out at 90 degrees, narrowing the passage even further. Unless the company is still not operating?

Did you say there are only four passenger zodiacs? On Caledonian Sky, a ship of roughly the same size, there are 10 zodiacs. All passengers could go out at the same time. They could therefore all see both stages of Montgomery Reef as well as all be transferred to a beach and secret sea cave for a later afternoon concert and bubbly.

You are obviously having a wonderful time, which is great. As the saying goes, what you don't know you don't miss. At least you are seeing whales!

Disregard the above. You have since posted that Seaplane Adventures has resumed operation, but Ponant is being ultra cautious.

 

[JohnM]

Posts crossed.

 

[Port Power]

Posts crossed.

It shows we are both of the same mind about not going through the falls. And the lack of announcements about whale sightings. When we were both on Coral, the boat would have just about tipped over in the rush for whale sightings! The marine biologists would always make the call.

 

[rovingrabbit]

Very enjoyable to read this TR - thanks for sharing your adventure.

 

[RooFlyer]

Did you say there are only four passenger zodiacs? On Caledonian Sky, a ship of roughly the same size, there are 10 zodiacs. All passengers could go out at the same time. They could therefore all see both stages of Montgomery Reef as well as all be transferred to a beach and secret sea cave for a later afternoon concert and bubbly.

There are 9 pax zodiacs, plus 2 'safety' ones (plus the captain's ). I think we are 160 or 180 pax. Max 10 pax/zodiac, so 90 at a time. They usually do 4 overlapping rosters, with #1 out followed by #2 out, then #1 in and #3 out, #2 in and #4out. Each group assigned a colour and the sequence of colours changes.

@RooFlyer , didn't you go through Horizontal Falls at all?!!!! I am amazed! That is a main highlight of any Kimberley cruise. Coral is allowed to go through the first opening themselves, but international ships are not. Coral has bosuns (at least, certified seamen/seawomen) piloting their zodiacs. However, the international ships send their passengers over to Seaplane Adventures who take them through on the fast boats. Unless the company is still not operating?

See my post above, which crossed yours. More on the other company's transits later. Our zodiacs are 1 X 70HP, not enough to do transits.

The falls are, of course, a function of the rocks - hard ones causing the necks, soft ones eroded out to form the basins.

Tidal range - we are at about mid tide (on the outside)





Sitting outside the in-rushing tide. For a bit of a thrill, they did back the craft pretty close to the turbulent water; any coughing of the motor would have seen us doing an unexpected 'transit' Compulsory 'hanging on' so couldn't pic the most dramatic part.





Looking through to the second gap.





Now for the best bit ...

 

[JohnM]

If I may...

I went through Horizontal Falls on the outgoing tide and we transited the gap back and forth a few times, with the highlight being standing still against the flow in the middle of the gap.