As promised - a tour of the engine room. The engine room is a sight to behold.
This is one of the ship's generators. There are three generators and one emergency generator.
What strikes you immediately is how clean and organized it is down there.
This is Mike, the chief engineer, explaining the ship's control panel
Mike, the chief engineer gave us a great tour of this critical area of the ship. This first picture is the control center. The first set of lights at the bottom of the picture is the alarm panel which alerts the crew to problems. Just above those you can see some bright red rectangular lights - that is the deicing station. Finally the set of controls at the top of the picture are the engine control. This room is separated from the equipment, which is super loud.
Here is the power center in the control room. They call this the switchboard.
The power center (aka switchboard) is also located in this area Let's go inside... The windows on the right side of the picture allows the engineers to view the engine room.
This is the top level of the engine room. The silver dome on the right is where the incoming sea water is desalinated. Every level of the engine room was kept in pristine shape!
You immediately notice the colorful array of pipes and casings as you step into the engine room.
The color coding of the casings made the engine room very colorful and fresh. Yellow designates fuel, green designates incoming sea water, blue is the treated fresh water that we can now use.
Green designates the pipes that draw sea water in. Blue signifies fresh water that has been treated and filters for us to use on board. The silver dome like structure desalinates the incoming salt water. Dirty water leaving the ship is also processed and clean before being released into the ocean. If you notice the floor grating that allows you to look down to the next level where the engines, rudders, etc. are located.
The large yellow structure is one of the two main engines on the ship. The small white square box in the center of the picture is the oily water separater.
The other color you see is yellow. This designates fuel. This big yellow casing houses one of the two main engines. If you notice the silver box in the middle of the picture, this is the Oily water separator. This yellow control panel that I am standing next to is the generator. The ship has three main generators and one emergency generator. The next picture is the emergency control station. In the background you can see the rudder housing.
This is the emergency control panel
The propellers look like giant gold seashells. These are the extras on hand.
The workshop was as organized and spotless as the rest of this area. It's hard to get a sense of how big those wrenches are hanging on the wall. The smallest is about 3x the average wrench you would use at home.
Even the shop room was in tip top shape.
The engine room was full of pumps - cooling pumps, gear pumps, lube/oil pumps. The crew down there does an amazing job. We wouldn't go far without them.
Answer to the last riddle: For those of you who were wondering what those round windows up on the bridge are - the outer glass spins to prevent the salt water from drying on the window. This works better than the wiper blades on the other windows allowing the crew to always have a view of what is in front of the ship. If you remember I asked why I couldn't see out of my glasses after they dried when I can inside - it was the dried salt on the lenses. Maybe I need to get some spinning lenses. On second thought, the idea of spinning lenses sounds like an invitation to experience major motion sickness...