Hello everyone, my name is Chris and I am the Navigator and 1st Officer on Pacific Dawn. My job is to safely navigate the ship between the many exciting ports of call, and manage all of the Deck Officers that keep watch on the Bridge.
The Bridge is manned 24 hours a day on a 3 watch system, this means that we all work 4 hours on followed by 8 hours off around the clock.
My watch is the 4am to 8am and 4pm – 8pm watch, I am assisted on watch by my 3rd officer – Rene, and Helmsmen – Roy and Zahid. It is fantastic watching the spectacular sunrise and sunsets that we experience at sea in the South Pacific. Also the abundance of marine life never ceases to amaze me and more than makes up for the 3.30 am wake up call in the morning.
We are now on our way back from a fantastic Fiji Adventure cruise calling at Port Denarau, Suva and Savu Savu as well as New Caledonia and Vanuatu ports. The final highlight for this cruise will be navigating the beautiful Sydney harbour. As you can see from the photo it is a tight squeeze under the bridge!
I will be leaving Pacific Dawn in a couple of weeks on her last turnaround in Sydney to go on holiday but have enjoyed working with such great passengers and crew onboard and hope to be back soon!
Chris Cooper
1st Officer / Navigator
