- Captain Turnbull back on board the Pacific Dawn
Hi Everyone,
I have now returned, for my second tour of duty here on the other lady in my life – Pacific Dawn, from the UK where of course it is now the height of summer and temperatures soared in rural Derbyshire to, believe it or not, a sweltering 15-16 C so was somewhat relieved to be returning to what I consider my second home and the more temperate southern winter here in Brisbane and the South Pacific !!
Having had a very welcome two and a half months at home with my wonderful wife, Jayne and equally wonderful ‘tribe’ that is Ben (6) Luke (4), Jack (3) and ‘the very girly and already bossy’ Charlotte (2) and whilst as always it was a wrench leaving my loving family, I was of course looking forward to returning to the beautiful Pacific Dawn and seeing how she is after her recent ‘major surgery’ and makeover in Brisbane drydock – and, I was not to be disappointed as she is looking and performing better than I have ever seen her. The changes I note have been well documented in previous threads and so will not rattle on but sufficed to say, one cannot help but be impressed and the new carpets, the addition of the salt grill and the revamped shops, salon and restaurants do not disappoint. On the technical side she has had a good hull clean (‘bottom scrub’ in tech talk !!) and new ‘go faster’ paint applied to her hull and this has already proven itself in our latest run from Brisbane to Noumea where she achieved a very respectable 21.3 knots (40KM/H) across the south Coral sea against the prevailing current but with extremely favourable weather conditions– I believe a speed record for The Pacific Dawn – I won’t tell you the petrol bill I was faced with !!.
I am currently assigned here to Pacific Dawn until late July at which time the lovely Captain Box returns and I move down to take command of Pacific Jewel for a couple of months – returning to Pacific Dawn later in the year. We have lots of wonderful itineraries varying from South Pacific to Queensland and Barrier reef cruises (I’m hoping to finally see ‘Flipper’ in the flesh) lined up for my current tenure and as always very much look forward to welcoming the wonderful people of the southern hemisphere on board over the coming month and sharing a magical and memorable holiday experience– so if you have your cruise booked and are counting down the days to your cruise with us, please ensure that you say hello when you arrive here on board – and don’t forget, rule 1 – I’m The Captain and as such, I don’t have an accent !!.
And finally, flying from the UK to Brisbane to rejoin Pacific Dawn last month, I was booked to fly with a little known airline called ‘Qantas’. Following a volcanic eruption in Iceland a month or so ago, the volcanic ash cloud had caused significant disruption to air travel over the whole of Europe and I w as of course a little concerned as to how this would affect my travel plans. On boarding the pristine 747 (with a very colourful ‘Socceroos’added to its livery) at London Heathrow I took the opportunity to ask the burly yet sickeningly handsome, in a blokey sort of way, and somewhat suntanned pilot if he had any concerns with regard to the volcanic ash in the atmosphere – what I think he said to me was ‘Our aircraft are maintained to the highest standard and we have an impeccable safety record. We have conducted a full risk assessment and there is absolutely no risk to the plane, its passengers or its crew’ – what he actually said was “ she’ll be right mate !!” – and so it was then that there was no doubt that I was on my back to Aus!
Neil Turnbull – Captain
Pacific Dawn
