April 1, 2010
Here's an update of what's been happening on the Volunteer
Princess:
- New
Navigation Screen on the Upper Deck
- Now you
can see exactly what the Captain see's as we cruise down the river.
- This
includes the Ship's Navigation System (GPS), Radar, Depth Finder, Docking
Cameras, & Weather (if you have visited with me in the Pilot House before
you probably know what I'm talking about).
- Also see
our speed and various landmarks on the river.
- This is
one project I have been trying to do for a very long time. The only
reason I didn't do this earlier is because Raymarine (Manufacturer of our
Navigation System) sells the output cable from the Navigation System to the TV
for around $400. I researched that cable to try and find out why it was
so expensive and didn't find anything that satisfied me. I looked at the
output on the back of the Nav System and it looked to me like a simple VGA
output (similar to that of your output on your computer). I was scared to
try my $10 VGA cable when Raymarine wanted $400 for their special cable, but I
did it anyway. Turns out that the $10 cable was all I needed, so now you
can all see my Navigation screen on the TV at the bar.
- New Bar
Menus
- New Champagne Buckets
- Are you
celebrating something special on your cruise? Now you can add to your
experience by purchasing any of our Cruise Enhancement Packages.
- Order a
dozen roses with a personal message
- Have
your picture taken and framed with our Bon Voyage Photo Package
- Add
Chocolate Covered Strawberries or a bottle of Champagne
May 26, 2010
US Coast Guard visits the Volunteer
Princess
We
just celebrated our 4th anniversary of the Volunteer Princess cruising the
Tennessee River in Knoxville,
TN. While it's exciting
that we have been in business for 4 years, as captain of the yacht, I know this
means it is getting closer to Coast Guard Inspection time. Since we run a
commercial cruising operation, the Volunteer Princess is a Coast Guard
Inspected Vessel. This means that each year the Volunteer Princess is
inspected by the United States Coast Guard. They check everything:
life jackets, flares, first aid kit, fuel tanks, fire extinguishers, fire
pumps, main engines, generators, steering equipment, documentation, licenses,
safety equipment, etc. They have us conduct our safety drills including
man overboard and our fire drill. We practice these drills monthly to
make sure we know what to do in the event of an emergency.
Even
though we have been through this four times already, this is still a very
stressful time for me because they could basically shut us down if there was
anything wrong with the yacht. In the previous years, they have found
just minor things such as some rope that needed to be replaced and some first
aid materials had expired, which we fixed immediately. It's kind of like
the health department- they have to find something. Well we were
inspected May 18, 2010 and I am very happy to report that they did not find one
single thing wrong. Everything was perfect. Even our first inspection they
found something, and the yacht was brand new! After the Coast Guard
finished our inspection, they were off to the Star of Knoxville to follow up on
some things that they found wrong during their inspection.
And the Winner is.......
Knoxville Tourism Alliance
presented the 2010 Pauly Awards on May 6, 2010 to local businesses and
Volunteer Princess Cruises won the award for Museum & Attraction of the Year. This
was a great feeling for all of us because it feels like all of our hard work is
starting to pay off.
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