Traveling by ship-what does it mean?

Ship is a vehicle that carries goods and people across the seas, oceans, rivers or canals. Ship and boat have been used by human since ancient time. Although most of inter-continental trips have been replaced by jet planes, there as still significant number of people who like to travel by ships especially the cruise ones. Cruise ships are similar to passenger ships in many aspects but offer more pleasure activities and round-trip itinerary which most passenger ships do not provide. So, what does it mean to travel by ship?

KM Doloronda

Longer trip duration
Because ship is slower than airplane, traveling by ship to certain destination will take longer time than by airplane. For example, for reaching Numfor island in the Geelvink bay of New Guinea, a ferry boat needs around 5 hours whereas a single propelled airplane needs only 20 minutes.
More Activities
To cater for the needs of passengers during a sea voyage from one harbor to another, operators of cruise ships have to build facilities and arrange activities that passengers can enjoy on board. Passengers will not feel bored because they can watch dolphins, sea scapes in the middle of the sea and watch latest movies or even swim and drink with other passengers.
More Goods and Passengers
The capacity of a big passenger ship or cruise ship can reach up to 5000 people or even more whereas the carrying capacity of the largest airplane is around 500 people. In other words, if we travel by ship, we will see more people on board and be able to carry more luggages. The largest cruise ships in the world such as the Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas can be considered as floating towns because inside the cruise ships we can find a lot of facilities that most small towns need to serve their inhabitants such as hospitals, recreational areas (cinemas, gaming, swimming pools, theatres, etc.), sport and fitness centers, shopping centers, restaurants and even libraries.
More Wastes and Threats to Marine Environment
Ships that carry large number of passengers will definitely produce more wastes both organic and inorganic. They have to be properly handled to prevent them from harming the environment especially the coral reefs that are homes to large number of marine animals. In addition to installing wastes processing machines on board cruise and passenger ships, the passengers have to be informed to not not throwing wastes into the sea. They must dispose their wastes in garbage bins that have been provided on every deck of the ships.
Safety of Life At Sea
I already said that a ship can carry thousands of people across deep sea. The weather at sea is always changing. Today's ship has been equipped with radars, GPS devices and telecommunication equipment that will help him traveling at sea to its desired destination. Big waves often cause a cruise ship to roll on tranverse direction. This makes a lot of people suffer from sea sick. To handle people with this temporary sickness, ship operator hire doctors or health works who will work in the clinic helping passengers dealing with their health problems.
Faster Ship with Better Stability
Naval architects now have been able to design ships and boats that can travel faster across the seas with improved stability. Innovations on the hull forms have led shipbuilding industry to twin hull boats called catamaran or three hulls (trimaran) or even pentamaran. Twin hull boat with small waterplane areas called swath is now seen as a great marine vehicle that can carry large number of passengers with relatively better stability than conventional monohul boat with the same passenger carrying capacity. by Charles Roring
Related articles:
Traveling by passenger ship
Traveling with passenger ships to remote islands in Indonesia

Ships and Boats in Dorey bay of Manokwari

I still remember the first time I saw a cruise ship. I was at sixth grade of elementary school. Unfortunately I forget the name of the luxurious vessel. I don't know why there are no cruise ships coming to Manokwari harbor again. The number of ships and boats that visit the Dorey bay of Manokwari has been increasing rapidly since a few year ago. Its strategic location in the bird's head region of New Guinea island and its status as the capital of West Papua province make the city as the new economic hub in the region. Every week we can see PELNI passenger ships, container vessels and traditional phinisi sailing boats arrive and leave the bay. There are two islands in the front waters of the bay protecting the city from big waves. The basin inside the Dorey bay is always calm making it as ideal mooring and anchoring areas for big and small ships. Dorey bay of Manokwari is also an ideal transit point for sailing yachts that come from Europe or Australia in their trans-continental journey around the globe.

As a matter of fact Dorey or Dore has been in the world map since seventeen centuries when European explorers came to trade birds of paradise with beads and ceramic plates, metal articles such as spoons, and machetes. Today small growing towns along the north coast of New Guinea depend on Manokwari city for buying manufactured goods imported from Java or selling agricultural produce to tens of thousands of the city inhabitants.

Several months ago, four Czech tourists went to Numfor island by ferry boat. While waiting for the boat to leave for the tropical island, Dr. Jaroslav Bacovsky, one of the tourists, walked around the pier and the deck of the vessel to take some pictures of boats and ships that he could see mooring or anchoring inside the bay. The activity of food vendors and passengers attracted his attention.

Most of them showed their big smiles to him. He also made some nice photographs of the landscape of bay that are covered with coconut trees. It took around five hours from Manokwari to Numfor island. I and the Czech tourists visited Yemburwo, and Amberimasi. We spent five days there watching birds, insects and traditional dance and music show performed by local Papuan artists before returning to Manokwari by plane. by Charles Roring

Cargo ship and Marine Polution in Madura Strait of Surabaya port

The ship that we see in the following picture was in Port of Surabaya. The port is located in Madura strait. One of the busiest waters in Indonesia. Every day hundreds of cargo ships, passenger ships, tankers and bulk carrier arrive and leave port of Surabaya. As the second largest city in Indonesia with millions of city dwellers, Surabaya exports and imports various kinds of goods that are transported by the ships. Day by day, the number of ships that sail through the Madura strait is increasing. When I was on a boat in the middle of the strait several years ago, I saw that the color of the sea water was not clear blue anymore. The Madura strait has been heavily polluted by wastes from these ships and from the industrial and domestic wastes that flow to the strait both from Madura island and Surabaya. 

No wonder the quality of marine life in the strait is low. Efforts to clean the strait should be done to improve the water quality in the strait so that marine life can live in the area again. Also read:
Port of Tanjung Perak Surabaya,
Ship displacement and capacity limitation.

Ship and coral reef

Ships are important vehicles that transport cargoes and people. Today, modern ships have bigger size and capacity. In the marine tourism world, cruise ship carries thousands of passengers. It is more like a floating city. The higher the capacity of a ship in carrying passengers or cargoes the better will be its efficiency. However, larger ships with higher number of passengers tend to produce higher amount of wastes. Wastes have three basic forms such as, gas, liquid and solid.
Although there are wastes processing machines in most modern ships at the moment, wastes are still dumped into the sea. These wastes directly cause massive damage in coral reef. Ships also have to avoid mooring in coral reef areas. Their anchors can cause serious damages on coral reef. Please read my post about this matter on an article entitled: Damage in coral reefs caused by anchoring.
I should emphasize that ships are not the only producers of wastes. Coastal towns and cities are the biggest producers of wastes. If we can stop dumping wastes both from the ships and the coastal towns and cities, more coral reef areas can be saved. Our marine environment will be better if millions of tons of wastes that are now floating at the surface of the seas or oceans can be removed.
Also read: Stop throwing plastic wastes into the sea!

Cargo Ships and the Dorey bay of Manokwari

Cargo ships and the scenery of Dorey bay are the photographs that I want to discuss with you here. This morning I walked to the ship harbor (haven) of Manokwari city. As the capital of (newly formed) West Papua province, this city is growing rapidly. Ships (general cargo, container ships and passenger ships) load and unload goods, containers and people every week.

 The jetty of Manokwari haven has been enlarged several times to provide more space for ships and containers. This harbor is located near the Governor's office and the building of house of representative of West Papua province.

While I was walking in the pier, I saw four sea going steel ships there but there were no activities of loading and unloading of containers. It was very quite with several people fishing near the ships at the end of the pier.
I am amazed by the view of the Arfak mountain. Using my Sony cyber-shot, a handy digital camera, I take some pictures of the morning scenery in the ship harbor of Manokwari. One ship crew seems to pay attention to what I was doing. When he saw that I was taking photographs of the surrounding view, especially the sea and the mountain, he left me.
To brighten the picture, I set the control dial of the camera to ISO mode.
Unfortunately, I did not see any PELNI passenger ships around. I hope that in my next visit to this ship harbor of Manokwari, I will be able to shoot some photos of PELNI passenger ships that transport passengers to and from this city. Right across the ship harbor, there is a PELNI office. There people can buy tickets if they want to sail to other towns in Papua or outside this island by PELNI's passenger ships.  by Charles Roring