Great story - sounds like a great boat. Will you bring your DD462 back
on
her own bottom, or go elsewhere? Would you hire a captain? How did the
owner
find a Philipino captain in Hong Kong, or was this a different captain?

Sounds like a great experience - Cliff

Cliff
My wife and I plan to tour the Philippines, Australia, and then
turn west through the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Mediterranean, the Baltic
Sea, and then across the Atlantic to the east coast. We're telling our
friends and family this will be a five year journey
I will hire a Filipino captain, at least for the first several
months. The one we had had 27,621 ocean miles under his belt, an
offshore yacht masters license, as a requirement of having worked on a
cruise ship in Greece he had training in fire prevention and
firefighting, basic boat safety, first aid, personal safety and social
responsibility, navigation and radar. He was a mechanic, scuba diver, he
cleaned the boat, washed dishes, cooked, and did all of this without
ever bragging about his knowledge or skills, and speaks fluent English
to boot. I only knew all this because I helped gather this information
so it could be faxed to the boats insurer.
When we arrived at the registration dock at the Royal Hong Kong
Yacht Club, there was a small sail boat tied up in front of us. Bill
Kimley and our boat owner struck up a conversation with the two men on
the boat. The sail boat Captain, Victor, said he had just brought the
boat up from Subic Bay and needed a ride back. The owner brought him on
board as a pilot, and then hired him on as the captain when we toured
the Islands.
While we were in Subic we contacted an international mariner
school there by the name of Wartsila to see if they would develop a
program for cruisers. The Swedish director, Jari Ullakonoja, and two
assistants visited the boat, took pictures of the interior, control
panels, engine room, and expressed an interest in developing a
curriculum. He said they had just installed a simulator in which they
could program in the numbers of the 462 and the controls in the
simulator would mimic the handling of our boat.
He has since met with Bill Kimley and Bill has offered to build
him a 462 engine room, complete with engine, to use for the mechanical
portion of their class. The training school director told me there are
680,000 seafarers in the world and 280,000 of them are Filipinos.

These are amazing developments. I had thought that Wartsila only made
engines. Imagine experiencing storm tactics in a simulator and being trained
on your own engine room! Sounds like the future to me.
Ron Rogers

----- Original Message -----
From: "Randal Johnson" RJohnson@roanokewreckrepair.com
| While we were in Subic we contacted an international mariner
| school there by the name of Wartsila to see if they would develop a
| program for cruisers. The Swedish director, Jari Ullakonoja, and two
| assistants visited the boat, took pictures of the interior, control
| panels, engine room, and expressed an interest in developing a
| curriculum. He said they had just installed a simulator in which they
| could program in the numbers of the 462 and the controls in the
| simulator would mimic the handling of our boat.
| He has since met with Bill Kimley and Bill has offered to build
| him a 462 engine room, complete with engine, to use for the mechanical
| portion of their class. The training school director told me there are
| 680,000 seafarers in the world and 280,000 of them are Filipinos.