SOVEREIGN MAKES MAIDEN VOYAGE!!!!!

On Sunday, February 5, the new "Sovereign of the Seas" made her debut, ending 1 year and 7 months of idle neglect and occaisonal attention.

The Sovereign is based on the cruise ship of the same name from Royal Carribbean Cruise Line.

It was an eerily quiet scene on McCormick Lake, in Scottsdale (her lake of registry)m when I put her in the water. After a brief christening and spreading of confetti across her superstruction, she slipped out into the lake and smooth sailing.

I took her from the east side of the Chart House restaurant around to the south side, and wide open water. She handles wonderfully, and I think she is actually much more stable in the water than the ZUIDERDAM, even though they are almost identical size. It helped matters that there was absolutely no wind! The water was as smooth as glass! As you will see in these pictures, she made several passes at the camera, and I am generally happy with the pictures I got. I did seem to have trouble centering the image though....

Some irritation came from her speed controller, however. I have come to the sad determination that she has a cheap peice of crap speed controller that has to be replaced. I believe due to heating, the speed controller seized up and couldn't do anything for a few seconds, before becoming active again. I tried switching the battery, and resetting the speed controller, but when I brought her in and tested her with the hatch off, I could see the lights begin to flash on the controller when she stopped working. The top of the controller was very hot, and when the lights stopped flashing, she was able to run again. There was never any problem with the rudder control.

When I began to suspect overheating, I ran her only in short spurts (that used to be the rule for me anyway), and I got a lot of time out of her, never running close to full speed.

Nevertheless, the problem cannot be allowed to continue, and she will be getting a new speed controller.

After about 40 minutes of sailing, I felt satisfied, and brought her home, the newest member of the Green Sea fleet!