bearcub,
I asked my brother-in-law, a harbor pilot on Long Island Sound his reaction to this issue. Now this guy is in his mid fifties and has been steering tankers and freighters in and out of ports from Bridgeport to Providence for years, and had his first job as a second mate on an APL ship when it was still American President Lines.
I would also add that he is extremely sensitive to what is at issue here, and just yesterday we had an e-conversation on which fuel would be best for his generator.
Enough preamble, his response: "I am not too concerned about 1/1/00 as far as ships are concerned. Apparently there isn't a whole lot of date sensitive computer software on board ships. Even if there is, ships have ALWAYS had basic backups: sextants in case there is no power to run the radars and DGPS systems, you can actually manually steer the thing if all else fails, things like that. Up to this point at least, seamen have always been well indoctrinated in basic seamanship. High tech is relatively new. You know that is going to change too, but, by then I will be retired... I hope!"
Obviously, as you point out bearcub, the ships are only part of the equation. The harbors and port facilities and their access to fuel and electricity are perhaps even more critical than the ships themselves, both at their ports of origin and destination.
Bill |
