Monday, March 19, 2018

Monday – March 19, 2018

This is our second sea day on the way to Sri Lanka. We started the day out with a tour of the ship’s laundry. First stop was at the 450 lb. washers. These are used to launder sheets, tablecloths and napkins. As we watched, one of the washers entered the spin cycle. Since there is no attempt to balance the load, the machine vibrated like crazy. This was totally absorbed by the large shock absorbers on which the machine was mounted.

Now we moved to a large mango-ironing device. This is wide enough to press king sized sheets. The operator feeds the objects onto a conveyor that transports it through two hot rollers. An employee on the output side then removes it, folds it and stacks it.

Now we got to the place where passenger laundry is processed. The first thing we saw was a large rolling cart loaded with our blue laundry bags. An employee removes the items from the bag and verifies that the number of objects matches the laundry list prepared by the passenger. Then each item is tagged with the number for its batch. Socks and underwear are paced in a mesh bag with the same number. Whites are separated from darker garments to minimize the effects of any fading. We looked into the cart of items that had just been tagged. There on top, were three of my shirts and two of Alice’s tops. Her third top was on the white pie. We had sent them to the laundry yesterday. What are the odds that we would arrive at this time.

The finished laundry is folded or pressed and hung on hangers. Collars, sleeves and shirtfronts are all pressed separately. Items are collected, and folded things are placed in a shallow basket. Hangers for tops and slacks are tied together. The laundry list is attached and the load is returned to the passenger’s cabin.

All of this takes place in a windowless workspace three decks below Main Deck that is heated by the irons and dryers. It is almost as warm as outdoors.

More lectures and a 4-mile walk around the deck finished the day.