Jeff Monroe News

If you want to book a plush river cruise vacation in America’s heartland – say on the Mississippi or Ohio Rivers – you can do it. The American Queen Steamboat Company’s website offers as many as 13 river cruises in 2018. Certainly, the ‘bourbon cruise,’ aboard the lavish American Duchess sounds like fun. Or, maybe next year you can sign up for the nine-day ‘Derby Cruise.’ And, next year means 2019 because the 2018 cruise is sold out. Maybe the most fun is that passengers themselves…

We rolled into town on the last train north, arriving Portland, Maine at 2:00 a.m. Half an hour later we were at the dock, hauling our kit - and when Marine News travels light, we're like Hannibal crossing the Alps - over silent tugs resting abreast: Captain Bill, Justine McAllister, Stamford. On the phone a few days before, Capt. Brian Fournier had said something about leaving a light in Stamford's forward port cabin, and there, finally, it shone. But something brighter had caught our eye, and could we believe it? Last time we saw something like it, it was in Aberdeen, Scotland. Now, from Stamford's starboard rail, it loomed and glistened four hundred feet away - rising nearly as high - a pair of deep-sea drilling platforms, afloat waters barely up to their ankles.

According to reports, proposed legislation that would require mandatory screening of all maritime cargo is being called overkill by some leaders. Senator Collins, a ranking member of the Homeleand Security Committee, says the proposed legislation goes too far and would bog down waterfront commerce. Legislation now being proposed in congress would require all cargo moving through our ports to be scanned for dangerous materials. While she's been a vocal supporter of beefing up port security Collins will not back the proposal. Portland Transportation Director Jeff Monroe and Senator Collins both say scanning only high risk and suspicious containers is the more reasonable approach. Source: WCSH

According to the AP, Maine's Department of Environmental Protection is launching a new permit system that requires discharges by cruise ships to be as clean as wastewater treated on shore. Cruise ships will be prohibited from dumping wastewater within three miles of the shore unless they can meet the same water quality standards as municipal treatment plants. The rules apply to passenger ships that have at least 500 beds. From the point of view of the cruise ship industry, Maine's initiative will have little impact, said Christine Fischer, spokeswoman for the International Council of Cruise Lines. Fischer said council members, who include more than 90 percent of the cruise market in North America, have already agreed not to discharge wastewater within four miles of the nation's coastline.