2007 Surveyors CEU Cruise – Day 7

Cruise Day 7 (Friday March 02, 2007)

Today was the highlight of the cruise as far as I was concerned.  We were in port in Nassau, Bahamas.  I had a CEU class scheduled from 8:00 t0 10:00 AM, our scheduled time for arrival in Nassau. The class was on Maps and Charts, conducted by Reynold Davenport.

In the relative short time allowed for this course, Reynold covered the topics of the different projections, different coordinate systems,  calculation of great circle distances using the Haversine Formula scale factors, and elevation factors.

Our arrival in port was delayed due to a late departure from Costa Maya on Wednesday.  That delay was caused bt a medical emergency involving a passenger who had a heart attack while on shore.  We feared that the late arrival would jeopardize the tour that Larry Phipps had planned.

We arrived in Nassau around noon, and the group met and went on shore and walked a short distance to the "Survey Office" where we were met by Ian Young, P. Eng and Bahamas Registered Surveyor.  Ian is the President of the local Surveyors Association.  He indicated that there are only 18 Registered Surveyors in the Bahanas, 14 of which are in private practice.  The other four are in governmental positions.  When you consider the vast area of the many islands, the number of surveyors seem low, and as a result, they have unlicensed people doing survey work.

Ian took us on a tour of the Survey Office, the GIS office and talked about the practice of Land Surveying in the Bahamas.  They have the same problems with real estate agents and attornies that we have i the States.

I have a few pictures, and I will try to integrate them into the post.  Back on board the ship, we got ready for the final cocktail party sponsored by Land Surveyors Workshops.  It was an opportunity to talk about next year’s surveyors cruise, which should be even better.  Visit the LSW website to register.