Captain Luca Manzi finds himself at the helm and on stage in front of the band and guests. Photo by Harrison Shiels
He must have heard the joke before, but Luca Manzi was initially surprised when, as I shook his hand in the receiving line, I looked deep into his eyes and, as seriously as I could manage, stated the “Captain Phillips” movie line: “Look at me…I’m the Captain now.”
Manzi, as captain of Oceania Cruises ship Vista, was not on the bridge at that moment anyway, but instead was about to address a percentage of the 900 passengers aboard the 243-meter luxury liner considered intimate by cruise industry standards. “I think we sent the baker up to the helm while I am here this evening,” Manzi joked to the cocktail crowd. The captain said he likes to be social with the guests, but he operates under strict rules. “I am required to be on the bridge in any situation where we have close passage between islands or in a high-traffic area approaching or leaving a port. The Vista is an elegant ship and she handles nicely.”
At that moment the Oceania cruise liner was on the outside of the Caribbean islands crossing, on the shortest possible passage, from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico. “We are running 20 knots: practically full speed. The chief engineer is not always happy to see the handle all the way down to the metal but sometimes we must do that to make up time,” said Manzi, who served in the Italian Navy and has been in the cruise industry since 1996. “We have a lot of support aids to navigation and instruments which have made our lives easier, but there is still a lot of there is still a lot of manual sailing in our profession, thank God. There is still a good bit of adrenaline when tight maneuvering is required and we are fitting the ship in a very narrow place. There is excitement and I am physically involved. It is an intense feeling. I still love my job of steering the driving the ship.”
Manzi had his share of intensity at the helm of big cargo ships in the Merchant Marine. “I was off the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa when we faced nine-to-10-meter swells. It was quite heavy seas. It was a big cargo ship, but we were jumping quite a bit,” he recalled. “On a pleasure ship, we do as much as possible to avoid bad weather if we can find an alternative way. On a cargo ship you must arrive in the shortest time possible no matter the weather.”
Since Captain Manzi sailed the seven seas, I circled back to my “Captain Phillips” joke and inquired about pirates.
“We have procedures and security training to minimize the threat of pirates. Passing the Red Sea moving south is the typical area where I believe pirates are still active. But here in the Caribbean, the only pirates are in the movies.”
Manzi knows Vista and Oceania’s other smaller-sized, intimate ships draw attention wherever they sail.
“In Dubrovnik there is a monastery of nuns. Every time you pass by there at low speed and a safe distance and blow the horn, they will answer back by ringing the bells.”
Manzi first served as a Lieutenant aboard a small, WWII-era minesweeper in 1987 surveying the Italian coastline on a hydrographic mission – a coastline he was very familiar with. “I grew up in a small, quite nice area – Chiavari, between Portofino and Cinque Terra, Italy. I could see boats from my house. It is still a pleasure to be on a smaller boat occasionally.”
Now Manzi’s home is a boat – the Oceania Vista – for a good percentage of the year when he is not at home with his family. Each day I saw him fast-walking laps amidst passengers on the track around the ship’s scenic 14th deck – right past Barista’s – a good spot for an Italian cappuccino or espresso. That panoramic coffeehouse is right in front of Toscana – the Vista’s decadent Tuscan restaurant. The captain’s amiable manner made everyone aboard Oceania’s Vista feel at home.
Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at MShiels@aol.com His new book: Travel Tattler – Not So Torrid Tales, may be purchased via Amazon.com
