02 April 2008, At Sea.

I finished up my day last night with introducing myself to the guests before the first and second show started. It can be a bit unsettling for guests to suddenly hear another captain’s voice over the P.A system. Especially as my voice is rather different to the one of my colleague. So I hopped on the stage for a few minutes to say hello and to show the face that goes with the voice. I found out through the years that most entertainers do like it when they get the captain as a warming up act and in this case it was no different. Drew and Angela are a Magicians act and they thought it was quite funny not to have the normal intro by the Cruise Director. Anyway now the whole ship knows who is doing the driving the boat and who takes the credit for the nice weather.

Today, a sea day, we had very nice weather. We are on our way from Cozumel to Montego Bay traveling at a sedate pace of 16 knots. The distance is too great to cover in one night and if we would go full out than we would arrive in the middle of the next night and not much happens in Montego Bay in the deep of the night. So we took our time and had a beautiful day at sea. The trade wind was not that strong today and as were not going that fast either there was a nice gentle breeze blowing over the decks making it very pleasant. I warned the guests against too much exposure tot the sun, the weather forecast indicated an UV 10 factor which is quite high, and with the wind cooling things down there is always the danger that people stay too long in the sunshine. We had a few showers in the late morning but the navigators have my permission to change course when possible so we sailed between the rain clouds and stayed dry and in the sun shine. Rain clouds at sea are quite often sharply defined and with a little course change you can often just skirt around them.

The Veendam has just started with our new Mariners recognition program. Before we held one or two gatherings (depending on the number of repeat guests on board) in the main lounge but the company has recently changed that to a Mariners luncheon in the dining room. So this morning we had the non-medal group for an 11.30 lunch, about 260 of them. Near the end of the cruise we will have the medal group and those who get a medal awarded. Thus far most guests seem to like the luncheon bit, well who does not like food…………., the only thing is that due to the lay-out of our dining room it is more difficult to do a speech as not everybody can see me. So I am still tinkering with that one. Most ships are now using this new system and I assume that the office is keeping close tabs on what the majority of the Mariners think about it.

The route took us above Grand Cayman, where we will be the day after tomorrow. Around Grand Cayman is a 12 mile environmental exclusion zone and that means that if you are not calling at Grand Cayman, you should stay out of it, although it is not compulsory, to disturb wild life as little as possible. So we keep a fair distance and happily trundled on to Montego Bay.
On other cruises we have been to Ocho Rios but that port was full of Mega Liners so the schedule opted for Montego Bay. We will be in port tomorrow with the Discovery, which is the old Island Princess. Together with her sister the Pacific Princess (from the Love boat series) she did a lot to make cruises popular among the public.

The Weather for Montego Bay looks quite good, although showers are expected later in the day. As Jamaica is a very tropical island, you get these showers coming down from the mountain ranges at regular intervals. so we might get some rain in the afternoon.