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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

04 Dec. 2015; Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

For a moment it looked like as if we might have had an exciting morning or no morning at all as it was blowing over 25 knots when the Westerdam approached the anchorage. Luckily it turned out to be a last minute squall and once the ship had settled at the anchorage the wind dropped and we observed a normal weather pattern.  Although Half Moon Cay is a wonderful place to call at it remains fully exposed to the vagaries of the weather and a ship at anchor can only take so much before it has to abort the call.

Holland America investigated in the past the option to build a dock here. In the same way as Disney has a dock at their private island. The challenge in our case was the steepness of the rise of the island out of the deep. There is hardly a 1000 ft. of distance between the beach and the plunge into the abyss. Most of the time the bow of the ship is 30 to 40 feet  above the sea floor but the stern being 800 ft. towards open sea is already above a 1000 ft. of water. To get a dock in it meant digging into the land to get the docking area so far towards the land that it would be possible to find a foundation for the dock pilings which had to hold the stern.

HMC. Just before opening, The dredger is still in attendance.

HMC. Just before the opening of the first season. The dredger is still in attendance.

Everything is possible but it would have meant an enormous upheaval to the island and not very good for conserving the nature of the area.  Thus it was deemed better to be at anchor and accept the occasional chance of ships having to cancel the call. The artificial harbor which was created instead could be located in a corner of an out cropping which was basically waste land as it did not affect the ocean floor or the flora or the fauna.  Then slowly but steadily HMC was developed ensuring that all the buildings were and are kept on a narrow strip between the beach and the Nature Reserve around the lake further inside the island.

Because we can control what goes to the island we can also control what comes off the island. Thus everything that we bring ashore for supplies is either used or comes back again. The island is left as it is and was. Clean and pollution free. The only thing which does not come back are the bales of hay and straw for the horses. The ships load these on a regular basis in Fort Lauderdale and after an overnight run to HMC are then landed ashore.  Horses are great recyclers and we do not have to take anything back.

The one item we cannot deliver is the minimal amount of fuel supplies which the island needs. Mainly for the generator and for the few people who live here permanently. These are gas and oil deliveries which the cruise ships are not allowed to take on board and carry. For that purpose a little local tanker pops up on occasion, makes a sort of beach landing and pumps the required amount of fuel into the holding tanks.

Although Holland America is the owner of the island (or better said the enduring lessee) it does not have jurisdiction to keep everybody off the island. And thus we had a visitor today, a small sailing yacht which arrived just before we did; crossing over from the Eleuthera Island side more to the West.  I suppose we would have more sailing yachts coming in if the island wasn’t in such a remote spot far away from anything which attracts a lot of six pack sailors, or gin palaces coming in and dropping the hook in order to show each other their latest Rolex.

By 14.30 I had the whole team forward for raising the anchor, with my main duty being to keep the sailors who make up the regular anchor party away from trying to take over from the Ladies. They tried the other day and today they tried again.  But as the Ladies get equal pay, they will also do equal work and the sailors were told to go back and sit on the bench. In the end they starting messing around with the fresh water hose in order to do at least something. Next cruise when the team is on stations again in the morning I will ask the Staff Captain to let the sailors sleep in. I am very sure that that will make them happy.

Tomorrow we are back in our home port Fort Lauderdale. We will not be docking at our regular dock nbr. 26 but at Pier 21. We have a number of mega ships in and thus the Harbor Master has reshuffled the berths a little bit. Expected are tomorrow: Oasis of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, Island Princess, Celebrity Infinity and us the Westerdam. Weather: a big chance of showers and temperatures round 79oF or 26oC.

1 Comment

  1. Missed Career at Sea

    December 7, 2015 at 5:38 pm

    Very interesting tidbits again, Captain.
    Couldn’t help but giggle about you ordering the sailors to go back and sit on the benches to watch the lady officers handle the ropes themselves. The poor guys had at least the fresh water hose at their disposal to get this frustration of not being able to help out of their system (could also be an instilled cultural concept, the ‘master – mistress’ concept)

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