05 November 2007 at Sea.
The nice thing about this 14 day cruise is that it starts with two sea days. No rushing and running around to get as much done as possible, no, two quiet and restful days at sea. The Cruise director has a chance to put on some more activities and the guests have time to explore the ship and find their way around. I spoke not too long ago to some guests, who where on a seven day cruise, and they said that they not even had had the chance to visit all the places and spaces on board the Veendam because they had been so busy. I can understand that very well, but it gives an idea what it must be like when sailing on one of the mega liners. You would have to double your vacation length just to be able to say, I have seen the whole ship and experienced everything.
We see also more and guests walking around with little walkie talkies. These cheap things which you can buy at Wal Mart for a few dollars. They work quite well inside the ship as long as all the fire screen doors are open. Especially with children in the party, it can work very well for Ma and Pa to find each other back and to keep some measure on family coordination going. Although for the kids we have the Club HAL area behind the funnel where they can spend most of the day and being out of the way. That is of course if both parents do agree on the plan. I will never forget this gentleman standing on the aft deck and patiently listening to a long dissertation by his wife about how to use the walkie talkie. After a triple instruction procedure on how and when to use the devise she left him to himself. After having a long and slightly disgusting look at the walkie talkie, he checked if his wife had left the area and then with one firm movement switched it off, sat down, ordered a beer and closed his eyes. I wondered what sort of story he came up with, when it came to checking in time.
The Veendam spent the day transversing Florida Strait on a slightly South Easterly heading. In the course of the evening we entered Old Bahama channel which is the water way between Cuba and the all the islands that make up the Bahamas. The Bahamas is basically a reef that stretches for 100’s of square miles in an area with Florida to the West and Cuba to the South. There where the reef has touched the surface and sand got deposited, islands have developed. Islands which now have towns such as Nassau and Freeport where many cruise ships call. Islands which also include San Salvador Island where Columbus is supposed to have discovered America in 1492 and Little San Salvador island which is home to our Half Moon Cay. Most of these islands are on the North side of the reef. On our route we only pass Great Inagua Island with Matthew town on it. Great Inagua boosts the largest solar salt complex in the world. (at least according the inhabitants themselves) The shallow lagoons form an natural basin for salt deposits and the natural features of the place only had to be enhanced a bit to make a commercial operation viable.
The Bahamas reef also shelters us from the North Atlantic swell and that makes for a comfortable ride for tonight and tomorrow. Any ships movement while in the Old Bahama Channel is caused by the local wind and that means that the ship will only pitch a little bit. (Pitching is the up and down movement of the bow) Later tomorrow evening, we will leave the Bahamas behind and then the ship might move more, depending on what the weather has been like in the middle of the North Atlantic.
We have sunny skies at the moment but the weather is really confused. Normally we have here Easterly winds blowing which is an extension of the Caribbean trade winds. With the passage of the tropical storm Noel and the subsequent cold front (which bothered us last cruise) the winds are fluctuating between the NW and the NE and are a lot stronger as well. Last night we had up to 30 knots blowing again, and with the Cold front that currently lies over the middle of the Bahamas that won’t change much during the coming night.
November 6, 2007 at 12:02 pm
We really enjoyed your description of the Veendam traversing the Bahama Channel!
There is an age-old saying that “you never know what is round the next corner”. It can’t apply to master mariners, such as yourself, captain. It’s hard to imagine a naval board of enquiry accepting this as an explanation of how you managed to cruise round that headland and collide with some supertanker or some mighty USS aircraft carrier amidships!
But for lesser mortals, landlubbers indeed, such as ourselves, the old saying does have credence. Due to unforseeable but urgent medical circumstances we have had to cancel our 14 day cruise out of Tampa scheduled for 25 November. It would have been our first time on the Veendam, first time with Holland America, first time in the Caribbean, in fact our first cruise ever, so it is a big disappointment to us although we suppose it is bound to happen quite often given the time-span between booking and cruising.
However, there is one huge consolation. If we can’t be there in person, thanks to your web blog, Captain Albert, we can at least still participate in a ‘virtual cruise’ as you describe each day’s events as they happen and as you perceive them! We could not have obtained this benefit from any other ship on any other cruise line, so it’s a great tribute to you and to the support you receive from your company, Holland America.
And the internet is a great thing. We will also be able to read accounts of the same cruise from the perspective of some of your guests (or passengers as I still prefer to call them since they are there to sit back and enjoy while you and your ship’s crew do all the hard work!)
If it all works out well we should be postponing rather than cancelling, so do continue to take very good care of the ms Veendam and we wish fair wind and a calm sea to the very interesting & amusing group of guests who will be on board with you for this particular journey.