Tampa has been on the Holland America sailing calendar since 1983, when the old Veendam started cruising from there during the winter season. In a way it was the beginning of the cruise boom for the western side of Florida as the only other cruise ship calling at Tampa was the small Vera Cruz. Since that time the cruise business has flourished and today there were three cruise ships in port. From Carnival, NCL and Holland America. Together good for handling close to 7000 guests during today’s sailing. Normally the ships come in very early in the morning trying to be docked by 06.00 am to start the clearance procedures as timely as possible. The Ryndam arrived around 08.00 as she had had a medi-vac the day before which caused a considerable delay. A critically ill patient was disembarked and but I can luckily advise that all is going well and a full recovery is expected.
Because of the later arrival, I could join the ship at the decent time of 08.30 in the morning. Normally they try to get all the crew and related persons onboard by approx. 06.30 as the C.B.P does not prefer to have crew joining during the disembarkation process. I was impressed to see ship, shore and CBP working together in such a fantastic way. It ensured that the guests were off the ship, no more than 45 minutes later than normal.
The only challenge with Tampa is, is that the port is located at the north side of Tampa Bay and the Cruise Terminal is located in the far N.W. corner of that port and can only be reached through a narrow channel. That makes the voyage inwards, through the whole of Tampa Bay, last for about 4 hours, from pilot to dock and that is a long stretch for the Captain on the Bridge. It can get even worse when “very low hanging clouds develop”, because then the Harbor Master is forced to close the port. It is simply not possible to navigate some of the narrow channels safely for a large ship, without decent visibility. Ships are then kept outside and that of course plays havoc with the disembarkation of the guests and their subsequent flights. Sometimes those low hanging clouds do not dissipate or lift until noon time and that is rather painful for everybody, for those who are leaving and for those who are joining.
As a result there are now plans to develop a cruise port at Port Manatee which is just inside the Bay, inwards of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and not as much affected by reduced visibility as downtown Tampa is. But when that will come to pass is anybody’s guess. It would certainly make the cruise ship captains happy.
With that as a background I stepped on board the good old Ryndam for the first time since 1996 when I was Staff Captain on her. This will probably be the last time as well, as she will be transferred together with her sister ship the Statendam, to our sister company P&O Australia for cruises down under.
During the coming three weeks I will be carrying out a whole load of trainings and support activities starting with the captain, all the way down to the laundry. Part of it will be refreshing procedures and improving knowledge and part of it will be raising the bar as far as insight and experience is concerned.
The Ryndam will make two cruises during this 3 week period. We are starting with a 7 day cruise: Tampa – Key West – Roatan – Santo Tomas – Costa Maya – Tampa.
This is followed by a 14 day cruise: around the Caribbean. Tampa – Key West – San Juan – St. Thomas – St John’s (Antigua) – Castries & Soufriere – Willemstad – Oranjestad – Grand Cayman – Tampa.
I sailed for about 5 seasons from Tampa as a Captain (and a lot more as deck officer and Staff Captain; in total well over a hundred voyages) first with the old Noordam and then with the current Veendam and I always preferred the 14 day run. Partly as it meant only sailing Tampa Bay once in the 14 days but partly as it means doing the whole Caribbean circle, it brings a lot of variation to the ports. The East Caribbean is considerably different from the South West Caribbean.
We started our cruise under a good omen. Nice sunny weather and no wind when sailing out. Tomorrow in Key West the forecast calls for partly cloudy, leaning to overcast and also no wind. That will mean a pleasant arrival; as Key West is not much fun during windy conditions.
February 10, 2015 at 4:58 pm
Welcome back Captain Albert, as always I have been eagerly awaiting your return.
I need to update you on the Tampa cruiseport issues, which I follow with great interest as I live here. I don’t think that port Manatee is a candidate since to get there, ships will still have to pass under the Skyway Bridge. Current and future large cruiseliners will not be able to pass under that bridge, so the options being considered , besides modifying the bridge, include a new cruise terminal west of the bridge. The most serious contender appears to be an area just west and a little north of the Skyway Bridge, but will required the dredging of a new channel, and the creation of a new island addition to house the port and pier(s). Lots of political and environmental issues. I follow it closely as I live in exactly that area. I will keep you updated as things develop/evolve.
Regards as always…Ruud
February 10, 2015 at 7:40 pm
Thank you for the reply. I had heard about that one as well, but it was po-poe-ed out of hand by the port people that I spoke to, so I left it out of the narration. Yes, staying south of the bridge would make all the sailors happy, but it would mean the creation of a whole new port area. Time will tell
Best regards
Capt. Albert
February 10, 2015 at 6:52 pm
Nice to have you back Captain Albert! Looking forward to traveling around the Caribbean with you in the coming weeks. I got my HAL fix while you were away by going on a wonderful Caribbean cruise on Eurodam under the command of Capt. John Scott. How nice to escape the cold and dark of the UK winter! One interesting event of that voyage was the compass swing we performed whilst waiting for the pilot off St. Thomas, would be great if you can explain this processes at some point in the coming weeks.
February 10, 2015 at 10:42 pm
Welcome back Captain Albert.
This blog was especially interesting to me as our first cruise was out of Tampa on the old Noordam in 1998. We boarded Feb 28 for the Western Caribbean, that first 7 days hooked us and since then besides the Caribbean; East west and Southern; we have sailed Northern Europe, Alaska, Panama, Amazon and just completed the 30-Day Hawaii, Tahiti and Marquesas Islands Holiday Cruise on the ms Stantendam.
Helen
February 12, 2015 at 5:18 pm
Always great to read about my home port of Tampa and its Holland America history. Although Tampa has been in the shadows of Ft Lauderdale, many guests have preferred the ease of boarding in Tampa over the years compared with the much larger port for Ft Lauderdale. You are right about prefering the 14 day cruise to the eastern and southern ports, in my opinion, and hope that HAL will continue to offer it. With the other cruise lines doing the shorter cruises to just the western Carribean, it is better for HAL offer an alternative (note to marketing).
Is Capt. Timmers staying on Eurodam? He has been a great asset on the Ryndam.