09 Feb. 2015: Key West, Florida.

With good weather and no opposing traffic you can make it to Key West quite early with  running full speed and that is what the captain did. As a result we were docked about 40 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.  As this is only a short call, an early arrival was appreciated by everybody and as soon as the gangway was out, everybody streamed ashore to discover Key West.  Operationally it was an important day as well, as there was a change of Captains. Captain Werner Timmers left the Ryndam to transfer to the Eurodam and his place was taken by Captain Colm Ryan. His he is from Irish decent and lives in Nova Scotia while Capt. Timmers is from Dutch decent and lives in the USA. I live in England and we have captains living as far and wide as the Phillipines and Australia. Why; because she who shall be obeyed comes from there. Seldom do we see a captains spouse settling down in the Netherlands, not because they do not like the country, but because there is that ………………….. beautiful……………… language. And so we meekly go  where we are told to go. And as long as we can still tell the ship were to go, we can live with that.

Calling at Key West has it’s pro’s and con’s for the navigators. One of the pro’s is that you dock right in downtown, so even when not going ashore there is something to see from the bridge but a major con is that if the wind blows you have hardly any protection when sailing in or out or when being alongside. I believe the highest land part of Key West is about 40 ft. above see level and thus the wind has very little that hampers its progress. The docks are workable for normal operations but during windy weather we dearly would like to have a few bollards more to be able to set a better spread of ropes. The town is trying to do something about it, but it is and has been for a long time a very contentious issue. So we patiently wait until it will be resolved.

Mallory Square is one open air Craft Fair and Performance venue starting up just before sunset.

There is room for three ships alongside, one at Mallory Square, one at B pier and one at the Navy Pier. All ships like to be at Mallory as it is the closest to everything but when there are more ships, then there is a pecking order to make it fair.

Today we were the only ship and thus we had Mallory Square. This dock comes with one requirement and that is that you have to sail before sunset to avoid blocking the sunset – view from the square. Watching sunset from Mallory is a time honored tradition and that should not be hampered by having a tin- can full of visitors in the way.

On departure the ship moved past B Pier.

So shortly after 5 pm. the Ryndam swung around in the turning basin to make sure that she was completely gone before sunset (scheduled for 06.08 pm. Today).  The whole day had been nearly windless and sailing out was a simple and pleasant affair.

To get in and out of the port there is a channel that leads through the coral reefs but it is not that wide. If it would be windy, then the ship would drift and to compensate for that sail under a drift angle. The more the wind, the larger the angle and the more width of the channel is used up. A real hassle for the larger ships. Also here is talk of widening the channel so larger ships can come and visit but again things are stuck in politics without much progress.

With a short afternoon stop there is only so much you can see, but the guests all came back quite happy and thus we achieved our objective. For the crew the main focus is the CVS drugstore, conveniently located one block north of Mallory Square.  While most try to stock up in the home port, it is not always easy to do that as the home port is a change over port and thus a very busy day for most of the crew.

I spent my day finalizing my training and support schedule so by tomorrow I can get the show on the road. The challenge is that everybody always want training done at the same time, have time off at the same time and also has to stay within the maximum working hours that are allowed under the Maritime Labor convention. I have to adhere to those hours as well and that calls for even more creativity.

Tomorrow the good ship Ryndam will be at sea. Heading south to Mahogany Bay in Hondoras. It will be a windy day, but as the wind is supposed to be from the north, which makes it a following wind, it should be nearly windstill on the ship. Perfect for being out and about on the deck.  I have not seen the weather forcast yet, but the shops are planning a deck sale so I do not think that there is any rain expected.