Departure Quebec, last evening, was one of those departures where the elements are doing the job for you. We had nearly 20 knots on the starboard beam and that is close to the edge of the thruster capacity. It did not matter; the flood current pushed itself between the ship and the dock and carried us away to mid river. Once again I was giving 6 knots ahead on the main engines just to keep the Veendam in place. Amazing, you are over 200 miles from open sea and there is over 4 knots of flood coming up the river.

The flood turned to ebb shortly after we left the dock and the Veendam was almost flushed down the river. At a certain moment we were doing 24 knots with only 17 knots on the engines. It brought us to the pilot station 1.5 hours ahead of schedule which pleased the pilots as they got home so much earlier. In the mean time I was getting pre-occupied with the weather. Coastguard Canada was starting to issue navigational warnings to all shipping about expected wind. They always start early with those warnings in order to get the Sunday sailors back into the marina’s. But the wind forces predicted were a bit unsettling. Up to 60 knots North of Sydney, where we are supposed to go tomorrow. 14 days ago, I sailed straight out of Sydney harbor again, just because of those winds.

However I can only cancel a port when it really happens and when I have seen it with my
own eyes, so course was set for Sydney. However I kept the ships speed higher than needed, with the idea, that once the swell would start, I could slow down a bit more and the Veendam would ride the waves in a more pleasant way. When the wind is from the West, there is no swell in the St. Lawrence estuary but when the wind comes from the East, from open sea, there is a chance that the swell will start to roll in.

This morning, I woke up to an unusually quiet ship and found out that there was no wind blowing at all. The marine weather forecast however got grimmer and grimmer so it must have been silence before the storm. The result of course was that the fog came down and by noon time it was a small small world. By 1.30 pm the wind finally started to pick up and the fog lifted. In the evening the wind increased to 30 knots but still not what it should have been according to the weather forecast. If the this wind just gets delayed for another 12 hours, I will just be able to slip into Sydney, as with 30 knots in open waters, the turning basin should be nearly wind still and that is what I need. Anchoring is not an alternative as the Black Watch and Norwegian Dawn have been assigned to the two anchorages.

This evening we did the new Captain’s welcome on board toast for the second time. We have now received the Champagne bottle with confetti. Thus I do my speech, I introduce the ships staf, and then the cellar master comes on the stage with a 3 feet high champagne bottle. Just before I make the toast, he aims the bottle towards the ceiling, the employee of the month pulls the trigger and the confetti bursts into the audience. Very nice effect. Once the speech is done, I plug the show. This time it was Paul Tanner, whom I have known for years and that means that I can get away with a less formal announcement.

We are all waiting to hear if the guests prefer the old captains welcome on board setup or the new one. There is something to be said for both versions so the verdict is still out. I am now tinkering with my speech as I want to increase the entertainment factor a bit. The punch lines now have to come a bit closer after another to keep the audience focused as there are less officers to be introduced. I only have 8 minutes now for the whole intros instead of 15, plus I now also have to give a little personal background of each staff member and that latter is something that is really appreciated by the audience.

Tomorrow we are in Sydney, hopefully, as long as the weather forecast keeps being wrong.