13 November 2011; At sea.

 The frontal system was moving away from us today but it had a lot of wind in its tail, so for most of the day it blew about 30 knots but as there was not much swell accompanying it, the ship was mostly steady and thus it was a great day on board. By the time we will arrive in Oranjestad Aruba; the wind should have gone down to 10 to 15 knots, which is the best we can hope for when docking there. In Aruba the docks are perpendicular to the wind and if there is a strong trade wind blowing it is very difficult to keep the ship alongside while the ropes are being sent ashore. So the less wind there is, the better it is for my heart rate. Between midnight and 6 am we sailed through the Windward Passage located between Cuba and Haiti. The most southwestern point of Haiti is called Cap Tiburon and we cleared that one just after 06.00 and for the rest of the day and night we sailed and will sail through the Caribbean Sea on a south easterly course. That will bring us eventually to the West point of Aruba to end up in front of Oranjestad at 08.45  As is the case with all the ports on the A.B.C islands, Oranjestad is located on the southwest side where the bays are and also the best shelter from the strong trade winds & cold fronts coming over from the open sea. 

A.B.C stands for Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao and the capitals of all three islands are on the south side. Oranjestad for Aruba, Kralendijk for Bonaire and Willemstad for Curacao. The same pattern you see also at the islands on the eastern side of the Caribbean Sea; St Thomas, St Maarten, St. Lucia they all have the ports on the lee side of the islands, which is either the south side or the west side. Makes sense, it is just amazing that it has been possible, nature wise, to do it that way. That will all be interesting for the guests to explore tomorrow. Today I first called “upon the troops” to gather for the postponed 11 November memorial service in the main lounge. The Cruise Director had put a short program together to honor our veterans and those who were left behind, in an appropriate way. Our classical quartet played a fitting opening melody, after which the on board reverend spoke a short prayer. That was followed by my speech and then we had our moment of silence. That was announced by giving 11 strokes on the ships bell by our youngest crewmember, one of the four deck cadets that we have sailing with us at the moment. The ceremony ended with another haunting melody by the strings. With about 400 guests in attendance, it was a moving ceremony and a proper tribute to those we owe so much to. Lest we forget…………………..

I will upload some photos tomorrow.

With the navigation safely in the hand of the navigators, I could focus on ships inspections. A bit unusual for a captain but I have two sailors working for me at the moment, who are busy with spruce up projects. In those areas where the head of departments give less priority to, because there are so much more pressing matters going on. But the chief was 2 sailors over his regular manning number, so he lost them. Thus they are now doing paint and touch up work in areas where the responsibilities between the various departments on board are blurred or where it takes the coordination between the three departments to get something to happen quickly. No matter how good the cooperation is on board and the managerial qualities of all involved, and I am blessed with a very good team here, sometimes it takes a captain to push things through. Thus, during my regular inspections, I now also compile a separate “captain’s sailors to do list” and that keeps me quite well occupied at times when my presence is not required on the bridge and I am not busy with deleting emails.

Tomorrow we will be in Oranjestad Aruba and the weather looks a bit of a mixed bag. Low winds, which is good, but also occasional rains showers which is less good for the guests.