And so real life started again, after vacations visiting Holland & Malta, honey do lists and lots of Holland America hobby work, I returned to the Statendam today. As we are on a regular run where there are not that many changes in the routine of the ship, so after 3 hours of hand over my colleague could give me his pager and he went off for a well earned vacation. I will see him again on 17 June in Vancouver. The schedule of the ship is that we will continue Panama Canal Cruises until the middle of May and then move up to Vancouver for the Alaska season. That will last until the end of September after that we return to the Panama Canal run and a 30 day south Pacific cruise in December. As is normal, the ship captains split up the Alaska season and thus I am doing the beginning and the end and my colleague the period in the middle. I will be back again on the 16th of September and that will mean that I will do that 30 day cruise and then will be off for Christmas again. I have updated my sailing schedule (under the tab Notes for the Reader) accordingly. Which can of course be subject to extremely much change.
A captain’s handover normally consists of two reports. One is the End of Term report that is being sent to the office, attention of the SR VP Fleet operations and informal handover notes with pertinent information pertaining to what is going on at the moment and issues that have not been completed yet. In the End of Term Report it is noted what happened during the past sailing period of the captain with the emphasis of where follow up and/or response from the office is needed. It is an excellent tool for the Vice presidents and other stakeholders to remain abreast of what is going on. With 15 ships sailing all over the world, it is impossible for them to keep track of everything that happens with a ship. There is a template that we use so that all important topics are mentioned and addressed where needed. These Captain Reports vary in length between 15 and 40 pages depending on what a certain captain thinks should be brought forward. I of course see only the one of myself and of the colleague that I am sailing with but with 30 captains in the fleet, there must be a great deal of variation in end results going to the office. Reports with photos, reports only typed in capitals (easy to read……) reports with attachments and even reports with complete emails strings pasted in. Not all captains enjoy writing and it does result in a great variation of “literary output”” being forwarded to the office. Each captain writes on average 2 EOT’s a year, so times 30 captains that means that at least 60 of those reports are forwarded each year to the Sr. VP. He has to read them all and is required by company rules to respond within 3 weeks. To achieve that the report is circulated around the office, where each expert adds his/her comments and then it is returned to the captain who wrote it. Similar reports are written by the chief officer and Chief Engineer at the end of their contract and so we ensure that our head office is being kept happily occupied.
The other report, the hand over notes, is much larger as attached to it are all sorts of information that are of immediate concern for the joining captain. When we are at home we are connected to the company’s email system but still there is a lot of material floating around that cannot be accessed while at home. Going through all this material takes up most of the time that we spend on the hand over. With the paperwork out of the way, it is time to look at the email system and its contents. Here the relieving captain can only point out the most important items. It normally takes 2 or 3 days before all the emails kept are being reviewed and then either discarded, put in the follow up file or file for posterity in one or other sub directory.
In the old days the handover also included a walkabout around the ship but nowadays a turnover day is so hectic that they crew should not really be distracted by two captains poking their noses in to everything. That is better left for the regular inspection rounds. We left San Diego shortly after 5 pm. following the Carnival Spirit out to open sea. She is on a 7 day Mexico cruise with a first call at Manzanillo. So we will be following her almost all the way to Puerto Vallarta as Manzanillo is just to the south of it. The weather is reasonable, overcast with some showers and very little wind. No doubt it will get better when we pass Cabo San Lucas the day after tomorrow.
March 17, 2012 at 9:23 pm
Hello Captain Albert,
Glad to see you are back at you blog! Looking forward to reading the stories you have to tell!
Best,
Liz & Jim
March 17, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Dag kapitein Albert,
Fijn dat u er weer bent.Ik heb een lang HAL verleden ( 1951 tot en met 1967 ). Ik ben de maatschapij altijd blijven volgen, de laatste jaren voor een belangrik deel dankzij u. 17 augustus schepen mijn vrouw en ik in op de Eurodam. Ik ben beniuewd of mijn oude vertrouwde Hal gevoelens weer naar boven zullen komen. 5 maal Nieuw Amsterdam, 2 maal Maasdam. 1 maal Ryndam, 1maal Rotterdam, 1 maal Noordam en 1maal Prinses Margriet ( helaas nooit de Statendam, een van uw oude schepen*, kortom ik heb mijn HAL verleden waar ik vaakj met plezier aan terug denk, bijvoorbeeld Auke de Jong op de Nieuw Amsterdam. Ik blif u graag volgen de komende maanden. Goede vaart.Leo Sapir.
March 17, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Welcome back Captain. As you end your holiday I begin mine on Zuiderdam.
We will synch up in the fall when I join you on the South Pacific cruise.
Settle in and watch out for WET PAINT.
March 17, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Welcome back Captain I have really missed these ‘armchair’ Cruises. I hope you are refreshed after your vacation and ‘raring’ to go!! best wishes for good Cruising Robina
March 18, 2012 at 12:10 am
Hope you had a fine vacation. We missed you. Welcome back.
March 18, 2012 at 2:24 am
Opened my email this evening, and the excitment of seeing your blog was back, sent me over the moon… Welcome back Captian, welcome back !!!
March 18, 2012 at 4:51 am
Welcome back Capt. Schoonderbeek! Smooth sailing! 🙂
March 18, 2012 at 6:17 am
Welcome back Captain. I started following your blog when you were aboard Veendam in Alaska and your posts made our voyage more interesting as I could refer to them as we sailed on her on the southbound run from Seward to Vancouver after visiting our son and his family in Dillingham.
I only wish that HAL would activate their webcams to public view as it is great to see what you all see. Crystal does an amazing job with 3 cameras active from the bridge. Maybe someday —
Anyway great to have you back and look forward to your insights.
Thanks for taking the time to write for us.
March 18, 2012 at 8:09 am
Welcome back, Captain!!! I have read your blog from nearly the beginning but have never posted before. I really enjoy your blog and miss it when you are on vacation. Thank you for taking the time each day to share part of your life with us.
March 18, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Dear Captain Schoonderbeek, its good to be back on your well run ship!
And together with many, many readers, we are looking forward to the daily surprises you wil have in store for us.
Thanks Captain in advance!
March 19, 2012 at 12:14 am
I join the previous posters in welcoming you back, Captain Albert. Since I am currently “land locked”, I will really enjoy cruising with you on line. Just wondering whether you have butterflies when you start a new cruise schedule, much like even the most experienced teachers often get nervous at the beginning of a new school year?
March 19, 2012 at 8:04 pm
Bon Voyage and Godspeed Captain!