18 January 2010; At Sea.

The wind did not change direction and thus it was a following wind for this leg of the cruise. That meant that the relative wind on deck would be the ships speed minus the wind force; a lot better than what we had when leaving Key West, when the relative wind on deck was the wind force and the speed combined. Together with sunny skies it turned out to be a great day to enjoy the Caribbean Sea. We are running at a slow speed, as the distance between Santa Marta and Isla de Providencia is too long for an overnight run and thus we spent a leisurely day at sea.

Not that this day at sea was to be boring. Apart from all the activities going on in the ship with lectures, get togethers, tournaments and demonstrations (especially in our Culinary Arts Theater by a celebrity chef) we also had the grand opening of the new open deck aft on deck 9. To make it all perfect, I cranked the ships speed up a little bit so it matched the wind speed and created a wind still environment on the deck. Due to the new cabins below, the deck is now more angular and has thus more room for stretchers and sitting area’s than before. Also it now has a lido bar and thus a perfect area to wile away a sunny sea. As mentioned before, the Prinsendam was the only ship that did not have such a bar and thus we now comply with the company norm at least as far as bars go. For the rest the Prinsendam is and remains a one off within the fleet and will always remain that way, that is what makes this ship so attractive.

So today we officially opened the Sea View Deck and the Sea View Bar, which is located on the portside forward just behind the Ocean Spa. The Cruise Director had come up with a party plan, which consisted of live music, free drinks and good conversation and it worked a breeze. While standing at the pools edge, he formally toasted the place open and at that moment the ship moved a bit and he was nicely splattered in sea water. So it was a proper baptism.

Last minute cleaning of the Bar before the Grand Opening.

As for most guests the ship will be their home for 70 days, we rigged the welcome onboard banner above the pool.

It looks like that the new bar is a great success.

In the mean time the Prinsendam happily trundled on to the West heading for Isla de Providencia, which claims to be the most laid back island in the Caribbean Sea and as it is indeed off the beaten track it has been so far been spared from mass tourism. Even for the Prinsendam as the Elegant Explorer it is going to be a challenge to get there. The tender distance is nearly two miles and we have to hope for nice weather to make it possible. At the moment it looks good so we are on the way.

On the surface of the sea there is not much to see in this area, hardly any birds, no flying fish and we have not seen any dolphins or porpoises yet either. Underwater it is a different story. The water here is in area’s over 8000 feet deep and that has to do with mountains ranges and valleys under water. The South West part of the Caribbean Sea consists of the Colombia Basin and the Clark basin. While I do not know who Clark (*) was, giving these areas a name does make sense. Basically there are two flat areas surrounded by high mountain ranges that tip occasionally above water in the form of reefs and islands. As these mountains can be 8000 feet high up from the seabed, the surrounding area is relatively flat, with height variations of only a few hundred feet. You find this sort of surface layout under most oceans. Flat areas interspersed by Mountain ranges or higher ridges. I always wonder what the sea would look like if we could empty it out for just one moment. I think it would be a shocking realization to find out that the Rocky Mountains or the Himalaya’s are not that special after all.

(*) Google brings up many Clarks but none that I could determine to qualify to have a sub sea basin named after him/her.