18 October, 2007 Charleston.

The last time I had been in Charleston was in 2001 when I was captain of the Nieuw Amsterdam laid up at the shipyard of Detyens. The NA had been sold the year before to United States Lines with the idea to bring a more modern cruise ship under USA flag on the routes operated previously by American Hawaii. For several reasons this all went wrong and the ship was returned to Holland America. I had sailed her out and therefore it was logical that I would bring her back as well. Being captain of a ship in lay-up is in sofar unusual that you basically have nothing to do. The ship needs somebody in command but with no navigation, no guests and only normal maintenance going on, the operational activities of a captain are very limited. Now I hate it not having anything to do, so I appointed myself to being the bus driver of the little 8 seater van that we had. Everyday I went shopping for the chief engineer and the chief officer getting material for sprucing the ship back up again. A ship which been rather neglected before the company got it back. In the weekends I took groups out of the 180 crew on board shopping. We also had a shuttle bus arranged for this. A shuttle bus that ran more or less regularly. I say more or less, as one bus driver got lost occasionally and when replaced by another, this driver displayed a rather “relaxed attitude” towards time schedules. The 3rd one never showed up and the 4th one crashed the bus into a car outside JC Penny as he was on the phone to his girl friend at the same time. Finally we got one who did a good job but by then the ship was almost handed over to the new operator. In the end the Nieuw Amsterdam was chartered out to Thomson Cruises of England and I was transferred to the Noordam.

So I knew Charleston quite well and also knew that the approach was very simple, with a wide approach channel and I hoped that I could continue to make good time. During the day yesterday, we had more Gulf Stream current against us then predicted, plus adverse winds and that slowed us down to the extend that I expected to be a least 90 minutes late.

However the pilot was a bit early, I could run any speed in the channel that I wanted to and we were docked at 08.45 with the gangway out and the ship cleared. Only 45 minutes late. I had already promised the guests that we would stay an hour longer to make sure that the in port time would remain the same and now I could make that promise come true. Instead of staying from 8 to 6 we now stayed from 9 to 7. Everybody happy.

Today we had to bunker fuel oil, 1000 tons of it, which will last us almost three weeks, depending on how fast we have to sail during the coming cruises. As the price for a ton of heavy fuel oil just tipped the $ 400,– on the spot market, we were loading in about five hours over $ 400.000 worth of oil. Not too long ago the price hovered around the $ 175, — and that was during the time that the current cruises were announced with their prices. Now the fuel price has more than doubled and that of course affects the company’s profit. However Holland America has decided not to pass the higher fuel prices on, by means of a fuel surcharge on the ticket price and thus we have to absorb it somehow in our running costs. That means that the chief engineer and I are now forever looking at ways to save a bit here and save a bit there. Without it affecting the guests Cruise experience of course.

One of the ways that I can gain quite a bit is by pulling off the dock as soon as the last guest is back on board. The all on board time is always set 30 minutes before the actual sailing time and in the past we would then wait to the exact departure time before letting go the last lime. Now I am already singling up by letting go the extra lines before the all on board time. As soon as the Security officer advises that everybody is indeed on board; off we go. This works most of the time and that half an hour can sometimes save me running one extra engine. The only time it does not work, is when the tours are coming back late and then it costs extra money because I have to go faster to make up the lost time but also because I have everybody and the engines on standby earlier.

Here in Charleston we did the same thing. All on board was 19.00 hrs. and by 18.55 the ship was off the dock. We are now going to have two days at sea, bucking the Gulf Stream all the way to the Florida Keys and as we have again the wind against us, I am not expecting to make good speed and that is not good for the fuel consumption.