19 June 2010; At Sea.

It was another windy day today but as we had following winds, the Prinsendam happily “surfed” ahead of wind and waves and was lying as steady as a rock on the water. As our speed matched the wind, it was nearly wind still on the decks so the guests could walk around un-impaired. One advantage of the wind was that it blew away a lot of the clouds and thus the sun could peak through, giving the impression that it was also summer in Norway. On the portside the islands and mountains of the Vesteraalens were visible and they were replaced in the afternoon by the Lofoten range. We kept a fair distance from the shore as around the islands there are a lot of rocky patches and shallow areas which would definitely hinder our steady progress if we would hit one of them. Tomorrow we will spend all morning in the fjords while going to Trondheim and thus we will get our next sightseeing “fix”.

One of the readers asked a few days ago how it worked onboard with the different religions. Well it works very well, otherwise we could not deliver our product in the Holland America way, e.g. with a smile on our face. We have onboard the following –known-religions. Christianity in several forms. Islam in the milder form as practiced in Indonesia. Hinduism, Buddhism and multi deity worship with fore father worship attached to it. Their might be other things going on but I have not come across it yet.
Practicing Christians onboard are mainly the Roman Catholic Filipino’s and small number of Indonesians and Caucasians. They run their own ecumenical Church services and try to get the (passenger) reverend or priest to lead some of their services or to conduct a bible class. Those requests are seldom turned down. The Muslims, about 95% of our Indonesians onboard are Muslim, have their own leader, an Imam onboard, who is one of the crew members. For them we have a little mosque that can accommodate about 15 people. During Ramadan and other high days of the Islam calendar, when praying en-mass is required, we clear out the provision break or the tender break and turn that into a mosque.

During Ramadan, when there is no eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset, the crew meal hours for those participating in the fasting are adapted to what is needed. As the whole routine was set up for the Middle Eastern pattern of sunrise and sunset, we do run into problems here when the ships are sailing in Alaska or up the Arctic Circle where the sun hardly goes down or not at all. Then there is a sort of dispensation system in place where by a mullah decides what hours to keep. Fasting is a must for a devout Muslim but the Islamic rules also say that the fasting should not result in an endangerment of somebody’s life. Some crew are more observant than others and some have different interpretations of how it should work. A few years ago, I sailed with a quartermaster who was absolutely convinced that if he ate during the daytime, while sitting behind the firescreen door, then Allah could not see him. If the fire could not penetrate such a door, how could………………. . At the end of the Ramadan there is Idul Fitri. The celebration of the end of fasting. The company then ensures that there is special menu prepared with all the best that the Indonesian kitchen has to offer. Normally the officers come down to serve the meal and if it is a sea day, I man the soda stand to hand out the drinks.

The other religions worship in a more intimate way. Occasionally the Hindus’ ask for a corner of the dining room when they have a celebration that requires ritual eating and burning of incense. Sometimes we have a small number of multi deity worshippers on board, mostly from Bali and they have an occasional meeting that involves incense burning. As long as we know about that, the fire alarm normally goes off, then it is fine.

The rule onboard is, what you do in your cabin is up to you, as long as it does not disturb your neighbors or infringe on the company rules. What you do in public is allowed as long as it approved by the captain first and is not dis-respectful towards the other crew. As everybody understands that the only way you can survive onboard is to live in good harmony, we never have problems. I have never seen in my 30 years with the company that anybody got in to trouble for religious issues. I wish it would be the same ashore.

Tomorrow we will be in Trondheim; located deep inside Trondheim fjord. We will pick up the pilot at 0900 hrs. and then do some scenic cruising until noon time when we are scheduled to dock. Expected weather for tomorrow is partly cloudy skies, temperatures in the high forties and a gentle breeze. Looks like a good day.