20 Oct. 2014; At Sea.

During the night the winds subsided to almost nothing, much less than predicted and if it is better than the prediction, then I am all in favour.  Also the swells disappeared with the wind and now there is only a very low swell left coming in from the mid ocean. Looking at the direction I would say that this swell is a left over from our friend Hurricane Gonzales who after making life miserable in Bermuda is now getting people in the UK excited.

We are still on the way South, staying out of the Gulf Stream and the Captain is telling me, that it even looks like that we have a small counter current with us. At least we are going faster than the engines can move us forward so there must be something there.  We are roughly in the area of the North and South Carolina’s working our way down to Florida.

HAL’s new cabin steward design.

We had some excitement today in the Housekeeping Department on board as the cabin stewards were issued new uniforms. Holland America tries to keep the image of those on board fresh and contemporary and started a new uniform project about 18 months ago. First the Lido stewards, then the dining room stewards and now the Cabin Stewards.  Also the uniforms of the Guest Relations Attendants were changed some time ago and that change included the Canaletto Manager.

Canaletto Managers uniform which is a regular crème suit with yellow tie.

I wonder if they will ever get around to the bridge uniforms. Always fancied myself in one of those Star Trek uniforms.

In some other ways, the uniforms have seen a reduction. Sailors wear more and more utility coveralls in the color brown instead of the blue uniform with the tally-wacker on the back. It makes sense as paint and grease show less on the coveralls and the coverall material lends itself better for cleaning out grease and paint than the blue uniform material.

With a sea day, going around everybody is catching up with paperwork and the planning for this Trans Canal cruise. I have been busy with plotting in all the drills, trainings and other stuff that I get myself involved in so that we get the most out of what is available. Due to our dry dock we could not finish the implementation of the 3 alarm system here and thus we will do it shortly after the Panama Canal. Then by the time we reach San Diego everybody will be very well drilled and settled into the new routine.

Tomorrow morning we should be docked at Port Canaveral by 08.00 hrs. and then stay until 20.00 hrs. The ship will get about 1300 tons of fuel onboard to make the coming voyage and then the day after in Fort Lauderdale, there will be heavy storing with provisions for the remainder of the voyage.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is not bad at all. Mainly overcast with temperatures just touching the 80’s. A good day for messing around with lifeboats.