21 November 2007, Belize.

It is always interesting to see cruise ships converging at the pilot station; all at the same time. You just sometimes wonder if there is not going to be a one big cruiseship pile up around the pilotboat. It can look like a row of cars coming to a shopping centre. After slowind down and lining up, we went in with 30 minutes apart. The Carnival miracle was coming from the South, we were coming from the North and behind us was the Navigator of the Seas. The latter is tomorrow in Roatan and then we will see her again in Cozumel, where she will be docked next to us.

The line up for the channel through the reefs is covered by two flashing white lights, the leading lights. The peculiar thing is that the leading lights lead you right over a shallow spot, while at both sides there is much more water. 160 feet to the left of the line, 35 feet in the leading lights and 80 feet to the right of the line. The Veendam has a draft of 26 feet. Thus we prefer to approach NOT in the leading light line. Much to the dismay of the pilot, who has a hard time understanding that we always like our margins big where possible.

Due to the winding approach through the reefs, to get to the anchorage, it is quite an interesting issue from a nautical point of view. Because of that all navigators are so scheduled that they are all part, of either the arrival or the departure sequence (except the two officers of the dog shift who will just be going to bed) so they can see how it goes. I am training up two newly joined deck officers as well and this will be part of their crash course in Holland America familiarization.

The pilots are very good in Belize but of a very peculiar breed. They seem to have problems with uttering one more word than strictly necessary and there is not much of a captain to pilot exchange going on. Just the bare orders and that is it. As with every pilot, I follow each action very closely, directly prepared and ready to take over if a mistake is made. When you visit a port for the first time, you have to rely for a large degree on the expertise of the pilot as you lack the local knowledge. If you come more often to the same port, the pilot becomes more of a compulsory presence and the need for his navigational presence starts to diminish. Some ports you can get a pilot exemption if you have done a certain number of trips but for most ports it remains compulsory. Thus we have quite a few ports where the pilot is very content, to eyeball how the captain is conning the ship to the dock, while showing a very big interest in the coffee machine and the pastries.

While going through the reef, we run an average speed of 12 knots, slowing down to 10 for two very big and tight turns, before taking the speed off completely near the anchorage. Being the second ship going in means that we have to find a spot after the first ship the Carnival Miracle has parked itself where it wants. The pilots or the port authority do not assign anchor locations. Belize roads is big enough to hold 10 cruise ships, with room for an aircraft carrier to spare, so you just find a space. It is a free for all and may the fastest one win. What we all try to do, is to anchor as close to the port as is safely possible, to keep the tender transfer time as short as possible. Thus there was great interest on the Veendam bridge, to see where the Carnival Miracle was going to park itself. As expected, lright in the middle of the anchorage.

That was good enough for me, as just past that location, is an area that exactly fits the Veendam, it is even a bit closer to the port and it is out of the way of all the speedboat and tender traffic. No passing traffic means no swell along the tender platform and that means a safer transfer for our guests in and out of the tender.

The Navigator of the Seas anchored on the other side of the Carnival Miracle, even closer to the port but had therefore to contend with all the tenders servicing the Carnival Miracle coming by.

We had a very quiet and peaceful day. The sun was shining with a gentle breeze, so good fun could be had by all.

Tomorrow we are in Santo Tomas de Castilla.