- Captain Albert's Website and Blog -

Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

22 June 2015; Miami, Florida.

I had expected to be back with my blog (and on the ships) in the beginning of June, however I work for a shipping company. A cruise ship company on top of that. So everything is always subject to very much change and this time around it was not different.

Instead of going back to the ships I was drafted into Seattle Office to help prepare for the Senior Management Conference (SMC) in Miami. This is an affair which the company stages about every 18 to 24 months. The idea is to announce the latest developments and plans for the near and far future and to listen to feedback from the ships.  Apart from it being very useful for both the ships and the office side it is also good fun as we meet everybody again, who we might not have seen for years.

There are two SMC’s, with a few days in between, so the Captains and Ships Staff can rotate and everybody gets a chance to go.  There are a lot of presentations to support this SMC program and as a result I was suddenly sitting in Seattle office making power points for supporting the various Nautical discussions.

The first conference took place between 15 and 19 June and now the 2nd one is in progress.  More about that in a few days.

The second conference will end coming Thursday and then on Sunday I will join the Zaandam in Vancouver for three weeks. I have posted my complete schedule for the remainder of the year on the Tab: Notes for the reader and my schedule: at the top of the blog. I will also be in Europe and the Caribbean in the autumn so I hope that there will be enough variation to keep all readers happy.

My main activity during my last leave was organizing maintenance of the upkeep of the apartment building where I am living and now I am an absolute expert in scaffolding. As this time we tackled part of the outside of the building and the roof.  But I also had time for a little bit of work for the blog and added to “captains of the past” section where the bio’s of Capt. Scriwanek and Capt. Reedijk are located. Plus the history of the ss Burgerdijk which ties in with the Capt. Scriwanek story. As more relatives and descendants are finding out about this blog section, I get more and more info and photos, so there will be more momentum in updating the various bio’s.

I will be back in a few days with some titbits about Seattle Office and about the SMC and then it is time to go to Alaska with the ms Zaandam from Vancouver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 Comments

  1. Missed Career at Sea

    June 22, 2015 at 9:20 pm

    YEH, Captain! I hope you eat lunch on board the Zaandam in Vancouver …………….

  2. Glad you’re back.

  3. Captain Albert:

    So glad you’re back at the blog. I have been missing your blogs and have been fishing around for your whereabouts among the HAL supercruisers. Rumor had it you were working on Carnival Corporation’s new “Cruise with a Purpose” concept, or whatever the project’s name is. That would have been cool, I still remember your involvement in the Statendam’s Puerto Corinto school project. I loved participating in that.

    Welcome back Captain…..Ruud

  4. Capital cruiser

    June 23, 2015 at 8:35 pm

    Welcome back, Captain Albert! Looking forward to your always informative and entertaining blogs.

  5. I also add my welcome back to your blog. I kept checking for your return as they always make fascinating and interesting reading.
    Looking forward to your next blog.

    Best regards

    Ted Dixon Cape Town

  6. Welcome back !! For your many loyal readers, the drought is over!! We look forward to your posts ,and hopefully many photos from Alaska. For my husband and me ,Zaandam and Alaska will always hold a special place: years ago this was our first Holland America Line cruise. Today I/we feast on your reports and photos. Thank you for giving so much interesting joy to your many readers!!

    A.E.

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