This was our second day at sea and during the early morning the wind finally started to abate and came down to about 15 knots. The ships movement however continued, as a long rolling swell kept coming in from the North-mid Pacific. There was a lower, 2nd swell running as well, more from the West, and that made the Veendam both pitch (bow going up and down) and roll (sideways movement). The latter kept the hips stabilizers nicely occupied. The pitching we just have to live with. Thus far nobody has been able to invent a satisfactory system that stops the ship from doing that.

Although it is being studied. Especially Japanese scientists have been working through the years on bow and stern fins with the idea to dampen the vertical movement of the ship. The last I heard was that they managed, with a smaller ship, to reduce the vertical movement measured in G force (that is basically what you feel in your stomach when the ships deck suddenly falls away from under your feet) from 0.25 to 0.20G, thus a reduction of 20%. If you take into consideration that stabilizers on average reduce the ships roll by about 90%, you can see that anti-pitching devices still have a long way to go before becoming effective.

However it did not seem to affect the guests very much, the sea-sick bags hanging in the ships where looked at with disdain and all the shipboard activities were well attended; as far as possible with only 70% of the ships capacity filled. We passed the California –Oregon border at noon time and we should reach the entrance to Strait Juan de Fuca by 9 am tomorrow morning.

Today was also the Official Birthday of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. In reality she was born on 31 January but she kept her mothers birthday (the late Queen Juliana) to officially celebrate it with the nation. In Dutch we call it Queen’s day (Koninginne dag) and big parties are thrown all over the country. Standard item is to wear something orange. This color comes from the fact that the Queen is from the house of Orange which is originally an area in the South of France. In the bigger cities, street parties and parades are organized and orange is then the predominant color. If the ship is in port we hoists all sorts of flags, there is an official protocol for that even to the extend of which flag should go up and down first, but with this wind there was little I could do at sea. Maybe next year.

As we are coming closer to Alaska there are a few things that the guests will notice while on board. That is apart from the outside temperature of course, which dipped below 50oF today. Through the years, American States and Canadian provinces have passed legislation that extends to onboard the cruise ships. The first one we will notice is tomorrow morning. When we are sailing in Washington State waters (e.g. three miles or closer to the shore) we are not allowed to have the Casino open. Now technically it is just possible to stay out of the 3 miles when in the Strait of Juan de Fuca but the moment you have to change course for a fisherman, you are inside. And fishermen always tend to be in the way. Thus to avoid violation of this rule, the Casino will be shut tomorrow.

Canada, read British Columbia, has a different rule. Here it is 5 miles from the port. So when we leave Vancouver on 2 May, we have to wait until we are five miles from the harbor limit before we can open. Not a difficult rule but it is one that needs remembering and so the Casino Manager calls the bridge to verify that the ship is passed the magic five mile line before eager gamblers can attack the slot machines and gaming tables.

In the course of the evening the swell became slowly become less prominent and by the tomorrow morning it should be gone completely. Weather for Victoria looks good, at least for seasonal standards. Mid fifties and partly cloudy.