7 April 2008, Key West.

We docked slightly late in Key West. It is a very tight schedule from Tampa to Key West and I had to go slow for most of the time through Tampa bay. In the beginning because of the reduced visibility caused by the rain and later because of passing ships. The latter required us to slow down as you can only pass opposing ships, especially the bigger ones at certain points in the channel. That delay would have meant that we could have docked about 15 minutes behind schedule. Next was an issue with the manning of the aft lines boat for the docking in Key West and that cost us another 15 minutes.

The rain we had on Tampa departure moved over Key West around 3 am. in the morning so by the time we arrived, it was sunny and dry but still quite windy. That wind died away later in the afternoon and by 3 pm. it was a very very pleasant afternoon.

We were docked at the Navy pier today, which is the farthest pier out from town. Again the pecking order is in place. Ships that call on a weekly basis get the pier closest to port and then it goes from there. So we had the Carnival Celebration at the downtown Mallory dock and the Carnival liberty at the B pier, leaving us with the Navy pier. As it is the navy pier, nobody is allowed to walk around there thus there is a tram service to take the guests from the ship to the gate and back. It being a navy dock means there is most of the time something of interest to see from the forces and so it was also this time.

There was an American navy ship docked across from us taking on fuel. That ship had been involved in anti drug operations in the Caribbean. All over the south Caribbean there are NATO and USCG ships patrolling the sea ways and trying to catch fast boats or intercept small airplanes who are involved in drug smuggling. Lately they have been quite successful and all their – drug- catches are then delivered to this particular navy ship that transports the drugs to Key West. Once ashore the illegal substances are destroyed. According to the pilot this time several tons were brought ashore with a street value that ran into the hundreds of millions.

Another ship in port was the Louise Chouest. This is not a Navy ship but a science vessel that is affiliated to the navy. This ship has been conducting under water experiments and
exercises of the coast from Key West for a long time and yesterday we saw it working together with a big navy submarine.

Especially for people who come from the interior of the USA, this is most of the time of interest as one does not see much navy activity on the prairie; in same way as one seldom sees a cowboy on the high seas.

Both Carnival ships left ahead of us and as they had to swing around for open sea right of the Veendam’s portside bow, that was also something of interest. We left at 6pm. and after swinging around in the basin sailed for open sea. Tomorrow will be a nice day at sea, before we arrive in Belize on Wednesday.