Willemstad is a very interesting port from a navigator’s point of view as it is quite a challenge to get in there. The port entrance, St Anna Baai, is perpendicular on wind and current and that means that when you head straight in on the course line, you run aground. Wind and current will push you onto the west side of the channel. As the current is never the same and the winds tend to be gusty it is not one of the easiest ports. Today we had the additional challenge of having to dock about 2000 feet inside the port entrance, just past the floating bridge. That means that as soon as you are out of the current you have to start giving full astern, to slow the ship down otherwise you over shoot. If that happens the only option is to continue by passing under the Koningin Juliana Bridge and swing around in the inner harbor, which is called the Schottegat and then return. As a result you end up docking starboard side alongside. The port prefers s portside alongside, so that on departure you just back out into the Caribbean Sea again. Continue reading

Well the wind kept pounding away and it pushed the current up as well, so for most of the day we had almost 3 knots in combined wind & current force against us and even with running the engines full out, there was no way we could fight against that. So we had a delay in arrival but as we had the whole evening as well in port, our departure was scheduled for 22.30 (all on board), all tours could still take place and everybody had time to go ashore. Bonaire is a very nice island and avery pleasant to go ashore, hence the company has opted to schedule evening stays here. Something that can be done because the next Island Curacao, is only 69 miles away as the crows flies and about 90 miles away for us to sail to. Bonaire even has some hills, clearly visible from our Northerly approach but the problem is those hills are on the North West side and we are docking at the South East side. Continue reading

Upon leaving the shelter of Haiti, we got the full brunt of the Caribbean Sea winds. Normally called the Trade Winds but this went beyond what a trade wind is supposed to be. Wind in the region of 30 knots sometimes peaking at 40 knots, are not Trade Winds, they are gales. For the guests the winds are luckily mostly on the bow and thus I do not have to keep the doors to the outside decks closed. It is a bit breezy outside but the bow and front superstructure of the ship are nicely shielding the winds from reaching the walk-around decks. Thus it did not affect the life on board and that is the most important thing. I am running the engines full out but against so much wind and current, there is a moment you cannot do much more. So we just have to see how much it will affect us.

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It was a hard push against the Gulf Stream. The benefit we had yesterday morning, now worked against us and it was not before midnight that we were maintaining our regular schedule. We sailed the ship as close to the Bahama Banks as possible (staying about 4 miles off, to stay out of territorial waters) and as far away as possible from the axis of the gulf stream but still it was hard going. There was a whole fleet of ships around us, all suffering from the same problem, all pushing and pushing against 4 knots of current. We were overtaken by just one ship, a container vessel, which was doing 21 knots and that meant it must have been running its engine full out at 25 knots of top speed. Container ships are still the ships which “are in a hurry” as they often sail on very tight schedules. Arriving too late and the slot at the container terminal might be gone and then the ship might have to wait a day. That is not cheap. Although also in the container industry, the fuel prices are hitting hard and many a container company is now opting for going slower by putting more ships on the same route, so that the calling frequency remains the same. It is called “slow steaming” in the container jargon. We were not exactly slow steaming but the adverse current made it look like that.

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We came charging down the Straits for Florida with 3 knots of Gulf Stream current in the back and high hopes to make a speedy arrival in Fort Lauderdale, and then found the Maasdam in our way. They are on a 10 day loop cruise to the South East Caribbean and have as a last port of call Half Moon Cay. From there they have a tight schedule to get to Fort Lauderdale so it all depends on how fast they can get the guests back on board. If it is a nice day in HMC then the ship will always leave late as all the guests aim on coming back on the last tender. Although it is not very customer friendly, we as captains, always hope for a rain shower about an hour before departure as it helps with a more regular flow back towards the tender dock. I think the Maasdam also suffered from lack of rain in HMC and thus they were later than scheduled at the pilot station. Then there was some muddle with the pilot scheduling and all in all I did not get in as fast as I had hoped for. Still we made it safely to the dock and docked next to the Maasdam. So indeed we could look at ourselves as the Maasdam is still a virtual carbon copy of the Statendam. We were the two only cruise ships in port and occupied berth 20 and 19.

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Today we spent our 2^nd day at sea and the weather was a lot better. At least it felt that way on board. It was still blowing hard but now wind and swell were running with the ship and as she was doing nearly the same speed so it meant a wind still situation on the decks. With the sun shining as well it made for a pleasant day. In the mean time I was watching the ships speed. Yesterday wind and current held us back and today wind and current should make up for what we lost yesterday. Above Cuba the wind and currents are in general in the North Westerly direction, going with us towards Fort Lauderdale. When coming out of the Old Bahama Channel, we are getting even more current with us, as we get caught by the Gulf Stream. However it is never certain, or easy to predict, how much current there will be. Strong winds give an extra push to the water but it can also result in the Gulf Stream getting stronger and if the axis moves, some of that water might be diverted into Old Bahama Channel and cause a counter current. Continue reading

For the whole day we had very windy weather coming from the North East to East. A sort of enhanced Trade wind but then blowing with a velocity of 35 knots and some times more. With it came the waves and swell but luckily the combined height did not go over the 14 feet (that is when the ship really starts to pitch) and while the ship was moving a bit, it was not an uncomfortable ride. Most guests always think that the use of stabilizers will solve any movement issue of the ship. Unfortunately that is not the case. Although stabilizers are the greatest gift to passengers at sea since the concept of deep sailing was invented, they only work to a certain extent. First of all you need speed as stabilizers need flow to operate and secondly the system can only reduce about 90% of the rolling motion of the ship. Stabilizers are controlled by a gyroscope which senses the movement of the ship and as it is always a reaction to the movement it can never achieve a 100% output. Then there is the bow movement, what we call pitching. Thus far nothing has been invented to control that movement. Which means we just have to live with it. And that was what the ship did, a bit of both. Continue reading

We made our timely approach and saw that the Island Princess was also on time. She had announced a pilot station time of 07.00 hrs but she arrived at 07.15. As we had scheduled ourselves for 07.30 anyway it worked out fine and we lined ourselves up behind her with a 3 mile distance. My navigator had calculated that if the ship travelled at a speed of 12 miles and you divided that by 4, then we would be able to cover 3 miles in 15 minutes and thus that was a good distance. Isn’t navigation wonderful? It even worked out as there was no current. The pilot hopped on board and after a discussion about where to go (Cartagena) how to go there (through the entrance) and how to do it safely (not to hit the Island Princess) we sailed into Cartagena Bay through the narrow entrance of Boca Chica. The Island Princess is also on a tight schedule as she has to make the Panama Canal tomorrow morning and thus her captain is in a hurry getting in and out. With 3,500 passengers on board he has some impressive logistics to deal with. Continue reading

At 2 am in the morning Flamingo Signal Station announced that the pilot boarding time would be 04.30 and that meant heaving up the anchor at 03.30. Flamingo signal is the control tower on the Pacific side that deals with all the Canal Traffic. On the Atlantic side it is called Cristobal Signal Station. Normally it does not take that long but here at Fuerte Amador we are anchoring in almost solid grey sea mud that clings to the chain as a tight fitting glove. So we have to heave the chain in very slowly and spray the mud off with the regular anchor wash (four nozzles) but also with two extra fire hoses handled by the sailors. If we do not do that then we have a few tons of mud going into the chain locker, eventually not leaving enough room for the chain itself. Continue reading

The Caribbean Sea is still a blow hole at the moment and that meant, when turning into the gulf of Panama, that we had 35 knots of adverse winds on the bow. Not good for my speed. It slowed me down with about 1.5 miles in the hour and that means an early arrival in Fuerte Amador did not happen. So we just made it on time and then with having to start up the tender service it was 30 minutes past the official arrival time. Not much I could do about it, the weather does not always follow the Holland America Cruise brochure. (Otherwise it would be sunshine and wind still weather all the time, plus always a nice lady on the beach to look at with nobody else around) The one thing I could do and did was to race down to the anchorage as fast as was safely possible. Today we were in luck as the Panama Canal anchorage was nearly empty so I could cut across the area instead of having to go around it. That saved at least 10 minutes. An unpleasant obstacle was the fact that a small oil tanker had parked itself on the regular cruise ship anchorage and I had to anchor further out; which increased the tender distance. Still all went well and with using the stern thruster I could create a good lee for the tenders and the tender operation went smoothly. Continue reading