14 March 2011; At sea.

 It is 1090 Nautical miles from Fort Lauderdale to St. Barts and thus we have to spend two days at sea in order to cover the distance.  It is never a bad idea to start a cruise with some sea time, especially if it is a longer cruise. We still have 60 days to go on this cruise and when we enter the Mediterranean we are going to do port after port, day after day, with only the occasional sea day in between.  By that time we will all appreciate the luxury of having some relaxing time at sea. Although the amount of relaxing depends on oneself, as the cruise director fills the daily program to the brim with activities so you can be as busy as you want to be. For the deck department sea days are great to catch up with paperwork and to plan for the coming ports that are ahead of us. While the ship is approaching its first port; we are already about 5 ports down the road with the planning for the daily operation. Although the ports are booked by the company about two years in advance, we only know a few days in advance if we are going to be the only ship in port or not and what local rules and regulations have been dreamed up recently, which of course we have to comply with. It is a never ending puzzle. Continue reading

So the cruise started with the Prinsendam as the last cruise ship of the day leaving Fort Lauderdale. We crossed the Straits of Florida on a North Easterly heading aiming for the North West Providence channel. There are basically two ways of getting to the Eastern Caribbean. That is going through Old Bahama Channel South of the Bahama banks and North of Cuba or our way; going north of the Bahama Banks. The Southern route is longer but with bad North Atlantic storms you are more sheltered as the Bahama banks, islands and reefs break the North Atlantic swell. At least for some time, eventually you clear the banks and then you are fully in the open as well. With the current weather it does not makes much of a difference which route you choose, although the Northerly route can have a lot less wind, as it is a bit further away from the trade winds during the first sea day and that makes it not so windy on the outside decks.  I saw that I was not the only one who had chosen the Northerly route, also the Norwegian Epic and Celebrity Constellation, both going to St. Maarten and our Eurodam, going to Grand Turk went north. Continue reading

 As scheduled I returned to the ship today after having flown into the port last night. The Prinsendam was not at her regular terminal due to the Eurodam being in as well and for the rest the port was full of the competition. Crown Princess, Oasis of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas, Seven Seas Navigator, Celebrity Celebration and the Carnival Freedom. All ships together bringing around 12,000 guests ashore and taking the same number out again. Together with crew coming and going it must have made for an interesting day at the airport. Not that my first day onboard was of less interest. Apart from the regular handover with my colleague, there was at once the question, will we sail on time? That is something that is not completely under my control as it mainly depends on the speed with which the longshoremen can load the stores and provisions; and the amount to be loaded. Going on a Grand Voyage means that we store much heavier than for a regular cruise as we had to take all the normal supplies with us for the full two months. During this cruise we will stack up on Food supplies and other perishables locally, but the rest, coming from American suppliers we load as much as possible in the home port. As a result you see a sudden increase in the amount of toilet paper being loaded, just to give an example. Continue reading

Good morning,

I have posted some more information under the various captains biographies. The most extensive additions are with the pages of Captain Kooijman, Captain van den Heuvel and Captain Snelleman.

Best regards

Capt. Albert

Good morning,

As promised during my last blog, I was planning to put some more articles on line. If you look to the right of this page you will see  that a large number of names have appeared. These are Holland America Line captains from the olden days. I have made a start with putting their bio’s on line. Most pages have at this moment only a photo and the listing of captains is far from complete. More will be added in the future and for some captains I will have to rely greatly on information from other people who will hopefully read this blog.

Also added is the ship’s history of the Ariadne. This ship was never owned by HAL or its predecessor but is of significance as it was the first ever ship that sailed for us.  Therefore I thought it would be fitting to have it included.

Best regards

Capt. Albert

After our spectacular day in Grand Turk, we have an even nicer day at sea to day. It remained indeed wind still, or nearly wind still, and the sun shone as it if it had to catch up from long time before. Also the high ocean swells that had been bothering us for most of the cruise were subsiding and as a result the ship was a steady as a rock. Important for the guests, as it makes the enjoyment of the last day greater and it also makes it easier to pack the suitcases. The last part is always an un-pleasant high light of the cruise. I know there are quite a few guests onboard who try to put off the packing to the very last minute and if then confronted with a rocky ship, they can run into time problems. Today was a perfect cruise day at sea. Still time to enjoy the sun, the ship and having comfortable circumstances for all the packing and trying to figure out how to get the contents of three suitcases into two. Continue reading

As mentioned yesterday I was concerned about the weather. The Bahamas’ and the Caicos are all low lying islands, Keys and reefs and are completely exposed to the North Atlantic weather. The dock is not sheltered for any sort of ship higher than 25 feet or so. Also the pier is a concrete podium on stilts and the swell, if present, goes right under it. Lastly, the forward end of the pier is dredged to create enough room for the large ships. That means that you cannot drift sideways too much without hitting the reefs. All and all enough reasons to worry about being able to make the call. When we approached it did not look good at all. Winds of up to 30 knots and long swell running in. However you have to see the situation at the dock itself before you can decide what to do. That means lining up on the pier and creeping closer. Until about a 100 feet from the pier end it is very deep water so if things are not the way they should be you can always exercise the “blow away” maneuver and drift back to open sea. Continue reading

This place is one of the two alternatives that the company is developing for San Juan. The other one is Ponce on the south side. Mayaguez is located on the West side of the island and thus gives another option in case of inclement weather. At least that it is the way I am looking at it. We only call here during the Christmas cruises as it’s tourist structure is still very limited. However with the Prinsendam clientele that is more of a pro than a con, as the ship is being marketed as the Elegant Explorer. So our first port of the New Year was this little port on the West side of the island. It is a very shallow port in water depth. If I had to believe the charts, then I would not even be able to get in it. However we had ancillary information that indicated that the depths were enough for us to remain a ship and not become a landlocked hotel. Also the Prinsendam had already been here for two previous calls and things do not silt over that quickly. Still maneuvering in shallow waters is not that easy as it is difficult to push the water away with the ship when trying to move. I had problems with that in Port of Spain and I was not expecting much difference here. Still it is a very sheltered port from the regular North Easterly winds and that counts for a lot for the Prinsendam. Continue reading