From Santarem to Boca is not that far only about 220 miles up river. Not much speed required, although the river has a few shallow spots in them where we slow down to about 10 knots to avoid squat. For the rest it is easy going and I had a quiet seven hours standby (six hours normal, plus and one hour back with time difference) on the bridge from midnight to arrival. I kept the average speed higher than needed for the official schedule as I wanted to arrive at sunrise. The sun was rising at 05.32 and I dropped the hook at 06.00 hrs. Boca de Valeria (see also the archives from autumn 2007 and March 2010) does not have a dock or a port; you just deal with it according to the height of the water. That means that an “advance landing party” is needed. Spearheaded by the chief officer in charge of an extensive maintenance team. The locals always put out a sort of platform for the tenders if the waters are low but the result is seldom five star or HAL guest acceptable. Thus carpenters with wood, upholsters with carpet and sailors with rope went ashore to do what was needed. Even the locksmith came along……just in case of….. Continue reading

The river was good to us during the night. The current was not too strong and with the timely departure from Macapá we managed to nicely stay on schedule. For the first time in three years I arrived on time in Santarem. What was even better, I was early. So I did not have to rush in but could gently float to the dock, helped by the wind that was lightly pushing on the starboard side. Due to the low level of the Amazon, the pier level was quite high compared to the ship and we had to rig up the gangway on the highest break door. And then we happily sat there for the remainder of the day. Also here Mother Nature was kind to us, it did not rain until 1830 when most of the guests were back already. Then the rain really pored down, the level in the swimming pool and the Jacuzzi’s rose more than 3 inches during the one hour’s downpour. Luckily it had diminished to a light drizzle by the time that we were departing and I got through the maneuver with one umbrella. Not always are open bridge wings conducive to enjoy work at all times. Continue reading

Last night the chief officer and I started our 6 on 6 off standbys on the bridge; to have an extra pair of eyes present when sailing in these confined waters. Until the pilot boards, the navigators are conning the ship up the river but for the whole cruise up to Manaus and back again, the chief or I will be present. A lot of extra work, but I like to be the captain of the ship Prinsendam and not of the Hotel Prinsendam. The river can be full of trees and unlit boats, the mud banks are always close, thus each extra pair of eyes is an asset. It is 170 miles from the bar to the pilot station at Macapá and that meant that once over the Bar, we could go a bit slower, all depending on how much the adverse current was going to be. That was the unknown factor as the local information that comes to us before we go upriver only indicates high and low water and not the strength of the Amazon flow. So I made sure that I had a bit of power up my sleeve in case the Amazon was going to spring a surprise on me. It did but the other way around than expected. There was much less river current than I would ever have betted on. Basically the current was so weak that the North Atlantic tidal movement overpowered it all. Good for us. That meant the Prinsendam would be on time at the pilot station without any worries at all. Continue reading

The big question mark with the Amazon is always the current as that is dependent to a great degree on the rain fall. In the past months there has been a real drought in the Amazon basin resulting in very low water levels. Only in the last 14 days the rain in the Andes has really started to come through and currently the river is rising by about 3 inches a day. That will ensure that we will have enough water to make the journey up and down the river. However it does not help with figuring out have much current there might be running while we are on the river. That is something we will only find out when we get there. From the moment we enter the river, she will dictate how our cruise will progress and if we will be able to keep the schedule and call at each port, the way we hope to do. That makes the cruise so fascinating and that is why I call this an expedition instead of a normal cruise. Continue reading

Devil’s Island is part of a group of three Islands called the Iles du Salut. It consists of Ile du Diable (Devils Island), Ile Saint Joseph and Ile Royale. It lies just (six miles) off the coast of French Guyana, opposite the town of Kourou, where they launch all the European Space Rockets. As a matter of fact you can see the installation tower with the naked eye, when you have the sun behind you. In the grey and dim past, France assigned the main land over here as a prison centre. I understand that the more severe cases were sent to the islands, from where it was difficult to escape due to the strong currents and the sharks. The current can indeed be very strong; we had nearly 4 knots against us, when we approached. The islands are located on the edge of the continental shelf of South America and the area is extremely shallow. Deep water is 30 feet, so that gives an idea. The cruise ships call at Isle Royale, as the South side of the island is the only place where there is enough shelter from the Ocean swell and the NE or SE winds that normally blow here. This means that in order to get there you have to keep the islands first on the portside and then sail around the south point of Saint Joseph to get to the leeward anchorage under Ile Royale. The average depth close to the island is about 9 to 10 meters, with not much room to deviate. Continue reading

The further south we sail, the further behind we leave the wave fields. Although the swells are not that high, they still make the ship move a bit and I am just puzzled about how much swell there still is. Normally by this time it has come down to a low running swell of about 4 to 5 feet maximum but there is still 8 to 9 feet out there. That means that we will have at least a little ripple of swell still running while we anchor at Devil’s Island tomorrow. Only ships with less then 6 meter draft can anchor far enough in, to sit in completely sheltered waters. That is however a worry for tomorrow. Today we are at sea and apart from the occasional rain cloud it is a sunny day. The navigators sail around the rain clouds as much as they can but they do not always succeed as sometime the rain clouds are interlinked into a continuous band miles and miles wide. The good thing is, is that the rain is warm; the bad thing is that the rain is wet. But then life is never completely perfect. Continue reading

I had decided to arrive bright and early to see if I could get in ahead of the other cruise ships. If you are first, then you cannot be held up by somebody ahead of you. As I could not find out from the agent what the exact pilot time was of the other ships, I just went for 0600, hoping that my colleagues would not be early risers. For the ships operation it does not make that much of a difference, to arrive early, as the sailors start with deck washing at 0500 anyway and the bridge watches are on double, with the officers for the rest of the day on flexible hours. Also in this case I could save more fuel by being docked early than by going slower at sea. So all around a sound plan and the only one who had to get up earlier was me and as I am supposed to serve the greater good that is not really a consideration. By 04:30 we were called by the pilot that the sequence of arrival would be Prinsendam at 06:00, the Braemar at 06:30 and the Emerald Princess at 07:00. The plan had worked as hoped for and the Navigation Officer happily confirmed that we would be there at 06:00. Continue reading

There are various ways of entering the Caribbean Sea from the North as most of the islands are separated by passages that are deep enough for the transit of any sort of traffic. Some have a bump in the way here and there but you normally can sail around those. Of course when planning the voyage, you try to use that passage that is the closest to the straight line that forms the shortest route between two points. (Remember that only on East or West Ocean Crossings, with long distances a curved line or Great Circle is shorter as it follows the curvature of the Earth) In our case the passage that we needed was the Virgin Passage located between the East side of Puerto Rico and the West side of St. Thomas. Continue reading

Today we had our 2nd day at sea and whilst the sun was shining in all its glory, the North Atlantic Ocean gave us an exhibition in disturbed wave patterns. The storm, that we more or less bypassed during our crossing, spread out its wave field more and more while going across the North Atlantic. Yet another depression of Cape Hatteras ensured that this wave field spread like an oil film all over the mid and southern part of the North Atlantic. That meant that the field became more and more diffused while time was going by, but it lingered on and thus had the chance to mix with newly generated waves. Waves created by another wind pattern. The area we are sailing in today is partly under the influence of the Trade winds, winds blowing from the East, which create waves coming from the East. These were mixing with the old swells from this North Atlantic storm and the result was a disturbed North Atlantic Ocean. Continue reading

To get to the East Caribbean Sea there are basically two ways to go. Going north and keeping the Bahamas to the right or going south and keeping the Bahamas to the left. Both routes have their advantages and disadvantages and it is the decision of the captain to say which one it will be. The Bahamas which stretch all the way from the North of Florida to the top of the Dominican Republic block any other way possible, unless you are a light drafted speed boat. Going north into the Atlantic Ocean is the shortest route; it is the least sheltered (for the first day) but as the adverse current is less you can go slower and provide a more stable ride. The South route via Old Bahama channel is longer by about 60 miles, it is more sheltered for the first day (as the Bahama reefs catch the swell) but have a strong adverse current and that means that when you leave the shelter of the reefs at the 2nd day, you really have to plough into the waves to keep the schedule. After consulting the weather charts which indicated that here would be some swell (left over from some bad North Atlantic weather further North) but it would be constant all the way until we entered the Caribbean Sea. Thus the decision was to go for a more constant motion of the ocean instead of a very wobbly last day and a half when the Prinsendam, coming out of old Bahama channel, would have to remain on full speed to make up those extra miles. Miles lost to the longer distance and that adverse current. Continue reading