I arrived at Costa Maya at sunrise with a heavy heart because of the forecasted weather. The weather chart indicated very strong easterly winds and a heavy easterly swell and that meant that it would be difficult for the ship to remain alongside the dock as it would move up and down on the swell. If we had to cancel it would mean that two HAL ships would be missing Costa Maya as the Statendam was right behind me. However while I was inching the Veendam closer and closer to the dock to see how much she would move on the waves, the wind decided to abate and thus the waves leveled of a little bit as well. Not much but just enough to make docking feasible. Continue reading

I arrived a little bit earlier than normal in Belize because my Shorex excursion manager was getting in a muddle with the tours. Not something that the guests noticed but as the tours did not always depart as planned on paper, she wanted to start a little bit earlier. As it entailed only me getting up 30 minutes earlier to help her out it was not a big thing. The rest of the officers involved in the approach were on watch anyway and the pilots get paid for the pleasure, so why not. It also helped with the arrival sequence as we had an unusual customer in the line up this time. Namely the Statendam whose Christmas cruise was different than her regular cruises and so she popped up today in Belize. Continue reading

It was a stormy day indeed. The Cold front with its rainy sector was lying over the Yucatan channel and created Gale to Storm force winds and strong rain showers in the afternoon. We had the wind three quarters on the stern so we did not feel the full brunt of it but it was still windy especially on the portside. However, if we have to go through a stormy cold front better today than tomorrow when we are in Belize and the guests want to go ashore to enjoy the beaches and the water life. The Veendam moved around a bit for most of the day, courtesy of this wind three quarters on the stern. The swell, whipped up by the wind, caused the ship to move in a cork screw motion. Continue reading

It was a breezy arrival this time but with the wind blowing in line with the dock it was not difficult to dock. Wind on the nose only pushes the ship astern and that is easily corrected by the main engines. It is always the sideways drift of the ship that makes life difficult. We docked at Pier B with the Costa Fortuna at the Navy pier. That ship has just come over from Europe and after calling at Ft. Lauderdale it is now employed on the Caribbean circuit. Continue reading

Things turned out right indeed. Visibility was still good when the Veendam made it to the Pilot station just after midnight. Going through the channel I kept up the speed as much as possible and as a result we were docked by 04.30, instead of our normal 06.00 hrs. The nice and calm weather outside had helped a lot to gain all this extra time. The Captain of the Carnival Legend had opted for the same logic and was hot on my tail, docking 20 minutes after me. The fog eventually came in the form of patches around 7 am. However it was not as thick as the night before and thus Tampa Bay did not need to be closed down for the traffic. Continue reading

The weather was beautiful when I woke up. The sun was shining with almost no wind and just a very low swell running from the East. A swell that was nicely handled by the stabilizers, so a beautiful day to end the cruise. The only thing that marred the perfect day were the ominous sounds coming from Tampa. There had been no wind there for a few days in a row and together with nice warm temperatures it created the perfect set-up for a chance of F.O.G. As matter of fact they had had dense fog in the bay last night, closing down traffic. Thus if that would happen again the coming night, I would have to drop anchor and wait for the fog to lift. That means a late arrival, missed flights, late embarkation, late departure, a complete nightmare. Thus I did the only thing I could do, kept up full speed and went for an early arrival. My experience is that if I get inside Tampa Bay before 2 am. and be at the dock around 4 am. then I beat the fog most of the time. Not always………but most of the time. Thus there the Veendam went, after burners on, white curl around the nose, racing towards Tampa bay. Continue reading

It was sunny but blustery on arrival and I had to take my time to bring the Veendam carefully alongside. This time, wind, current and swell direction were all going against what the ship had to do to get alongside so it was a bit of a balancing act. Costa Maya is fully exposed to all the elements and that makes it a fair weather port. What “fair weather” is depends a little bit on the personal view of the captain and what he thinks is safe to do, but the fact remains that we have to cancel Costa Maya on a regular basis because of the weather. Continue reading

Once again the weather had a surprise for us. Now it had decided that it would rain in Santo Tomas. Somehow the rainy sector of the last frontal system had laid itself over the Golfo de Amatique, the bay that gives access to Santo Tomas, and it was releasing its watery content. It made my chief officer happy as it washed all the salt of the ship but for the rest I had 1300 unhappy campers who wanted to go ashore and had not counted on a rainy day. Continue reading

It turned out to be a normal day in Belize; at least normal for the standards that we apply this season. The continuous stream of cold fronts from the north have changed the parameters for what is “normal” somewhat. Thus it was a warm day to our standards but not warm according to the locals. It was breezy to our standards but windy according to our tender operators. So in a way you get used to everything I suppose and the Veendam had a normal day in Belize. Continue reading

We had a nice morning and then it started to cloud over. Courtesy of a mini cold front coming over. To weak to change the wind much, strong enough to bring increasing cloudiness and followed by rain during the night. At least it will mean that we will have a sunny day tomorrow in Belize, although it will be windy on the open waters. Continue reading