When we left Golfo Dulce it was nearly wind still and it continued to be so until we came closer to the Nicaraguan border. Due to the lay of the land the weather on the pacific side is very much influenced by the weather in the Caribbean. There is a mountain ridge on the Caribbean side of the country but the middle of Nicaragua is flat and mainly consists out of Lake Nicaragua. Between this lake and San Juan del Sur there is just a small mountain ridge with an East to West situated valley.

Thus if it blows in the Caraibbean, the wind travels through a gap in the Eastern mountain range, then unhindered over land and intensifies when flowing over the mountain ridge near San Juan. It builds up even more momentum when coming through this valley that acts as a funnel. The wind is called the Papagayo after a Gulf in the area.

It happens mainly in the winter months but not exclusively so and also tends to happen more often when there are North Westerly winds blowing the North Caribbean Sea. Although the “cooler months” are coming to an end in Middle America; we had a Papagayo on arrival.

The agent had predicted winds about 10 to 15 knots but when I lined the Veendam up for the anchorage it was blowing over 30 knots. The problem with San Juan del Sur is, when there is a strong wind blowing off the land, it first blows through a bay and then out to open sea. Thus it gets the chance to build up seas that roll out of the harbour. That bay is very shallow and thus a big ship cannot anchor in the bay but has to stay in the middle of the entrance. Even there, there is only about 20 feet under the keel.

With 30 knots of wind and a sea running, it was not possible to run a safe tender service thus I decided to wait. Maybe things would improve. So for the next two hours I kept the Veendam in position; with the nose in the wind and watched intently the wind meter. Instead of the wind dying off, it only increased in velocity and we observed gusts of up to 50 knots an hour. That is no place to be with a ship in a location with rocks on either side, rocks only about 500 feet away, and thus in close proximity.

On top of that, there was a low ocean swell running from the south, out of the Pacific, that made the ship pitch (move up and down) while at the anchorage position. This all together resulted in a wave moment along the tender platform of 2 to 3 feet ON THE LEE SIDE and thus it was impossible to have tenders come alongside. Apart from that the shuttle from the ship to the tender dock ashore, would have resembled a trip in a washing machine on slow spin and that would not have been safe either.

Thus, as the wind was only getting stronger, I was forced to cancel our call at San Juan del Sur by 0900 and let the Veendam blow away from the anchorage; turned around and headed for open sea.

Not very pleasant; but safety comes first. We are now on very slow speed to Puerto Chiapas in Mexico and will have two days at sea to get there. Unfortunately it is not possible to do a substitute port. All the nearest ports, such as Corinto in Nicaragua or Acajutla in El Salvador are cargo ports with no infrastructure to service a cruise ship with 1200 guests on board. A secondary problem is that with now a days security, most ports demand 48 hours or more pre-clearance for the papers and manifests and thus the days of a quick deviation to another port are virtually over.

So we are all now sailing not on a “slow boat to china”, but on a “slow Veendam to Puerto Chiapas”, the day after tomorrow.

Since the 80’s a brief visit to Golfo Dulce is a regular item on the Trans Canal schedule of the Holland America Line ships. It came on that agenda more or less by mistake. A captain on the old Rotterdam was looking for an alternative to spend the day, as due to bad weather he had cancelled three ports in a row. So while southbound on the way to the Panama Canal, still under the influence of bad weather and with time to kill, he sailed into Gulfo Dulce to offer the guests something to look at. At the time the guests would get some rest as the ship had been moving about for several days. Thus the Rotterdam (V) spent the whole day in the Gulf sailing all the way around it. It was quite appreciated by the guests and thus HAL decided to keep it in the schedule.

The gulf is located about 150 miles from the Panama Canal as the crow flies but as the ship has to sail around the west point of Panama we have to cover a distance of close to 300 miles to get there.

As most of the bay looks the same from the water, we sailed only the forward part of it, where there is the most variation in scenery. Here you can see the port of Golfito, the tropical forest coming down to the waters edge and after crossing the bay the resort of Puerto Jimenez.

You enter the bay with staying as much as possible in the middle. Both sides of the entrance are quite shallow and although the chart indicates depths between 10 to 20 meters there, I do not feel comfortable to go closer to the shore. On the East side is a river, the Rio Coto, which deposits large amounts of silt in the bay and that silt/sand has to go somewhere. Out of the river current it sinks to the bottom of the bay and that means that is must be getting shallower in that area all the time.

Thus I wait with coming closer to the shore until past this Rio Coto estuary and then approach the entrance to the port of Golfito. On the way there, there is a good chance to see whales, small dolphins and all sorts of birds and we did indeed see a few small whales and a lot of dolphins. Golfito is well-known for being a banana port. United Fruit has some big plantations there and the place is sometimes visited by smaller cruise ships of the expedition type that specialize in Eco-cruises.

When past the entrance to Golfito I can get close to the shore, very close. A 1000 feet from the land, the depth of the bay is still 150 feet or more and that gives an excellent chance for the guests to see wildlife in the top of the trees. This place is for some unknown reason called Playa de Cacao. We sailed along this coast for a few miles and then crossed the bay to the other side to have a look at Puerto Jimenez. Here is a small airstrip and numerous hotels, all devoted to Fishing, diving and Eco tourism, as there is a National Park on the doorstep. As a matter of fact Golfo Dulce is surrounded by National Parks.

When entering the bay, our Enrichment lecturers gave some in depth information of what could be seen above and on the water so the guests had an idea why this Sweet bay/Golfo Dulce is of such importance and interest.

Tomorrow we are in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

Today was the big day; The transit of the Panama Canal. An exciting day for the guests as it is really a once in a lifetime experience and thus something very much to look forward to. On board the ship it is a long, long day for most of us but even if you have been through the canal many times, there is always something new to discover. In my books this crossing will be written down as a very good one. The weather was perfect for the Canal. Sunny but also overcast and slightly hazy, taking some of the heat away. The transit went more or less according to the published schedule and that helps the on board operation.

The arrival started off on the wrong foot. I had been advised to be at the Cristobal Breakwater at 05.00 hrs. which made it very tight in the schedule from Cartagena but when approaching the entrance of the canal, we were told that we had to wait half an hour. Of course we were advised about that, while only 10 miles away. Had I known earlier, we could have slowed down more sedately, instead of putting the brakes on “just in time”. So we dropped speed from 19 knots down to three and slowly progressed towards the breakwaters which we passed at 05.27. Luckily we did not have to anchor for clearance. The pilot boarded just after the breakwater and we could proceed directly but slowly towards the Gatun locks while the paperwork was done for the clearance.

This clearance is a whole ritual. First the launch with the Clearance Officer and Fumigation officer arrives. The next launch is the agent with more clearance papers, the mail and various supplies. Then the Panama Canal technician pops up, who installs on the bridge a lap top computer that shows the pilot the exact track through the canal with the help of GPS. He also checks if we have a magnetic compass (and if it works) and if the gyro compass has no faults. Is this all done, then we get the clearance and we can proceed. The ship is assigned a transit number, in our case S6Z denoting that we are number six in the Southbound convoy, and off we went.

Next to arrive were two additional pilots. Now we had three pilots on board. Two for on the bridge and one for the mooring deck aft. The latter is here because the Veendam has overhanging lifeboats so we cannot see the side of the ship. This pilot on the aft deck, directs the locomotives when going into the locks to avoid the ship from bumping into the lock walls. While sailing through the canal, the two pilots on the bridge relieve each other half way and each stands on a bridge wing side keeping an eye on the locomotives when going in and out of the locks. They also brought a narrator with them for the commentary during the day time.

When coming closer to the locks the Panama Canal crew comes on board and is escorted by the security guards to their stations fore and aft. While in the locks, they handle the wires of the locomotives and the mooring ropes if needed. Plus they secure the tugboats if necessary. As the Panama Canal crew tends to be very inquisitive and good at souvenir collecting, they are escorted everywhere by the security guards. A normal crew consists out of 20 men. 10 crew go forward, 8 crew go aft and each team has a bo’sun. They work one set of locks, so after the Gatun locks they left again by launch and the next group boarded before the Miguel locks and left again after the Miraflores locks.

The ship crew was busy as well. I had a sun-shade-tent made for the Veendam, by the ships upholsterers, as during the last crossing in Sept. 2007 it had irritated me greatly that all the guests had to stand in the sun all day on the forward observation deck. So I had a sort of tent or canopy made that covered about half of the observation deck above the bow. It showed rather prominently on the web-cams. There was a second tent also on the observation deck to cover the drinks and pastry stand. That tent is normally used as our security tent at the gangway but no reason why not to use it here as well. As it was sunny most of the day, the canopy did work very well.

Gatun locks Webcam. Courtesy of Captain Leo Lanschot

When the Veendam is in the locks, there is a maximum of 4 feet clearance on either side of the hull on the water line while the lifeboats overhanging the lock walls. When going in and out it is less as there is a big car tire or wheel at the knuckle to protect the lock doors. Quite often a wide ship like the Veendam touches that car tire while the pilot lines up the mules and the wires are hooked up. The ship is kept in the middle of the locks by the locomotives or mules on each side of the ship. During the connecting of the mules I keep the ship in position with the thrusters until the pilot has lined up all the six locomotives. After that I keep standby with the thrusters in case the mule-drivers are not reacting quickly enough to the orders of the pilots and the ships hull moves towards one of the lock sides. Then I try to thruster the ship away again. Unfortunately this is sometimes necessary as the mule drivers are not always alert. The problem for me is that I cannot see the side of the ships hull from the bridge so I have to work on the relative movement of the lifeboats above the dock wall.

Mules waiting to service the ship. Courtesy of my wife

Most ships get six locomotives. Two forward, two near the bridge wing and two aft. Although the pilot uses them for various movements, basically the two front ones are used for pulling, the two near the bridge wings are to keep the ship centered in the locks and the two aft ones are for braking and also keeping the ship centered. I help with the main ships propellers to move the ship forward through the locks to keep a good momentum going.

A critical moment is always when the locomotives have to go up or down the slope of the dock wall and when they connect and disconnect. When going up or down the slope, it is difficult for the locomotive driver to keep the wires taut and when connecting or disconnecting the pull of the wires is suddenly put on or released and that all can unbalance the alignment of the ships hull in relation to the dock wall. Thus the thrusters are at the ready for me to use, to counter act the ships movement on time.

Mule going down the slope. Courtesy of my wife

After the first set of locks, we sailed with a slow speed through the canal as we had to wait for the North bound convoy to clear the narrow part of the canal near the Culebra Cut. The pilots can see the movement of all the ships on their laptop computer, as each ship has a transponder called an AIS that is fed into these laptops. With it they can also predict the best passing location and speed the ship up, or slow it down, to reach that rendez-vous point at the right time. There was a lot of excitement in the air today, as the last number in the North convoy was an “un-identified ship”. That normally means Navy but as this was not formally announced because of security reasons, the pilots did not know whether it was a small ship, that could be passed anywhere in the canal, or a big one, that we had to meet before passing Gamboa. In the end we had to sit for 10 minutes abeam Gamboa until we found out that it was a submarine. Rumor had advised everybody about that already but officially we did not know, so we had to wait. Gamboa is the little village about halfway through canal, which is home to the Canal department that maintains the waterway itself, with buoys, dredgers and other aids.

Miraflores Locks Webcam. Courtesy of Mrs J. Parks

From Gamboa everything went like clockwork and by 1700 hrs, we had disembarked the last pilot, (here the ritual from the early morning, now went the other way around) and the Veendam pasted the sea buoy for open sea. The whole operation had taken exactly 14 hours from early End of Sea Voyage near the Cristobal Sea buoy to Commence Sea Voyage near the Balboa sea buoy. It is not very often that I am on the bridge when the sun rises and am still on the bridge when the sun sets, but this was one of them.

In the last lock. Courtesy of my wife

Tomorrow more scenic cruising in Golfo Dulce only this time without locks and without pilots.

Today we were in Cartagena, for a half day stop, on our way to the Panama Canal. The town with its main port is located at the end of a shallow bay, not unlike Tampa in Florida. Thus it took us about 45 minutes to get to the dock and then another 30 minutes to dock. We have to inch the ship all the way forward until we are about 10 to 15 feet from the harbor wall to get the ships position right and that takes some time. We were blessed with beautiful weather but here there is always the issue of the humidity and thus the 87oF in the sunshine felt as 102oF. Thus it was a very warm day.

Cartagena bay is approached from the West through a very shallow and narrow channel marked by rows of buoys that are sometimes in position but also sometimes completely off location. Similar to other places in the world the local fishermen are absolutely convinced that the best fishing is right in the middle of the channel and are very reluctant to move. If the channel was very wide I could understand that but with a width of only 180 feet, it must not make that much of a difference, unless the crabs and fish here are so intelligent that they seek shelter in the fairway while the ships thunder over their heads and so keep the fishermen from catching them.

We picked up the pilot at 06.00 hrs. just at sunrise. Any earlier has not much use as the buoys are quite often unlit and I do not like to go in there by just totally relying on the local pilot. In this port I like to see what I am doing. Just ahead of us was the Celebration Infinity and 30 minutes behind us the Norwegian Pearl. After picking up the pilot we sailed with about 12 knots of speed into the bay, hugging the western shore on a north Easterly course. I came to Cartagena for the first time in 1982 when it was an old fashioned cargo port, with rickety sheds, giant rats and very friendly ladies all eager to show you the sights. (Mainly their own…….) Since then the port has revamped itself as the main container port of Colombia with new docks, an excellent port organization and very good infrastructure.

There is no Cruise terminal as such. When cruise ships are calling; they clear one or more cargo docks and the tour and shuttle buses pull right up to the gangway. Most of the shuttle buses are rather small as they have to negotiate narrow streets but they have loads of them. Today they needed them all as with three ships, read 6000 guests, it was a busy morning. For those guests not going ashore, there was the excellent opportunity to see a container port in full action as we were docked right opposite the CGM Maya, a container feeder ship. Feeder means that it is a smaller ship that brings –feeds- containers to a bigger port where they are picked up by the large around the world container ships that sometimes carry over 12000 containers each.

The return of the tours is always just before the departure and it is a challenge to quickly process 700 or more cruise guests returning all at the same time. As it was good weather we could solve that this time by having our security scanning machines on the dockside, in the open air. With two lanes going, there was no waiting for the guests and as a result we pulled away from the dock only 15 minutes behind schedule.

Getting out of port is going the opposite way through the bay again. What still baffles everybody who sails into Cartagena is that there is the option to cut a short channel from the docks directly to the open sea, just south of the New city. It would reduce the transit time from 45 minutes to approximately 15 minutes. However there seems to be no interest at all in doing this. Thus we have to go the long way around.

The Celebration Infinity will be with us tomorrow in the Panama Canal but she sailed an hour later. With her gas turbines she goes much faster so she can make up the hour. We put the pedal to the metal as soon as we disembarked the pilot and are aiming for a 5 am. pilot station at Cristobal. It is going to be an early morning and a long day tomorrow. But the weather looks great so the guests should have a beautiful day.

After a hectic day in Spotts Bay Grand Cayman, today was a quiet day at sea. The weather was not that great, with a lot from wind blowing from the North East, making it very windy on the portside of the vessel. The wind blew up quite a swell as well and thus the ship moved about a bit, occasionally bumping into a wave instead of riding over it.

In this area of the Caribbean Sea, the regular trade winds tends to bend at with the curve of the continent, thus what is normally a close to Easterly wind, becomes here more of a Northerly wind. That meant that we had the swell just off the port beam and that kept the ship moving slightly for the whole day and evening. Of course we have our stabilizers going but as explained in the past, the stabilizers only dampen out 90% of the roll, so there will always be a little bit of movement left.

On the 18th we have of course the big day. Namely the transiting of the Panama Canal, after our visit to Cartagena. For those of you who are interested in our progress through the canal, below is the schedule as given to the ship by the Panama Canal authorities.

Please keep in mind that it is subject to EXTREMELY much change as the ship sails in convoy and with several ships going through the locks there might be a delay, or it might go faster.

Arriving at Cristobal anchorage 0500hrs for clearance
Gatun locks
Arriving 0630hrs
Departing 0800hrs

Passing By Gamboa 1200hrs

Pedro Miguel locks
Arriving 1330hrs
Departing 1410hrs

Mira Flores locks
Arriving 1430hrs
Departing 1530hrs
ETD Balboa 1730hrs
Arriving at open waters 1800hrs and pilot off.

When I went to bed last night, it did not look like it that the frontal system was going to veer or dissipate. It blew too consistently hard and steady for that. So I had myself called at 6 am. to see what would ensue with the two Carnival ships who were spearheading the cruise ship convoy. When arriving on the bridge the air was filled with voices of everybody and all, talking on different VHF channels as Georgetown was indeed closed. The swell was rolling into the tender harbor and port security remarked “I am getting wet feet”. Well you do not want to be in Georgetown if Port Security is getting wet feet as their booth is on the dock but about 6 feet above normal sea level. Also all the diving, snorkel and swimming tours were cancelled due to the wind, current, swell and murky waters. Thus we had a lot of disappointed guests on board to start with.

However Spotts Bay was open. The angle of the wind and the swell had turned just far enough to the North during the night that the land could provide a good lee at the pier there. The next thing was who would be going there. Due to the difficult situation at Spotts and the small pier, the area has been limited to three ships. Grand Cayman Port Operations picks the three ships and I really do not know how the pecking order works, but the Veendam was in. Carnival Legend and Norwegian Majesty were out and were forced to cancel Georgetown altogether. The captain of the Norwegian Majesty was particularly unhappy as it was the fifth time for him this season that he did not get chosen for Spotts Bay. However he still came to Spotts Bay, briefly, to pick up some crew.

Thus we changed course and sailed 6 miles more to the East to the Spotts Bay location. The Carnival Valor was already in position and the Grandeur of the Seas showed up 45 minutes after we arrived. Now Spotts has a number of issues.
1. We are not allowed to anchor there, as anchors damage the reef, so we have to maneuver all day.
2. The entrance to the bay where the pier is, is very narrow with very shallow reefs on either side and not much room to maneuver inside.
3. The pier can officially take four tenders but the Mega ships use very big tenders and thus the pier is on the small side. Which means a very slow tender operation with all the tenders having to take turns.
4. It is a long way from downtown and the guests have to get a cab or shuttle bus to get to downtown.
5. While waiting for the cab, or coming back, there is nothing there, just a patch of sand, surrounded by a (security) fence.

The word “challenge” comes to mind, when going there. It is by no means perfect but there is no other option and as the local pilot said conditions were good, there I went. I parked the Veendam next to the Valor and we drifted for the day. Constant adjustments were necessary to the engines and the thrusters to keep the ship in position; and to keep the wind just on the port bow to provide as much lee as possible. Tender service went slow as we had to take our turn with the tenders from the other ships and the tender drivers had to be very careful with maneuvering in and outside the reef.

All I had extra crew on the tenders, extra crew at the gangway and extra crew ashore. It remained very breezy during the day and that kept me fully occupied with keeping the ship at the right angle. Things became easier ashore, when the Carnival Valor left in the mid afternoon and we could use the whole side of the pier.

The Security Officer reported that most guests were just very happy that we had made it to Grand Cayman and they commented on how fast our return line to the ship worked, compared to the one of the Carnival and the Grandeur. The good part of course was that the sun shone all day long and that we did make Grand Cayman. The bad part was that most of the tours had to be cancelled and that the tender ride remained a challenge. I also had to disappoint the ships crew by cancelling crew leave. 200 or 300 crew going ashore would have put even more strain on an already difficult operation and guests come first at all times. My wife was particularly upset as being classed as crew, she was not allowed ashore either, while there was the “urgent need” to buy a special perfume in Georgetown.

Well, the North Westerly wind that started to blow on departure from Tampa had one advantage, it sped the ship up by an additional knot and it created a wind still situation on deck as the ship was going as fast as the wind was blowing. Pleasant for the guests on the outside decks and good for the fuel consumption of the ship. As this was the second frontal system coming from the North West it affected the prevailing currents and for once to our advantage.

By the afternoon we were nearing the coast of Cuba, were the Gulf Stream turns from the Caribbean Sea into the Straits of Florida and we did not notice anything. We kept our regular speed. Normally the Gulf Stream runs against us for about 4 to 5 hours, slowing down the ship by anything from 1 to 4 knots but this time nothing. We kept our xtra “wind knot” and never noticed the Gulf Stream or the West Caribbean current that normally runs North West under Cuba. It seemed that the two frontal systems really upset the regular Caribbean current flow.

We are tomorrow in Grand Cayman and that is going to be interesting as with a North Westerly wind, the swell normally runs into the port and the ships have to cancel. Only if the frontal system dissipates during the night, or the wind veers to the North or North East in time, we might stand a chance. There is an alternative to downtown; and that is Spotts bay, 6 miles to the East on the south side of the island. It only has a small tender pier and is located in the middle of nowhere. The location and setup for multiple ships is far from ideal. So we will see.

We will be in tomorrow with four other ships. Carnival Valor, Carnival Legend, Norwegian Majesty, Grandeur of the Seas and us. That means about 12500 guests ashore not counting the crew. I hope they have stocked up on sufficient T-shirts in the shops. All the ships are arriving at about the same time and so we met three of them while rounding Cabo San Antonio. Cabo S.A. is the most Western point of Cuba and as all ships that want to get out or into the NW Carib have to go around this Cape, a Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme has been established. In the chart it looks just like a highway with a northbound lane and a southbound lane. With the arrival times being 6, 7, 8 and 9 am. respectively we formed one convoy of “cruise ship glamour” going around the corner. There was one little yacht sitting just south of the Cape and the British owner (I assume so, as he spoke with a very plum voice) was most amused to see all those “gin palaces” parading by his little yacht. The yacht was a bit far-away, so I could not see if he was standing to attention on his bow, taking the salute. British gents are always keen on parades and things. He sounded quite chuffed on the VHF; about us sailing past his boat.

Except the Grandeur, which was coming from somewhere else, we all nicely rounded the corner in the right lane and lined up for Grand Cayman, with the two Carnival ships charging ahead. They remain on Miami time, so when they arrive at 6 am. tomorrow morning, it is on board already 7 am. and thus “the troops” will be ready to go ashore. Their tours start early and that is the first wave coming of the ships, followed around 8 – 9 am. the T shirt and Beach crowd. Those ships sail early as well as they have to get to Cozumel on time, which is a very tight run, if there is no sea day in between.

I closed off the evening with the Welcome on board champagne toast and had a rowdy crowd during the 2nd intro’s. So things are looking good for the cruise.

It was a lot better than last time at the Tampa sea buoy. Nearly wind still weather instead of the 50 knots of wind we had during the last call. So it was a very pleasant ride through Tampa bay docking just before 6 am at the terminal. The wind did try to spoil things on arrival, while the ship was swinging around in the turning basin, by gusting up to 20 knots, but did not really affect the docking that much. It was only harder to control the stern of the ship as the funnel acts as a big sail and you have to be on the alert when suddenly the stern starts drifting. With a steady wind blowing you can find a balance and hold the ship steady but with gusting winds, the only thing you can do, is react quickly to any movement observed.

Today we tested our “silent disembark” procedures for the 3rd time with great success. Thus far everybody had to listen to the announcements of the cruise director on arrival and then march off the ship when the group color was called. We have now been sending a letter to the cabin, which states the time of disembark and do not make any announcements at all. It creates a much more pleasant atmosphere on board and the guests do not have to be on the alert all the time waiting for the next announcement. The time on the paper, is the time you leave. It has worked great here in Tampa and the program is being rolled out on the other ships as well. The success of the program depends a little bit on the lay-out of the terminal, with the guests flow towards immigration and the baggage area, so we do not know yet if we can do it in each change over port. Our next challenge will be Vancouver. Here in Tampa is worked very well.

With a change of route or relocation of the vessel, there always seems to be a larger crew turnover than normal and today it was not any different. So a lot of happy faces in the morning, eager to get off, and a lot of sleepy and jet lagged faces coming on board at the same time. When the new crew comes on board, they have to go through a whole indoctrination program before they are allowed to start working. At 13.00 hrs. all of them, including spouses, assemble in one of the rooms for a mandatory instruction. I normally welcome them first, as the team leader of Team Veendam, I think it is important that all the crew knows who the “driver” is and then we have short speeches from the crew purser (paperwork) the ships nurse (NLV and medical issues), the Security officer (behave yourself….!!!!) and then a safety movie is shown, detailing all the basic shipboard routines. Most crew know these things from their previous contract but it is mandatory that they get a refreshment. Crew new to the company also have buddies; experienced crewmembers who look after them until they know their way around.
The safety indoctrination has a follow up the next day, when the new crew is taken around the ship and shown how to operate fire screen and watertight doors and other safety items. Crew whose environmental certificates are expired, go with the Environmental Officer to the ships training room for computer based training and testing.
When all of these requirements are met, the crew is allowed to start working.

We left Tampa on time, heading for the Panama Canal via Grand Cayman and Cartagena. Our 19 day journey has started

After all the wind yesterday, we had a nearly wind still day. We sailed between two frontal systems and that calmed things down. The one we had yesterday and a new one coming down from the upper Gulf of Mexico tomorrow. So we had a sort of “valley of silence” today. With a bit of luck the wind of the new system will only reach us by the time we are docked in Tampa.

Tomorrow we are in Tampa for the last call of the season and then we will start the Trans Canal cruise to Alaska. Most important part of that start is the paperwork for the Panama Canal Transit. The submission of this information starts 144 hours before we even arrive there. With the current rules in regards to security, the Panamanian authorities require that passenger and crew manifests are submitted far in advance for scrutiny. This makes sense as the Panama Canal could be of interest for certain people with bad intent. Once this and other information is received there are the 96, 48 and 24 hrs. ETA submissions. (ETA = Estimated Time of Arrival) of the ship. This is compulsory for all the ships. It is not really necessary for cruise ships as we sail on time but it helps with the convoy planning for the canal with the cargo ships. When cargo ships make Trans Atlantic or Trans Pacific crossings their ETA, given 5 or 6 days earlier, can be wildly off due to bad weather, engine slowdowns or other influences. Thus the multiple day reporting.

Cruise ships have preference when transiting the canal and they are slotted directly into the transiting convoys. More about that when we come nearer the time. That makes it for us even more necessary to arrive on time, as the ship has to be cleared first by the authorities and then line up behind the previous ship. However the Panama Canal is still 96 hours away and so I sent my first official ETA to the agent today, who will ensure that it reaches the Panama Canal authorities. We will have 56 guests on board this cruise who will continue to be with us for the Trans Canal cruise.

In the last few weeks we have been alternating with docking portside and starboard side in Tampa. That gives a bit of extra work for the shore gangway operator of the terminal as he has to move the big gangway for each call but it has become a necessity. There are no ports left in the West Caribbean where we are allowed to do outside maintenance anymore. Nothing at all in Belize, Key West and Cozumel and only fresh water washing in Santo Tomas de Castilla. The port environmental rules have become so very strict. That means that if we want to keep the Veendam looking half presentable on the outside we now have to do all the work in Tampa.

So we have cherry pickers in Tampa to work the outside as fast as possible when we dock and hence we do one week work on the portside and the other week work on the starboard side.

I check about twice a day the weather forecast. Both on the NOAA National Weather Service and on the local, national, forecasts of the country that we are visiting. Normally that gives a good indication of what to expect. This time all the forecasts were wrong, very wrong. All were predicting South Easterly Winds to 10 to 15 knots and that would have meant a smooth and pleasant ride to Cozumel with the relative wind providing a gentle breeze over the decks. Wrong predictions occasionally happen when something develops locally and the weather models of the meteorologists do not simulate it.

When sailing out of Santo Tomas, the wind started slowly to increase and by the time we were exiting the bay, we had 40 knots of headwind with gusts up to 50 knots. The wind whipped the sea up and that resulted in a very bumpy ride during the night. So much strong wind and so many high waves slow the ship down and I started to fear for a late arrival in Cozumel. However as the wind settled in the early evening to a steady South Easterly direction, which was ¾ on the stern, it started to help push the ship. Also it enhanced the Gulf Stream current that finds it origins near Belize. It is normally not very strong there but the wind helped the momentum and by early morning we here doing close to 23 knots. That extra speed cancelled out the time we lost in the first few hours, when we were coming out of the bay.

With the stabilizers in operation we could reduce the motion of the ship to an acceptable level but the Veendam was still moving a bit around so we wobbled all the way to Cozumel but we made it on time. Charging full speed into Cozumel channel; the stretch of water between the Mexican mainland and Cozumel Island. The wind was still blowing about 25 knots and thus docking was also a breezy affair. We were scheduled to dock at the International pier which is about 15 minutes away from down town. At the other side was the Mariner of the Seas docked, which with its 140.000 tons towered over us. Our bridge wing is about four decks below theirs. The Veendam docked inside the pier which is a bit tricky as I have to find a balance between the wind pushing on the portside of the ship and the current pushing on the starboard side of the ship. Then there was the fact that as soon as the current fell away, blocked by the Mariner of the Seas, the wind set me towards the dock with a considerable speed. The best thing to do was to stay as far from the dock as possible so that you can let the ship drift slowly towards the pier, breaking the sideways movement by the thrusters. However that is an issue with docking inside, as the 10 meter depth line runs fairly close to the pier. With other words there is not much room to play with.

So while the pilot kept an eye on the depth of the water, I brought the ship around from a North Westerly heading, as we were coming from the South, to a Southerly heading, moving into the basin along the dock. By nudging the Veendam along at a very slow speed, it was possible to maintain a nice balance between all these forces playing on the ship.

The last few feet are always very interesting as well, as then Mexican confusion erupts about the location of the gangway. It is not unusual to receive instructions from the dock advising the bow of the ship to go 3 feet forward and the stern to go four feet aft. As we all know, the ship is made of steel and not of elastic, and thus an impossible order to fulfill. However after some shouting between chief officer, pilot, security officer at the gangway and the docking master a consensus was found. If it had not, then it was even simpler, I just park the ship where I want it to go and the rest can take a hike. However today a quick consensus was reached by all the members of this docking committee and right on time the gangway was out and the guests were streaming ashore.

The Weather we experienced finally showed up on the weather charts about 12 hours later. At least now I had proof that it had really happened.