Bridgetown Barbados is a busy day on a Saturday. In the line up were the Emerald Princess, the Star Clipper, The Veendam, the Seabourn Pride, an oil tanker, two Royal British Navy support ships and a French destroyer. The Freewinds and another cargo ship were already inside. As a result the two pilots could not cope and our pilot boarded 25 minutes past the agreed time. This upset the Seabourn Pride who came in just after me. I was not going fast enough for their taste so the pilot started squawking. I can dock very fast if I have to but with only 100 feet clearance to the Freewinds and a 100 feet to the Emerald Princess behind me, I took my time this time. Also the weather was so gorgeous that the guests really enjoyed this arrival, so why hurry. Just after 7 am. we were docked for a long day in port as I had postponed sailing time by two hours.

We docked at the sugar berth, which very close to the passenger terminal. Guests can easily walk it. The Emerald Princess was at the breakwater, which is a long walk and then the port has little shuttle buses running, to transport the guests from the gangway to the terminal. The funny thing to see was that the pilot of the Veendam was later on driving one of the buses. Either being a pilot in Barbados does not pay that much or his wife is a very experienced credit card user.

The problem with the sugar berth is that the ship can only dock starboard side alongside. Otherwise one of the Sugar conveyor towers will touch our overhanging Lido Restaurant. This is much to the annoyance of the chief officer, who desperately wants to dock portside alongside everywhere to do maintenance on the portside hull. In the preponderance of the ports we have to dock starboard alongside because of local circumstances, such as here in Barbados. If there is a choice, then the docking side is decided for me by others. In Grenada I have to dock portside alongside on orders of the Bo ‘sun, who want to paint the portside blue hull. In coming Bonaire I have to dock portside as the 3rd officer has to lower his starboard lifeboats. Who said that a captain
was in command ??? I just have to do what I am told to. For Aruba we are all in agreement. Portside it will be. I have to get out of the port, the Bo ‘sun wants it for his blue hull, the chief officer for the white superstructure and the engineers for off-loading garbage. It is wonderful to have a harmonious ship…………………..

As far as lowering lifeboats, in Barbados we had a general drill, with ALL the crew involved and the plan was to lower all the portside lifeboats into the water for exercising. Normally with a strong easterly wind it is a great port to do this, as the boats can play in the lee of the ship. With the little wind we had the last few days, there was a northerly swell running along the island and into the port, making the ship slowly rock along the berth. Then it is getting a bit difficult to operate the davits. Lowering away and sailing away with boats is not a problem. Coming back can be dangerous as the lower blocks, connected to the falls, rise and fall with the movement of the vessel and there is always a chance that a crewmember gets stuck between the block and the lifeboat if it moves too much. So we kept the boats out of the water and left the sailing around for another day.

Sail away from very beautiful. No wind, the Star Clipper had all its sailing masts lit up, the cargo terminal was one blaze of light and the skies were ablaze with stars. No wind at all, so I could steer the ship out of the port using only the bow thruster and the main propellers. It is a slow run to Grenada and with the following (little bit of) wind we will be gliding over the waves tonight.

The wind only died down in the early morning hours so I lost that one mile each hour during the night and not being able to compensate for it. Also Starboard shaft needed another slow down and thus we docked over an hour late in Dominica. I think this was the fastest docking I have ever done here. The pilot who is as black as spades got noticeably white around the nose when I lined the ship up for the dock. However the Veendam slows down very fast and by the time the bridge wing came on the dock mark, the ship had come to an exact standstill. Spring ashore and gangway out.

Today we landed another 100 matrasses and blankets for the local Red Cross and that more or less completed our exchange program for the ship. This time it were mainly double ones, from the officer cabins.

Good news is that the Chief engineer reported in the course of the afternoon that we can now put a lot more power on the portside and that should balance out the starboard side. Of course as luck will have it, I do not need that extra power until we leave Venezuela, which is a few days from now but at least it is available. Kudo’s to the whole engineering team who worked very hard over the last period to get it done. Unless nothing unforeseen happens I should be able to keep the cruise schedule for the remainder of the cruise.

As I have been moaning for the last few days about the weather and with now the wind suddenly falling away, I have attached here a weather chart that shows what I mean.

Courtesy of the NOAA.

Above Hispaniola (block 20 to 30 N, 70 to 60 W) you can see that is blows around 20 knots. (Each line on the directional arrow denotes 10 kts wind velocity) In the area where we now are (block 10 to 20 N, 60 to 50 W) it only shows 10 knots. The thick black line near the top is the next cold front coming down from the USA. We are now going to travel West with the ship to Grenada, Venezuela and Bonaire, that is in the direction of the L 1009 on the chart, so the wind will remain light as the whole system will move with us for awhile. A weather chart like this is issued four times a day and remains of value for about 48 hours unless there is an un-expected development somewhere. With normal weather I check these charts about twice a day. With hurricanes in the area, that goes up to about every three hours, as the projected path of these storms can change very rapidly and suddenly they can move in the direction of your intended route.

What is a very handy addition on the internet nowadays is that a lot of ports have real time weather. One or more weather sensors are directly connected to the internet and give a minute to minute update about the weather on location. I use it all the time for Tampa bay, to see how much wind there is at the dock. This helps to make a decision whether a tugboat is needed or not, if there would be a lot of wind in the turning basin. Tugboats normally require 1 to 3 hours notice and in this way you can already make up your mind, based on reliable info, before you get to the area. If one is needed, you can reserve on time and there is no gamble any longer based on lack of information. I have listed the URL below for those who are interested in having a look.

http://ompl.marine.usf.edu/PORTS/tampa.bay.html

Departing Dominica was the regular sideways off the dock movement and within five minutes we were on our way to Barbados. This is 14 knot run and that means that even with the North Atlantic Ocean swell coming in, it is a nice and quiet overnight trip. The chief engineer reported good things from below and so all is well in the world.

Well, the wave field extended until the Puerto Rican coast and we had to sail through the whole length of it. Mother Nature was not helping and the waves kept coming until about 6 am in the morning, when it started to dampen out as the swell was becoming confused. That meant that two wave patterns interacted with each other and took away each others amplitude. It kept being windy however. As a result the ship had gotten way behind schedule during the night as we had to keep reducing power on the starboard shaft.

In the end we docked over 3 hours late at Crown Bay St Thomas. Guests had a hard time believing that this delay was caused by the influence of the weather on the ship, as the weather was not that bad. It was just rocky enough to make the starboard shaft unhappy. In order to get alongside as fast as I could, I charged into the channel and the pilot boat could barely keep up with the ship. Normally we go into Crown Bay in a more sedate way but I knew that I could squeeze 10 minutes out of the docking evolution so I went for it.

Good news for all of us was that there were three couriers standing on the dock with the last engine parts that we needed. By tomorrow evening we should be able to put a lot of extra power on the portside while remaining gentle on the starboard side and still getting all the speed that we need.

I could not extend the stay in St Thomas to compensate for this later arrival as the run from St Thomas to Dominica was a fast one again and I won’t have the extra power until tomorrow night. However I will be able to stay a bit longer in Barbados, so that is what I decided upon. Instead of sailing at 18.00 hrs. we will leave at 20.00 hrs. Guests can stay ashore longer, or go for an evening walk if they wish. Also sail away after dark is quite festive from Bridgetown with all the other ships lit up. In this way I can at least do a little bit to take away the disappointment.

An un-expected happening was that in the afternoon, while I was sitting in my office, the ship suddenly shook. Just as if they were starting up an engine. Normally I know about engine tests in port, so this was peculiar. As the engine room was not doing anything, it was even more peculiar. The ship was however safely docked and I did not pay any further attention to it. Only to find out from the pilot on departure that there had been a 7.3 strength earthquake off the coast of Martinique. That tremor went through the whole East Caribbean and that is what I felt in the cabin. In the beginning there was fear for a tsunami but the epi centre was in such deep water that the pressure wave could not build up any momentum on the sea surface.

Apart from a few mud slides, there was no damage reported from Dominica so we were oke for going there. As soon as everybody was back on board we sailed as fast as we could out of the port. It took 10 minutes longer than last time as a Spa girl was too late in coming back on board. She will now have to face the chief officer in the morning. The weather was still not following the weather forecast and it blew over 25 knots, while a maximum of 15 knots had been forecasted. 20 knots of wind full on the bow, cost me about one knot of speed and for the time being I have no power yet to compensate for that.

At least the weather should be good for Dominica with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 80’s.

During the morning we made good progress and we were nicely on schedule for a timely arrival in St Thomas. However in the afternoon a North Atlantic wave field came towards us with heights of about 8 to 10 feet, with peaks to 12 feet, and this made the ship start to pitch and that costs speed. If this would happen with the ship running at full speed then it starts to slam on the waves as the bow comes out of the water and falls down again upon it. That is a very unpleasant motion, as the whole ship shudders and the G forces can make you feel quite queasy because of it. Now it was only a dipping motion, not that unpleasant but enough to slow us down. The starboard shaft did not like it either and that meant that we had to reduce the output at times. It will depend on how long this wave field persists whether we are going to be delayed and if so by how much. I can not cut any corners anywhere and I have no other tricks on the sleeve to speed up the passage, so Mother Nature now decides how much speed the ship will make and when we arrive.

According to the weather chart the wave field is not supposed to reach the coast of Puerto Rico and as we are coming close by there, I hope that I can take advantage of it. Will see.

Highlight of the day was being buzzed by the USCG. Suddenly out of nowhere we saw a Sky hawk helicopter approaching who first passed us on the starboard side and then on the portside. I gave them a call but they were rather non-commitment about what they were doing here so far from home. Normally that indicates that they are on an anti-drug mission, trying to catch boats who use the more remote Bahaman islands for a stop over, while on the way to somewhere in North America. Buzzing is nice, if you know what it is what is flying by, but if you are not a helicopter expert it might startle you. So we made a quick announcement for the guests on the outside decks. As the helicopter was not carrying any extra fuel tanks, they must have had a base nearby, or a cutter hiding somewhere which they use as a home base. We figured out that there were several options, taking into account the time that they would like to spend at sea, but we could not track where they were exactly going or coming from.

I am getting near the end of my contract, going home on December 9th and that means that it is time to write my end of term report for the head office. This is basically a review of the past period, highlighting issues that have not been resolved and that need the attention of the very senior management. Secondly there is the hand over report to my relief which details the current issues going on. Thirdly there is the hand over file, on the computer with “things to read to get up to speed again” and fourthly there is the “in progress file” also on the computer with items still not completed. From the latter there are always a lot of them and therefore it was a great idea of the company to have two captain’s rotating on the same ship. It certainly gives consistency.

Because of the amount of material to hand over, there is also a special hand over period if a new captain would be joining. New to ship class (S- class R- class, Vista Class or Prinsendam) and new in rank, then there is a 14 day overlap. If he is new to sort of class, there is a week overlap. If he is been on the ship before, such as my relieve will be, then it is about 4 to 6 hours.

If I get half the chance, I will post the photos of the current team Veendam and the relieving team on the blog under the “My ship” sub directory before I go home.

Today is our second regular sea day and again we were blessed with beautiful weather. Advice from the engine room is positive about progress being made with improving the output on the propellers and thus the speed but it will be a few days before it will make a significant difference.

As I already “blogged” in the past about the Old Bahamas Channel, Cuba, Hispaniola and the Puerto Rican trench, this time something about a fairly unknown group of people on board: the Upholsterers.

Apart from dry docks, which only take place every two years or so, most maintenance on a cruise ship has to be done while sailing. With the wear and tear of all materials on board the life cycle of carpets and soft furnishings is not much more than 2 to 4 years. Curtains maybe a little bit longer. Thus there is a constant renewal process going on. Each Holland America Line ship has two Upholsterers on board while there is also a roving team of four more who move around the fleet. On a regular schedule which is made up by the Interiors department in the home office, step by step curtains, carpets, chairs and couches are renewed. Sometimes by just exchanging the fabric, sometimes by re-covering it with a complete new design. That makes is possible that a ships lounge looks totally different today when compared to a number of years ago while no structural changes have taken place.

The upholstery department has a workshop in the bowels of the ship where also most of the fabrics are being stored, as the ship carries small amounts of each sort of fabric on board for regular repairs. In the past the upholsterers used to report to the Chief Officer and for a period of 7 years, when I had that function, I learned a lot about the business although not having trained for it at all. But that is what makes a sailor so versatile and that is what makes a job at sea so interesting, there is always a different angle to it.

Nowadays the upholstery department falls under the Facility Maintenance Manager. This is a fairly new function, created about two years ago. The company recognized that to run an engine room or a bridge you need licensed Sea officers but for regular ships maintenance that is not a necessity. So a licensed officer can now spend more time on items that requires a license instead of thinking about bed ruffles, glass curtains and high or low pole carpets.

Most of the work of upholsterers can be done un-obtrusively. Nobody notices it, if a chair is gone for the day or that work is being carried out on the curtains. Different is it when it comes to carpeting. The new carpet comes on board in large rolls and those can not be carried through the ship or up and down the staircases. Luckily all the hal ships have this massive observation deck on the bow. There is where we store the carpet and that is where the carpet gets cut to size for laying in the ship. On the Veendam we have at the moment quite a bit of carpet laying on the bow, under a tarpaulin, waiting to be installed when we have the chance. At the moment here on board they have just finished the couches in the piano bar (new design) and are now working on the main show lounge (regular replacement).
When that is finished, then it is time for carpeting again.

With the tendency in the cruise ship world to go to lighter colors, carpet needs to be replaced more often, as lighter carpet stains so much quicker. A darker color makes the ship look less cheerful and thus the designers tend to go for more and more pastel colors. A trend that is not always appreciated by the chief housekeepers of this world nor the Facility managers.

The carpet that comes on board the ship is not the same as the carpet that you buy at home. It is specially woven in a similar way as hotel carpets and it is also fire retardant. Many a passenger ship fire in the past was “enhanced” by the cork dry and highly inflammable carpet in the corridors. Nowadays there are strict rules for the specs for ship carpet. That makes replacing not cheap but safety comes first. Most of our carpet comes from the Netherlands, where Holland America has a long standing relation with the Desso Company.

Guests do not often realize how important these skilled craftsmen are that we have on board and how important they are for the presentation of the interior of the ship.

Tomorrow we have another day at sea. A cold front behind us is coming closer and should bring some more wind and rain in the afternoon. Also there is a large wave field moving in from the North Atlantic and thus the ship will start to pitch a bit tomorrow.

Well our progress was not as good as I had hoped for. Although we are doing already better then last cruise, we could not get the speed up to a full output on both propellers. That meant that I would never be able to reach San Juan at a decent time. As San Juan is an evening call, the arrival time would have been so deep in the night that making the call did not make sense anymore.

Thus I had to cancel and reschedule for St Thomas. With the average speed to maintain for Charlotte Amalie I was confident that we are going to make that call on time. I made my announcement, the guests received their compensation letter from Head Office and we continued on our way. We had a lot of head wind during the day but on the aft decks it was very pleasant and most guests were out in the sun.

With the 14 day cruise, we have lot of familiar faces on board again and this cruise it seems that we are more of a floating country club that a regular cruise ship. Everybody seems to know somebody and has time to revisit old friends and that is what makes a cruise even more enjoyable. With so many “old timers” on board, cancelling a call such as San Juan does not have much impact on the cruise. I hate doing it but I do not feel so badly if I know that most guests just raise their shoulders and carry on. They have been there before, bought the T-shirt and quite a few were not even planning to go ashore at all. I can think about worse ports to cancel.

By early evening we came close to the coast of Cuba and with it into the shelter of the land, thus the wind let off a little bit. Normally we see a lot of cruise ships here but as those also leave on a Saturday or Sunday from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, they were all a day ahead of us. This evening it was particularly quiet as there was not even a cargo ship insight. Later on we came across one and that was a most bizarre occurrence. Every sailor is used to see once in a while a cargo ship floating in the ocean. That is most of the time because they are waiting for orders or waiting to enter a port without an anchorage. They put on two red lights, called the Not Under Command lights or N.U.C lights and expect all ships to stay clear of them. Using N.U.C lights for this purpose is totally against the rules. You are only allowed to use those lights if your engine does not work and you can not maneuver at all. If you are just floating, you have to keep your engine(s) ready for use at all times. But using NUC’s is so much easier as it puts the burden of avoiding a collision on the other party. So it happens a lot.

The bizarre part of this was that this ship was floating close to the Cuban Coast and in the middle of the shipping lane. In comparison; it would be about the same if you would stop your car in the middle of the road on Times Square and then proceed to change a tire. You are inviting a collision and for this ship there was also the danger of drifting into Cuban territorial waters. You are not supposed to drift into anybody’s territorial waters if you are not calling at that country but drawing the attention towards you from the Cuban Coastguard is never a good idea.

So we made a wide turn around that ship. If you can not understand the logic of why somebody does something then you better stay away from him. The weather for tomorrow looks good and I am quite happy, as I can hold the schedule for St Thomas.

With the speed that we were able to make we arrived nicely on time at the Tampa pilot station. The speed even improved over the past days, so that was good news and gives hope for tomorrow. When sailing in, Tampa Bay showed itself from it best side by being nearly windless. You do not want to have completely windstill weather, otherwise there is a chance that the fog comes down but not too much wind either to make the docking unpleasant. This time the Sunshine Skyway Bridge was completely in the dark. So either there is still maintenance going on or they are saving on the electricity bill. We do not need any lights to go under it, we have two green lights that add as the mid-channel markers but it looks nice to see both pylons lit up. Especially on the way out when all the guests are still awake.

Today they will work all day on the shaft issue again to see if we can put more power on the sb shaft. It is all fine until we go above speeds of 15 knots. That is why I can maneuver safely as everything is working. Let’s hope for the best. I can do most of the cruise on lower speeds but I need more than that to get to San Juan.

As we are going on a 14 day cruise it is heavy storing, with several gangs of longshoremen working over three ships side breaks, to deal with the luggage, provisions, spare parts and matrasses. We finished the crew mattress exchange and we are now starting on the Officers cabins. These are most double beds and the old ones coming out will go to the Red Cross in Dominica, where we are calling during our coming cruise. Another 100 going for good causes.

For me the Tampa afternoon is mainly taken up by keeping an eye on all the operations that are going on, time wise. Will the longshoremen be finished on time, will the bunker barge be ready and will all the guests be in on time. And if not; can I afford to wait or do I have to sail. Lately all the guests who fly in, have been on time, as HAL has brought the flight arrival times forward so that there is at least 1.5 hours between touch down and the ships departure. So mostly here in Tampa, everybody is on board around 4 pm. I expect that this will change when the winter hits the country and the planes are getting delayed. Then it gets difficult as I will have to balance the service to the guests who are late and the need of the guests ready on board to start the cruise.

Pilots and Port Control always want two hours notice, so they can plan the ship into their schedules and HAL shore operations can not always confirm how much time a plane will be delayed in coming in. If we know, then we have cab’s standing at the airport ready with roaring engines and extra help to run with the luggage. We even have put fully mobile people in wheelchairs and raced them through the terminal as that was faster as letting them walk. I think the record from Tampa airport taxi stand to the ships gangway is currently standing at 17 minutes of what normally takes 30 to 40 minutes.

You might think that 5 or 10 minutes is not much on a two day sailing and yes it is not. But if Tampa Port Control decides after those 5 minutes to let a tug with barge depart or dock then I will be delayed for at least 45 minutes until the fairway opens up again. So I have to cast off at the time I promised; if at all possible.

This time we made it with room to spare. 1700 hrs. is the departure time, 16.55 we were off the dock and going through Tampa Bay was fast as was safely possible. By 20.15 the pilot was off and I could start cranking up the speed. Now we have to wait and see what the nights brings in regards to speed achieved

Today was our regular day at sea. This is also the last day of the cruise and with all the activities that go with it. It was a windy but sunny day and most guests were either out in the sun or enjoying what the daily program was offering.

Let me give you an oversight what a captain does on a day like this also taking into account the issues we had this cruise.

07.00 Wake up call
07.15 – 07.30 Briefing by the senior navigator about the past night and current progress of the voyage.
07.30 – 07.45 Discussion with Chief engineer about past nights speed performance and plans for Tampa.
07.45 – 08.15 Reading and Deleting emails on computer.
08.15 – 08.45 Breakfast and writing daily blog
09.00 – 09.30 Crew meeting.
09.30 – 10.00 Checking and signing engine room logs (engine daily log, oil record book, grey water log)
10.00 – 10.30 Coffee on the bridge and meeting with navigators for arrival Tampa.
10.30 – 11.00 Making report for Head office in regards to speed/shaft behavior past night.
11.15 – noon time Mariner’s Society meeting. 600 of them this cruise.
Noon – 12.25 Pulling weather forecasts of the internet. Good, no wind in Tampa.
12.25 – 12.45 Welcoming Suite guests to Suite luncheon in the crows nest.
12.45 – 13.00 Writing the voice from the bridge additional information.
13.00 – 13.15 Voice with the cruise director.
13.15 – 14.00 Lunch.
14.00 – 14.30 Reading and deleting emails
14.30 – 15.00 Discussion with the chief officer. Topics:paint and officer appraisals.
15.00 – 15.30 Tea time on bridge. Observing junior navigator.
15.30 – 16.00 Installing painting (received in Tampa last week for 25 years of calling) with the ships carpenters. As it is done in a public area, it needs my approval.
16.00 – 16.30 Thinking about and writing a newly wed speech
16.30 – 17.00 Talking to the chief Engineer about Tampa. Bunkering, spares etc.
17.00 – 17.30 Rreading and deleting emails. Uploading blog. Checking weather.
17.30 – 18.00 On the bridge, chief engineer wants to test the bow thruster while sailing.
18.00 – 18.30 Crew meeting and discussion with Hotelmanager
18.30 – 19.15 Dinner
19.30 – 20.15 Renewals of the wedding vows. One couple was supposed to get married in Key West and I had to cancel the call. So I did an amended “Renewals” for them. Oldest couple who was renewing the vows had been married for 50 years.
20.15 – 20.30 Leaving night orders for approach to Tampa Seabuoy.
20.30 – Off to bed. I will be called at midnight for a six hour standby, sailing into Tampa bay.

Not mentioned: on and off the bridge in between to keep an eye on things. Who said that life was dull on a cruise ship…………………

As I had been fearing the good plans did not work. We could not make up the 1.5 hours lost on departure Santo Tomas and starboard propeller shaft was still playing up. Thus in the course of the morning I had to cancel the call at Cozumel. Based on the ships speed, we would have arrived at 4 pm in the afternoon or even after, while having to leave again by 6pm. in order not to endanger the arrival time in Tampa. Although I have a lot of Tampa people on board, there is still a considerable number that has to fly and I can not jeopardize those flights, if I can help it.

Thus the company sent another letter with a compensation offer, we did an open bar on the Navigation deck and Lido deck in the late morning and the ship sailed on to Tampa. It is for us all on board very fustrating to have to deal with an issue we can not control. The engineers are trying very hard to resolve the issue, we were making progress and then there is a setback again during the night. My chief engineer is not a happy camper at the moment and is making long hours downstairs. We have the technicians on board to work on supplying more power to the shaft and I have high hopes that there will be a minimum impact on the next cruise. Luckily when we are island hopping, the distances are very short and the average speed to maintain quite low. Thus I am keeping my fingers crossed.

It is only an issue that affects us on higher speeds. The ship is safe and I can maneuver in and out every port and under every circumstance without a problem. I just can’t crank the ship up to warp speed at the moment.

I have no issues with handling situations like this, I just wish I did not have all the paperwork that goes with it. With the advent of the computer the thought was that there would be less paperwork to shuffle around but now instead we are shuffling electronic files around. It might take up less space in the cupboard with binders but it is still as time consuming.

The weather was great for part of the day, except in the afternoon, exactly around the time that we would have been at Cozumel. The Weather front from the Gulf came over with a lot of rain. As we were in open waters, I changed course and we could just skirt the rain clouds and only had a few drops on the deck. The next weather system, cold front, is supposed to leave the New Orleans area on Sunday and by that time we are docked in Tampa. So tomorrow should be a good day, sunny but maybe a bit windy.

Santo Tomas is the largest Guatemalan port on the Atlantic coast with a dock that can take four regular size ships and nearby is Puerto Barrios that can take four banana boats. Normally there are one or two ships at anchor. These are the ones that have been chased out of the port, or held from going in, when there is a cruise ship coming in.

This morning it was absolute mayhem for Santo Tomas standards. Four ships at anchor, one going in, Veendam at the pilot station and another ship approaching. Port Control blocked the air waves with constant announcements about which ship was where and what it should do. A curious mix of Greek, Croatian, Philipinno and Chinese accents filled the air. All of them trying to make sense of what their orders were and all upset that they were not going in first. If you realize that each hemisphere of the world and each race has different perceptions of what “at once” is or what “shortly” means or what “tomorrow” for a time span is, you understand that communications in the nautical world are not always easy. Port Control was audibly stressed.

We sailed in early, to facilitate the flight tour to Copan and Tikal and where docked by 05.30 am. We are expecting technicians to help us with the issue that caused the cancellation of the call at Key West although lately we have been making good speed and so we arrived at Santo Tomas on time.

Today we offloaded 5 boxes with clothing, shoes and other items donated by the ships crew for the school that we sponsor in Livingston near Santo Tomas. We also brought to them boxes with school supplies which we buy wholesale through the company and pay for out of the crew fund. Last cruise I had the route map of our 14 day cruise auctioned off and that money was used for the supplies. Also, as a final, we landed another 150 matrasses, half for the Red Cross and half for the local orphanage. Again with the Guatemalan Navy providing the transport free of charge.

Photos: courtesy of Veendam Chief House Keeper Nelly Reyes.

We had a day with very good weather. Although down pours had been expected, the rain remained over the mountains and the sun shone all day. As noted before, we have a lot of kids on board and they run into everything. All scratches and bumps. Things that mom takes care of at home by herself, but on board necessitates a visit to the ships hospital. Most people do not carry a complete medicine cabinet when traveling of course. One youngster even broke his leg when playing in a pool at a resort in Santo Tomas and will have to finish the cruise on crutches. So the Infirmary and the Security officer were being kept busy.

Then the ship was delayed in sailing, as our technicians arrived late. For some unknown reason the charter plane that was bringing them to Santo Tomas was not allow to fly there and they had to complete the journey by Taxi. Thus we left 90 minutes late. We still got our rousing sent off by the local taxi drivers and dance groups but I had my mind already on the coming night, as it was going to be difficult to make up that lost time.

Tomorrow we are in Cozumel and I am aiming for a noon time arrival. The ship is scheduled to dock on the same pier as last time, so we will be looking at the Navigator of the Seas again the whole afternoon.