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.

It is always interesting to see cruise ships converging at the pilot station; all at the same time. You just sometimes wonder if there is not going to be a one big cruiseship pile up around the pilotboat. It can look like a row of cars coming to a shopping centre. After slowind down and lining up, we went in with 30 minutes apart. The Carnival miracle was coming from the South, we were coming from the North and behind us was the Navigator of the Seas. The latter is tomorrow in Roatan and then we will see her again in Cozumel, where she will be docked next to us.

The line up for the channel through the reefs is covered by two flashing white lights, the leading lights. The peculiar thing is that the leading lights lead you right over a shallow spot, while at both sides there is much more water. 160 feet to the left of the line, 35 feet in the leading lights and 80 feet to the right of the line. The Veendam has a draft of 26 feet. Thus we prefer to approach NOT in the leading light line. Much to the dismay of the pilot, who has a hard time understanding that we always like our margins big where possible.

Due to the winding approach through the reefs, to get to the anchorage, it is quite an interesting issue from a nautical point of view. Because of that all navigators are so scheduled that they are all part, of either the arrival or the departure sequence (except the two officers of the dog shift who will just be going to bed) so they can see how it goes. I am training up two newly joined deck officers as well and this will be part of their crash course in Holland America familiarization.

The pilots are very good in Belize but of a very peculiar breed. They seem to have problems with uttering one more word than strictly necessary and there is not much of a captain to pilot exchange going on. Just the bare orders and that is it. As with every pilot, I follow each action very closely, directly prepared and ready to take over if a mistake is made. When you visit a port for the first time, you have to rely for a large degree on the expertise of the pilot as you lack the local knowledge. If you come more often to the same port, the pilot becomes more of a compulsory presence and the need for his navigational presence starts to diminish. Some ports you can get a pilot exemption if you have done a certain number of trips but for most ports it remains compulsory. Thus we have quite a few ports where the pilot is very content, to eyeball how the captain is conning the ship to the dock, while showing a very big interest in the coffee machine and the pastries.

While going through the reef, we run an average speed of 12 knots, slowing down to 10 for two very big and tight turns, before taking the speed off completely near the anchorage. Being the second ship going in means that we have to find a spot after the first ship the Carnival Miracle has parked itself where it wants. The pilots or the port authority do not assign anchor locations. Belize roads is big enough to hold 10 cruise ships, with room for an aircraft carrier to spare, so you just find a space. It is a free for all and may the fastest one win. What we all try to do, is to anchor as close to the port as is safely possible, to keep the tender transfer time as short as possible. Thus there was great interest on the Veendam bridge, to see where the Carnival Miracle was going to park itself. As expected, lright in the middle of the anchorage.

That was good enough for me, as just past that location, is an area that exactly fits the Veendam, it is even a bit closer to the port and it is out of the way of all the speedboat and tender traffic. No passing traffic means no swell along the tender platform and that means a safer transfer for our guests in and out of the tender.

The Navigator of the Seas anchored on the other side of the Carnival Miracle, even closer to the port but had therefore to contend with all the tenders servicing the Carnival Miracle coming by.

We had a very quiet and peaceful day. The sun was shining with a gentle breeze, so good fun could be had by all.

Tomorrow we are in Santo Tomas de Castilla.

Another great day at sea. Wonderful sunshine and with a ships speed of about 15 knots the prevailing winds strong winds where just turned into a nice breeze over the decks. Most of the kids were happily locked away for the day in the club Hal house behind the funnel and also guests were having a great time.

Talking about kids. During my Voice from the Bridge announcement at 1 pm. I explained how the tender procedure worked in Belize with the fast shore tenders. It seems that I stirred up quite a bit of excitement with our younger guests who are now all determined to get on the fastest one. We have been allotted four fast boats that each can take a 100 or more, the other boats are going to the two other cruise ships. I have explained in an earlier Belize blog that there fewer boats this year, then before due to the cruise dock construction. Some boat operators are already getting out of the business and into buses and taxis. But four fast ones should be enough to expedite the disembarkation. Tomorrow I will find out if I lived up to their expectation and if my “fast” was fast enough.

Although Holland America is not a company who focuses on children on board perse, we offer the facilities so that whole families feel welcome. Since we have built our two story clubhouse behind the funnel, they have a perfect place to enjoy themselves. Depending on how many children we are expecting, we have a number of youth Councilors on board. During regular cruises, mostly only one, as there are never more then two or three kids on board but during a cruise like the current one, we have four on board. The clubhouse is made up of a Toddler area, a children’s area and a teen area. On the top we have the Oasis which looks like Polynesian Island, with palm trees, a water fall and volcano cones. The teen area is called the loft and the layout of this place puzzled me for awhile. I could understand that it is a bit dark as that gives atmosphere but in the middle of the room there is a full length mirror standing, taking prime position.

This I found a bit of a waste of space but what do I know about Teen Psychology. It turns out that this is the most popular item in the loft with all evening long preening teenagers hovering around it. So my compliments to whoever dreamed this up, it works really well. To give the whole place a bit of disco effect, we have color lights rotating on the TV dome behind the oasis outside. In the course of about 10 minutes the dome goes from green to white to purple to red etc. I will have to sail one day behind one of the other HAL ships to see what it looks like from a distance. I saw once the Costa Allegra coming by who has laser lights going up in the air, coming from a Disco on the aft top deck and that looked really strange. The laser beams were visible against the night sky long before the ship itself came above the horizon.

Club HAL has their own daily program and activities that keep the kids busy all day long with the latest activity lasting until of 9 in the evening. After that the place remains open until late for the teens, with always a youth councilor there to keep an eye on things. Thus far the reports have always been very good without exception and that is the only thing I need to know.

Tonight we have our captain’s welcome on board toast just before the show but I do not think that there will be many kids there. Too boring. My speech will never win it from the temptation of a game box.

Tomorrow we are in Belize and it looks a perfect day for water sports.

Thus we were happily on our way to Key West for an afternoon call, cranking up the ship to full speed as soon as we had disembarked the Tampa bay pilot. Just before midnight we had to slow down again as we developed issues with one of the propeller shafts. It took all night and most of the early morning to control the problem and as a result we had to cancel our call at Key West.

The schedule between Tampa and Key West is very tight and a delayed departure or a slow down on the route, has immediate consequences for the arrival time. So I made an announcement explaining the situation to the guests. The guests received a compensation letter from the office and we continued on our way to Belize for a normal scheduled arrival of 8 am. at the anchorage, the day after tomorrow. It is never nice to cancel a port, not when it is weather related nor for port issues nor for ship issues. It all takes away from a care free cruise experience and we as crew always feel guilty about it, even when we can not do anything about it. Technical issues are especially very frustrating as you know that the engine department does its utmost to repair it all and to keep everything well maintained but things still happen occasionally.

The Caribbean cruise season is really getting on the way and in Belize we will not be the only ship. A luxury we had during our first call three weeks ago. Now we will be joined by the Carnival Miracle and the Navigator of the Seas, two of the very big boys. So if you look for the Veendam, we are that little blue boat sitting between the two white apartment buildings.

The weather looks very good for the coming days, which is a relief because if it is too windy, then some of the snorkeling tours are cancelled as the stirred up sand obscures the view. With our Thanks Giving Crowd on board there is great interest in snorkeling, diving and all other water sports, so good weather is of the essence.

We do have a bit more swell than normal and the ship has this dipping wobble at the moment. The stabelizers are balancing the ship against the rolling and we are not really pitching. However occasionally, the ship lurches a bit forward when the two swells that are running meet up together and create a “hole” in the water. It has the same feeling as if you twisted your ankle and then try to run. This ships movement is not uncomfortable, just a bit strange.

I am looking around the ship at the moment to find a nice wall to hang the picture/painting that we received yesterday in Tampa. See entry and photo of 18 November. Normally we receive small gifts, like plaques or plates but this time we received a five feet high framed photo on art paper. Thus we have to find a nice location and order a descriptive sign for it. The latter is more difficult as all interior signs have to be from standard prescribed brass with blue letters to keep it in synch with all the others. This can be a very lengthy procurement issue as each sign has to be custom made by one manufacturer.

The weather is good and very sunny and so it will be a great day tomorrow, when we have the scheduled sea day, which is now the second sea day.

After arriving at the pilot station we were in very good hands. Not one, but three pilots came on board. One was the official pilot and the other two junior pilots who had to make a certain of trips under supervision before they could get licensed for the larger type ship. When a pilot passes his exam, he or she is first limited to a certain tonnage, draft or length. After gaining some operational experience the license is endorsed for a large(r) vessel until after a number of years it becomes unlimited. So under the watchful eye of the senior pilot one of the two juniors conned the ship in. On departure all three returned and then the other junior pilot conned the ship out of port. I think they were both rather disappointed that I dock and undock the ship myself. However as the Captain remains responsible for the ship at all times, a dent caused by a pilot is still going on the account of the captain. So I prefer to make my own dents or better said do the docking myself so there are no dents. Pilots are normally very skilled ship handlers but nobody knows his own ship better than the captain, as he handles her every day.

So we happily docked (without a dent) and started the change over of our guests. We had a bit of drama with the two guests who had missed the ship in Aruba. They had flown from Aruba to Grand Cayman to rejoin the ship. They had just arrived on the pier when the medivac tender was coming back in again. I could then not pick them up anymore, as I had been already in an uncomfortable situation when having to make a lee for the medivac transfer. Thus the agent put them back on the plane to Miami and from their to Tampa. How much bad luck can you have? Upon arriving at the passenger terminal there troubles were not over yet, as now local security rules forbid them to come back on board. Upon departure Aruba, I had double locked the cabin with my master key and sealed it was well. The day before Tampa the security officer, with witnesses present, had packed and inventoried all the belongings. So on arrival Tampa, we took their luggage ashore, checked everything against the inventory list and that was it. Why were they late in Aruba??? They thought that all on board time was 15.30 hrs while it was 14.00 hrs. Thus they arrived at the Aruba dock side around 15.20 hrs. I do not think that they will make that mistake again.

Meanwhile I was occupied with something else. This week it was 25 years since Holland America came to Tampa for the first time. On 16 November 1982, the old Veendam left for its first in augural season from Tampa to the Caribbean. Since then the company has had over 600 000 guests sailing from Tampa. We also had the 1 millionth passenger sailing from Tampa on board the Noordam in 2001 when I was in command of that ship.
Thus we had to have an official party with all the movers and shakers from the port of Tampa and our Vice president Caribbean Operations Mr. Matthew Sams. We also recognized two employees who had been from the beginning. One was a Lady, Mrs. Aldona Weekly, who had been part of the shore operations check in staff since the first call of the Veendam. Second was Mrs. Sandy Naugle our ships agent who started looking after our ships from 1983 on. For both I made an Letter of Commendation expressing our gratitude and I think both made it on the 6 pm. news that evening.

We pulled out on time sailing through Tampa Bay as fast as we could as it was going to be a high speed run to Key West. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is still under maintenance with only one pillar lit up which was a bit of a pity. This is a Seven day Thanksgiving cruise and we have a lot of family’s on board including approx. 150 kids. They normally keep the security department VERY MUCH occupied during the cruise, as the guards try to re-unite families all evening long. Mothers who desperately want to be “re-united” and kids desperately trying to avoid being “re-united”. It is going to be a noisy week.

The cold front moved faster over Cuba and Grand Cayman than expected. This had the pleasant result that the winds died down very quickly in the Gulf of Mexico. That helped in turn to reduce the wave area of 8 to 10 feet high waves in the middle of the Gulf to dissipate faster. As a result I could adjust the ships average speed and we had a very comfortable ride to Tampa. The ship is pitching a little bit (Bow going up and down) but it is a pleasant motion.

Today I had something special on my hands, something I had not experienced in my 26 years with Holland America. The Veendam has the employee of the year on board, or better said the recipient of the Presidents Leadership Award. As I explained in one of my earlier blogs; the company has several ways of recognizing crew for outstanding performance. The selection of the employee of the month is the best known one. However the President and CEO of the company Mr. Stein Kruse also selects once a year three employees who will receive the Presidents Leadership Award. One award goes to the fleet, one award to a person in the office and one award to a person in Holland America Tours, the latter being the hotels, the buses, the trains etc etc.

With 13 ships and two more coming, there are over 9000 employees at sea. Thus it is a great honor if you are the employee chosen to receive this honor. Everybody can make suggestions to the office and bring candidates forward. A committee of wise men and women read the motivations and arguments that go with each nomination and then a final selection is made.

The recipient receives a company pin with 10 precious stones, a engraved glass plaque, the congratulatory letter from the President and a cheque of $ 5000,— The latter is normally the most appreciated. It is then up to the ships captain to make the appropriate recognition and to ensure that the crewmember is duly recognized. As you can understand I am very happy to have the employee of the year on board. I consider TEAM Veendam the best crew in the fleet and now having the EOY on board gives that argument a considerable bit more weight.

The employee of the year is our ships printer, Mr. Balthasar Rafales. The printer has a job that unfolds fully behind the scenes. It is a one mans job, except for on the world cruise when there are two. If this man falls ill, half the communication to the guests come to a grinding halt, as nothing gets printed anymore and stop gaps have to be made by using copy machines. When I just started sailing in 1981, I once worked a few days as the ship printer, as it turned out that I was the only one who could read in mirror and could operate a Heidelberg printing machine. I had just learned that the weeks before from the real ships printer as I had been fascinated by that old fashioned machine; that still printed with lead characters. Because of that only just acquired skill I was quite the bees-knees for a while with Hotel manager and Purser hovering around making sure that I was oke and not falling ill as well. So I know from past experience that the printer has a very vital job on board as a cruise ship operation relies on proper communication a lot via printed matter.

I presented Balthasar, who goes by the name of Balt here on board, his reward during the disembarkation talk when we had the crew farewell. As expected he received a standing ovation from our guests and caused a lot of envious eyes from the whole TEAM Veendam behind him on the stage, when the $ 5000 cheque was presented. Balt is a very worthy recipient as he is always doing a job that ranks under the 125% header and he is capable to anticipate problems arising and correct them and ring the bell when print requests are coming to his shop that are incomplete or do not make sense.

Congratulations to Balt. I have added a section under the My Ship page with a post about Balt in more detail.

The good ship Veendam had a beautiful last day at sea, with calm seas, a gentle rocking swell and glorious sunshine.

Tomorrow we are back in Tampa to do one seven day west Caribbean cruise, followed by the next 14 day cruise.