Another beautiful day to enjoy. Fresh crisp air, the leaves on the trees turning and the sun warming the air up just enough to make it pleasant. We were in port with the QE2 but as they came in later and had wait for full CBP clearance we had our guests ashore before it really got busy. Although in the afternoon with over 3000 people making their way back to the ships and all the tours coming back it did get busy. In the end we sailed 45 minutes late as it took awhile to get everybody from the tour bus back on board.

The ship is gearing up for our next cruise which is a 12 day from Montreal to Tampa. The navigator is busy with setting the courses for next cruise and does that nowadays on an electronic chart. Basically a computer screen. This electronic chart is also producing a display on the radar screen and that makes navigating a lot easier. The radar displays, apart from the ships echoes, also the land as laid-out on the chart and the depths of the water. If the red dotted line is lay out correctly then the only thing you have to do is stay on it. When the courses all have been laid out and approved by the captain, then they are transferred to a paper chart. Paper sea-charts are still compulsory, although change is coming. This year the US navy is going paperless and when that has happened; the North American regulatory bodies will approve electronic charts for the merchant marine as well. Under the Dutch (flag state) rules electronic charts have been accepted already for some years.

Setting courses from one port to the other has thus become much easier. Just a click from a mouse and there is the next way point. What had become much more difficult in the last few years is the preparation. In the old days, if your course did not go over a shallow spot, then you were in business and eventually made it to port. Now each port and each part of the coast has restrictions and exemptions and you have to read all the books you can lay your hands on to find out with what you have to comply with this time. Long questionnaires are sent to the local agent to find out if something has changed in the last few months and then the puzzle starts. What was a straight course line between two points suddenly becomes multi angled. Marine sanctuaries have to be avoided, no go zones, no discharge zones, economic exclusion zones; there is a whole list of things that makes the life of a navigator difficult nowadays. And the schedules get tighter and tighter as well, and so does the fuel budget.

I have in my collection world cruise brochures from the 1930’s that mention arrival in ports with just AM. in the morning for arrival and with just PM. for departure, the rest left to the vagaries of the weather and the decision of the captain. Later the brochures said 0800 arrival and 1800 departure and the captain would have enough leeway in the schedule to come in early and leave a bit later if necessary. Now the schedules are tight, if arrival says 08.00, I am most of the time docked no more then 20 minutes before. If a country throws in another no go zone, then it quickly eats up those 20 minutes. Prime example was yesterday in Boston. Due to the Right Whale area’s, we have to sail further out and thus we had to amend our arrival schedule as there was no leeway anymore.

Thus the navigator puzzles and puzzles. For the coming cruise, we also have many of those puzzles. One of those is going around the Florida Keys. In the past we were able to cut inside the Dry Tortugas, West of Key West. That is now a Marine sanctuary, so we have to go around it. That adds 10 miles or 30 minutes steaming at full speed. On a two day schedule that is a significant amount of time. I can absorb those 10 miles but it means switching on an extra engine at $350 an hour for fuel. So I hope to avoid that by pin- pointing the direction of the Gulf Stream correctly and using the counter current that runs under the Keys. However as the axis of the Gulf Stream varies in location, doing that properly is going to be an interesting exercise.

Weather predicting is always a gamble but this time I was correct. The air was crisp and clear and so the sky line of Boston could be seen 25 miles away. With our pilot time of 08.00, everybody on board had the chance to see the ship sailing into Boston harbor while the sun slowly rose behind us.

Normally we are docked in Boston by 8 am.; however our arrival was adjusted to 09.30 due to the Right Whales. In one of my previous blogs, I discussed the Right whales and one of the actions taken to protect their habitat, is that the shipping lanes have been moved further out. So we had to sail a longer route, around the Right Whale area, to get to Boston pilot station. The idea is that in this way, the ship will stay away from the area where there is normally the highest concentration of Right Whales. As all ships are to report sightings of right whales, the controlling body can monitor to see if this really works. If not maybe the shipping lanes will need to be adjusted again. This time we did not see a single Right Whale. Not that strange as there are only about 300 left.

We docked in Boston at the Black Falcon terminal. The terminal is named after a Norwegian Merchant vessel that caught fire more the half a century ago. The name has nothing to do in anyway with Boston. This time we were by ourselves so we could park where ever I wanted. Which was of course as close as possible to the exit. During the docking sequence, the pilot does the approach. By rule and regulations he has to have the conn (e.g. conning the ship) when the ship is moving through the port and when there is safe navigation involved. As soon as the navigating is finished the captain takes over and brings the ship alongside. If it is good weather I alternate docking with the chief officer, it gives him the chance to gain the necessary experience before he gets his own command. When things are tricky I do the maneuver myself. Mostly high winds or when there is very little space. The pilot will only get involved when there are tugboats present. Then it is often a joint venture between pilot and captain, combining expertise. The pilot with his tugboat knowledge and communication and the captain with his own ship maneuvering experience.

Today we had to dock “on the inch” as we were using a shore side gangway that was fixed in position. If I guess the ships speed right and the security officer at the gangway gives a correct count down, then I can often stop the ship “on the spot” and the only thing the chief has to do, is to tighten up the lines for and aft. If the chief is doing the maneuver then I take care of the lines. For and aft is a deck officer standby for communication and there are 5 or 6 sailors who handle the ropes.

It depends on the weather how many ropes (we call them lines) go out. With good weather it is 4 and 2. Which means four lines leading away from the ship and two lines leading along the ship. Forward these are called head lines and they lead forward away from the ship. Aft these are called stern lines and they lead at and away from the ship. The spring lines are lines that lead along the ship towards the stern from the bow and towards the bow from the stern. These last lines are used to bring the ship into the exact position in relation to the dock, while bow and stern lines are used keep the ship alongside the dock. If you have a well trained team doing the docking (this is called standby for fore and aft) then the whole evolution is done,as quickly as the line handlers can pull the lines ashore.

But line handlers are a different story and the source of much bad language spoken on the bridge. But that is for another day.

We left Boston on time and after being hampered in our departure maneuver by yet another “Sunday sailor”, we headed out to open sea towards Bar Harbor. Tomorrow we are in port together with the QE2, although she will be at the outer anchorage.

Sunday 30 September 2007, Newport.

Newport is always a pleasant place to come to. From the bridge the scenery looks nice, the guests like the call and it is most of the time a sheltered anchorage. It is a interesting tender ride into town, as the tender has to go all the way around Goat island to get to the centre of Newport Harbour to fnd the tender dock. Sunday mornings are nice and quiet and the tenders ahve the port to themselves. Things normally change a bit after mid day when the sail boats come out. And it being a Sunday, and it being great weather, they were out there in large numbers.

Most of them know how to behave but there are always a few. We call them six-pack navigators as their focus is more on the contents of the fridge then on the surrounding traffic. Thus we had a few in our path while sailing away from the anchorage area. Luckily we had a USCG escort and the pilot boat sailing a head of us to get the biggest problems out of the way before they became an issue. There are some sailing boat operators out there, who think that they have the right of way because the rules say so. In open waters, there are situations where a motor vessel has to give way to a sailing vessel. That is part of the Rules of the Road and we all follow those rules.

However when in confined waters, the situation is different. Whereas a small sailing boat can turn on the spot by tacking over, a tanker or big cruise ship can not get out of the way, due to shallow water, or what ever other reason. Then common sense should prevail and that is also in the Rules of the Road. It is even the first article of the Rules of the Road. Before any other rules are discussed. But they are out there; those who sail with the little blue book in the hand: you just have to find them.

In open waters, we keep a safe distance from the sailing boats ourselves as a standard operating procedure. It is often much easier to make a little preventive course change yourself ahead of time then to wait and see if a particular yacht or boat will follow the Rules or not. Too many a time a yacht did not do what it had to do and then the ship had to resort to a last minute maneuver. So we act to pre empt any potential problems. As I said, the majority of yachts and sailing boats know what they are doing but there is always one……………….

Today was the first time that we did the new captains welcome on board party. Now we have to wait for the feedback from our guests for the yah or nay. The advantage is that it all goes a bit faster and is followed immediately by the show. The bit that I do miss is the interaction with the guests, to welcome them on board personally. The future will learn what works the best. The first intro’s is at 20.15 and the second one is at 22.15 and as there was no fog expected, I could do both.

Tomorrow we are in Boston and as the weather is going to be great, I hope that the guests are up and about by 8 am, when we sail in, as during clear weather, you can see the Boston sky line from far away and maybe even a Right Whale when we approach the pilot station.

I do not know what it is with New York but it is always something. The city is noisy and busy and so is the approach to the pilot station. Lot’s of noise on the VHF and lot’s of ships in and around the Ambrose light and the pilot cutter. There is always something going on that upsets the normal routine. Of course the cruise ships arrived at the same time and that did not help either. We had the Carnival Victory, the Norwegian Spirit, the Crown Princess and us, all at the pilot station between 04.20 and 04.30 in the morning. We picked up the pilot one by one and then lined up for sailing into the channel. As it was very windy we all had to maneuver to make a good lee for the pilot boat and so we saw ship after ship making an S- turn through the wind, some to the North and some to the South and then swing back to course.

The forecast had called for wind and there was going to be a lot of current running along the dock. Also the Norwegian Spirit would be docking ahead of me. They raced up the river, passing the Crown Princess halfway, to get into the dock before me. So I got two tugboats as a fail safe. When lining up into the slip, I knew we would come very close to the stern of the spirit and then it is a nice feeling to have a tugboat in between with some extra horsepower up your sleeve. In the end we swung around the stern at a distance of about 50 feet and then there is not much room for error.

There are two pilots involved in the operation. First is the Sandy Hook pilot who brings the ship from Ambrose to about 1 mile from the dock and then the docking pilot comes on board with the ordered tugboat and brings the ship into the slip. As soon as the ship is lined
up into the dock, the captain takes over and finishes the docking.

Just when passing the Statue of Liberty, the sun came out, and bathed all of New Jersey in a reddish gold color, making it a spectacular arrival. I had announced the approximate time of passing yesterday, so hopefully some guests were awake, as this was New York at it’s best. Just past pier 40, the old Holland America docking pier, the harbor pilot came on board for the final approach.

Great was my surprise this time, that with the docking pilot somebody else came on board. A real blast from the past. Capt. Grover Sanschagrin had come along for the ride. He had been a New York pilot for over 50 years, conned over 40.000 ships and was for years Holland America’s preferred docking pilot. Not that he did not do the other passenger ships but if the Statendam and Rotterdam would arrive in New York, he would be the preferred choice. Thus I remembered him well from the days when I came with the old Rotterdam to New York in the 1990’s. And as I was already quite bald in those days, he remembered me as well. So it was great to see him again, still as agile as ever and not aged a day.

So we docked nicely on time and the hotel department geared up for change over day. Approx. 200 pallets of supplies, luggage off, luggage on, guests off and on, and a myriad of other things going on. This time we did not have such a big crew change as the last time, so the day could progress more orderly. Also as we had had immigration in Bar Harbor, the ship was quickly cleared on arrival, giving most crew the chance to go ashore for a little while. Most of them came back laden with shopping, all to be packed up and to be taken home at the end of their contract.

An expensive item was loading 1000 tons of fuel. with a day price of $380 a ton, it was almost as if we were pumping gold on board.

We sailed on time and this is the last call for the Veendam to New York for the near future. Thus it might be a while before I will see the Big Apple again.

……………..And then on departure from Boston the fog descended. Pea –soup fog with less then 100 feet visibility. And that meant no Pinnacle dinner for my wife and I on my birthday. By 8 pm. I was in bed awaiting that dreaded phone call near mid night from the chief officer, advising that it was still a small world as we call it. And yes he called, as it was still very dense. When there is restricted visibility (that means you can not see further away then three miles, because of fog, rain or sand storms) the Captain has to be on the bridge as a back-up for the navigators. If there is continuous fog and or interspersed with daily arrivals and departures, then the sailing hours are spit up between the Captain and the Second in command. Thus the chief does the 6 -12 and 18 – 24 hrs and the captain the 0-6 and 12 -18 hours. The latter are the most un-civilized ones but then as a captain I can sleep when I want, while the chief has a department to run.

So I had the privilege of observing Nantucket on the radar, first from the North, then from the East and then from the South, as we had to sail around it on our way to our next port of call New London. By 01.30 the wind picked up and the fog lifted. That gave me another good 4 hours sleep before we had the next standby, approaching Block Island Sound from the East via the pilot station at Judith Rock. There is a more convenient pilot station further west but the pilots found it too choppy there.

Newport is a fairly new destination on the HAL schedule and we call there occasionally on the New England cruises. The town is working very hard to get more cruise ships in and is giving excellent service to the ships and the guests. Due to our schedule and the location of New London all the way in the corner of Block Island Sound our arrival time was planned for 11.00. With these calls I always try to be a little bit earlier, to give the guests more time but as we had to go to the alternative pilot station and the fact that I could not add those extra 30 minutes to the voyage by leaving Boston timely, meant that I was looking at a normal docking time.

This was the first call for the Veendam and also for me, so sailing in around 10 am. during day light was not that bad at all. At least I could see where I was going in3 D instead of seeing it on the flat screen radar. Sailing into New London, is quite scenic. There are very picturesque lighthouses which look like Victorian Mansions, there is the Viagra factory on the starboard side and there is down town on the portside. Also there is the dockyard of the Electric boat company that builds the submarines. The dock is a former cargo dock that has been refurbished and the town now tries to get funding to put a cruise terminal on top of it. The local tugboat came out with the local TV station on board and there was a small drum band on the dock. There were shuttle buses for the guests and for the crew and even little gators to ferry the wheel chair bound from the gangway to the shuttle buses. All very nicely set up. Even the linesmen did their job without complaining and that is usual.

As it was our first call for the Veendam, the big shots were coming out for a welcome party and ceremony on board. We had the Lt. Governor with wife, a national congressman, the mayor, the chairman of the local business community, tourism board and a whole host of other dignitaries. This all being coordinated by the Cruise Ship Task Force who is the driving force behind getting New London on the cruise calendar.

I did not make it ashore. As soon as the Lt. governor and party had departed the ship, I went to bed as there could be fog again during the night and approach to New York started at 04.30 ……….and sailing into New York is a form of controlled mayhem.

After another hazy night, we approached the Boston pilot station at 5.45 am in the morning. Ahead of us the Crown Princess who had to deeper into the port and somewhere behind us the Norwegian Spirit who for some reason came in quite late. This ship would later on have to pass the two of us to go to the first spot at the dock. The Black Falcon terminal is a “dead end” dock which means that ships have to go the same way out as they come in. Luckily there were no container ships in port today.These dock at the opposite side of the fairway, and when there, can make things a bit tight. With the container dock empty there was a bit of extra room for all of us to play around in.

We were docked nice and timely so that the guests could get off at a good time to enjoy the sights of Boston. Once again we had a sunny day and all was well. I was already looking at departure. It was going to be a tight run to our next port of call New London and it would help if I really optimized the schedule. Due to the one way in, same way out, the ship would have to swing into the fairway on departure and that normally takes a good 20 minutes. The basin is too small to just blast away from the dock and swing around with maximum power. Thus I opted for a portside – nose out- arrival. 20 minutes saved. Next step: trying to get off the dock as soon as the last guest would be back on board. All on board time is 30 minutes before the official departure time and if I could get off the dock at once, I would save another 25 minutes. So pilot, linesmen and longshoremen (for the gangway) were ordered for 16.15 with the high hope that all would go well.

Of course it was hoping for too much. For once the tours were back late and my 16.35 departure turned into 17.00 before the last bus had debarked on the dock. Then instead of racing out of the port, we had to go dead slow as a group of “Sunday sailors” had decided to anchor their power boat right in the middle of the airway. So with honking the horn we tried to alert them but to no avail. Only when that big Veendam bow kept coming closer and closer, a few lethargic movements were made to pull out the anchor and amble away from the centre of the fairway. Then we had to turn slowly, as they were only just out of our way and could still have been caught with the swinging stern. When that was done, I could finally crank the ship up and race to the pilot station.

What I call honking the horn, is of course in normal language, blowing the whistle. It is an important navigational or better said anti collision instrument but it can also be used for greeting. We use it for indicating which way to pass each other, (one blast is port to port, two blasts is starboard to starboard) or to overtake ships. Most often, especially here in the Canadian Maritimes we use it to let our presence known in the fog. Then the whistle is blown once every two minutes for as long as the fog lasts and for as long as visibility is less than three miles. The height of the tone of the whistle is regulated by the Rules of Road and the bigger the ship is in tonnage, the lower the tone. Thus a tugboat has a high pitched whistle and a 140.000 ton cruise ship a very deep toned one. The Veendam with 55000 tons is somewhere in the middle but I can improve on the effect by blowing two whistles at the same time. As a ships whistle is a navigational must, there is redundancy and we have one in the Radar mast above the bridge and a second one in the funnel aft. They operate on compressed air, although in the old steamships days, most whistles worked on steam.

To alert the world to a dangerous situation, there is the danger signal. Five short blasts. The idea is that everybody who hears this signal looks around and checks if his or her vessel is not causing any problems for somebody else. This normally works, except with Sunday sailors who in their blissful ignorance probably think that we are greeting them.

For greeting we have the tree long blasts on the ships whistle. Not to be confused with three short blasts which indicate that the ship is going astern. On departure Boston I greeted the American flag on top of Fort Independence that way and we also use it to greet other (company) ships. There used to be a protocol for this in the old days. The younger captain on the smaller ship would always greet first. Then the more senior captain on the larger ship would answer and then the smaller ship would confirm with one single blast. Nowadays junior captains can be on the bigger ships and the most senior captain on the smallest one so this whole idea has become obsolete. When I meet another cruise ship, I normally instigate the whistle exchange as I do not care at all about whether I am the more senior one or not. I just want it to happen as it is fun for the guests on board to hear the exchange. Some other company’s do the same thing and some of them don’t. I tried it in Halifax with the Norwegian Spirit but not a peep came back.

Tomorrow we are in New London. The weather forecast is not that great but looking at the weather chart, there might be a chance that the wind will just die off when we get there and that would mean that the rain will not reach the port. For the evening I hope that the wind will keep blowing, so that it keeps the fog away for the night. My wife made a reservation in our Pinnacle Restaurant for this evening as it happens to be my birthday.

When we left Bar Harbor last time, we were advised to follow a special track that supposedly was free of lobster pots. According to the pilot and an agreement had been made between the port and the fishermen. I said supposedly, as there was as many lobsterpots on the intended track line as outside of it when we sailed through it. So we plowed straight through with no other place to go, with me being very happy with the fact that during last dry dock we put knives on the propeller hub. (That is the cone to which the blades are connected) If a rope gets into the propeller, it will be cut in pieces before it can come close to the seals on the shaft that keep the water out and the oil in.

Now we came back following the same track and a lot of pots were gone. Whether the fishermen had seen the light, or that the various cruise ships coming and going to Bar Harbor in the past week, had also removed their share of the pots from the track I do not know but there were a lot less buoys in the water compared with last time.

The route from the pilot station to the anchorage was reasonably clear and we found a narrow channel free of little buoys that let us get to the anchorage just off Bar Harbor. I arrived an hour earlier as scheduled because we had to do immigration. The ship was coming from Canada so all guests and all new crew had to be seen by the Inspectors of the Custom and Border Protection. However all of them had gone over to the Crown Princess also at anchor, so we had half an hour delay before they came to us.

By the time the clearance process was under way, we ran into problems with our morning tours. As the same buses were in use for the afternoon tours as for the morning tours (with two ships in port there is a limited amount of buses that can be had in Bar Harbor) some guests did not make it as they were still stuck in clearing process. These had to be rebooked to the afternoon tour. Still the Officials here are very helpful. They allow a system whereby each checked guest gets a card and is then allowed to go ashore. There are American ports where the local Chief Inspector does not want to cooperate at all and simply keeps everybody on board until the final guest has been seen. If this happens, then we have of course a lot of unhappy guests and the Front office gets a lot of flack. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do. We have to obey by the laws of the countries that we visit and the USA has this system whereby an official has to personally see the passport holder. So we have to live with it. This is one of the reasons that we try to avoid scheduling half day port calls at an American ports, if we come from another country.

The fact that it was a warm and sunny day did help a lot to make up for it. We were expecting thunderstorms in the early afternoon but the first drops only started to fall when we sailed away at 6 pm. Thus far the score for the cruise is: 7 out of 8 days have been nice. That is not bad going for the Canadian Maritimes. The thing is, when it is bad, then it is really bad and you have to cancel a port, as we did with Sydney, 3 days ago.

As if somebody had turned the switch. The moment we made the turn into the direction of Halifax sea buoy, the wind fell away and the sun came out with a glorious sunrise.

We were first at the pilot station and set for Pier 22. Behind us was the Norwegian Spirit who was scheduled for pier 21. That is the biggest passenger terminal, with the most shops and to keep those shopkeepers happy, they get the ship with the most guests on board. An un-expected guest was the Celebrity Constellation who had cancelled a port in Newfoundland also due to inclement the weather of yestereday and who came to Halifax instead. That ship arrived at 8 am at the pilot station an hour behind us. As she was not scheduled at all, she had to dock at a cargo pier.

This was the first time that I saw the ship with her new name, Celebrity Constellation. As part of a rebranding exercise, the cruise company is adding the prefix Celebrity to all their ships. Carnival is doing currently the same with the Fantasy class. They now also get the prefix Carnival which all of the newer ships already have. Costa has the same, Aida does the same, it seems to become a standard in the cruising business. NCL uses the prefix Norwegian, RCI the ending of the Seas and Cunard now names all their ships with a Queen prefix. Plenty of scope their for expansion as there are plenty of Queens in England’s past. Holland America of course has the DAM ending, which we already have since 1873. Those guys 134 years ago where really ahead of their time…………….

So we docked starboard side alongside Pier 22 with the regular bag pipe band in attendance followed by the town crier in a wheel chair. In the past he would march behind the bag pipe band but lately he has been using a wheel chair. Although it is a pity that he has to use a wheel chair, it is quite funny to see him rolling behind the band towards the ship. The band marches up and down and he rolls behind them following the same route until they line up near the gangway. Then he gets up, rings his bell and makes his welcome announcement. When finished he takes off at high speed, to get to the next ship. Thus far he has always greeted a HAL ship first. Why I do not know but he seems to do that all the time, maybe he made a cruise with us.

The band is not that big, normally two or three pipers, one normal drum and the big one. On departure there is only one piper, to say farewell to the ship. As far as I understand the music, he/she plays one or two laments and then for the less cultivated members in the audience, a more understandable tune: Amazing Grace. The members of the band that does the playing belong to 78th Highlanders, Halifax Citadel Regimental Association. They have been welcoming the ships for as long as I have been coming to Halifax and probably before then.

Well, the weather certainly made up for the wind of yesterday and sail away took place in full sunshine against the back drop of downtown Halifax. The only one that was missing was Theodore Too, that special tugboat with the base ball cap on the funnel. In previous years the boat was always around, being sponsored by the port. This year, the pilot told me, there is no sponsorship so the boat only runs when it has a paying sightseeing tour. Which is a pity, as it was a great ambassador for Halifax. Tomorrow we are in Bar Harbor, dodging lobster pots.

Well, my worst fears came true. During the night it blew up to 50 knots in North Humberland strait. That is the stretch of water between Prince Edward Island and the north side of Nova Scotia. Although less so in the morning, it was still very windy and choppy when we arrived at the pilot station of Sydney at 6 am.

However as the pilot had observed only six knots of wind in the port when he came out, I had not much choice other than to sail in and have a look for myself. Luckily at the end of the fjord that leads to Sydney dock, there is ample room to swing around if the wind would be too much. While sailing in, the wind started to breeze up again and was blowing a good 20 knots by the time we came to the channel that leads towards the dock. This channel is the problem with the port of Sydney. It is very small and the prevailing winds are mostly on the beam.

Here the regular maneuver is to swing the ship around and back her up through this small channel towards the dock. The ships are always docking there nose out, in case of sudden winds and other natural mayhem develops suddenly. Then the ship only has to let go the lines, give full ahead and get away from the dock into the deeper and wider part of the fjord. So I swung the ship around and lined her up for the channel. Ready to go astern. At this moment the wind really picked up and although I had all the ships power in the direction against the wind, the Veendam started to drift towards the shallows. This was definitely not going to work. This was the abort point, as explained yesterday. So I gave full ahead and sailed away from danger.

By 08.00 we were outside again, where the wind had picked up to 35 knots. We disembarked the pilot and set sail for Halifax where we are tomorrow. In the course of the afternoon, when we had just passed Cape Breton, the winds picked up to 50 knots again, now full on the beam. This created quite a list and the engineers had to react quickly with transferring more ballast to the high side and so bringing the ship horizontal again. Although it is not dangerous, it can be disconcerting for the guests, so I normally make an announcement to explain what is going on. I think that this time I blasted through the movie, the explorations lecture, the friends of Bill W and trivia pursuit. The Cruise director must really love me.

As the weather here in the North East is so un-predictable, the Cruise Director has an alternative plan ready for each day, in case I have to cancel a port call. Thus when I made my official announcement at 08.25 in the morning, she was on the tannoy 5 minutes later, regaling her audience with a full day program to keep everybody occupied. Most of the guests, who saw the white caps and felt the ships movement, understood the reason for cancelling. One lady was disappointed. She had hoped to combine her cruise with visiting her father’s grave in Sydney.

Tomorrow we are in Halifax and the weather forecast looks great.

With a heavy heart I arrived at 04.30 at the pilot station west of the Confederation Bridge. Wind around us was gusting up to 30 knots from the WNW and things did not look good. The pilot came on board and also he admitted that it would be a very breezy day for being at anchor, especially with the current running out of the river down to the anchorage location. He commended me on cancelling the previous call (see 15 September blog) as things had indeed turned very nasty after the ship left.

So with anchoring not being an option, the question was is there a plan B. Well the dock is supposedly 5 days from completion so maybe that was an option. If a dock is five days from being ready, then, there can not be much left un-finished. The pilot confirmed that all the bollards were in place but that the dock surface was not ready yet for people to walk on. But if I could dock alongside with the ship and then run a tender service into the town, then at least it meant I would not have to cancel. So as soon as we passed the Bridge, we called the agent out of bed and put the proposal to her. Either she got me permission to dock the ship or otherwise I would cancel with the town losing a major amount of revenue. Well our agent has guts and she was not to be denied. Shelley, if you ever read this, thank you very much. She did convince the port authority and we got permission. It would however take an hour or so as now the dock needed a full security sweep and the boys had to be called out of bed first.

The pilot in the mean time took care of the linesmen, who had to come out of bed as well, to handle the ropes. But the linesmen are his daughter, his son and some other near family so that was easily arranged. (Also, the man who runs the pilot boat is family, it is his brother……..) As it was very early Sunday morning, I assume that they were not too happy with the ideas of this Captain of the Veendam but they all showed up in time. Cruise ships are indeed a major source of income for the town and every dollar helps to get the kids through college.

After hovering for an hour near the sea buoy, we got the security clearance and sailed into the harbor. When we came closer and closer, the wind suddenly picked up to 40 knots on the beam and I thought this is not going to work; I better look for an abort point. The best abort point (= last chance to decide not to make the final maneuver) was close to the dock, so we might as well go there, swing the ship around and then review the situation. By the time I had swung the ship around there was 20 to 25 knots blowing but it was full on the bow and it did not make the ship drift. Slowly but steadily we worked the ship astern and sideways to the dock. The pilot on the phone all the time explaining to his family what the plan was, as nobody had ever thought about the combination of running a tender service and docking at the same time. We were docked with the first guests going ashore about 45 minutes late but at least we did not have to cancel. It turned out that the dock was indeed not finished yet. Bollards are in place, the concrete shell is there but it still has to be filled up and resurfaced, before people can safely walk on it.

Tendering went well and although the wind remained, the sun came out and everybody had a great day. Except one elderly lady. She broke her hip that day by tripping over her shoe laces in the cabin. She was disembarked just before departure. Thus the Veendam had the distinction of not only being the first cruise ship to dock at the new pier but also having the first medivac on the pier. Tomorrow we are in Sydney and the weather forecast calls for lots of wind during the night and morning…….Will see, what that brings.