It rained off and on during the night and then in the early morning it really started to pour. We are already in the rainy season but with the weather system in the Carib pushing everything back to Middle America, we now get it all. Everything that might have drifted away is stuck above the Middle American countries and it rains. It pours; it reduces visibility to half a mile at times. Normally when you enter Golfo Dulce, the hot air coming from the rain forest pushes the clouds away a little bit and you still have a clear view of the shore side but when the rain clouds get bounced back it does not work that way. Thus this time we did not see much shore line at all. Our travel guide tried to describe as best as he could what we should have seen but how do you describe a lush and tropical rain forest when the only thing you see is a grey dull curtain of rain?  With no alternative out there as it rained everywhere, I still had to make the call. Also because we get here the clearance for our call tomorrow in Puerto Caldera as it is the same country. A very small boat comes out, carrying a local customs officer and his whole family (he clears the ship, they eat ice cream) and they remained on board while we went around the Gulf. 3 hours later they disembarked again and we sailed slowly towards Puerto Caldera. Continue reading

 As expected and scheduled we arrived at the Breakwater of Cristobal at 05.15. In the last half hour we were called by Cristobal Signal station not to be too late and of course when we arrived we had to slow down as the Island Princess, ahead of us, was held up by a late out coming ship. Some locals call that pattern the slogan of the Panama Canal “Hurry up to go slow”. About 20 minutes late we arrived at the pilot station but that did not matter much as the locks were only going to be ready in about 2 hrs from that moment, giving ample time to go through the ritual of ships agent, clearing agent, fumigator, canal technician, first pilot, photographers going off, steaming up slowly towards the locks, panama canal crew on board, 2 more pilots on board, man with stamps on board……….., and then we were ready to move through the canal. The dark clouds remained in the distance and we moved in tandem with the Island Princess through the locks under sunny skies. The last sun we would see for the remainder of the day. The I.P. is doing one of those cruises, where you go through the Gatun locks, enter the Gatun lake, drop anchor there, tender all your guests ashore for the excursions and then at 1800 hrs go out through the locks again. During our transit we saw several sightseeing boats full of Princess guests going through the canal taking photos of the Statendam, always nice. Our Zuiderdam does something similar as well on a 10 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale. Continue reading

It was a miserable sunrise with strong winds and heavy rain squalls. The good part was that the wind was a following wind and thus it remained nearly wind still on the decks but the rain poured down until after 10 am. Then it cleared and remained dry and even sunny for the remainder of the day. As the wind here is consistently from the North East, unless a cold front upsets the patterns, it means that the swell is from the same direction and keeps getting stronger the longer the wind blows. What is unpleasant for us was that swell was hitting us just on the sb. quarter and then you get that corkscrew motion which a stabilizer cannot really control. So while the ship was steady most of the time, occasionally it listed a bit. Still on a very slow roll and everybody saw and felt it coming. This lasted for the afternoon and then the ship finally came in the lee of Colombia sailing over the Colombian basin, 6000 feet below. By evening I am expecting some more showers and what we will get in the Panama Canal is anybody’s guess. We did receive our tentative transit times for tomorrow. I guessed right; they wanted us early and I was right on the dot with the time, 0500 at the sea buoy, 0515 in the breakwaters to meet the pilot and the boarding authorities. From there we will follow the convoy as usual. Continue reading

We made land fall around 0730 but there was very little land to see as the whole island was covered in rain showers. Rains showers before arrival are always good. They wash the salt off the decks and what falls before arrival cannot fall while you are going ashore. That worked out quite nicely as during the day we only had one bit of drizzle and for the rest sunshine only. The two other cruise ships were already docked and that left the port wide open to an unhindered approach for us. Normally the pilot comes out in a sort of workboat, called the bath tub by us, but it seems that some investments have taken place by the port authority so there is now a real pilot boat, nice and shiny that came alongside a lot easier than the contraption they used in the past.  The pilots here can work in at least three languages for piloting, Dutch, English and local and as our official shipboard language is English, all conversation took place in English although all on the bridge were completely Dutch. While the pilot was sailing the ship in on the correct courses, I concentrated on the slowing down of the ship, as we had to come to an almost complete standstill in order to make a 90o turn into the side berth. At the same time you want to keep “flow” on the rudders so the quartermaster can keep steering the pilots courses. That means that you have to slow down very gradually so the flow around the rudders also gradually gets less. That went well and with 1 knot headway we started to make the turn. Continue reading

Around midnight we rounded Cabo Maisi, the east point of Cuba and entered the Windward Passage. It takes about six hours to sail through the passage and then you emerge south of cape Tiburon in the Caribbean Sea. Cape Tiburon is the south western point of Haiti. This area is called the Jamaican Passage as it is connected to that body of water between Jamaica and Cuba. We do not get even close to Jamaica but the area is called so nonetheless. The island of  Hispaniola, made up of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, acts as a sort of windbreaker, spoiler, for the trade winds that are blowing here. Thus the moment we disappeared under the coast of Haiti, the wind died down and that remained so until an un-interrupted flow could reach us again when we cleared Hispaniola mid morning. Then we were back to our regular trade wind influence of about 20 to 25 knots. That wind will remain with us all the way to Aruba and there on the lee side it should be slightly less as Oranjestad is on the Southside of the island. It is even in the shelter of the one mountain that they have there, (the Hooiberg, or haystack) which rises a majestic 300 feet above its surroundings. I want a weak wind on arrival as I have to angle the ship into the side pier, berth F, as the main cruise terminals are taken up by the Island Princess and the Horizon of Pullmantur. Berth F, is in principle the best berth as it has the shortest walking distance into the town. Easier for the guests, just a bit more work for me. Continue reading

At the moment we are back to the regular weather for this area. North Easterly wind, force four to five with the occasional shower. As is the standard routine we try to hit the showers during the night time, to help the chief officer with getting the salt off the deck but we are trying to avoid the rain during the daytime so the guests do not get wet. Most showers in this area are well defined and isolated from each other and thus avoiding it normally works unless you have a whole string or curtain of rain showers coming over and then you get wet, whatever you try. Continue reading

As was forecast it was a windy morning with about 25 to 30 knots blowing from the North East, while the Ocean Liner parade was lining up at the pilot station. Everybody was nicely on time and with a 15 minute sequence one cruise ship after another slipped into the port. While this lining up takes place, there are a number of more or less unusual routines carried out. First there is the rule to adhere to, not to come within 2 miles of the sea buoy before the pilot is on board. By doing that the pilot boarding and approach area is nicely kept clean of all sort of drifting ships that otherwise might parked themselves there. The second ritual is doing an astern test. This is a USCG requirement but more meant for ships where the engine has to stop and then reverse. It happens occasionally that such an engine does not do that and then you can have a serious problem when you want to slow down. After a long ocean voyage where the engine has been on full ahead all the time, this testing before coming into port then ensures that it still works. We are diesel electric with pitch and that means that we can only pull the handles astern and see if the pitch setting follows. We do that every time when we enter an American port. The third part of the ritual is to call the Night Auditing Officer and advise him at what time we pass the 3 mile boundary from land. When we are in Florida waters we have to pay Florida taxes over what is sold on board and thus he has to know at what magical moment he has to push the red button. Then the Florida Sales tax is automatically applied to each purchase on board. When we go out of the port, we do the same thing again and the sales tax stops. As you can see it is not all just about getting the pilot safely on board and then racing into the port.

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 By midnight we had come around the eastern corner of Cuba, called Cabo Maisi and we were heading North West into the Old Bahama Channel. We did not see much of the coast here as we are hugging the right hand side of the Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme, our highway at sea. It looked like all the captains had been reading their Rules of the Road booklet as every ship was in the right lane for its route. We only had one yacht that decided to sail in the separation zone between the two lanes but I think they suddenly saw the light when it became sandwiched between a South going ship and a North going ship; because suddenly she veered sharply to starboard and joined the right lane. Either there was an “Aha Erlebnis” with the officer of the watch or the skipper arrived on the bridge and saw what was going on. That was all the excitement that the navigators had to report during the course of the day and that is the way we like it. We do not mind a lot of traffic but we do not like anomalies in that traffic. You never know what such a ship will do next, if it is already not following the prescribed route. That is something that worries a navigator all the time and too much worrying is not good for your health. It is much better if everybody does what they are supposed to do. Continue reading

Today was our first of the two sea days that will bring us back to Fort Lauderdale. We need the first one to cross the Middle part of the Caribbean Sea on an almost northerly course and then the 2nd day to sail North of Cuba in the direction of Southern Florida. As long as there is no Canal through Cuba that would shorten the route, it will always take two days from the South Carib to get to Florida. In the course of the night the wind decided to abate and by morning there was just a gentle breeze blowing from the North East. That will remain so until we enter the Windward Passage where it will increase to wind force 5 and that wind will stay with us until we come to Florida. We will notice less of that wind while sailing North of Cuba because the Bahamian Islands will act as a windbreaker. Plus a north easterly wind is a partly following wind and thus on deck it will be nearly wind still. A great way to end our cruise. We have been quite lucky with the weather as it has been blowing quite extensively in the Carib and Gulf of Mexico but while in the North Pacific we were either too far away or in the lee of the Middle American mountain ranges to notice the influence. The only real wind we had was in Tehuantepec and that we always expect and know how to deal with. In September and October this good weather can be expected but when the winter cold fronts are starting, the story changes and thus I find that this cruise we have been very lucky with the weather. Continue reading

 We made it on time to Cartagena, although the wind against us kept blowing and thus the lessening I had hoped for in the early morning hours did not occur. Not unusual; wind that reaches the Columbia Basin tends to be quite strong and can last a long time for it has lost all its momentum. Still I was happy, we were on time, even a little bit early, so we tried to get the pilot out a bit early as well. However all well laid plans fall apart if the navy decides to interfere. As we all know, wars start around 8 am in the morning and that was thus the time that the Columbian navy set sail to protect the motherland. They ordered port control to keep the fairway clear as two small navy ships were coming out. Nothing I can do then, they have got guns and I don’t. So we had to wait until the first one made it leisurely through the channel into open waters. By that time the pilot got involved and as the 2nd navy ship was way behind on its schedule, he simply told that ship to wait. Maybe he does have a big gun somewhere. Still it cost us 20 minutes; time I could not really afford to lose as it is a long way in. Luckily it was the senior pilot we got on board and he knows his Holland America captains, so he left it all to me and we could sail with maximum expedience through the lake and were docked by 0915. Continue reading