And so we sped in the direction of the Panama Canal, with the wind and the swell in the back. We were sailing just north of Colombia for most of the day but in the afternoon we started to cross that part of the Caribbean Sea that they call the Colombian Basin. At least the underwater part. Further to the West is another such area called the Clark Basin. Basins indicate underwater area’s which are relatively flat.  There might be undulations of about a few 100 feet in height difference but compared to the depth of the water 10,000 feet or more, the sea bottom is considered flat.  Thus when we sailed away from the coast of Aruba, which is nothing but a sort of mountain whose top sticks above water, we basically sailed gently over a downwards going slope until we came to the flat sea bed of the Colombian Basin. It would be amazing if we could see this whole area without water. It would put our whole perspective of the oceans in a different light. Still that is not going to be the case, so we just have to continue to wonder about what goes on there in the depths of the ocean.  As a navigator you have time to wonder about these sorts of things while keeping a good look out, out of the window for other ships. To be a good navigator you need to have a bit of a contemplative character while standing your watch, as not all the time things are happening. My wife calls it “worse than watching paint dry” and cannot understand how we do it.  But then I cannot always understand people who do not appreciate “the sound of silence” on occasion. Continue reading

 Approaching Aruba from the West gives the problem that it is hard to see. You have to look into the sun, rains clouds in the area make the light very diffuse and the island is fairly flat. It is not as if an “Aruba Mountain” is rising out of the ocean and visible for miles around. Aruba has one hill, the Hooiberg (that would translate in Hay Mountain although it is more a Hay hill) but for the rest the island is flat. When approaching the port the most significant items rising up from the land are the container stacks in the cargo port, the big casino hotel in the centre of the town and any cruise ships that might have docked there already. The port itself lays in the inner curve of the island sheltered behind a reef that leaves a natural entrance and exit. Standard routine is to enter from the West side and leave via the East side. Other way around is also possible but west –East is a more natural approach. Thus we came around the south west side of the island and so could line up directly in the leading lights which will ensure that you are approaching the middle of the channel and also indicate if you are being set away by the current and or the wind. Continue reading

 The frontal system was moving away from us today but it had a lot of wind in its tail, so for most of the day it blew about 30 knots but as there was not much swell accompanying it, the ship was mostly steady and thus it was a great day on board. By the time we will arrive in Oranjestad Aruba; the wind should have gone down to 10 to 15 knots, which is the best we can hope for when docking there. In Aruba the docks are perpendicular to the wind and if there is a strong trade wind blowing it is very difficult to keep the ship alongside while the ropes are being sent ashore. So the less wind there is, the better it is for my heart rate. Between midnight and 6 am we sailed through the Windward Passage located between Cuba and Haiti. The most southwestern point of Haiti is called Cap Tiburon and we cleared that one just after 06.00 and for the rest of the day and night we sailed and will sail through the Caribbean Sea on a south easterly course. That will bring us eventually to the West point of Aruba to end up in front of Oranjestad at 08.45  As is the case with all the ports on the A.B.C islands, Oranjestad is located on the southwest side where the bays are and also the best shelter from the strong trade winds & cold fronts coming over from the open sea. Continue reading

 We indeed had a wobbly evening with the ship taking a little lurch every time a wave caught itself under the square stern.  So by 11 pm we were out of the Gulf Stream and from then on we had normal waves with a regular amplitude and thus the ships stabilizers could ensure a regular ride. The cold front that is creating all this wind is slowly moving towards the Mexican mainland, pushed downwards by the tropical storm area called Sean and this morning we could see it coming over our ship. Sometimes frontal systems are vaguely defined and lay over an extended area, sometimes they are sharply defined and more intense. This time we could almost see the edge of it. A sharp line of rows of clouds that moved in a South Westerly direction. As this is the month of change, going from the summer to the winter pattern, the whole area is unstable and at the moment it is horrible weather in Panama, as they have the first monsoon trough of the season. That brings a lot of wind and rain and it makes for very unpleasant weather. The good thing is looking at the weather cycle it should be gone by the time we get there. Continue reading

 On the 11th of the 11th, in the 11th year of the 21st century, we approached Fort Lauderdale pilot station. As we had an early morning arrival, I could not try to get the pilot on at exactly 11 past 11 in the morning. That would have looked quite impressive in the log book; all those 1’s in a row. During the night it got indeed a bit wobbly, courtesy of the NNW wind blowing against the sea being pushed north by the Gulfstream. Then you can get a sort of short chop that does not make the ship pitch or roll but gives a movement best compared with a car driving over un-even cobble stones. As the wind pushes against the waves it neutralized some of the Gulf Stream current and instead of the normal 3 knots in the axes of the Stream we only experienced 1, barely 2 knots. At lot less than I had been hoping for, so I had to keep the engines going full out all the way to the pilot station. The pilot hopped on board right on time and 5 minutes later she had the conn and we were sailing into port. The Noordam was preceding us and I like to have a ship ahead of me, as it normally takes care of moving any small boats out of the fairway that might be there. And so it worked this time, except one. As soon as the Noordam had passed, one sport fisherman returned to his favourite spot – right in the middle of the fairway – and stayed there. While we were bearing down on him, the pilot boat was frantically trying to get him to move. Eventually he went but only when we were nearly on top of him. I would NOT be very happy to stay in a spot where you see 58,000 tons of cruise ship bearing down upon you but he did not seem to mind. My father in law used to say: “They are out there…… you just have to find them”. We found one this morning.

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Tropical Storm Sean is still active in the North Atlantic Ocean but moving very slowly and I do not expect that it will have much effect on the weather around Florida. It will be a breezy day but that is nothing to worry about. For the time being, the weather is great, we are sailing between the Bahamas and Cuba and the numerous islands, reefs and keys are really doing a good job with taking the momentum out of the windy weather coming from the North. The only thing that I do not like is that the wind has already turned to the NNW. And that means it is a head wind and I am losing the free knot of pushing current that I had hoped for. The area North of Cuba normally has easterly winds, part of the flow generated by the trade wind system. If that flow is not interrupted it nicely starts to push the water to the North West and that gives the ship a knot to 1.5 knots of extra speed in the back. As soon as that wind stops, the current diminishes and if the wind then turns to the West or North West, it falls away completely. The ship loses that free speed and instead has to start heading into the wind. This was the case today and now I was not saving fuel but spending it, as the ship now had to push harder while going against the wind. Hopefully I will get some extra free speed tonight when we enter the Straits of Florida, although with the NNW wind blowing there, the Gulf Stream might not be running that fast as with following winds. Continue reading

We had everybody back on time and thus we could sail as scheduled from the pier. As we were departing in the middle of the afternoon we could see the port at its busiest. Containerships were coming in and going out, or shifting berth. The latter was done by a Hapag Lloyd container ship and meant that she was moving about 300 feet forward along the dock. For that reason a tugboat was used to pull the stern off the dock while the bow came off with the bow thruster, all lines were let go and so I thought that she was going to leave at the same time as we did. That might mean delay; not good for us. However the pilot confirmed that the ship was only shifting. I have done that in the past as well but we just pulled the ship along by moving the lines along the dock. That reduces cost as you only have to pay for linemen. Here in Cartagena they are afraid that you will damage their dock fenders and thus they require you to have a pilot on board and come completely off the dock. Without a stern thruster you then need a tugboat and that makes it a very expensive 300 feet. On the way out we saw even more discolored water from the rain fall of the night before and I really wonder if one day that whole bay is not going to silt up. There is some tide in the bay but the current that sustains it is not really strong enough to churn the mud away and carry it to open sea. So there is reason for concern. I will have to ask the pilot next time if they are dredging here on a regular basis, as I did not see any dredger in or around the whole bay area.

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From the Panama Canal exit at Cristobal to Cartagena Pilot station is almost one straight course with just a small knick north of the San Blas islands. As soon as you are 30 miles from the Panama Canal you do not see much traffic anymore as there are no significant ports in the area except Cartagena and although a busy port it does not generate that much Panama Canal bound traffic. Sometimes you come across a cruise ship on a similar run as we are doing but that is about as much excitement as you will get. The sea area here is called the Columbian Basin and is basically the extreme South West part of the Caribbean Sea. The moment you come away from the coast the depth increases dramatically, down to 4000 to 5000 feet, only to rise sharply again when nearing the Columbian Coast. Then, when it approaches Cartagena Bay it becomes extremely shallow. So much that it makes me wonder sometimes. The draft of the Statendam is not that much that it becomes a problem but it must hamper the ports capabilities with not being able to have the big container ships or big tankers coming in fully laden. Also the width of the entrance channel is not that great and again it must put a limit on what can go in and out of the port. Still, we knew that we fitted in with our draft and that was all that counted. Continue reading

No changes were received to the schedule that I was originally given and thus the good ship Statendam started to raise the anchor at 0300 in the morning. It was indeed a very muddy anchorage and it took us over 30 minutes to raise the 400 feet of chain and anchor that we had paid out. Normally we do that within 10 minutes. Then we slowly steamed to our designated

Panama overview. courtesy: unknown source on the internet.

waiting area which was in the middle of the normal Canal anchorage. A lot of cargo ships crews suddenly and un-expectedly had a fully lit up cruise ship steaming by. Always a nice thing to liven up your boring anchor watch. The pilot hopped on board shortly after and then it was time to locate the Panama Canal Clearing Agent to get the paperwork done that would allow us to enter the Canal. As was the same last time, he was stuck on another ship and thus we steamed slowly towards the Canal while awaiting him. He finally showed up on time and we just got the final stamp placed before the whole circus started with 2 more pilots coming and the Panama Canal crew for the first locks. In the meantime we sailed under the Bridge of the America’s in the dark but as the bridge and the whole port of Balboa next to it was lit up as a Christmas tree, it provided a very scenic panorama. With this early start we had the first locks just before sun rise and the next locks before it was getting real-Panama-hot. The sail through, through the lake, you can then see from the leisure of your chair. Either on the balcony or from a public room or the Lower Promenade deck where we have the steamer chairs. Continue reading

 You will notice that I have uploaded a bit later than is normal for my daily addition to the blog. Normally I write this during breakfast but as I spent most of the night and day on the bridge today; I could only compose the yesterday’s blog during dinner time this time. Yesterday the 5th. was for me a sort of important day as well, although I had almost forgotten it. Same as I tend to do with my birthday, my wife tends to remind me. But yesterday I was 30 years with the company and I celebrated that appropriately with the cup of green tea. I do not drink during sailing, so there was little use to pull open a bottle of wine. I will postpone that until I get home. So now I am having to make up my mind if I want to do another 10 years with HAL, to make my forty years, or two years less, which will make it 40 years at sea. I did my cadetship with Incotrans (the old HAL cargo side) so it does not count towards my HAL years. We will see. God giving and good health might make me decide to do the other 10 years but Big Boss will have a big say in that as well of course. Continue reading