Today we continued our North Atlantic crossing. We are still closer to the American side than to the African side but that will change by tomorrow. Little change as well in the weather forecast; the wind is consistently blowing from the North North East almost straight on the bow and the swell remains between 10 and 12 feet with an occasional hiccup of 14 feet. This makes the ship move gently up and down by the bow but it is not that noticeable. At least not in a way that it affects the activities onboard the ship. Sometime today was also the time that spring officially started. Although we normally use the day of 21st of March, this is not completely correct as spring really starts at the moment that the sun passes the equator, the vernal equinox as it is called. My 4^th. Officer calculated that moment and for our locatio it means that by 9 pm. in the evening, ships time, the sun moved over the horizon. Not that it was noticed as by that time it was already dark. So spring began for the Prinsendam today at 9 pm. Continue reading

Today was our first full day on the crossing and for a change the weather outside was in synch with the weather forecast. The sun shone, the wind was steady around 20 knots from the East and the waves were rolling at the correct height of 10 to 12 feet. The latter made the ship gently move but nothing to be bothered about or create an uncomfortable feeling. The long term forecast indicates good weather all the way to the Cape Verdes, although I am a little bit concerned about a wave field that is being created by a storm much further north moving in the direction of England. That wave field might run further south than normal and that means that we could feel some of it. That will not happen until Monday evening, if at all, and by that time I might be able to slow down the ships speed a little bit, to create a more comfortable ride if needed. This is a high speed run across the North Atlantic and the less current I have against me, the quicker the ship will start to run into the plus and the faster I will be able to adjust the speed and still maintain the average needed. Thus far the North Equatorial Current is doing great with only opposing us with 0.5 knots of strength. That is average but I had been expecting a bit more, as the winds have been constantly N.E to East in this area lately and that is normally “pushing” the current up a little bit. Continue reading

Thus we arrived, bright and early. By 04:30 my phone ran and 15 minutes later I was standing on the bridge looking at the lights of Barbados twinkling on the port side.  The radar screen revealed that the other cruise ships were also approaching but nobody had changed their ETA, so there was not going to be a fight at the pilot station about the proper line up. The pilot was already awake and he was shifting the Braemar from dock 2, in front of the cruise terminal, to the Breakwater South berth. She had to make room for the Azurra which with 2,500 guests onboard was doing a change over in Bridgetown. The Azurra belongs to P&O and mainly sails with British guests. They way they do it is, they fly in half the new guests with two or three charter planes. They are being transported to the ship while, the first half of the disembarks go the other way. Then the planes fly during the night back home to the UK and then return the next day with the 2^nd half of the new guests and on the return leg take the 2^nd half of the disembarks home. Quite a logistical challenge but they do it every week or 10 days and the routine works quite well. Continue reading

Today we had our third stop in France with a call at Martinique. This was my first call here; at least with going alongside. In the past we always had to anchor. The cargo port was there of course but tendering brought the guests straight into down town which was much more preferable than the long walk, or the expensive taxi ride, from the cargo port. Now they have built a cruise pier. Due to the shallowness of the sea near the coast, they had to build quite far out into the sea, so it is about 600 feet to walk from the actual pier towards the main land, but then the town centre is just across the square from the bus station. The pier itself is a 75 meter platform with a dolphin to the East and two dolphins to the West and in that way also large ships can be accommodated while at the same time this construction is very cost effective. For the Prinsendam it is a perfect size and I happily docked the ship there for a full day stay. Continue reading

 I always find this a most peculiar stop on a cruise and that is because I have to go to another island first to pick up the pilot. As mentioned yesterday, a pilot is compulsory for arriving in Isles de Saintes. They do seem to trust us to leave on our own, but understandably they like to have a pilot park the ship in a spot that is acceptable to everybody. There is not enough work for a pilot in and around Isles de Saintes to warrant a pilot in residence and thus a pilot from Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe has to come over. So he leaves Point-a-Pitre at 04.30 in the morning and then drives to Basse Terre on the SW side of Guadeloupe. Here a work boat, officiating as a pilot boat, takes him to the Prinsendam. Then the ship sails another 10 miles from Basse Terre to the entrance to the bay of Terre de Haut. Here the pilot sails the ship in, that takes about 15 minutes, indicates to us where he wants the two anchors dropped and then he has to get back to Point-a-Pitre again by means of a local ferry. When he comes onboard, the first thing I do is send him for breakfast so that he is a least well nourished before he commences work. We followed this practice again this morning and as a result were happily at anchor by 07.15, for a 08.00 start of the tender service. Continue reading

14 March 2011; At sea.

 It is 1090 Nautical miles from Fort Lauderdale to St. Barts and thus we have to spend two days at sea in order to cover the distance.  It is never a bad idea to start a cruise with some sea time, especially if it is a longer cruise. We still have 60 days to go on this cruise and when we enter the Mediterranean we are going to do port after port, day after day, with only the occasional sea day in between.  By that time we will all appreciate the luxury of having some relaxing time at sea. Although the amount of relaxing depends on oneself, as the cruise director fills the daily program to the brim with activities so you can be as busy as you want to be. For the deck department sea days are great to catch up with paperwork and to plan for the coming ports that are ahead of us. While the ship is approaching its first port; we are already about 5 ports down the road with the planning for the daily operation. Although the ports are booked by the company about two years in advance, we only know a few days in advance if we are going to be the only ship in port or not and what local rules and regulations have been dreamed up recently, which of course we have to comply with. It is a never ending puzzle. Continue reading

So the cruise started with the Prinsendam as the last cruise ship of the day leaving Fort Lauderdale. We crossed the Straits of Florida on a North Easterly heading aiming for the North West Providence channel. There are basically two ways of getting to the Eastern Caribbean. That is going through Old Bahama Channel South of the Bahama banks and North of Cuba or our way; going north of the Bahama Banks. The Southern route is longer but with bad North Atlantic storms you are more sheltered as the Bahama banks, islands and reefs break the North Atlantic swell. At least for some time, eventually you clear the banks and then you are fully in the open as well. With the current weather it does not makes much of a difference which route you choose, although the Northerly route can have a lot less wind, as it is a bit further away from the trade winds during the first sea day and that makes it not so windy on the outside decks.  I saw that I was not the only one who had chosen the Northerly route, also the Norwegian Epic and Celebrity Constellation, both going to St. Maarten and our Eurodam, going to Grand Turk went north. Continue reading

 As scheduled I returned to the ship today after having flown into the port last night. The Prinsendam was not at her regular terminal due to the Eurodam being in as well and for the rest the port was full of the competition. Crown Princess, Oasis of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas, Seven Seas Navigator, Celebrity Celebration and the Carnival Freedom. All ships together bringing around 12,000 guests ashore and taking the same number out again. Together with crew coming and going it must have made for an interesting day at the airport. Not that my first day onboard was of less interest. Apart from the regular handover with my colleague, there was at once the question, will we sail on time? That is something that is not completely under my control as it mainly depends on the speed with which the longshoremen can load the stores and provisions; and the amount to be loaded. Going on a Grand Voyage means that we store much heavier than for a regular cruise as we had to take all the normal supplies with us for the full two months. During this cruise we will stack up on Food supplies and other perishables locally, but the rest, coming from American suppliers we load as much as possible in the home port. As a result you see a sudden increase in the amount of toilet paper being loaded, just to give an example. Continue reading

Good morning,

I have posted some more information under the various captains biographies. The most extensive additions are with the pages of Captain Kooijman, Captain van den Heuvel and Captain Snelleman.

Best regards

Capt. Albert

Good morning,

As promised during my last blog, I was planning to put some more articles on line. If you look to the right of this page you will see  that a large number of names have appeared. These are Holland America Line captains from the olden days. I have made a start with putting their bio’s on line. Most pages have at this moment only a photo and the listing of captains is far from complete. More will be added in the future and for some captains I will have to rely greatly on information from other people who will hopefully read this blog.

Also added is the ship’s history of the Ariadne. This ship was never owned by HAL or its predecessor but is of significance as it was the first ever ship that sailed for us.  Therefore I thought it would be fitting to have it included.

Best regards

Capt. Albert