So after having safely passed Cuba, the good ship Prinsendam turned due north to sail into the Straits of Florida for a scheduled early morning arrival at our end of the cruise in Port Everglades, the harbor of Fort Lauderdale. The arrival time at the pilot station is always a trade off between the captain of the ship and the harbormaster of Port Everglades. The captain wants to sail in at his optimum arrival time. Not too early but also not too late so that it will not affect disembarkation. However on a busy day the Harbourmaster might have to deal with about 10 of these “optimum” captains and then things get a big complicated. Then a sequence is sorted out to find the right balance of arrival; depending on what dock a ship is assigned to and what time a ship CAN arrive (not when it wants to arrive). Accordingly the schedule is sent out and each ship has to adhere to a 15 minute slot for picking up the pilot. Sometimes with 10 cruise ships arriving on certain dates that can be quite a challenge, then the first ship has to come in at 04.30 to ensure that the last ship, coming at 0700 hrs. still docks on time. At a time that will not affect the guests who have to get to the airport to catch their flights. The biggest complainers are then the cargo ships and the barges as they are simply being told to wait until the whole cruise ship parade is safely inside. Continue reading

It is always nice when things progress on schedule and the Lunar Eclipse took place at the time predicted. The weather might be in turmoil everywhere but at least the sun and the moon keep following the same rhythm and schedule. Just over 100 guests came out to witness the event. At least on the top deck, I do not know what the balcony people did, as the reporting security guard could not see those of course. I think most guests enjoyed it, it is not something you see everyday. I received one complaint; stating that if I could not have arranged a better time for it, instead of having it occur in the middle of the night. I fully agree with that, I will pass the message on to NASA to ensure that next time it happens just before cocktail hour…… The clouds stayed away long enough so that the full eclipse could be seen un-obscured. Winter officially started with a black out of the moon. This had not happened since 1638, so I assume it will be a while again before the next one comes by on the same date of 21 Dec. Continue reading

Thus with our last port of call behind us, we set sail towards Florida. The shortest distance from Aruba to Florida is by means of the Windward passage located between the Westside of Haiti and the East side of Cuba. That meant a North Westerly course all the way until we reached the South West point of Haiti and from there it means one course change to the NE, to line the ship up under Cabo Maisi. That is the furthermost East point of Cuba and it has a very strong lighthouse on it. Clearly visible for everybody after dark. The route from Aruba to the Windward Passage is not sought after by many ships. Mostly the cruise ships, whose routes do not make that much sense to the cargo ships community anyway and the occasional tanker that has been deviated to Aruba or Curacao while on the way to the USA. More traffic can be found in the Windward passage, as there the traffic flows come together from the South East (US), the East (Easter Caribbean) and the South West (Panama Canal area) That makes it for the navigator more interesting as there are ships to look at and ships to avoid. Continue reading

Aruba is laying in the direction NW/SE above Venezuela and slightly higher up than Bonaire and Curacao and while we sailed above B & C, we approached A from below. We made landfall around 04.30 and then slowly sailed along the well lit island until we came to the pilot station at 05.45 hrs. A peculiar phenomena in this area are the many tankers floating around. Today there were 10 of them, all drifting about a mile apart on wind and current. These were all on standby, either for going to Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela to load, or waiting for a dock in Curacao to load refined fuel or to bring crude oil. The area of preference is about 5 miles south of Aruba where they are just outside the prevailing current. That current is caused by the Trade wind which normally blows consistently over the Caribbean. The wind is so consistent that the trees on Aruba are all bent towards the West due to the Easterly winds blowing continuously against them. Continue reading

From Barbados to Aruba is 620 nautical miles of sailing. Too much for an overnight transit, and also a little bit too much for a full speed run with a day at sea. Thus we do it with a nice average speed of 16.5 knots. That speed will bring us tomorrow morning at 05.45 at the pilot station and to be docked about 45 minutes later. My official arrival time is 08.00 hrs. but there is another cruise ship coming in, scheduled at 0700 and I have to work around that. Coming in later would mean that I might not be docked on time; and I would arrive after sunrise. That brings for Aruba the inherent risk for increasing winds. Winds that blow you off the dock as the big cruise ship docks are on an exactly 90o angle with the Trade winds. Normally they blow with a wind force 5 to 6 and I cannot thruster against that to keep the ship in place while the lines are going ashore. There are very good tugboats in Oranjestad Aruba but on an early Sunday morning they are quite expensive and thus it make sense to arrive earlier, during the dark hours. So the aim is 05.45 am and to be docked before the sun rises in the East at 06.57 in the morning. Continue reading

Barbados is one of those ports of call that I never hear anybody complaining about, which is I suppose the biggest compliment possible for a cruise guest to make. Normally there is always somebody who has to moan and groan about something but even the biggest curmudgeon seems to like the place. I know that I do. The locals all speak perfect English and approach everybody with the perfect mannerisms of good English education. Unfortunately the visitors do not always respond likewise but that is taken in their stride. Tourism is one of the biggest money earners for the island and their deepwater harbour makes it possible to have a large number of ships in at the same time. Thus everybody in Barbados is really focused to give everybody a very good time and good service. Today there were only three cruise ships in, The Ventura, the Deutschland and the Prinsendam. By sunrise there were only two, as the Deutschland was running at least 12 hours late due to inclement North Atlantic weather. Continue reading

Our last reminder of the Amazon are the dead bugs that we still find and a number of crickets who have lodged themselves in the cracks and crevices of the ship. During our last sojourn to the Amazon in March, a few of these noise makers adopted the Prinsendam as their travelling home and it was not until July, when we were in the Arctic that the last one finally gave up. According to some “bug” experts they seem to enjoy eating the glue of the carpets and that makes a cruise ship a real heaven ofcourse. Although regular food is available in large quantities as well. Not in the food outlets of the ship, where we have a very effective pest control but in the cabins and the corridors. Little morsels are dropped when guests move through the corridors, when taking items to the cabins or just when eating a cookie or an ice cream while going along. The guests have been very good with keeping the balcony and accommodation doors closed and thus far we have not heard them inside the cabins or in the public rooms. There is one sitting at the moment somewhere in the top of the forward passenger staircase but luckily not close to the cabins. The problem is that these crickets are impossible to find when they decide to hide as their body size is absolutely not in line with the noise that they produce. Thus I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope that Mr. Cricket might decide to fly away when the air gests cooler. Continue reading

By 7 pm. last night we were back in the North Atlantic Ocean. We first sailed straight north to get away from the Amazon Bar and then by midnight we left the last traces of the Amazon behind as the blue Ocean waters surrounded us again. Out next port of call is Bridgetown in Barbados and that is about 1100 miles away and thus we will spend 2 days at sea. It will give the guests time to relax after our Amazon expedition and enjoy the cooler sea air. Everybody can now take a deep breath before we visit the beautiful Caribbean ports of Bridgetown Barbados and Oranjestad Aruba. From there it will be homeward bound to Fort Lauderdale were we will end the cruise on 22 December 2010. Then we will start a 14 day Christmas cruise to the South East Caribbean. At the moment Florida is suffering from a period of cold weather and if that lasts until the 22nd it will be a cold home coming after the tropical temperatures of the rain forest. However that is still a week away and with the instable weather everywhere, things might change quickly. Continue reading

With 2 to 3 knots of Amazon current in the stern we were flushed down the river to approach Macapá pilot station to disembark our pilots. As the Brazilian authorities had already left us in the previous port, we only had to slow down briefly to match the pilot boat speed and we were on our way again. I had aimed to be passing Macapá at 0900, which was high tide there. That means that we would have 3 to 4 knots of ebbing current with us, until well clear of the river, followed by going against the flood current for the next period of time. By that time we would be out of the “narrow” part of the river (e.g. less then 5 miles wide) and into the wide part (e.g. about 50 miles) and thus would have less flood against us than Ebb with us. Also it would mean that we would arrive at the bar at high tide and thus would have maximum clearance under the keel. Mother Nature was obliging and high tide came in as predicted. We had 4 knots of current with us and we arrived 20 minutes after high water at the bar. I always like it when my planning works out. Continue reading

This is a totally different port than the rest of the Amazon ports, including those that we visited. It is not a port at all, it is a beach resort and we land our guests right onto the beach. The resort, which is only small, is located about 25 miles up the Rio Tapajos past Santarem and tucked away in a crescent bay with a very long sandy beach. It has proven very popular with the guests in the past and we now have it once a year in the schedule. For us it is one of the ports where we have to send an “advance party” ashore as we do not know what to expect. With a high river level, the tenders can sail into a sort of Marina and dock at a little pier. When the water level is low the beach can stretch for half a mile and the tenders have to dock at a sort of contraption that the locals call a floating pier provided it is there. Hence reason to be there early and sort things out before the guests are ready to go ashore. Continue reading