This morning at 6 am., we left North West Providence Channel in the Bahamian chain of islands and entered the North Atlantic on our way to Punta Delgada in the Azores. We are supposed to arrive there on 7 May, so we have six beautiful sea days ahead of us. The weather is cooperating with partly cloudy skies and a gentle breeze and the North Atlantic is letting its presence known with only a very low swell. It just makes the Prinsendam move a little bit. Just enough to let everybody know that they are on a ship but not so much that it is really noticeable when you go around. Continue reading

After nearly 4 months of vacation, in order to fit into the captain schedule of the Prinsendam, I am back onboard.
I spent a week on the Prinsendam near the end of March to get the feeling for maneuvering the ship. It is a company policy, when an officer moves to a new class of ship, or gets promoted, or both, that there is an overlap period. During that period the officer can acclimatize to the new situation and does not have to find his or her way around while having to do the new job at the same time. Continue reading

Although on leave I have not been idle with working on my blog. I have uploaded in four parts an outline of the history of Holland America.

These pages can be found under the tab at the top of the blog called HAL history and its ships Past and Present.

More to follow.

Enjoy your reading.

Captain Albert.
www.Captainalbert.com

After a rainy new years day in Costa Maya we spent a short morning in Roatan. Costa Maya started promising at least according to the weather forecast but when we arrived we saw the dark clouds gathering. During the night the high pressure system above Mexico moved slightly to the North and as a result the rainy part of the frontal system lying off the Caribe could just touch the Cozumel-Costa Maya area. Thus it was a watery day for about 6000 people. Next to us we had the Vision of the Seas who deposited close to 4000 guests ashore with a lot of young people among those. So it was not amazing to see that a lot of our older guests were back onboard fairly early. Too much noise around the pool I suppose. Continue reading

May you have smooth seas and following winds where ever your travels may take you. May your future cruises be safe and enjoyable and, of course, with Holland America Line.

With an early arrival came a bit of consternation on the bridge as we could not find the pilot boat. The pilot boat operator has the tendency to switch off all the navigation lights when he is racing to and from the dock in Belize so we can not see him until the boat is very close to the ship and the lights are being flipped on. As the boat is mainly plastic it does not give a good reflection on the radar screen and thus we can not find the boat that way either. When you call him, the standard answer is, pilot will board on arrival, and that is it. Where arrival is, is left to the ship but if you do not know where the pilot boat is located then it is getting a bit difficult to slow down correctly and the “boarding on arrival” by the pilot can be dragged on for quite a bit. In the end I just kept going until the boat suddenly popped up and then I took some speed off until we were down to six knots which is the best speed for this sort of pilot boat. Continue reading

Wonderful weather, the way it is supposed to be. Easterly winds about 15 knots and a low swell running, powered by the trade winds. It’s a long time since I have seen that while sailing through the Yucatan channel. Thus we all enjoyed a grand day at sea. The ship is of course buzzing with the preparations for New Years Eve. This year it is a celebration that has to be wriggled into our normal cruise operation. On New Years Eve we are in Belize and on New Years day we are in Costa Maya. On longer cruises these days are normally spent at sea but with a seven day cruise that is a little bit difficult. Also our very young clientele does prefer to frolic on the beach on New Years day than to sit down for a long cookies and cream morning. Continue reading

If this weather continues and the weather charts do not indicate the opposite, then this is going to be the best weather cruise of the whole season, thus far. We sailed from Tampa with almost wind still weather and while going south there was just a gentle breeze. The weather in Key West was as it was supposed to be, about 10 to 12 knots and from the North East with sunny skies. That brought out the locals in force, fishing or doing six pack navigation near the sea buoy. I had to zigzag all over the place to get to the pilot station. This is the high season for Key West and when we docked the town was packed with people. The presence of three cruise ships, Carnival Freedom us and the Carnival Fascination helped of course but the town was heaving also without the 9000 extra. We carefully docked at the Mallory pier, carefully as we did not want to crumble the small and old dock and then enjoyed a beautiful day. Continue reading

Arrival Tampa was beautiful. The wind abated late yesterday afternoon and by the time we approached the pilot station, it was down to a gentle breeze, creating just enough flow over the water to keep the haze away. The Carnival Legend moved alongside in good time and thus I could park the Veendam without having to wait. In the end we were not as early as usual but certainly not too late. It remained a beautiful day with the sun shining; thus for the guests coming onboard a perfect day to start the new years cruise. I promised another Q&A a few days ago, so here we go. Continue reading

We had wobbly weather all day long, courtesy of a frontal system that had come down deep into the Caribbean Sea. Luckily the wind and waves were mainly coming in from starboard and thus the ship did not move very much. As it was sunny and warm guests could still enjoy the outside. The one nice thing about this weather system was; that it was moving over the Caribbean Sea and creating some calm weather in the Tampa area. Thus tomorrow will be a calm and sunny day while at the dock. The chance for fog is rather small as the wind in the Tampa area will only have just abated when we get there and that lessens the chance of fog forming over water. Inland there might be some as there will have been less wind to keep the haziness away. Continue reading