The weather was beautiful when I woke up. The sun was shining with almost no wind and just a very low swell running from the East. A swell that was nicely handled by the stabilizers, so a beautiful day to end the cruise. The only thing that marred the perfect day were the ominous sounds coming from Tampa. There had been no wind there for a few days in a row and together with nice warm temperatures it created the perfect set-up for a chance of F.O.G. As matter of fact they had had dense fog in the bay last night, closing down traffic. Thus if that would happen again the coming night, I would have to drop anchor and wait for the fog to lift. That means a late arrival, missed flights, late embarkation, late departure, a complete nightmare. Thus I did the only thing I could do, kept up full speed and went for an early arrival. My experience is that if I get inside Tampa Bay before 2 am. and be at the dock around 4 am. then I beat the fog most of the time. Not always………but most of the time. Thus there the Veendam went, after burners on, white curl around the nose, racing towards Tampa bay. Continue reading

It was sunny but blustery on arrival and I had to take my time to bring the Veendam carefully alongside. This time, wind, current and swell direction were all going against what the ship had to do to get alongside so it was a bit of a balancing act. Costa Maya is fully exposed to all the elements and that makes it a fair weather port. What “fair weather” is depends a little bit on the personal view of the captain and what he thinks is safe to do, but the fact remains that we have to cancel Costa Maya on a regular basis because of the weather. Continue reading

Once again the weather had a surprise for us. Now it had decided that it would rain in Santo Tomas. Somehow the rainy sector of the last frontal system had laid itself over the Golfo de Amatique, the bay that gives access to Santo Tomas, and it was releasing its watery content. It made my chief officer happy as it washed all the salt of the ship but for the rest I had 1300 unhappy campers who wanted to go ashore and had not counted on a rainy day. Continue reading

It turned out to be a normal day in Belize; at least normal for the standards that we apply this season. The continuous stream of cold fronts from the north have changed the parameters for what is “normal” somewhat. Thus it was a warm day to our standards but not warm according to the locals. It was breezy to our standards but windy according to our tender operators. So in a way you get used to everything I suppose and the Veendam had a normal day in Belize. Continue reading

We had a nice morning and then it started to cloud over. Courtesy of a mini cold front coming over. To weak to change the wind much, strong enough to bring increasing cloudiness and followed by rain during the night. At least it will mean that we will have a sunny day tomorrow in Belize, although it will be windy on the open waters. Continue reading

It was indeed a breezy day and it remained that way. The pilot was worried about the current and the wind and the Carnival Freedom, thus I came up again with my plan B theory. He did not like that either as they do not like it when ships anchor in the harbor but what can you do. Plan B is the emergency option and that is still better than to suddenly have a new Holland America hotel on Mallory Square. It might be highly successful in taking bookings when located at such a prime spot but I do not think that I would enjoy life as a Hotel manager very much. Continue reading

Nice arrival in Tampa this time. Still 25 knots at the sea buoy, but only a light breeze when docking. Wish it was like that each call. The coming days Tampa is supposed to have mild weather, which is of course the period that we are away from the port. However today was good and thus we enjoyed it. Going in, we did not see any ships at all. Even the docks were empty apart from two tankers and three ships at the Tampa Dry Dock and Repair Yard. Continue reading

It was indeed wobbly and it remained so for the whole day. However as the cold front had moved so rapidly into the Caribbean, the winds which had been whipping up the waves; were abating slowly but steadily. Although we had a strong breeze blowing for most of the day, it was less than the day before and thus the wave heights dropped below 10 feet. That meant that the Veendam was riding the waves quite nicely, sometimes going up and down a little bit more than usual, but mostly with a steady motion. That steady motion did not cost us any speed and so we could make the schedule for Tampa quite nicely. Speed we only loose when heavy pitching occurs and the bow is completely lifted out of the water and then slams back onto the waves. For the guests it gives quite a spectacular view as the bow causes sea spray to fly all over the ship but it makes for an uncomfortable motion and it slows the ship down. Two items that I like to avoid. Continue reading

Well, we were in luck. The Cold front, much diluted by now decided to make it a fast one through the Carib and came over us during the night while we sailed from Santo Tomas. By the time we arrived at Costa Maya, we had clear skies, lights winds and a very low swell. The wind, although strong in open waters, blew from the Mexican land side and thus it was very light in the port itself. Wind over the land means it blows in line with the main pier and that is berth 3. My favorite dock and thus I grabbed the chance to go alongside there. The Westerdam scheduled to arrive at 10 am., had the choice of berth 1& 2. That is perpendicular on the wind but berth 1 is the fastest for docking if you are in a hurry. The Westerdam was coming from Grand Cayman and that is a tight schedule to arrive on time, thus the faster you can dock the better the chance not to be delayed. Continue reading

Well a pinch of salt was not enough to apply to the local weather forecast. More a bag of salt. It was blowing 25 knots full on the beam by the time we entered the fairway instead of nearly wind still as was predicted. The channel into Santo Tomas is not very wide, approx. 300 feet in the deepest area and with the Veendam’s beam of 105 ft. it does not leave much room to drift. Luckily the channel is so shallow that the water can only flow with difficulty under the bottom of the ship and thus the drifting is much less than would be the case if the ship had been in deep water. This was a day to count little blessings. The pilot who normally likes to con the ship “steady on 188o” all the way, was now more interested in the coffee machine and left it all to me. Something I prefer anyway. Continue reading