Roatan is an island off the Honduran coast and Honduras is neighboring Guatemala, so the trip from Santo Tomas to Roatan was a short one. By 06.30 am I was laying off the pilot station with the ship, only to be advised by the ships agents that there was still unrest on the island. Yesterday there had been protest gatherings and road blocks been setup on the island by the local population. There was an argument between them and a utility company over the fees. Meetings had been taken place during the day and evening and we had high hopes that come the morning, all would have been resolved. Continue reading

Santo Tomas is only a short distance from Belize and with traveling all night at a slow speed we still arrived there bright and early. The port is very well sheltered against any bad weather unless it comes from the North West. Most days are wind still and with the proximity of the rain forest it gives warm and sweltering days. Today was one of these days, nearly windless and with the sun shining brightly onto the dock area. The town is so sheltered as it located in a deep but shallow bay, called the Amatiques. To get there we leave the Caribbean Sea and sail for 30 miles west into the natural entrance and curve around to the south towards the entrance to Santo Tomas. Continue reading

Belize is always an early arrival, due to the time that it takes to get through the reefs. It is a winding route that takes the ship about two hours to cover measured from the Pilot Station to the anchorage. Due to the tight turns, some of them 90o turns, the ship has to go slow, otherwise it tilts, or lists too much and that accounts for slow progress. The fairway winds through the coral reefs that lay in front of the coast of Belize. This is a natural fairway, based on an old natural gully through the reefs and only at the entrance, where the gully ends in the open sea and at the anchorage area is it very shallow. Continue reading

The distance from Key West to Belize is too long to do it in one night, so we spent a day at sea and traveled with a sedate speed of 16 knots towards our destination. The weather was good, although there was some confused weather near Panama that might give rise to a tropical cyclone if it keeps developing. At the moment it is too un-structured to say whether it will or not. At this moment I am not too concerned and it should not affect the cruise. It is a matter of keeping an eye on its development if any. My main concern at the moment is to figure out the optimum speed, to get there on as few engines as possible, with using as little fuel as possible. Continue reading

The run to Key West is a tight one so the hour back last night, as the USA went to winter time, was handy to ensure a timely arrival at the pilot station. I had to be right on time, as one hour later the Disney Magic was arriving and she was to dock behind the Veendam. The pilots require the ships to arrive at least 30 minutes apart so that each ship can be docked without being hampered by the other. Also the linesmen cannot handle two ships at the same time. So a timely arrival was of the essence. Continue reading

By 2 am. in the morning we had our Lady pilot on board and sailed into Tampa Bay. There was no opposing traffic this time and thus we could keep up our speed and made good progress towards the dock. The wind, although strong, was from the North North East and that meant that it would be almost directly on the bow during docking and thus not a matter of concern as it would cause no drift. The rest of the day was nice and sunny weather with just a quick shower before departure but luckily after the passenger boatdrill. Continue reading

Today is the last day of our 36 day Panama Canal and Amazon cruise. After a successful day yesterday at Half Moon Cay, today was a day to wrap things up. Guests were wondering how to get the packing finished by pushing the volume of four suitcases into the two they had brought with them and at the same time still trying to savor the last day at sea. The wind consistently blew from the North East and as we were going West that meant that the wind was with us. We were doing 21 knots, the wind was blowing at 28 knots, so there was a gentle breeze of 5 to10 knots over the decks and that was just nice. Continue reading

The weather gods looked favorable upon us today and we made Half Moon Cay. The frontal system had gone past the island sufficiently to not be a big issue. It was still very windy but from a steady North Easterly direction. That meant that I could drop the anchor and keep the nose into the wind by using the stern thruster. This way the wind had the least influence on the vessel and did not cause it to drift or put too much strain on the anchor so it would start to drag. Continue reading

Things did not turn out the way we had hoped for. When I was called by the bridge at 6 am., I was advised that the wind had been increasing during the night and that the rim of the frontal system was approaching. Thus it would be questionable if we could dock at Grand Turk Island. But as the pier is located in the lee of the island with a North Easterly wind there was always hope that a docking would be possible. The frontal system had been moving faster than the initial weather forecasts were indicating and also the wind was much stronger than forecasted. Continue reading