St Thomas considers itself the cruise capital of the world, due to the number of cruise ships calling here. But today there was little of that noticeable as we were the only ship in Havensight. For the shop keepers disappointing as the area is geared up to handling 10 000+ guests a day and then only having 1200 is not very exciting. On the other hand you can give some of your shop staff a day off before they roll in again in their thousands. But at least for us an empty pier worked very well, gangway right across the main gate into town, what else you ask for. Continue reading
Category: Cruises of the Past (page 3 of 4)
Regular Caribbean Sea weather to day. Although we are in the North Atlantic Ocean, this area is fully under the influence of the Trade Winds, which also dictate the weather in the Caribbean Sea, so there is really no difference. They decided to name the Caribbean Sea, the Caribbean Sea because it is enclosed all the way around with Caribbean islands. Starting with Trinidad and going up all the way to the Western Tip of Cuba. I just wonder how history would have treated the area if Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Cuba would have been missing and there would have been a completely open area all the way up to Freeport? Would it have been the Greater Bahamian Sea or the Gulf of Jamaica? Who knows, the naming of locations do not always make sense. Columbus discovered the America’s but we have called the America’s after Amerigo Vespucci who came sometime later. (Although while Columbus thought he was also in India, Amerigo was the first who proved that North and South America where not part of Asia) Continue reading
Sailing today through some gorgeous Caribbean weather, the way things should be. Late this morning we left the Straits of Florida behind us and curved around Cabo San Antonio into the Caribbean Sea. While in the Straits of Florida we had the current against us, although by hugging the coast of Cuba it was not much as the axis of the Gulf Stream was much more to the North. Then we sailed around Cabo which we could only see on the Radar as there is a Vessel Traffic Separation scheme around the Cape which is designed to keep the ships apart. We are southbound and thus we have the downward lane to the west, far away from land, while the northbound ships have the upward lane to the East. In the past ships tried to cut the corners here, sometimes with alarming results and in the late 70’s some wise people at the IMO (International Maritime Organization ) decided to put highways at sea in to keep the opposing flows separate. Not only here but at most bottle necks around the world. Once around the corner we headed on a South Easterly course into the Carib and now we have both wind and current against us. But eventually after we turn around at Ocho Rios we have it all behind us all the time. Continue reading
I always love it when the weather follows the weather forecast as we then do not look so stupid if things do not happen the way we announced it. But it took about an hour to sail clear of Madeira as it is quite a big and long island and then indeed the ship started to move again as predicted. Also as predicted during the course of this morning the seas abated, the wind changed direction and the movement of the ship got less pronounced. By lunch time there was only an occasional twist to remind us that we are still at sea. And even that got less in the course of the afternoon. Now we are looking forward to a number of nice and quiet sea days and our only concern is that in two or three days Cape Hatteras will churn out a new depression and if that happens and it goes a bit to the south then our last day we might see some choppy seas again. On the other hand, most of that day we will be in the lee of the Bahamian Islands so we should be all right. Continue reading
We are always confused on the ships of where we are exactly going. The whole cruise world speaks about Fort Lauderdale where the cruise starts or ends but it is of course really Port Everglades. So I try to explain to everybody that Port Everglades, is what it is, the Port to the Everglades. It is part of Broward County which has a major who is also the boss of Port Everglades. (Please do not tell the Harbor Master) Fort Lauderdale is a separate entity and has its own mayor. For most of the officers on board who cannot get their head around it, the fact that there are two mayors normally makes the penny drop. For the rest it is a bit of a mix. Although the Sheriff of Broward County runs the security in the port we also see police cars from the Ft. Lauderdale police force cruising around but I have no idea if that is for work or on the way through. But no doubt they work together when somebody crosses the dotted line. I remember once, in the gray mists of time, one of our crew members became a little bit too happy in a pub. So happy that he thought that the waitress was in love with him. She was not so she called the police. Up showed Ft. Lauderdale police and then at the security checkpoint of the port he was switched from a police car to a sheriff car. In those days things were quite simple, the sheriff simply asked the captain to do something. And the captain did something. He was booted off the ship in the next suitable port when he was sober again. So maybe he is telling his grandchildren now: Grand dad was once arrested by the police and then released by the sheriff and he only had to change cars to do this. Continue reading
We had a bit of a bumpy night and a slightly moving ship. What “slightly” was depended on the view of the guests as some spoke of a heavy storm and some dismissed it as an occasional “bump”. I have been assigned a cabin above the Azipods this time and the only thing I had to do was to move the coat hangers in the closet as they rattled on occasion. That is not a regular ships noise and thus it will wake me up. We did have quite a bit of wind during the night with gusts to over 60 knots but as we were heading into the first arrival of the storm, the storm had not been able to generate very high waves and thus the ship did not provide the roller coaster ride, something some guests had been afraid of. Continue reading
By 10 am this morning we were at anchor at Newport. Further out than we really liked as the Riviera had the best spot because she had arrived earlier. It was sunny but there was a strong breeze blowing, stronger than we had hoped for as the wind was only supposed to get really going in the early evening. Referring to my blog of yesterday: the weather was not really organized. Still the circumstances were good enough to operate a tender service and thus the ship got things on the road. We had even drafted in a local tender, the Amazing Grace and later another on, the Katharine, to cover the long tender distance as good as possible. Still it was slow going for a while, due to the tender distance but also due to the wind which forced the tenders to be extra careful. But still it worked. Continue reading
And thus real life started again as I boarded the good ship Zuiderdam yesterday in Quebec. The Zuiderdam is too tall to go under the bridge just north of Quebec and thus cannot make it to Montreal and hence stays 2 days in Quebec. Earlier this year I was on the Zaandam and that ship does fit under but only with normal water levels. At Quebec the St. Lawrence River is still tidal and with high water spring and/or heavy rain fall or melting snow upstream, the water table can also be too high for the R class or even the S class. The Zaandam also had to do a turn over at Quebec in the beginning of this season before the river level dropped sufficiently and the ship could make it to Montreal. For the Zuiderdam there is no option at all and thus the ship stays in Quebec. Not that many people will be complaining as Quebec is one of our highest guest-rated ports. Thus I could board yesterday in Quebec and today the ship was still there as today is turn over day and the ship starts a new voyage. Voyage 693 to be exact. Continue reading
With the South East Alaskan pilots on board the ms Westerdam turned into the Inside Passage at 06.30 this morning. The Pilot Station is located at Cape Spencer at the end of the West Indian Passage. And the two pilots will now remain on board until we depart from Ketchikan. One of our pilots is a lady and although that is nothing unusual anymore it was when she started 25 years ago. And I know her since that time as well: 1996. I think at that time she was the first female pilot on the West-coast and certainly in Alaska. Like all of us from those days we are coming closer to our retirement and she will bow out most likely next year. I keep an eye on my number of sailings to Alaska and this is cruise 252 through the Inside passage. I clocked up a lot of those cruises in the 1980’s when Holland America’s fleet was always in Alaska for the summer season and it could happen that your schedule made you are arrive on the first day of the season and had you leave on the last day of the season. And that would then be 20 or 21 Alaska cruises in a row. Now with our large fleet we have officers who have been several years with the company and have never been to Alaska. Continue reading
Being on a cruise ship has some advantages that guests do not always realize. One of them is having preference of arrival in Port Everglades. Today was a busy day for the port with container ships going in and going out. They have to be scheduled for non-cruise ship days, which are normally the weekends, as the cruise ships also dock at the container friendly docks. But these ships have to wait when a cruise ship is arriving. So the captain of a cruise ship sends his ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) to the port agent and the harbor master and if the timing is not too outrageous, then he gets it. If a poor cargo ship captain wants the same time, then he will have to wait or come earlier. Continue reading
Captain Albert
© 2026 – Captain Albert's Website and Blog –
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑