Again a wonderful day in Quebec. For most guests it was change over day, I believe that only a handful are doing a back – to – back and those are lucky. Having a hotel parked in the center of the City with such nice weather, what else can you ask for?

The city itself saw it the same way and all day long there was a never ending stream of Quebecois walking past the ship. The ship is shielded from the rest of the town by a Gate but it is close enough to have everybody wandering by and having a good look at the ship. To not endanger this boulevard experience, the Guest terminal is set further inland and Guests walk through a Sky-Bridge over this public right of way to the ship when coming and going. In this way the security gurus are satisfied and their checklists filled out to general approval and the locals can still enjoy the water front.

It was however interesting to see how it went with the luggage. The luggage is loaded in the terminal in bins and then transported by a forklift to the ship. There is a moment of a tense security situation every time when a forklift has to cross the foot and bike path. In order to stay within ISPS (International Ship and Port Security) requirements two security guards were in attendance to stop the traffic by means of two ropes which block off the traffic, and thus create a pathway for the forklift to safely drive through. It seemed that this was advanced Security in progress as a more senior security guard was providing training on how to handle the ropes. I had a hard time understanding this but he managed to get it wrong one time and a bike was stuck between the two ropes right in the way of the oncoming forklift. I was phoning my wife at the time from the outside deck and could give a running commentary all the way to England.

With a combined bike and foot path, there are other dangers. Roller skaters, tandem bikes, extended bikes (the ones you can hook up your child to the back part to teach them how to bike) and motorized wheel chairs. It did not take long before a pedestrian had to jump aside for a bike who was evading a rollerblader. A mobility scooter then had to break for the pedestrian and behind there was another scooter and yes we had a bump. Nothing serious , no damage, no injuries, but two upset seniors providing entertainment free of charge. A pity that there was nobody on the ship to watch all this as well.  I could not stay very long as I as had to move cabins. The office blocks cabins for people like me but the one assigned had such a small desk that I did not even have room for my two laptops.  Thus I had arranged for an empty Guest cabin last week. However they get sold and thus I had to move. It seems there was a no-show today so another cabin was available.

Training today included the people from Club HAL our Youth Program Coordinators. In our safety procedures children take up a special position.  They create more panic among the guests than anything else. So our procedures are geared towards:

1. Keeping the parents calm when little Johnny is missing.  — Yes, we have a search protocol.
2. Avoid that Parents start looking themselves. —- No, you will never find him.
3. Ensure that when little Johnny is found, that he remains under the control of a crewmember until he can be re-united with his parents or legal guardian.

As the Club HAL team is of course the ”prime target” when a child is missing; we spend time on how to deal with that.  The children themselves are not a “panic” issue. They tend to view everything as one big adventure. They only get apprehensive, emotional and start to cry when they sense vibes of Fear or Anxiousness coming from surrounding adults.

Today we had the Silver Whisper in port with us and we were docked stern to stern. She will sail at 1800 hrs. and then be replaced tomorrow morning by the Crystal Serenity. There is also a Celebrity ship expected which will go to the side dock but I have not found her name yet.

By 7am I woke up due to the starting of the stern thruster as I am parked in a Guest cabin near the stern of the ship. The ship has a number of staff and service engineer’s cabins for people who have to travel with the ship but they were full with entertainers and maintenance men and thus I was parked in a Guest Cabin. I am not that bothered about where they put me as long as I have a good bed, a good shower and a decent desk to work from. I am carrying two laptops with me and thus I need a little bit of space to work on.  The stern thruster woke me up and that indicated that we were indeed arriving on time and as per schedule.

While I was with the Maasdam last week in Quebec we were docked in the side harbor; this time we were back at the main berth of the Cruise Terminal. Behind us arrived the Regatta but they were only staying until 1800 hrs. We will be in port for three days. Today is the final day of this cruise and the official port visit day for Quebec, tomorrow is change over day, and then the last day is the official Quebec visit day for the next cruise.

My day was filled with training again and today was also the All Crew Indoctrination for the new alarm system. In two sessions all the crew was made aware of the coming change in our alarm procedures. Although they are all extremely busy and can hardly miss the 45 minutes that it takes, they all seem to be very eager to attend. A sort of outing without leaving the ship. For some it will be the first and also the last time during their contract that they visit and sit in the Show lounge and maybe that is the reason for their eagerness.

There is even a pattern in their behavior.  The engine department normally moves from area to area until they realize that they can sit on the upper level as well, and they happily park themselves there. The kitchen always tries to sit in a corner where they then try to get 25 people in an area that sits 15. That does not work so they have to move and in-variably end up somewhere where they cannot see the screen and then they have to move again. The Caucasian crew, Concessionaires (shops, Casino etc.), Entertainment and Officers sit for some reason always in the 2^nd ring of the lower level.  The front of the sitting area, where there are the loose tables on the dance floor, remain empty until there is no more room in the rest of the lounge. It almost seems as if they are afraid that I will ask those questions if they sit very close to the stage.

No doubt a Psychiatrist would have a good explanation for this typical behavior of groups but I do not have that knowledge so I am just amazed.  I have been doing a lot of Full Crew presentations in the past as well and the pattern is still the same. It is understandable that groups that work together, like to sit together and those related (or in the process of trying to get related to each other) sit together but it is this sitting in specific locations is something that amazes me.

Another thing that is always the same is that we never start on time. The Caucasians arrive ahead of time. The motto being, being on time is being 5 minutes early, but the Asians start walking towards the lounge at the time that the presentation is supposed to start. As we cannot get everybody checked off at the same time, we invariably run 10 minutes late. It is just something that you have get to get used to. Nobody seems to mind as the lounge is one noisy area with 500 crewmembers chatting away in earnest.

The 2^nd meeting for those who could not attend in the morning is always a lot quieter. Most crew try to get in, in the morning as they either have their rest in the afternoon, or want to go ashore and thus the balance is always 80% in the morning and 20% in the afternoon.

Tomorrow will be the 2^nd day in Quebec and the weather promises to be great. Windy but sunny. As it is a Saturday we will have a lot of people looking at the ship as there is a sort of promenade with a double bicycle path right in front of the ship.  I will have to pack up tomorrow as I will have to move cabins. Mine has been sold for next cruise, so I will be parked somewhere else.

To maintain the schedule the ship has to maintain about 16 knots of speed for a timely arrival in Quebec. That is without taking current and wind into consideration. The current could even itself out as it changes every 6 hours. It does not really work that way as the strength of the current varies depending where you are on the river. If you are lucky you are in an area of the river where you will benefit from the full flood behind you and hopefully you are a little bit out of the center of the current when the ebb is coming down the river.  Today the big spoiler for not needing extra speed and thus saving fuel was the wind. It decided to blow from the WNW and that is more or less in line with the direction of the estuary of the St. Lawrence.  Blowing a steady 35 knots did not help for making good speed either and thus the ship had to make over 18 knots to keep schedule. A secondary occurrence was that the wind was blowing at certain times against the Flood current. This created a sort of very sharp sort of swell which can make the ship behave quite unpleasantly. Plus if you are at nearly full speed to compensate for the adverse wind and swell, the ship can start to pitch and you get a rather abrupt an unpleasant movement. It feels as if the ship gets slapped on the nose every minute or so.

To avoid this, the captain approached the top of the estuary under an angle so the waves were causing more of a roll than a pitch. And rolling we can deal with by means of stabilizers. The St. Lawrence then goes for a short while almost straight in a direction of North to East and then it bends to the south, which is basically the end of the estuary and where the regular river begins.

This whole estuary river area is considered open waters and no pilotage is required here. The river has a Vessel Traffic Separation System a sort highway at sea that keeps the inbound and outbound flow of ships separated and for the rest it is still so wide that there is plenty of room to avoid each other. It will take from departure Charlottetown yesterday at 17.00 hrs. until 22.00 tonight to travel so far up the St. Lawrence that one could really say; we are on a river now. The lights of various villages became visible on both sides and buoys started to appear indicating the sailing route.

The map shows the whole St. Lawrence pilotage system. Due to the length of the river is has been sub-divided in several sections.

When going to Quebec, you need two sets of pilots. One from the beginning of the –real – river and one for the final part of the approach about 5 miles below the berth; where the ship enters a different pilotage area. That pilotage area lasts until Trois Rivieres, a village approx. 2/3 of the way to Montreal. Here another set of pilots join to bring the ship all the way to Montreal. If you go from the mouth of the river directly to Montreal you get three times a River – pilot change in a straight row. The Veendam is not going further than Quebec and thus there are only two changes.

For the stretch from Les Escomins to  the Quebec boundary two pilots will come on board as the total time to travel the distance goes over the 8 hours. You always want to have a restful pilot and alert pilot on the bridge and thus you will not hear us complaining about that. As the distance to the dock from pilot border line is only five miles, these 2 will be replaced by only one.  But if the ship would have continued directly up to Montreal, there would have been two again, due to the duration of the journey.

Our big challenge here is the fact that these pilots converse with each other and with traffic control which governs the river, in French and not the regular French that some of us can understand and speak but Quebecois French. This is considered a sort of original 17^th century French when the area was a colony but I cannot make head or tail of it. They of course give their orders to the helmsman in English, otherwise nothing would happen, but for the rest the navigators on the bridge depend on getting all the information they would like to be aware off on the pilots willingness to give a comprehensive translation after they had an completely incomprehensible conversation with somebody on the other side of the VHF.

We are expecting to dock around 07.00 at the Quebec cruise terminal and we should be joined by the Regatta of Oceana Cruises. The weather should be good. Sunny but windy for most of the day.

It did not look very good when the ship came closer and closer to the pilot station. 40 to 50 knots of wind; not pleasant at all and once at the pilot station it was still blowing a good 35 knots.  However the pilot brought the good news that it was blowing less than 20 knots once inside the bay and thus we sailed in. It turned out to be a very nice day in the end. Sunny but with a nippy wind blowing, this time from the SE and thus mainly over the bow and it made it possible to sit outside at the aft end of the ship. We seem to have a higher number of smokers on board this cruise than on average so at least a number of people were very happy with a windless and sunny corner.  This was my 2^nd day of being buried in the dungeons of the ship where we have the ships training room. Here my four groups of trainee’s went through the exciting training of how to lower a lifeboat.

The old fashioned but simple Gravity Davit System.

The challenge is that the systems are not the same for every ship in the fleet. Bring back the good old days when there was one sort of davit. A gravity davit. (Those are the arms in which a lifeboat hangs) They might have looked different; but the principle was always the same. Lift the brake and the lifeboat would descend under its own weight. As gravity is always with us, the system always worked, as long as you kept everything well-greased and rust free.

Now with the optimization of the ships interior, the lifesaving systems are built around the space in use for the Hotel operation. That means that gravity davits do not always fit in. They have to be positioned under the right angle to ensure that the lifeboat slides down and ends up exactly in line with the embarkation deck. Now we have systems that are constructed in such a way that they fit in the space left over for them.  They are as safe and as good as the simple gravity davit but they are more complex in construction and to operate.

The Veendam davits project straight out of the ship.

Hence, the crew has to learn more. The S- class, to which the Veendam belongs, has what is called a stored – power – telescopic davit system.  This means that two cylinders push the davit arms horizontally out of the ship until the lifeboat is clear of the hull and then it descends on gravity.  As it is mechanical –Hydraulically made  (the cylinders work on gas under pressure stored in large bottles) and thus can break; it needs a backup system and that makes it more complicated. Gravity does not need that, it is always there. For the rest it is a beautiful system as the davit operator can very easily control the exact movement of the davits and the lowering of the lifeboat, and if its lowered a little bit too far down it can be corrected very easily as it operates on power.

Then there are strict protocols for making the lifeboat ready for the embarkation of the passengers, strict protocols to ensure the boat descends safely into the water and then there is a whole list of things about survival at sea. What fascinates the trainee’s the most is the food in the lifeboats. The lifeboat rations as it is called. Rations because you are supposed to ration the handouts, so they last for as long as it takes to rescue the boat. For some reason everybody thinks that is must be horrible stuff but it is not. The rations come in the form of square tablets about the size of 4 lumps of sugar together and the taste like Scottish Shortbread.  I was told once by a man who wore a kilt, so he must have been an expert on Scotland, that Scottish Shortbread was also a sort of survival ration, made for in case that you got stuck on a mountain in the highlands waiting for the weather to get better.

Tomorrow there is one more theoretical session before we start with the practical stuff. For that I need nice weather in the ports so I am keeping my fingers crossed, as it getting late in the season. The day after tomorrow the crew indoctrination process for the new three alarm system starts. I will hold two sessions for the crew in the show lounge and they will have to attend one or the other ensuring that all 609 onboard will have gotten the message. Then there are a number of breakout sessions with in depth training for the various functions.  That entails a lot of Crowd Control and the crew immensely enjoys that as they find out that they can order the guests around.

Tomorrow we sail up the St. Lawrence River. It is supposed to be very windy again but it should die down in the afternoon. Not exactly cruise ship weather but then this is not the Caribbean either.

For nostalgia sakes: Lifeboat drill on board the ss Statendam in 1900.

Imagine what it must have been to do this in bad weather with a rolling ship !!!!

In the early morning hours the ms Veendam departed from Halifax under the command of Captain Chris Norman. Once outside it started to move slowly on the still high swells but the wind had abated sufficiently to prevent the waves from getting higher again. Unfortunately the seas were rolling in from the SW and the ship was steering NE and that sometimes caused a very noticeable movement. If a ship rolls, then the stabilizers will take care of that. If a ship pitches then we can reduce speed to make it more comfortable. But when the swell catches the ship on the quarter it creates a sort of corkscrew motion and there is very little you can do about that, apart from sailing in another direction. As we wanted to go to Charlottetown we had to go North East and thus we had to endure this unpleasant movement. When looking around it did not seem to affect that many people as all ships activities were eagerly participated in but there were a few more people sitting on the couches in the midships area than is normally the case.

The ship followed the coast of Nova Scotia for most of the day. Tonight we will sail around Cape Breton and then head for Prince Edward Island which is located north of the bigger island of Nova Scotia. This area from New Foundland to Nova Scotia and the Grand Banks can be notorious for reduced visibility. Now the severe storm and dropping temperatures ensured that it was not happening today.  The cold water of the Labrador Current and the warm water of the Gulf Stream are meeting in this area, creating a prime cocktail of temperature variations to create very low hanging clouds.  In the winter the Labrador Current wins most of the time and the icebergs it brings down in spring are mostly clearly visible but that is not always the case later in the season and it makes this area very dangerous for shipping. Especially in the past when there was no radar.  Our own Amsterdam (I) 1884 was lost in this area in 1884 by running aground at Sable Island. Due to the pounding seas the ship had to be abandoned and left to the elements.

It is for me the first time back on the Veendam since 2008 when I left for the Prinsendam after having been here for four years. It was also on this ship that I started my blog in 2007. So we have come full –circle so to speak.  Since then the ship has mainly be sailing on the East Coast in the summer and South America in the winter but that is going to change in the coming winter season. This time no Caribbean, no South America, but she will be sailing San Diego to Hawaii for a number of voyages. Although many people complain about the sometimes very wobbly weather in the north Pacific, it remains a very popular destination and the ships are always full. A lot of guests like the number of sea days and then take the gamble of a “good wobble” occurring during the cruise.

In 2008 the ship had another refit, a so called SOE upgrade (SOE = Signature of Excellence) and that changed the ship to a certain extent. More about that in the near future when I will have taken some photos. Currently the ship is making nearly the same cruises as the Maasdam, except that it does not call at Montreal but has Quebec as a change over port. Here it stays for 3 days. Great for the crew as Quebec is a very nice port.

Tomorrow we will be in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The weather for tonight calls for strong winds but it should die down near the port and inside it should be no more than about 20 knots and sunny.

After a day in Halifax, I joined the Veendam. My waiting day, the 21st was beautiful during the day with the sun shining and a gentle breeze.  That gave me the chance to explore the Halifax sea front; and you can spend more than a day there.  It only turned very nasty in the evening. The citizens of Halifax, they call themselves Haligonians, are very proud of their seafaring roots and the seafront has been turned into a boardwalk with all that is there to remember of those days.

Sir Samuel Cunard founder of the Cunard Line in 1842, establishing Trans Atlantic travel with a scheduled service.

As an ocean liner historian it was very gratifying to see that there was a statue of Samuel Cunard, the man who put almost singlehandedly, North Atlantic Steam Navigation on the map in a professional way. His name still lives on in the Cunard Line, although the official name of the company is completely different and hardly ever used.

In the same way that people always spoke about the Holland America Line, while it was called the North American Steamship Company (Noord Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij – NASM) Then there is a very nice Emigrant Museum, Pier 21, where now the cruise ships dock and a very nice Maritime Museum.

Two large ships outside, HMCS Sackville and the Arcadia and beautiful displays inside.

HMCS Sackville was a 2nd world war corvette and the only one left from all those that were built

They had a travelling exposition going on about the tragedy of the St. Louis. A German passenger ship which went around half the world, trying to find a safe haven for all the Jewish passengers on board. Nobody in the new world wanted to grant them asylum, so the captain had to turn back and in the end the Netherlands and Belgium took them in. Quite a few of them then still fell into NAZI hands when the Lowlands were overrun in 1940. A very sad chapter in the history of human kind.

Of much more interest and gaiety was the Duck Race that was going on, yes, with rubber duckies varying from Bath tub size to the size of a house. There were cooperated sponsored races and individual sponsored races.

My money went on a cool looking yellow duck wearing sun glasses with the name Albert on its chest but unfortunately, once in the water,  he was more interested in a female duck floating next to him so his progress to the finish line was not to be impressed about. Then a heavy storm came over Nova Scotia with 100 km+ winds. It was going to last into the next day but if the weather followed the predictions of late Sunday night, then by 10 am. the next day it would die down sufficiently for the ship to be able to get into port.

When I woke up, I read that the port was closed but the decision would be reviewed at 10.00 hrs. So I did not worry too much. Just after 10am I got an email from the captain saying that he was coming in at 10.30 following the Norwegian Gem and followed by the Regatta. By noon time this whole cruise fleet was docked and in approx. 30 minutes over 5000 passengers flooded ashore to see the sights of Halifax. Although the wind was dying down in Halifax it was not dying down yet in the Sydney area.

So a decision had to be made about what to do next. In a case like this, it is a combination process between the ship and the office. A. do we expose the guests to a 2nd night of bad weather? B. what if the wind does not die down in time and Sydney harbor is still closed? C. What are the alternatives? It is the ultimately the decision of the Master whether he sails or not. What he does then involves the office. So after reviewing the weather maps and all sorts of alternative plans, it was decided to keep the Veendam alongside in Halifax to allow for the seas and the winds outside to settle. It would also give the guests a quiet night of sleep.

It did not look like Sydney would be feasible at all and thus the call was cancelled and the ship would sail directly to Charlottetown in the next morning, following the storm front instead of sitting in the middle of it. The Regatta also stayed in port as they were going the same way. The Norwegian Gem sailed but they were going southbound, away from the bad weather.

Unfortunately the port authorities could not make any last minute arrangements to man the terminal and thus nobody could go ashore for the evening. Since we have all this security stuff in the world, making last minute arrangements for re-opening terminals has become a lot more difficult; as the check-list culture keeps throwing up challenges against everything that is a deviation from the original plan.

So tonight the ship will stay in port and will then depart early in the morning to sail towards Prince Edward Island. It will still be very windy but the brunt of the weather will have passed. I will meet my next 4 training classes as part of the 3 alarm system change over. The Veendam is the last ship and by October 10, all 15 ships will ring the same bells in the same sequence.

As it was a stormy evening with torrential rains, I decided to start tackling something that was long overdue and which I hope to spend more time on in the near future.

So, I have added to the sub part of the blog under Captains from the Past:

Photos of the following captains names:

Blokland van, HFT. — Dobbinga Sr. ,F.H. — Filippo, A. — Gaart van, J.B. —,

Graaf van de,  L. — Graaf van de,  L.J. —  Hazewinkel J.A. — Jong De, Sievert J. —

Krol, W. — Lunenburg H.J. — Moree P.J. — Rol, C. — Ruygrok, B.L.J.

Schottee de Vries, J. —Sjerp, D., Sluys van der, P.J.H. —

Aditional captains that have come to light while progressing with my digging in the archives or who passed away more or less recently:

Almekinders L. — Brouwer, P.E. — Datema, R. — Diehl, J.V. — Dijk van, A.

Driel, F.H. — Goot, H.C. — Hess, A. — Hoeven van der, P. — Janzen, J.

Kleywegt N. —  Mohr G.J. H.M. — Reifferth, M. — Verschoor van der, de Boer, W. —

Wabeke, D.C.

And thus I left the ms Maasdam yesterday after a very pleasant 14 days, thanks to Captain Arno Jutten and his team.  As I was able to finish everything on schedule, I could even throw in My Holland America History lecture for approx. 600 guests in the show lounge. Hotel Directors and Cruise Directors always try to offer something that is not on the regular schedule and I was glad to oblige. What was unusual but very heartening, was the number of crew that popped in during the lecture. That was something I was not used to but I am glad that there is the interest among them as well for the rich history of our company.

While I was doing that the good ship Maasdam was travelling up the St. Lawrence River on the way to Quebec. It was sunny but very chilly so most guests when not taking part in activities were watching the world go by from behind the glass windows. I did the same after my lecture was finished, high up in the crow’s nest. Holland America introduced the “On Location” program about a year ago and its purpose is that the guests connect as much as possible during their cruise with the area that they are sailing through. So more local food is prepared and served on board, more local information/ lectures and if it fits in the schedule, local entertainment on board.

For those who enjoy beer, this comes close to a Guiness but it is a touch lighter

A pleasant side effect of all this is, at least for me, that the ships now stock local beers. There are more and more Micro brewery’s and some of them produce very good stuff. In Alaska they stock in Juneau and here on the East Coast Canadian beers. Of course the regular run – of the –mill beers  but also from two local and smaller breweries. One from Prince Edward Island and one from Montreal.  Thus I managed to test them one by one, one every other day, after a full day of talking.

Some were to my taste, some were not. But this way is a great way of taking part in local culture and so I did. Most of them are produced by the Prince Edward brewing company, which brews 11 different beers of which we had 4 onboard the ship. For me the winner was Iron Bridge Brown Ale. It is quite heavy so you drink it more like a wine than as a Lager.

The next morning we were in Quebec and docked at an unusual spot. Even I had never been there. It was a busy day in Quebec with three ships in. The Norwegian Dawn, the Seabourn Quest and the Maasdam.

A not so exciting view of the cargo port  of Quebec.

A whole raft of reasons caused the Maasdam to be relegated to a side harbor. First of all there are limitations of how much the cruise terminal and dock can handle during change over day. Both the Norwegian Dawn and the Quest had change over and that mean that they took preference. A 3^rd ship on the ship dock, there was room for it, was considered too much of a capacity issue, both for the terminal and for the roads leading in and out of the terminal area.

So the Maasdam was banned to a cargo dock on the side. In principle not much of a problem for docking but this dock was further out. The Port Authority lay on shuttle buses to cover the distance and the only issue was that there is a Marina inbetween with a bridge.

On this electronic chart capture you can see the dark blue where the ship docked in the L shape and the light blue below where the shuttle buses had to travel through the Marina

A bridge which opens every time a yacht wants to get in or out. Luckily it was Friday and thus most yachtie’s were still at work, earning the money that they then could spend on that hobby of “going nowhere at great expense”. If it had been a Saturday, the shuttle bus service would have been a challenge. A real challenge.

But all went well and again it was a sunny but very chilly day. Apart from the wind hiccup in Bar Harbor this has been a very good cruise for the guests onboard.

That cruise ended in Montreal and here it was time to say good bye to the ship and to fly to Halifax, where I will join the Veendam on the 22^nd.

The Veendam is the last ship that receives the training for the new three alarm system that is being implemented and by mid-October all ships, all crew and also all guests will attend Boat drills under the new three step sequence.

Another wonderful day for the guests to enjoy. For a cruise this late in the season it is shaping up to be a very good one. A pity about cancelling the first port, Bar Harbor, but wind can happen anytime of the year and is not really related to this time of the year here. But it is dry and sunny every day and that is something to be very happy with.

I did not see much of that sunshine today as I was buried deep in the dungeons of the ship, where we have a training room for the crew. Today was Examination Day for my students with a total of 33 “graduating” in the fascinating science of how to lower a lifeboat, how to keep those inside alive until being rescued, and the most recent addition to this, how to keep up the morale up of those inside that boat.  The 33 included 9 different nationalities and each nationality comes a different way of looking at exams and reacting to it. Each race, each nationality has a different way of reacting and as a teacher or in this case an examiner you have to be in tune with that.

Running a Western European style of doing an exam only works in Western Europe.  Some of the crew will freeze up completely when it comes to a formal approach, when during one session you have to show that you know-it-all.  When that happens, people will fail who in reality know everything and thus you eliminate a crewmember who would do very well but stumbles over that one exam.

What I have been doing in this situation, is to constantly run little exams during the training and test each student on the presence of the knowledge. Especially with the Asian students the knowledge is often there, it just takes a little bit of effort to get it out. I had promised them that I would not require a long and multiple question exam.  I was just going to ask 3 questions and if I saw that they would answer without delay, then I would know that they had the knowledge at their fingertips.

And that worked, the answers were spouting out, apart from the occasional stumble over some very alien words. A hydrostatic Interlocking Device is not a name that you use every day and is certainly not in your daily vocabulary if you come from Bali.  This ship was the first where they all passed and thus I could congratulate 33 brightly smiling crewmembers, who had spent most of their free time for the last 12 days reading the training manual and trying to remember how many sickness tablets there are in a lifeboat.

Tomorrow my day will be filled with teaching Crowd Management and how to deal with agitated guests during an emergency.  Psychology recognizes a number of standard forms of behavior: unpredictable, fearful, panic, or no reaction at all to name a few: and all the stages in between, including enhancements caused by alcohol, and the crew is more and more required to know at least the basics of it.  To get that across to a multicultural crew is not always easy and I am finding that 33 years of experience in the cruise business certainly helps as I can come up with real examples to illustrate what sort of behavior they might come across and how to react to it. One should not forget that an Indonesian or Pilipino crew member might have a hard time even recognizing symptoms of fear and anxiety in a Caucasian. Different races react in different ways. Apart from it being useful it is also great fun to do. Everybody likes to share memories and anecdotes, and if it happens to be educational as well then so much the better.

By that time I was done with all that, the sun was setting and the Maasdam was sailing out of Charlottetown harbor. The ship is now going towards the St. Lawrence River and has to go around Prince Edward Island. As explained recently we cannot go under the Confederation Bridge as the whole area is full of lobster and crab pots, even where they should not be.

Tomorrow is a sea day as the ship sails up the St. Lawrence towards Quebec. The weather is supposed to be sunny again but very chilly.  A temperature higher than the low 50’s would really amaze me.

Sydney is located deep inside an L shaped bay at least if you forget the south west part of it. As a result the ship has to makes a 90 degree turn to the east when coming in. Then the  end of the L shape is getting more and more narrow until it comes to a point where the ship either has to go in Bow first or Stern first. There is no room to turn for a ship with a length of 200 meters at the dock.

The green area is where the ship sails. Courtesy of a website  describing dredging plans for Sydney Harbour

That brings the challenge to the captain of what are we going to do? Swing on arrival or swing on departure? In Sydney, plan A is always swing on arrival and dock nose out. Thus if it is nice weather, or reasonable weather on arrival, you swing first, sail half a mile astern and dock nose out.  In case the weather takes a turn for the worse, you just give full ahead and race to open waters.

It is getting more complicated if it is windy on arrival. Then it might not be so easy to swing in the turning basin and go stern in. The thrusters are not always strong enough to cope with the strength of the wind on the side of the ship and being able to control the drift. Quite often it is then still possible to dock the ship nose in as you can keep up the speed longer, thus drift less and come alongside. At least you have made the port. The question is then do I get out again on schedule? If the weather forecast says that the winds will diminish during the day, yes you could do it. But is the weather forecast reliable in autumn? What happens if I cannot get out?? Will/Can I stay overnight and hope for the morning?

Then comes the decision that is most difficult for a captain. If the situation is clear cut: Bad weather – too dangerous – cannot safely do: –  cancel.  But what if you could do it but do not know what will happen later on and if it will, or will not, what impact will it have on the rest of the cruise? That is a decision that is hard to make. Hard because an overnight stay will affect the cruise schedule. So basically the decision is then made in favor of the first port or in favor of the next port. These things can make the job of a captain lonely, as asking advice here can result in everybody’s personal favorite port being brought forward. One will like Sydney, the other Halifax, a 3^rd looks at the revenue a 4^th at something else again.

Most captains then approach it with straight forward logic. If I am not certain now, I will also be not certain a few hours from now. So it is better to cancel this port and to have the next one, than to take this one and to have to hope that we can make the next one.  So if things look iffy to start with, either on the spot or maybe later on, you always play it safe.

That is of course with one exception and that is the home port. There you have to go and how you get out of it is of later worries. Most home ports are big ports with a lot of tugboats so the weather can be dealt with in nearly all situations. If not, then there is major mayhem on the horizon for Shore Operations. This happens sometimes during Hurricane season, when the Home port is in the middle of all the excitement and the ship either has to deviate or ride out the storm. The knock on effects are not pleasant for anybody.

No such thing for Sydney today. It was a beautiful, sunny and a near wind still day. Most guests were on excursion and those who were not, took great interest in the souvenir store in the terminal. It seems that we have a larger number of scooters and other mobility contraptions onboard than normal because it was the first time that I saw a whole row of them heading for the shop at the same time. A sort of motorized invasion but then in a friendly way. Although some of these 4-wheel scooters are big enough to have room for a machine gun on the front.  They also have ample room for baskets on the back, so hopefully the shop keepers took advantage of that.  I counted 9 of them rolling ashore at the same time. I felt sorry for the Security Officer as those things create havoc with the security system, necessitating extra hand searches.

At 1700 it was time to pull out of Sydney after what was one of the best days I have ever seen here. Tomorrow we are in Charlotte Town and more nice weather is expected.  My students are all excited and nervous as it is their examination day.