For a change the weather system passed over us at the time that we calculated that it should have done. So while it was nasty out there with gale force winds and heavy rains at times, the guests were happily tucked away inside the Veendam and nobody was the worse for it. By the time the sun rose, it was a beautiful day again with the sun brightly shining and Veendam nicely on schedule heading for Tampa. Continue reading
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This morning, the weather forecast announced that Tropical storm Paloma had been upgraded to a Hurricane class one with the expectation for a further upgrade to class 2 or class 3 as the system kept intensifying. However as it kept nicely on track heading North into the Caribbean Sea while we were heading North West, there was nothing to worry about. The people in Grand Cayman are not very happy of course as Paloma will pass over the island and later on Eastern Cuba will receive a visit as well. From there it is supposed to travel over the Bahamas’. Continue reading
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
Captain Albert Schoonderbeek
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.
This was not the case. I discussed the issue with the agent and decided to wait until 0800, to see if we could get a better picture of what was going on, on the island. By 8 am. the agent advised that the police were clearing the road blocks but that there were still many unhappy protesters around and that there would be the chance of new protests. The authorities strongly recommended that the Veendam would not call at Roatan today, as they could not guarantee the safety and security of our guests. That left me no other option than to cancel the call. I know that I would have 1200+ unhappy guests on board but it is beyond the question to let guests go ashore and then to find them embroiled in a local dispute. It is not my job to provide CNN headline news with fresh material. It is my duty as a captain to ensure the safety and security of my guests at all times, whether on the ship or ashore, as long as the latter is within my capabilities.
Thus I spun the ship away from the pilot boarding area, where we had been floating for the past 1.5 hours and went on our way. As I now had a lot of time on my hands, I decided to go sightseeing. Making a bad thing less bad; which cruise guest will ever get the chance to do a circumnavigation of Roatan Island, unless they have their own private yacht? A bit of a unique experience. Later in the day it transpired that the local utility company had been privatized and had raised the prices 3 to 4 times and that got the Roatanians up in arms.
Roatan is a long and fairly narrow island. It is the top of a under water mountain range and the shore rises steeply out of deep water. One mile from the coast it is over 1500 feet deep, half a mile from the coast and the ship can run aground. Thus the Veendam leisurely sailed around the island until 14.30 in the afternoon at an average distance of about 1.5 miles; giving the guests a good look at the various little fishing villages, secluded villa’s and resorts.
Then we continued at a slow speed heading to the North West to Costa Maya, where I will arrive at the scheduled time of 8 am tomorrow. Due to the fact that Roatan is located fairly off the beaten track, there is no other port that I could have quickly sailed to, to give the guests an alternative to enjoy, provided there would have been a berth. With cruising so popular, the docks in the various ports have to be booked months, sometimes years in advance and that makes deviating not an easy solution.
In the mean time I was keeping a close eye on our Tropical depression number 17, which in the course of the night got upgraded to Tropical storm Paloma. It is expected that the system will intensify even more and might reach hurricane status. However the estimated track is still veering away from where we want to go, so things are looking good.
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
Captain Albert
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