It was a lot better than last time at the Tampa sea buoy. Nearly wind still weather instead of the 50 knots of wind we had during the last call. So it was a very pleasant ride through Tampa bay docking just before 6 am at the terminal. The wind did try to spoil things on arrival, while the ship was swinging around in the turning basin, by gusting up to 20 knots, but did not really affect the docking that much. It was only harder to control the stern of the ship as the funnel acts as a big sail and you have to be on the alert when suddenly the stern starts drifting. With a steady wind blowing you can find a balance and hold the ship steady but with gusting winds, the only thing you can do, is react quickly to any movement observed.

Today we tested our “silent disembark” procedures for the 3rd time with great success. Thus far everybody had to listen to the announcements of the cruise director on arrival and then march off the ship when the group color was called. We have now been sending a letter to the cabin, which states the time of disembark and do not make any announcements at all. It creates a much more pleasant atmosphere on board and the guests do not have to be on the alert all the time waiting for the next announcement. The time on the paper, is the time you leave. It has worked great here in Tampa and the program is being rolled out on the other ships as well. The success of the program depends a little bit on the lay-out of the terminal, with the guests flow towards immigration and the baggage area, so we do not know yet if we can do it in each change over port. Our next challenge will be Vancouver. Here in Tampa is worked very well.

With a change of route or relocation of the vessel, there always seems to be a larger crew turnover than normal and today it was not any different. So a lot of happy faces in the morning, eager to get off, and a lot of sleepy and jet lagged faces coming on board at the same time. When the new crew comes on board, they have to go through a whole indoctrination program before they are allowed to start working. At 13.00 hrs. all of them, including spouses, assemble in one of the rooms for a mandatory instruction. I normally welcome them first, as the team leader of Team Veendam, I think it is important that all the crew knows who the “driver” is and then we have short speeches from the crew purser (paperwork) the ships nurse (NLV and medical issues), the Security officer (behave yourself….!!!!) and then a safety movie is shown, detailing all the basic shipboard routines. Most crew know these things from their previous contract but it is mandatory that they get a refreshment. Crew new to the company also have buddies; experienced crewmembers who look after them until they know their way around.
The safety indoctrination has a follow up the next day, when the new crew is taken around the ship and shown how to operate fire screen and watertight doors and other safety items. Crew whose environmental certificates are expired, go with the Environmental Officer to the ships training room for computer based training and testing.
When all of these requirements are met, the crew is allowed to start working.

We left Tampa on time, heading for the Panama Canal via Grand Cayman and Cartagena. Our 19 day journey has started

After all the wind yesterday, we had a nearly wind still day. We sailed between two frontal systems and that calmed things down. The one we had yesterday and a new one coming down from the upper Gulf of Mexico tomorrow. So we had a sort of “valley of silence” today. With a bit of luck the wind of the new system will only reach us by the time we are docked in Tampa.

Tomorrow we are in Tampa for the last call of the season and then we will start the Trans Canal cruise to Alaska. Most important part of that start is the paperwork for the Panama Canal Transit. The submission of this information starts 144 hours before we even arrive there. With the current rules in regards to security, the Panamanian authorities require that passenger and crew manifests are submitted far in advance for scrutiny. This makes sense as the Panama Canal could be of interest for certain people with bad intent. Once this and other information is received there are the 96, 48 and 24 hrs. ETA submissions. (ETA = Estimated Time of Arrival) of the ship. This is compulsory for all the ships. It is not really necessary for cruise ships as we sail on time but it helps with the convoy planning for the canal with the cargo ships. When cargo ships make Trans Atlantic or Trans Pacific crossings their ETA, given 5 or 6 days earlier, can be wildly off due to bad weather, engine slowdowns or other influences. Thus the multiple day reporting.

Cruise ships have preference when transiting the canal and they are slotted directly into the transiting convoys. More about that when we come nearer the time. That makes it for us even more necessary to arrive on time, as the ship has to be cleared first by the authorities and then line up behind the previous ship. However the Panama Canal is still 96 hours away and so I sent my first official ETA to the agent today, who will ensure that it reaches the Panama Canal authorities. We will have 56 guests on board this cruise who will continue to be with us for the Trans Canal cruise.

In the last few weeks we have been alternating with docking portside and starboard side in Tampa. That gives a bit of extra work for the shore gangway operator of the terminal as he has to move the big gangway for each call but it has become a necessity. There are no ports left in the West Caribbean where we are allowed to do outside maintenance anymore. Nothing at all in Belize, Key West and Cozumel and only fresh water washing in Santo Tomas de Castilla. The port environmental rules have become so very strict. That means that if we want to keep the Veendam looking half presentable on the outside we now have to do all the work in Tampa.

So we have cherry pickers in Tampa to work the outside as fast as possible when we dock and hence we do one week work on the portside and the other week work on the starboard side.

I check about twice a day the weather forecast. Both on the NOAA National Weather Service and on the local, national, forecasts of the country that we are visiting. Normally that gives a good indication of what to expect. This time all the forecasts were wrong, very wrong. All were predicting South Easterly Winds to 10 to 15 knots and that would have meant a smooth and pleasant ride to Cozumel with the relative wind providing a gentle breeze over the decks. Wrong predictions occasionally happen when something develops locally and the weather models of the meteorologists do not simulate it.

When sailing out of Santo Tomas, the wind started slowly to increase and by the time we were exiting the bay, we had 40 knots of headwind with gusts up to 50 knots. The wind whipped the sea up and that resulted in a very bumpy ride during the night. So much strong wind and so many high waves slow the ship down and I started to fear for a late arrival in Cozumel. However as the wind settled in the early evening to a steady South Easterly direction, which was ¾ on the stern, it started to help push the ship. Also it enhanced the Gulf Stream current that finds it origins near Belize. It is normally not very strong there but the wind helped the momentum and by early morning we here doing close to 23 knots. That extra speed cancelled out the time we lost in the first few hours, when we were coming out of the bay.

With the stabilizers in operation we could reduce the motion of the ship to an acceptable level but the Veendam was still moving a bit around so we wobbled all the way to Cozumel but we made it on time. Charging full speed into Cozumel channel; the stretch of water between the Mexican mainland and Cozumel Island. The wind was still blowing about 25 knots and thus docking was also a breezy affair. We were scheduled to dock at the International pier which is about 15 minutes away from down town. At the other side was the Mariner of the Seas docked, which with its 140.000 tons towered over us. Our bridge wing is about four decks below theirs. The Veendam docked inside the pier which is a bit tricky as I have to find a balance between the wind pushing on the portside of the ship and the current pushing on the starboard side of the ship. Then there was the fact that as soon as the current fell away, blocked by the Mariner of the Seas, the wind set me towards the dock with a considerable speed. The best thing to do was to stay as far from the dock as possible so that you can let the ship drift slowly towards the pier, breaking the sideways movement by the thrusters. However that is an issue with docking inside, as the 10 meter depth line runs fairly close to the pier. With other words there is not much room to play with.

So while the pilot kept an eye on the depth of the water, I brought the ship around from a North Westerly heading, as we were coming from the South, to a Southerly heading, moving into the basin along the dock. By nudging the Veendam along at a very slow speed, it was possible to maintain a nice balance between all these forces playing on the ship.

The last few feet are always very interesting as well, as then Mexican confusion erupts about the location of the gangway. It is not unusual to receive instructions from the dock advising the bow of the ship to go 3 feet forward and the stern to go four feet aft. As we all know, the ship is made of steel and not of elastic, and thus an impossible order to fulfill. However after some shouting between chief officer, pilot, security officer at the gangway and the docking master a consensus was found. If it had not, then it was even simpler, I just park the ship where I want it to go and the rest can take a hike. However today a quick consensus was reached by all the members of this docking committee and right on time the gangway was out and the guests were streaming ashore.

The Weather we experienced finally showed up on the weather charts about 12 hours later. At least now I had proof that it had really happened.

This is always an early arrival, as the full day fly tour to the Maya ruins of Tikal takes off at 6 am. The port is located in the corner of a shallow bay so it takes a long time to get there. Not because of the distance but because of the shallowness of the water.

One of the phenomena of a ship is, is that when it starts to make speed; it sinks deeper into the water. This is called squat. It depends on the hull form of the vessel how much it is squat will be. Also the faster the ship sails, the deeper it settles into the water. For the Veendam it is about four feet with a speed of 10 knots and it goes up to almost 15 feet at full sea speed. With larger ships you can not see it very well but if you look at a speed boat that is speeding up, you see the stern, where the outboard engine is, digging itself into the water and much of the stern disappears below the surface. When the speedboat slows down, the more level and the higher the stern rises.

For Santo Tomas it takes about an hour to get to the dock, traveling at a speed of 10 to 12 knots and thus limiting most of the squat and so the reducing draft. Apart from making sure that we do not touch the bottom, we also have to keep some space between the keel and the bottom of the bay so that the water can flow under the keel and we can move forward. Because of this water flow, it makes no sense to go to fast, as the water can not flow away from the bow quickly enough and as a result prevents the ship to increase speed. I tried this a few times to show the junior officers but while sailing with10 to 15 feet under the keel the ship simply did not want to faster than 12 knots whatever power I gave to the propellers.

We picked up the pilot at the entrance of the fairway and then sailed with 10 knots through the channel. It is one straight course of 188o until about ½ a mile from the dock it ends in the harbor basin where the ships can turn before lining up and sail outside again. By 06.00 we were docked and 06.05 the tour was on its way. We were in port today with the Club Med II, which is a resort ship and a sister of the WindSurf which until recently belonged to Holland America/Windstar. Windstar is now part of Ambassador Cruises which owns a number of small passenger company’s including the paddle steamers, Queen of the north and Queen of the West.

Santo Tomas is a very well organized port. Everybody is in a distinctive uniform and what is announced is also happening at the time that was announced. These are people I can work with. I often wish we had this sort of, near German, work ethic in more places and ports in the world.

We pulled out on time, and in a hurry, as the stretch to Cozumel is a very tight one and I would need all engines on line to get the maximum speed out of the Veendam. So, when an hour later we came off the shallow areas, we put the throttle forward and started to fly.
And then suddenly the weather changed…….. More about that tomorrow.

As is not unusual when going to Belize, the local weather was different than predicted. Most of the time the forecasters are quite good in predicting the rain. That is something you can see on a satellite photo. However they are wrong on a regular basis with the wind. We had the prediction that there would be little wind in the morning and increasing breeziness in the again. However when we arrived at the pilot station, it was blowing about 30 knots and it remained windy for the whole day. Sunny, warm and very windy.

When it is windy, the ship starts to yawn behind its anchor. This happens because the wind pushes against one side of the ship and the ship starts to drift. The anchor is there to prevent that so the anchor chain comes taut and pulls the ship back. This causes the ship to change its angle to the wind and the wind then blows against the ship on the other side. As a result the ship continuously veers from far to left of the anchor to far to the right of the anchor pushed by the wind.

The problem with this ships movement is that half the time the tender platform is exposed to the waves caused by the wind. If there are waves along the platform then the boats will bob up and down alongside it and that is dangerous for our guests and might result in an accident. To avoid this ships movement we switch on the stern thruster. We angle the ship so that the wind blows on the non-tender platform side; the chain comes taut and keeps the bow in place. By having the stern thruster push the stern of the ship against the wind, we can find a balance between wind direction and thruster direction so that the ship remains under an angle that just gives shelter to the tender operation on the lee side of the ship.

In the old days, when ships did not have thrusters such as the old Statendam (1958-1982) and Rotterdam (1959-1997), they would swing all day long and at set intervals when the ship was swinging through the wind again, tender service had to be stopped as there were too high a waves along the tender platform. Once the ship came back the tender service would continue. It depended a bit on the insight of the officer standing on the platform to optimize the time available for getting guests on and off the tenders while the ship swinging the right way providing sufficient lee.

I got many a wet uniform while standing half on the platform and half in the tender, helping, and sometimes lifting, guests out of the moving tenders and trying to get the tender away before the ship swung back through the wind. The older ships had many good things, things that we sometimes miss on the more modern vessels but I am still grateful each day to have a ship with a stern thruster so we can protect the gangway operation from the elements.

Thus we kept the stern thruster going all day in Belize, while the fast shore tenders ferried our guests to and from the port. The port itself is too shallow for larger ships to dock. We use these shore tenders as they are much faster then our ships tenders. This is a necessity in order to cover the large distance between Belize port and the anchorage area. We were today together with the Grandeur of the Seas at the anchorage, which had a similar operation going.

Tomorrow we are going to be in Santo Tomas de Castilla and the prevailing wind is supposed to be from the South East. If that is the case, then there will be no wind in the port as it is sheltered from each direction except the North West and thus it is going to
be hot, very hot with a high humidity.

Today we spend the day at sea, while sailing from Key West to Belize. Blue skies galore and sun streaming on the decks. It was a beautiful day at sea.

My day was filled with paperwork. While the Chief Officer and the Chief Engineer are busy with the yearly inspections, I am already halfway up the Trans canal to Alaska. It seems that the reporting requirements get more extensive each year. Every port and every country is developing their own pre reporting requirements and of course nothing is standard. The USA wants this, Mexico wants that and Canada wants something else. Then, once you figured out what the FEDERAL requirements are, up pop local requirements, either by State or port. The office sends us all the information that we need, but it is up to the ship to have it prepared and sent off on time and as each port has a different reporting window and it takes a lot of puzzling and coordination to get it right.

The pursers department on board is in charge of preparing all this paperwork but relies on all three departments to provide the information it needs to submit. The chief engineer needs to know, what fuel to burn where (there are special requirements for the State of California) but is not a Navigator so he need the times and speeds for planning properly. The EO will take care of all the environmental issues that we have to comply with but relies on deck and engine for the proper information and guidance. The Captain’s job is then to try to manage all these interactions in the best way possible so that the most get accomplished in the least amount of time. Thus I am already sailing past the California Coast with reviewing what has been done, what still needs to be done and what has to be remembered for enroute. Once I make it (on the computer) to Vancouver I will start my Alaska cruise in the same way.

The hotel department is busy with rolling out the As You Wish dining concept. It has been rolled out ship by ship all over the fleet and now it is our turn. We had trainers on board for the dining room stewards, as the mechanics of how it works are different compared with the old system. With two fixed sittings, the tables would be set in one go, first before the first sitting would start and then again in between the two sittings for the second sitting. Now that the dining room period of service is more fluid, tables have to be set more quickly and in between guests coming in, so the dynamics of the dining room operation is changing and also dining room stewards will move around more between sections.

The way it works now is as follows: The upper level of the dining room has the fixed sitting, at 17.45 and 20.00 hrs. If you like a set time, you can reserve that when booking your ticket. The earlier you book a cruise, the better chance you stand that your preferred sitting and table have not been taken yet.

The Lower dining room is the open sitting, which start at 17.15 hrs. and the doors close at 21.00 hrs. You will be seated at the first available table. If you want a specific table, (for two, four six or eight) you can reserve that during the day, for that SAME day evening. If you do not book and find on arrival that a table of your liking is not free yet, you have the option to either be seated at the first available table or you will get a beeper and the Dining room manager will beep you as soon as that table is available.

Tomorrow we will be in Belize and it looks like another sunny day.

We docked slightly late in Key West. It is a very tight schedule from Tampa to Key West and I had to go slow for most of the time through Tampa bay. In the beginning because of the reduced visibility caused by the rain and later because of passing ships. The latter required us to slow down as you can only pass opposing ships, especially the bigger ones at certain points in the channel. That delay would have meant that we could have docked about 15 minutes behind schedule. Next was an issue with the manning of the aft lines boat for the docking in Key West and that cost us another 15 minutes.

The rain we had on Tampa departure moved over Key West around 3 am. in the morning so by the time we arrived, it was sunny and dry but still quite windy. That wind died away later in the afternoon and by 3 pm. it was a very very pleasant afternoon.

We were docked at the Navy pier today, which is the farthest pier out from town. Again the pecking order is in place. Ships that call on a weekly basis get the pier closest to port and then it goes from there. So we had the Carnival Celebration at the downtown Mallory dock and the Carnival liberty at the B pier, leaving us with the Navy pier. As it is the navy pier, nobody is allowed to walk around there thus there is a tram service to take the guests from the ship to the gate and back. It being a navy dock means there is most of the time something of interest to see from the forces and so it was also this time.

There was an American navy ship docked across from us taking on fuel. That ship had been involved in anti drug operations in the Caribbean. All over the south Caribbean there are NATO and USCG ships patrolling the sea ways and trying to catch fast boats or intercept small airplanes who are involved in drug smuggling. Lately they have been quite successful and all their – drug- catches are then delivered to this particular navy ship that transports the drugs to Key West. Once ashore the illegal substances are destroyed. According to the pilot this time several tons were brought ashore with a street value that ran into the hundreds of millions.

Another ship in port was the Louise Chouest. This is not a Navy ship but a science vessel that is affiliated to the navy. This ship has been conducting under water experiments and
exercises of the coast from Key West for a long time and yesterday we saw it working together with a big navy submarine.

Especially for people who come from the interior of the USA, this is most of the time of interest as one does not see much navy activity on the prairie; in same way as one seldom sees a cowboy on the high seas.

Both Carnival ships left ahead of us and as they had to swing around for open sea right of the Veendam’s portside bow, that was also something of interest. We left at 6pm. and after swinging around in the basin sailed for open sea. Tomorrow will be a nice day at sea, before we arrive in Belize on Wednesday.

After our windy arrival, we had a dry morning in Tampa followed by a rainy afternoon. Apart from having our daily guest turn-over and stores loading we also had the bi-annual USPH inspection. Each cruise ship that calls at an USA port gets inspected twice a year by officials from the Department of United States Public Health. USPH is part of the larger CDC which basically looks after the National Health of the USA. These are also the officers who investigate outbreaks of NLV or the Noro virus on the ships and therefore it is not always possible for them to inspect each ship every six months. With the fact that the Veendam had spent the summer in Europe, our last inspection had been over a year ago.

Normally two officers board the ship and the inspection takes all day. Everything that relates to Food, Drink and Health is carefully inspected. All kitchens, store rooms, bars, pantries, swimming pool treatment rooms, mess rooms, restaurants and the hospital are visited. All logs are carefully scrutinized for the period of the six past months as these logs will indicate that we also conform to the USPH rules on a daily basis. The crew on board gets extensive training in these procedures and as the USPH manual runs into about 300 pages, there is a lot to learn. The manual gives very detailed requirements for each procedure that takes place on board.

When things are not in order, points are deducted from the total score. Maximum is 100 points and the fail level is 86 points. Scoring less then 86 points does not necessarily mean that a ship is unhealthy but that those on board are certainly not following the best practices of the USPH policies and thus opening themselves up to danger.

When the ships are getting older, the number of points scored is slowly going down. So brand new to fairly new ships can score the100. When the ships get older, there will be some cracked tiles, a dent in the wall or a piece of equipment that has malfunctioned on the day of the inspection. This has no influence on the Safety or the Health of the guest on board but as the requirements are so detailed, points are deducted. Those slightly older ships score normally between 95 to 97 points, when all is in good order ofcourse.

The Veendam scored 96 points this time, which is therefore a very good score for the age of the ship. For the crew it was a result to celebrate as all their hard work living up to the exacting USPH standards was rewarded. Also our Head office was pleased with the result.

The inspections are not over yet. This cruise we have the Dutch Port State Inspectors on board and a representative of Lloyds Register for the yearly safety inspection to renew all our ships certificates which form together the “passport of the ship” so we can sail anywhere we want to go.

It rained cats and dogs on departure from Tampa. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow in Key West. At least the weather forecast does indicate so.

The day started very nice with a lot of sunshine. The doom and gloom forecasted yesterday, with thunderstorms and all was nowhere to be seen. Thus the guests could enjoy a beautiful final day at sea.

As the weather had been so nice in the past few days in the middle Caribbean, the current that normally flows quite strongly under the coast of Cuba to the North West was now very weak and that meant that for part of the day I had to use five engines to maintain our schedule. If the trade winds are a bit stronger, then this current gives me an extra knot of free speed but this time it was sadly missing. Only when we came in the Gulf of Mexico, North of the Florida Keys, the regular current came back and pushed us nicely towards Tampa and off went engine number five again and we saved a bit more fuel.

I had set my ETA for Tampa Sea buoy for 01.45 am. what normally means that the ship is then docked by 05.45, so Customs and Border Protection can start clearing the ship at 06.00. This was not to be in the end as by 10 pm. the frontal system that had been predicted to pass by in the early morning finally came over the ship. It brought torrential rains and wind gusts of up to 50 knots which is about 60 land miles per hour. Luckily the wind was straight on the bow so the ship did not list as this can affect the stage show and it does not look very good to have the dancing ladies glide over the stage from one side to the other, or wheel chairs suddenly taking off by themselves. The passing of the frontal system took about 45 minutes and it will have at least pleased the chief officer as it washed all the salt of his paintwork. At a certain moment we could not see more than 100 feet in the rain. Thank God that the Veendam has state of the art radars. But it did slow us down and thus my planned ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) started to slip away.

An un-expected and also very un-pleasant happening was that while we were approaching the Tampa Bay outer fairway, we had suddenly again 50 knots of wind blowing around the ship. This time nobody knew where it was coming from and when the pilot station inquired with the Meteo office, their inquiry was taken with total disbelief. However as the Carnival Legend, who was just behind us, reported the same they had to accept the observation for true. So just while I was lining up the ship into the fairway, the pilot station postponed pilotage until the winds died down. The Carnival Legend, who was still in open waters slowed down, while I had to sail the Veendam out of the channel again and drifted with the nose in the wind waiting for things to improve. It did so after about 30 minutes when the wind came down to about 20 knots and them the pilot boat felt comfortable to come alongside. With making good speed in the bay and having the flood current with us, we docked in the end just 30 minutes later then the planned arrival time, so it did not interfere that much with the clearance of the ship. By that time the wind had died down so completely that it was dead calm.

As this happened in the middle of the night, the guests, all asleep in their beds, did not notice it, although a few might have felt a slight listing of the ship when I turned the ship through the wind into the fairway. According to my colleague it has been a very windy season in Tampa and although I missed most of it, being on leave, I did get my little share of it during this night.

We arrived nicely on schedule at the South-West side of Grand Cayman. It was not so difficult to do that as the average speed to maintain was only 16 knots but with the high fuel prices of the moment (a ton of Heavy Fuel Oil costs over $ 500 and a ton of Marine Gas Oil, nearly a $ 1000,–) we try to make the distances on as few engines as possible. By finding a favorable current it might be possible to run on an engine less, or swap a 12 cylinder engine for an 8 cylinder one and save a considerable amount of fuel that way. The prevailing North westerly current above Jamaica gave the ship just enough extra speed so that I was able to save about 4 tons of fuel during the night and that was also $ 2000 saved. All reasons to be happy.

The rain did travel with us during the night and there was a very dense rain cloud above the island when we arrived. A rain cloud accompanied by a lot of wind and it shed a lot of water onto the island. You could not see the ships at anchor near the shore from more than a mile away. So I slowed the Veendam down and waited until the rain cloud had moved on to open sea and then proceeded to the anchorage. The remainder of the day was beautiful with sunshine and a gentle breeze. As we were the only ship in port, the guests had really nothing to complain about as there were no lines ashore and with the ship sitting almost on top of the dock there were no waiting lines for our tenders either.

Today the environmental officer returned to the ship and that meant that the ships staff was complete again after the yearly management conference happening. The chief engineer and I had managed to arrange the end of our leave periods to coincide with the start of the first conference so we just came on board after the first conference and our colleagues are going on leave after the second conference. For the chief officer it was more complicated as the conference fell in the middle of his sailing period so a fill-in chief officer came out to cover the gap. There has to be at all times a second master license on board and the current senior navigator does not have one yet, so he could not stand in. For the Hotel manager it is much simpler, he just goes and the Culinary Operations Manager takes over. For the Environmental Officer it works different again. This is a one person department and the company wants all EO’s ashore in one go so there is not really anybody to replace him, so his/her work is looked after by one of the other staff officers. Most of the work that the E.O does is compliance work and finalizing paperwork can wait a few days. The company likes all of them together ashore so it can be certain that each EO gets exactly the same refreshment training. As the whole group is now together again we can focus on the coming Trans canal cruise which will start in 9 days from now.

We raised the anchor in the late afternoon and then sailed from Grand Cayman on a North Westerly course towards the West point of Cuba. The coming weather is supposed to be a bit gloomy with thunder showers all over the place, due to a frontal system coming down from the Mississippi area. I will be looking for a favorable current again to see if I make the run on four engines instead of five.

Note: I have added my new employee of the month, the assistant Bo ‘sun under the ship section.