This morning I thought for a moment that my weather forecast of yesterday was going to be completely wrong. It was overcast and a Near Gale was blowing down the river estuary with fog patches swirling around the ship as we had forgotten to get the glass curtains back inside. I was on the forward deck setting up the wall for the Damage Control Drill of this morning and at one point the (empty) firehose with brass nozzle was just lifted off the deck. Not that amazing as the ship was sailing against this wind with 17 knots and thus the combined winds were close to hurricane force winds.  Ever tried to rig up a fire hose in a hurricane?  You can do it but you have to take precautions otherwise you feel like a jet skier skidding along behind a hose.

But by 9 am. the sun came out and the wind died down to almost nothing. A brief respite as tonight the wind is supposed to pick up again but I do not know how much we will notice it. The wind forecast is for S/W winds up to 25 knots. That is roughly in line with the NE/SW direction of the St. Lawrence River. This could mean that if the wind is blowing exactly in line with the river then the funnel effect might give us even more, but if it is just a little angle off the straight then we will hardly notice anything at all as we will be in the lee of the land.

This is what they had to face, 5 hoses blasted water out under about 5 bars of pressure.

With the wind dying down, I could with peace in my heart, open the hydrants and have 5 water hoses blasting water. Tests have proven that a 15 cm x 5 cm hole about 7 meters under water can result in an ingress of approx. 400 tons of water in an hour.  As I cannot make a hole in the hull, I have to simulate it with fire hoses, even if the jets coming out do not look that realistic it is the only way to get close to those amounts of water coming in.

The First Engineer guiding his men. The first hole is always the most difficult as you are still figuring out what to do with the rest.

The wooden wall that I have created does not really simulate a ships steel bulkhead but that is also not the purpose of the drill. The purpose is for the Engineers to think outside the box and come up with a solution to plug the holes with the Damage Control Equipment they have available. In real life each situation will also be different, so you cannot take a book and use chapter 7 to keep the ship from sinking. You have to write your own manual while assessing the situation.

Now there is a plan. The ingress is getting reduced and we just have to make sure it stays reduced.

The responsibility for Damage Control lies with the Engineers as they are technically trained and know about steel strengths, pipes, hoses, flanges and all related. This is a situation where the deck department can only be on standby and help when asked and needed. Normally the First Engineer takes the lead, assisted by other engineers but quite often a big role is played by machinists and carpenters who on a daily basis have to be creative to stop little holes in pipes and stop flooding’s without the fluid in the pipe being stopped. So it needs a combined effort of skills, creativity, insight, experience and leadership to figure out what in this particular situation works best.

Job Done. The water ingress is reduced to a mere trickle.

And so they did. Today the solution was a combination of Domes (we have those on board as part of the Damage Control Equipment), Towels, Pillows and Wood. The ingress of water does not have to be stopped completely; it just has to be reduced to such as extent that the ships pumps can handle it without problems. And so they did; and it worked and thus they did a very good job. I was impressed with the solution as the water came in this time at the edges of the wall and thus it was not easy to get it plugged with the regular equipment.

The complete Team, wet but happy about a job well done.

In the meantime the good ship Maasdam continued its journey upriver and all on the bridge will keep an eye on the weather. This evening we will embark two pilots at the pilot station of Escomins and then tomorrow morning at 07.00 we should be docked at Quebec.

Weather for tomorrow: Summertime. 26oC / 78oF with a gentle breeze in the mid afternoon and for the rest nearly wind still. Time for shorts and flip-flops.

I think summer has really arrived in the Canadian Maritimes. We have had sunshine since the cruise started and if the weather forecast is correct we will have sunshine all the way to Montreal. It will come with fog of course and the occasional thunder storm but that is the price you pay for nice weather when you are a sailor and when you are in this area. Thus with very nice weather we docked in Charlottetown. There was not much we could see of the town until we were there as the island was surrounded by a white and very low hanging curtain. But once alongside the air warmed up and we looked at a beautiful day. No wind at all and that was good for my tender practice. Although the sailors have to learn how to maneuver tenders in windy and rainy weather; but for initial training, the calmer the weather the better it is. If there is wind then it will push the boat one way or the other. No wind and the trainee can immediately see what effect his/her actions have on the direction and behavior of the boat.

We docked on river 1. where the cruise dock is located near the arrow. The black line is the course of the ship coming in from open sea. (Going out we use the same entrance/exit)

Even while it was nice weather the sailors were struggling with the tender today, courtesy of the current. We are docking in Charlotte town in the flow of one of the three rivers of the island; the three rivers, see one of my previous blogs, all meet just south of the harbor area. Today high water was at 09.55 in the morning and low water at 16.47 in the afternoon.  This means that around high water the current changes from flooding to ebbing. It is never exactly at the same time, as the water has to come to a standstill and then turn and that also does not necessarily mean that the water level changes from going from up to down at the same moment.

The tidal prediction for Charlottetown today. (Courtesy: www.tide-forecast.com)

Then when the tide has turned the current will slowly increase as the water starts to return faster and faster to the sea. Also that is not exactly predictable as it depends on the width of the channel, depth of the channel, obstructions in the channel or bends in the channel. While high water was predicted at 09.55, all of us in the tender could see that this published time was for somewhere down river as at the ship it happened at approx. 10.20.  Also the flow built up much faster than should have been the case. There is six hours between high and low, so normally the maximum current velocity is around half way. Say between 13.30 to 14.00 hrs.  But now it occurred one hour after high tide, we had 3 knots of ebb at 11.30 in the morning.  Half an hour later it already became less fast. Why that is ?, that is a 1000 dollar question as every port is different.

I finished the training class for Lifeboat Handlers yesterday and today 20 dining room stewards graduated with good results. They are now qualified to be assistants to the lifeboat commander when it comes to lowering and operating a lifeboat. For lifeboat commander they need another certificate and that course is only allowed to be given shore side and by specialized trainers who do nothing else but “teaching lifeboat”.

The sailors will have a written exam tomorrow to show that they also know the theoretical requirements and then they will be qualified Tender Operators. This might be the last time that I am giving this course as it seems to be the plan to go to a standard training course for all the brands under the Carnival Umbrella and  to give this course while the guys are still ashore in Djakarta and are attending our training school ms Nieuw Djakarta. Twice a hurrah from me as it means standardization and you get better focus when you set a complete week apart for it and don’t to have to do it between other work.

This photo is from February 2017 when we held a similar drill on the Zuiderdam resulting in some very wet Engineers.

Tomorrow we are at sea and in the morning we will have some fun. I am organizing a practical damage control drill. That is hard to do on a ship as you cannot flood the inside; so I built a wall on the outside deck and put 5 fire hoses behind it. We will see some very wet engineers no doubt.

Expected weather on the river estuary: low fifties Fahrenheit / around 10- 12 degrees Celsius, sunny and a gentle breeze from the south west.

Today was a really nice day in Sydney; our first call without a cold wind blowing and with the sun shining for most of the day. Our past calls were not that bad either but then it still felt more like a chilly spring than real cruising weather. But now it seems that summer is arriving in  Sydney as well. Certainly for the locals. The entertainers Sydney provides on the dock side in the afternoon for our guests were without coats so for them it must be summer.

I do not know much about whales, just enough to ensure that we on the ships can avoid them when we sail through what is really their habitat and not ours, but it seems that we see more and more whales in this area. I came to Alaska for the first time in 1982 and compared with then we see much more wildlife there now. Preservation is starting to pay off.  I have been coming to the St Lawrence since 1991 and then we did not see any wildlife at all; now it is also becoming much more frequent.  The real challenge for us in this area is that are many more species swimming around than on the Pacific side.  Makes it much harder to keep them apart. In the Gulf of Alaska and coastal waters you see Humpbacks and Orca’s or killer whales. There are other species but they are not very prevalent.

Now here in the St Lawrence estuary and the related waters we have at least 13 species which are all drawn in by the immense richness of fish in the river and the plankton in the coastal waters. According to the local website what should be out there are:  The Atlantic white side Dolphin (*), the Beluga (*) (all year around),  the Blue Whale, the Fin Whale (*), the harbor porpoise (*), the humpback whale (*) (I would be amazed if he wasn’t ), the Killer whale (*), the  Long finned Pilot whale, the Minke Whale (*), the North Atlantic Right Whale, the Northern Bottle nose whale (easily confused with the Beluga), the Sperm whale (*) and the White Beaked Dolphin.

Those with an (*) I have seen for sure. As a matter of fact we saw harbor porpoises this morning before we entered Sydney Harbor. For the rest you have to be more of an expert. Take the Beluga for example, they are sort of whitish but if the sun is under the wrong angle then they look similar to the Northern Bottle Nose Whale and the only difference you can then see is the dorsal fin on the back. The Northern Bottle Nose has a much bigger one than the Beluga.

The Beluga Whale we see very often near Saguenay fjord just up the St. Lawrence River. And when I see them, then I am confident enough to make an announcement to the guests, as most of the time they stay with the ship for a while. Nothing is more frustrating than to make an announcement and by the time the guests have made it to the deck, the wild life is gone. Similar to Humpback Whales, the Beluga’s “don’t run away that fast”. It seems that they are very curious so they tend to hang around a bit to find out what that big blue thing is that is swimming through their pond.

The fact that we see more and more of them does not mean that they are not endangered animals anymore. Far from that but it seems to me that they are starting to re-cuperate slowly but steadily. But we have still a long road to go until we reach the numbers before the large scale whaling started in the 18^th. Century. Then we have a new challenge out there caused by ourselves, the big Plastic Garbage patch. One in the mid-Atlantic and one in the mid Pacific. I am still waiting for an inventor out there who comes up with an industrial sized vacuum cleaner and just sucks all that stuff out of the Ocean. Question is then, were do we put something like a 100 million ton of plastic particles?

I am just happy that our guests can see more and more of the wildlife out there. And if we can bring them closer with a ship then that is very gratifying. We on the ships just have to ensure that we respect their habitat and cause as little interruption as possible. After all, they were there a long time before us.

For those of you who are interested: http://baleinesendirect.org/en/whales-of-the-st-lawrence/

The three small drawings also came from this website.

Tomorrow we are in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and it is supposed to another sunny day, with little wind. Temperatures in the mid 50’s or around 13oC.

Nova Scotia lived up to its reputation again as the captain had to sound the horn every two minutes to let the world know the Maasdam was around and sailing through the fog. As we all now know it normally has a positive end result; it means nice weather in the next port. And yes by the time we came in the white curtain had gone and we could also see the lone piper on the dock and not just hear him.

An overview of Halifax Passenger Terminal. If there is only one ship in then we call it Pier 21 and we dock in the middle. Pier 21 is also the immigration museum of Canada. (Photo courtesy Halifax Authorities)

Sometimes I think that Halifax is more Scottish than Scotland itself. They always have a bag pipe player on arrival and often a larger group on departure.   I stress the word always, as one during one call a number of years ago, the bag piper had broken or sprained his leg or foot and thus he serenaded us from a wheel chair. I did not know you could play the pipes from a wheelchair but he did and he produced the same amount of noise sitting down, as he would have done standing up. I love bag pipes and Scotland is one of my favorite countries to visit, but I prefer Bag pipe music late afternoon with a pint in my hand instead of early in the morning while drinking my first cup of tea.

I was in the naughty book today as I forget to clock in my working hours. Normally I do that first thing in the morning at 06.30 but this time I got distracted by exam papers and I completely forgot. Clocking in my hours might need some explanation as it is something you relate more to a factory than to a cruise ship. But since a number of years, everybody who works on board has to log their daily hours. From the Captain, to the Dining room waiter, to the Ships Cast, who do not work more than two shows a week and a bit of rehearsing.

We have a maritime law called MLC 2006, the Maritime Labor Convention agreed upon by most seafaring countries in 2006. This law sets rules about the quality of crew quarters, food, payment, travel but also about how many hours you are allowed to work. As with every sea related law it was instigated because something went wrong. Titanic gave us Solas so the ships are much safer now, and unscrupulous ships owners caused MLC 2006 because there were collisions due to fatigue and on some ships they found living conditions which were worse than the poor houses described by Charles Dickens.

To verify that all ships owners are behaving themselves, each company is required to keep records of the working hours of their crew. Those working hours have to be filled out by the crew members and then filed for future verification. Each company and ship is subject to regular auditing by Lloyds, by Flag State or during a Port State inspection. Holland America has a computerized system for this, with terminals in crew areas for those who do not have their own computer. Officers who are normally hooked up to the ships intranet can do it from their office. As I live in a passenger cabin, I have to make the trek down to the crew corridor on B deck and today I forgot. Tomorrow morning I will receive a nasty message from our 3^rd officer administration telling me, not to do it again; otherwise the captain will take disciplinary action.

We are allowed to work 13 hours a day with a maximum of 91 hours a week. That is the law. A Holland America Line day has 10 hours maximum. Within each 24 hours, there shall be one rest period of 6 hours and one of 4 hours, un-interrupted. My working day is normally around 11 to 12 hours a day and most of the time   06.30 – 08.00 then 08.30 – 11.30 then 12.30 – 17.30 and the  18.30 – 20.00. I am in compliance because I then have an unbroken rest period from 20.00 – 06.30 which is 10.5 hours, so I do not need to comply with the 6 and 4 rule.  If the company requires you to make more hours in a day, then more free time has to be given the next day to make up for it and if that is not possible than the work load has to be reduced.  The captain supervises this all and takes action if there is somebody who does not follow the rules.  If I forget to clock my hours a 2nd time, then he might have to call me in and ask what is going on…………………………………..

Tomorrow we are in Sydney, arriving there late in the morning for what is supposed to be another beautiful day. Chilly, 54oF / 12oC, but sunny and with very little wind. More messing around with boats is being called for.

We had a light air (wind force 1) when we arrived and that went later down to wind force zero, what we call Calm of Wind. So I was a very happy camper as it was perfect weather to train the 20 dining room stewards in lifeboat handling. So we happily pottered around the ms Maasdam with lifeboat 12 carrying out various maneuvers. When all goes well with the next training, they will all receive an official certificate saying that they are now qualified Lifeboat Handlers.

The Beautiful and Elegant ms Maasdam at anchor in Bar Harbor.

It was also a special day for me, as this was the first time in 37 years that I set foot ashore in Bar Harbor. The locals were of course suitably impressed and everything came to a grinding halt. ….. Not everything, basically only the cars and they were stopping for the traffic lights. There is a very nice 2^nd hand book shop in town, but luckily I went without money and thus I was not tempted.

Anybody tempted to move to Bar Harbor ?? There is plenty of work.

I was more tempted to sign up as Ice Cream attendant. Labor was sought by means of a sign at the entrance of the boat landing and someone who is advertising on a Vodka sign for ice cream cannot be a bad person. But it shows how much cruise ships add to the economy.

Although the Samantha looks bigger she can only carry 69 guests while a tender can carry a 100 when in tender service.

We were running a tender service as usual, with our ships tenders and with one shore tender the Samantha, which is otherwise used for Lobster fishing tours.  I suppose a day of steady income is more worthwhile than waiting for customers to show up or not.  I grabbed the chance to go ashore with the Samantha, looked around, and then come back with a ships tender, to see if the operation was in line with all our companies’ standards and requirements.  I always find something but it is of course better that I find it than the auditors find it and put a mark against the ship. It is part of my job to minimalize this where possible.

The little coastal cruise ship the Independence of American Cruise Lines was in port again and she is so small that she can dock against the largest pier in the port. There is a larger pier, the ferry dock, but it is no longer in use and its future is rather vague; although one of the options is to convert it into a cruise terminal. In the past a ferry would sail from here to Halifax and thus it has all the immigration facilities already available for a ship coming in from Canada. We were coming from Boston so today so we did not need to be inspected by CBP.

The first view of Bar Harbor when coming into port. The tides can be considerable here and thus the long ramps and floating docks.

Bar Harbor turned out to be a very nice little town and would indeed be perfect if we could dock there. Now the need for tender service takes a little bit of the edge off the whole happening as guests have to wait to go ashore and come back when the tender is ready.

The four Mast Schooner the Magaret Todd, docked in the port between sightseeing trips.

Another ship in port is the schooner called the Margaret Todd. This schooner sails three sightseeing trips a day from Bar Harbor through the bay. She was built in 1998 as a purpose built sightseeing vessel with four masts. Because she was purposely constructed it makes it possible for her to sail with the same speed, whether there is wind or not. Today there was no wind and she still happily sailed around the Bay. Last week there was wind and she happily sailed full speed against it. Having an engine on a real windjammer somewhat takes the edge off things a little bit but it is still a very nice way to get acquainted with a four mast schooner of which there were so many in the old days. I wonder where the name comes from as according to Wikipedia there is a Margaret golfer, a Margaret Scottish writer and doctor and a Margaret American Film actress. (Or maybe it is just the mother in law of the owner……….)

As usual we sailed late from Bar Harbor as the guests without exception all try to get back with the last tender. And as our tenders do not increase in capacity during the day, that does not work and so we always need to make a few tender trips after the deadline of 14.30 hrs. Tonight we will sail under the coast of Nova Scotia and we should be docked by 08.00 tomorrow morning in Halifax. The weather looks good again, slightly chillier then today 13oC / 56oF, but again with little wind and that is what I need to continue with the boat handling classes.

Our turn around call took place during a very nice day. The sun was shining and it was not too warm. If there is no huffing and puffing because of the warmth, then that is already a good start of the cruise. We are having a sold out cruise again with now also the 4 berth cabins filled. As a result we have almost a 100 guests more on board than what we consider normally capacity: all lower beds filled. Club HAL is going to be busy this cruise.

Mr. Adriaan Gips. Was involved with the company from the turn of the century until after the 2nd. world war.

I was a man with a mission today. Recently I was contacted by a family from Hannover (North of Boston, not in Germany) who advised they had in their possession a Barometer. According to family lore this barometer was given by Holland America Line to one of its Board of Directors members Mr. Adriaan Gips, who was also the man who basically ran the Holland America Line and half of the Dutch Merchant fleet from New York during the 2^nd world war. Mr. Gips passed away a long time ago but the Barometer remained in the family. Now the current owner is entering the twilight of her life and wondered if it would be interesting if it could be preserved for future generations by one of the museums in Holland.  For it to be of interest depends if there is a story to it.  Thus I went to have a look.

I was collected from the ship at 08.00 hrs. by the son and daughter in law of the current owner and it took more than two hours to get there. As a Dutchman I am still amazed how little American people think about spending time in the car. From my old home in Holland, I could make it in two hours to Antwerp and in three hours to the outskirts of Paris. Now driving for two hours and I was barely outside the Boston. (And they had to take me back again as well) What was I expecting a nice barometer on a board with maybe an inscription or another indication indicating a gift by the Holland Amerika Lijn.

The current owner is 95 years old and still doing very well. I am still looking a bit shocked as I had only just seen the Barometer for the first time.

What did I find, was a probably early 19^th century high quality barometer which would have hung in a well to do house or a shipping office. I was quite shocked, then mightily impressed and then puzzled. I do not know what age the barometer exactly is, apart from somewhere after 1795 to 1840 but it predates the company by a lot of years.  So now we have a puzzle:

1. Did the HAL buy the barometer as an expensive retirement present for Mr. Gips?
2. Did Mr. Gips have it all his life and bought it himself sometime or does go back even further as his predecessors were sailors?
3. Did it come from another shipping company Mr. Gips was involved in?

The text is in old Dutch grammar. Writing Orkaan =Hurricane still with a C as Orcaan,

I have no idea what to think of this as there is no documentation as of yet. First step is now to contact the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam to get the expertise from the curators and also reach out to all the historians and shipping researchers as they might have somewhere a photo of the retirement party of Mr. Gips and with a bit of luck the present might be on the photo.  It is going to be an interesting journey and I have no way of knowing where it will end. I hope there might be a reader among you who has a contact somewhere or knows somebody who has some insight.

As traffic was not too bad in Boston today I made it back timely to the ship. Next call Boston for the Maasdam on 17 of June it is going to be mayhem as the Tall Ships are coming in. I will not see this as I will be looking at Glaciers by that time in Alaska. But Captain van Dreumel from the Maasdam and Captain O’Driscoll from the Veendam are already making contingency plans in case Shore operations cannot get all the buses in on time in the afternoon.

Today all the buses were on time and thus the ship sailed on time and we are on the way back to Bar Harbor where we were yesterday.  The weather looks very good. 18oC / 65oF partly cloudy and little wind. It might be time to start messing around with boats again.

Southbound coming from Halifax we try to be as early as possible at Bar Harbor as the whole ship has to go through USA immigration. Which means 5 or 6 CBP officers come on board to clear all the guests for entry into the USA. Because every port has its own rules and the officers are not bound by our arrival time, we can just hope that they come on board as early as possible and thus we are there as early as possible. In Bar Harbor the officials insist to come to the ship with the agent’s boats so we cannot send one of our own tenders to use as their ferry.  The whole process is of course a National Requirement and we organize things as best as we can. For the guest it is an inconvenience as they have to wait until they have been seen by the CPB officers before they can go ashore. Only then can they obtain a tender ticket and proceed to the gangway. To speed things up as much as possible we also hire a shore tender to increase the frequency of the round trips. There is only one in Bar Harbor and that is thus as much as we can do. If we would not call at Bar Harbor then the whole happening would have to take place in Boston. Our sister ship is already doing that. The Veendam is currently sailing a number of Bermuda cruises and on return from a foreign port has immigration in Boston. As there is finite CBP officers available (The airport also has to be manned) two ships in port would mean a split over two ships. Thus this is not such a bad solution. At least everybody can run off the ship tomorrow to catch a plane and there will be no delays in the flow.

We were the only ship in port and thus had the town to ourselves. For the ships operation it means something else; this is lobster country and this is where we stock up fresh lobster. Fished straight out of the Bay we are anchoring in. We could almost do it ourselves by emptying the lobsterpots which we get in our anchor on occasion. Normally this lobster goes fresh on the table. It is both on the menu in the dining room as well as in the Lido. I am not a wild favorite of lobster but according to the experts (and we have a lot of them on board) the Lido is the better option as you can get more without re-ordering. It beats me why the guests do not ask for a 2^nd portion if they want to, you do not have to pay for it. With Holland America you can order as much as you want (caviar excepted) and the dining room steward will not mind at all to run to the kitchen for a second helping. I am normally a moderate eater but if I can get my hands in Middle America on Gamba’s (big shrimp in local spicy sauce) then I also go for a few helpings. Sometimes the ship gets them on board in Corinto.

A shot from my database. As seen from the Willemstad Matthew dock. The floating market is to the far left where the gap is in the sea wall.

While on the food topic, Holland America has since some time made it a principle of their culinary activities to source as much food locally as possible. And then I do not mean lettuce or something as the Executive Chef cannot walk to the market and buy lettuce for 2000 people on board. But for delicacies such as local fish, native fruits and special vegetables it is certainly done. Although I am normally occupied in a different way, I saw one from the ship the Exe. Chef indeed at the local market. I was standing on the sb. Bridge wing while docked in Willemstad, just inside the floating bridge and I saw something white bobbing up and down along the pier where they have the floating market. The use of binoculars then revealed I did not see the chef, I just saw his white tall cooks head among a sea of riotous colors of the bunting on the boats and the local dresses worn by the ladies shopping.  If Holland America ever does a photo shoot then that would be a great opportunity as he really stood out.

Bar Harbor turned out to be a nice day with only a chilly wind picking up in the late afternoon. Now we are on the way to Boston where we should be docked by 7 am. The Veendam will already be there and this time the plan is for the Maasdam to dock nose out, so the ships will be stern to stern.

Weather for tomorrow , mainly overcast with temperatures in the low sixties or 17 o Celcius and a gentle breeze.

As was expected we had to pay for the nice weather. Halifax played hard to find again by hiding behind a thick white curtain. Even when we approached the dock visibility was not that great. It took this morning until quarter past eleven before we could see the whole harbor again.  Then for the remainder of the day it remained sunny and that brings a foreboding for more “White curtain” weather tonight.  The weather forecast for Bar Harbor claims good visibility; at least all day in the port so hopefully the weather gurus have it right. There is a cold front coming over and it is not always easy to estimate the speed with which it moves.  We are at anchor tomorrow and reduced visibility does not make a tender service impossible, but it certainly severely hampers it. We need officers on all the tenders and it reduces the pace of the operation as we cannot rely on “seeing” what the intentions are of everybody going in and out the harbor. Quite often the traffic involves people whose nautical knowledge is somewhat limited.  But at least there is no forecast of rain.

Another part of my (it seems ever expanding) scope of work is monitoring new deck officers. I hold as many school classes with new joining officers as possible but I still cannot catch them all. So I try to find them while going around the fleet on my normal visiting cycle. On the bridge everybody is under close scrutiny of the Captain and staff Captain but they cannot see and monitor what happens on the Foc’sle and the stern.  When they are brand new to the job, they can luckily rely on the skills of the Bo ‘sun and the Asst. Bo ‘sun but there is a thin but important border line between using their experience and routine and to let them dictate what is happening.

It is not easy if you start out as a new officer and you come across a Bo ‘sun who has been around since the Titanic and has seen it all and done it all. Still he knows that you are in charge but he also knows that you do not have any experience yet. Thus he is willing to help and teach but he expects respect in return. Not all officers come from a background where respect for “the elders” has been ingrained in the “growing up experience” and then things can become strained. Here I can help as it only takes a few tricks and a bit of good attitude to get the job done in a safe, efficient and pleasant way.

Everything starts with a good briefing. Who does what, where do the ropes go and especially……………when.

Thus I observe, give little hints and sometimes raise my eye brows to let the sailors laugh when the “newness” of the officer shines out of every pore in his /her body. Standing at Stations, that is supervising the mooring ropes fore and aft, or the anchor procedure can be described in one sentence: being extremely busy by doing nothing. At least nothing physical. With that I mean you supervise and if you have briefed the team well then the only thing you have to do is to monitor the sequence that you have set in motion with your briefing and for the rest relay the orders and words of wisdom that come from the bridge.  One challenge is that everybody tends to keep an eye on the ropes and where they are going ashore and how they are going ashore. Important otherwise the ship does not get tied up; but as important is what happens behind you on deck. So you have to learn to use the eyes in the front of your head and to be able to shift them to the back of your head to see it all.

Everything has its critical moments. One of them is the moment when the ropes get their final adjustment on the mooring drums and capstans. Go slow, one rope at the time and one person should always watch.

With experience comes the prediction of what should happen during each sequence on deck and then you start to look for anomalies in that sequence. It can be small things: why is the guy not wearing a helmet, why is he standing there at this moment and is he not somewhere else where it makes more sense. Why is he fussing around with a rope as that rope has never been used before during this evolution. Lesson 1, is everything starts with a good briefing. Today that was even more important as giving a mooring line ashore before 08.00 costs several thousands of dollars in linesmen overtime. Thus the Officer has to be eagle eyed to make sure that none of the sailors gets impatient and cannot wait for a few minutes.

Today the officer forward solved the issue in a very simple way. Only one sailor was assigned to throw the first line ashore and he was to stay in permanent eye contact with the officer himself. Worked very well and the linesmen did not get any extra money today.

Tomorrow we are in Bar Harbor 60oF / 15.5 oC. partly cloudy skies. Good weather for visiting Bar Harbor. Keeping my fingers crossed that we can see the place on arrival.

For a navigator Sydney is one of the more interesting ports as it offers various number of items that can makes us excited. Thus when the captain assigns one of the navigation officers to do the docking then it gives him or her, from approach to dock, a large number of various challenges to deal with. Quite often the pilot happily helps out by stepping aside and acts as a mentor and advisor instead bringing the ship in himself or herself. When the weather is nice, then Sydney is a good practice port, as it is not too simple but there is also sufficient room – read time – for the Master to carry out corrective action before a real critical situation develops.

So how does this go?

Normally the officer is already conning, which means he/she is monitoring the route of the vessel and checks if it is staying on the agreed course. The Assistant of the Watch is calling the pilot to confirm the arrival time and prepares the ship for arrival.  About 15 minutes before the pilot station the Bridge goes to RED manning. This means all the people involved are there (Captain, Staff Captain, Officer of the Watch, Assistant Officer of the Watch, Administrator and two quartermasters.) The Captain advises how he wants things to be done, although everything was already discussed the day before during the Bridge Resource Management Meeting, but things change.  Also on all the computers in the ship a red screen appears, indicating: DO NOT CALL THE BRIDGE ANYMORE. (Unless there is a fire of course)

The Officer keeps conning and the Captain takes on a supervisory role unless he assigns that to the Staff Captain so he can help the Officer with the docking. First step is now to slow down for the pilot boat and to make a lee so the pilot can safely step on board. This means adjusting the controls of the propellers to the speed needed and still keep an eye on the traffic around the ship. (This morning the local ferry came at the same time and that can create a distraction if one is not careful)

A: The pilot Station. B: Sailing in on the Leading Lights. C: Turning Area. D: Passing the corner and going sideways to the dock.

Once the pilot is on board and there is agreement that the Officer can continue, he/she has to bring the ship into the Leading Lights of the Sydney Harbor Entrance and make the ship stay on it. The speed goes up again to an average that is acceptable to the Captain and the Pilot. And then all happily sail into the Fjord. Which has a bend in it about halfway in?  Now the tricky part starts. Slowing down; as at the end of the Fjord the ship has to stop, swing around and go astern to the berth.   Now the Officer can show his skills and ships knowledge in understanding of how long it takes for the ship to come to a standstill as a balance has to be found between not going too slow (and  getting there with not much delay) and not going too fast and overshooting (and then having to back up again)

C: The turning Basin, as you can see the ship while going sternways had to sail under an angle around point D.  Once at D, the stern can be brought to the dock and the bow can come in once clear of the finger pier.  (Note the blue shed has since been demolished)

Once at the location for swinging around, the Officer has to make a decision. First swing around and then move to the Bridge wing for the astern maneuver or go to the bridge wing first and make the turn from there. This involves transferring the controls from the center of the bridge (the conning station) to Starboard or Portside wing (the docking station). Once the ship goes astern you have to be on the wing of the side the ship will dock on, to retain situational awareness and to judge the safe distances to the buoys and the rocks. The Maasdam has to make an 180o turn here before going astern. Pushing the bow and stern thruster is something everybody can do; the challenge is to swing with a fair rate of turn but to stop that swing right on the course needed for going sternways to the dock. And that is not easy, as there is always a little bit of wind and a little bit of current.

Once the ship has been lined up, astern power can be applied, and the ship goes towards the berth. Now the Officer steers with the Stern Thruster and uses the Bow Thruster to adjust the angle towards the dock. Final step is then to stop on time and go sideways until the ship is square against the dock. If all goes well, the whole evolution from pilot to dock can be done in an hour. Normally we schedule 1.5 hrs. from pilot station to the dock so we have extra time on our hands in case something happens. And as we are messing around with boats……….. and the Maasdam is a big boat and there is always something that happens. May it be sailing boats, a wind gust, a ferry going in or out, or the agent who wants the gangway in a slightly different location.

We had a chilly but sunny day in Sydney where the temperatures managed to get to 16oC / 61oF, but there was a cold wind blowing from the South East. Tomorrow we are in Halifax and there we are supposed to have rain in the early more and an overcast day for the rest.

It turned out to be a very nice day, not to say a gorgeous day. While approaching the port, the visibility suddenly reduced but as it was close to the port, it did not last for a long time. The land warms up quicker than the sea and thus flog and haze burns off quite fast. And that meant that the guests would have a great day in Charlottetown. It might also mean that the captain is paying the price for it tonight because warmer air will this evening start to cool down over colder water and that creates condensation and vapor clouds.

Today my school class of sailors started practical tender driving lessons. For all seven of them it was the first time they touched the controls of a Tender. Thus far they had only been helpers during tender service but now they could have a go at it themselves. It is not much different from your first driving lesson, except there are two gas pedals as a tender has two engines.  I prefer to start them fresh, from zero so to say, because then I can teach them the basics without them having taken on bad routines from the more experienced Tender Drivers.  Such as using more power than needed.

Before you are allowed to become a Tender Driver, Holland America sets quite a high standard to start with. First of all only Sailors AB or higher can be a tender driver. (Higher ranks are Storekeeper, Quartermaster or Bo’sun). The lower rank of Sailor OS (Ordinary Sailor) cannot follow the course as we consider that a rank to have insufficient experience. Before you can make Sailor AB (Able Bodied Sailor) you have to have proficiency in lifeboat handling and operating. This is a certificate which can only be obtained during a seven day training course on the shore side and is also required for all (Hotel) Officers and Crew who might be selected as Lifeboat Commander.  When you are an established AB, then the company can apply for a C.O.C with the Flag state. In this case the Dutch Government as we fly the Dutch Flag.  If an AB has a C.O.C (Certificate of Competence) then he (we do not have female sailors yet) is also allowed to be helmsman and look-out on the bridge. Once all that is complied with we start considering a Sailor AB for Tender Operator.

As usual they start out with being a Tender helper so they get the feeling for the routine operation of a ships tender service. When the Bo ‘sun has formed a positive opinion about the sailor’s capability, then he goes on the list as a potential Tender Operator.  The tender operator course which Holland America has developed has to be & is approved by the Flag State again to ensure that what is taught is of a high enough standard so it will ensure the safety of the Tender and the Guests on board. This training course can be given on board by a Senior Officer with sufficient experience.  That is not always easy to comply with as some senior officers never come across a situation where the Tender Driver Course is needed to be given.  Or if there is one, then he/she might not be able to make time available to run a course as the deck officers are already standing 8 hour watches and there is only 10 hours in a day.  If the need is high, then I am normally approached, when I come for a visit. And I do not mind doing it as there is nothing nicer than messing around with Boats.

The harbor Hyppo is to the right. It is what the military call a “Duck”. In the background either the Maasdam or the Veendam.

So today, we sailed around the port of Charlotte town to get the first feeling of how to maneuver a tender. First steps are power and rudder control and to learn to use both in absolute minimum setting. The better control you have and the more time you have to make up your mind, the less chance of bumping into anything. And if you do bump into something, the tender –fender will prevent damage if you do not go too fast. Not much happens in Charlottetown in general, so what was afloat today came out to see us. USCG, Sport fishers and the local sightseeing Harbour tour: the Harbour Hyppo. This is an amphibious vehicle which does part city tour and part harbor tour. So today they had some extra excitement to add to their tour as we were all over the place and each time in their way. Or maybe they were in our way as the driver/skipper came close to include us in the tour.

And the Duck in the water. As this photo is dated, I know it is the ms Veendam with yours truly at the helm in 2007. (photo courtesy  Hippo tours in Charlotte town)

Tomorrow we are in Sydney and then it is the turn for the dining room stewards who are studying for the Lifeboat handler course, so we will lower a lifeboat which only has one engine.

Weather for tomorrow very nice (at least for the guests), 16oC / 61oF, partly cloudy and very little wind. I would not be amazed if the captain had to show off his whistle – button – pushing – skills again due to extreme low hanging clouds.