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01 March 2017; Willemstad, Curacao.

March 2, 2017 / Captain Albert / 0 Comments

Today, our next stop, after Aruba is visiting Willemstad located on Curacao. This is the C in the Dutch A,B,C Islands. So we have called at the A = Aruba but we will not call at the B = Bonaire. I believe the Oosterdam is making a cruise where it calls at all three, in the order B,C,A. Still two out of three is not bad and as Willemstad is distinctively different than Aruba it is a good port to call at to keep the cruise exciting. Willemstad was conquered by the Dutch in the ancient past because it had a deep natural harbor inside the island and a fairly narrow opening to get to it. From there the Dutch ships could control (and harass) anything that was coming or going from the south American coast. That narrow opening made it easy to defend, while a fleet was inside, and for that purpose two fortifications were built on both sides of the “Schottegat” The garrison was stationed at the eastern side and thus that has the largest fort. There is now a big hotel standing right on top of it.

Still to get in and out was and is not so simple. A sometimes very strong cross current runs from the East to the West right under the entrance. So although the sailing ships were a lot smaller than the current ships, they were also a lot slower and would take much more time to get in. The slower you are, the more time the current has to push you. And push you to a location you really do not want to go to.

Zuiderdam at its dock with the pontoon – pedestrian bridge closed

Captains still have to grapple with that challenge and that makes Willemstad a port we like and we hate, at least if we have to dock inside. We all love Curacao because of what it has to offer but we do not like to sail into the port, especially not if we have to dock right at the entrance after the pontoon bridge. The whole maneuver then looks a bit as if you drive with 20 miles an hour into your garage and rely on pulling the hand brake at the right moment so you do not hit the back wall. Can be done but it is tricky and you need the skills to pull it off.

The Zuiderdam moving to the middle on departure. In the back the Koningin Juliana bridge. they only way for motorised traffic to get from one side to the other.

Today was good for the guests as we were going inside. The outside –mega liner- pier was allocated to the Adventure of the Seas which is indeed much more of a mega liner than we are. Carrying more than double the number of guests. So we docked inside at the Otrabanda side of the town. Although the guests still have to walk over the pontoon bridge it is a lot shorter than walking all the way from the Mega Pier. If you take a taxi it does not matter as the pontoon bridge is a pedestrian bridge so the taxi still has to make a 10 minute detour over the bridge to the other side.

ms Zuiderdam making stern way out of the port and speeding up to 8 knots to counter the cross current.

Because the Zuiderdam is still a big ship, it departs stern out and that gives another challenge. In the port there are no issues but as soon as you push the stern out of the entrance it is caught by this cross current of at least 2 knots and it starts pushing you very quickly to where you really do not want to go. So if the ship leaves with a backing out maneuver, it will try to get as close as possible to the East side and then start making speed astern. The Zuiderdam managed 6 knots by the time she came outside and was clear of everything before the current could get a good grip. Still we were set about 1.8 knots to the west while doing so.

Safely back in open waters with the pilot boat alongside to collect the pilot.

That also gives the strange situation that the pilot boat comes alongside to take off the pilot while the ship is going astern and not forward. In the old days when the ships did not have that much astern and sideways power, you would sail all the way in, turn in the St.Annabaai and then make speed while sailing out. Sometimes that looked as a “Jack in the Box” suddenly popping out.

As this is so spectacular to watch, the locals and well informed tourists make sure they are all sitting at the little terraces on both sides of the port entrance to see a blue hulled apartment building first towering over them and then gathering momentum to race into open waters.

Tomorrow we are at sea and then we have a call at Cartagena, Colombia. This will be a shore excursion stop for half day tours, so we will dock at 05.30 in the morning and then depart again at 13.00 hrs. As we are touching with this call in South America and the Rain Forest is very close by we might get a few showers while on the way and while being there. But in this area the rain is warm, so it is not a big deal.

Note: All the photos were submitted via Captain Bart Vaartjes, who received them from Jimmy Plug an ex Holland America Line 2nd officer. He now works for a dredging company and was observing the departure from a vintage spot (read bar).

28 Feb. 2017; Oranjestad, Aruba.

February 28, 2017 / Captain Albert / 2 Comments

Today we are back in the Netherlands, although Aruba has a “Status Aparte” which means that it is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands but not governed by it. A sort of Commonwealth situation but with a Dutch twist. Not that anybody is concerned or interested in that here on board; of much more importance is that there is a big Super market here that sells all the Dutch treats which are hard to get in other places. Thus yesterday whole expeditions were planned (especially with the eye on sharing a Cab) of how to get to the super market during the off time and also in getting back on board on time to let somebody else go. We are the only cruise ship in today, so there is no danger that another ship would be emptying the shelves before we get there.

I should explain this system, of staying on board, as it is industry wide a standard but not everybody knows how it works. It is called In Port Manning or I.P.M and ensures that at all times there are enough sufficiently trained crewmembers on board to protect the ship and to respond to emergencies. For Deck and Engine that number is 50% so we can always man 2 fire teams and supervise one whole side of the ship in case we have to lower boats. For the Hotel department it varies with 50% in the higher ranks and 33 to 25% in the lower ranks but always with the minimum needed to lower all the lifeboats on the sea-side of the ship. Normally that is not a problem except in ports such as Oranjestad where everybody wants to go ashore, if not for shopping, then for a drink or for dinner. Then officers have to swap and share the slots available and that results in long planning sessions in the Officers Bar. If you try to get off the ship while you are on IPM duty then the check-out computer at the gangway will beep and security will stop you.

We see the same thing when we call at ports in Indonesia or the Philippines where we observe something similar. As the ships still have to provide service not everybody can get away. If it is a two day call, then we normally do a 50% split but if it is only a one day call, then you have challenges as some will miss out. The ships have solved that problem long time ago by letting family come on board. Normally with a maximum of four guests per crewmember. Then it is always funny to observe and find out how many Pilipino crew have Indonesian family in Bali and how many Indonesian crew have Pilipino family in Manilla. Of course the captain knows the game that is being played but it says nowhere in the rules that your guests have to be your real family. Only that the Photo ID is correct and with it the relevant security information. Having a 1000 family on board below decks makes for a very atmospheric day and lots of happy faces.

For Aruba it is different, the happy faces will be on board later, when the Dutch goodies are being consumed. I try to stay away from that super market as my one weakness is Dutch liquorice and they have nearly all the variations (approx. 50) available.

The nautical chart of Oranjestad Aruba. Clearly visible is the reef which protects the Paarden baai (Bay of Horses) in which the port is located.

With running full speed, the Zuiderdam just made it on schedule to the pilot station on the west side of the island. Oranjestad has a natural harbor and the docks are protected by a large reef / sandbank. That gives an entrance and an exit. Something we really like because if something happens we can just sail out again without any issue.

I only observed that only once here, long long time ago. The good old Statendam IV was an old and tired steamship by the year I joined her in 1981. We had regular blackouts and a lot of other things went wrong as well. But she was calling at Oranjestad and as she did not have a bow thruster or a stern thruster; we had two tugboats to push us alongside. So we were happily sailing in, and then the bridge ran slow ahead (6 knots) on the ships telegraphs from the half ahead (10 knots) we were making. And nothing happened. The captain ordered a double ring, to wake those @#$%^*@…… down stairs but still nothing. So we sailed with two tugboats attached to the ship straight out of the port again.

The good old ss Statendam seen docked here in the summer of 1982. She was handed over to a new owner in October of the same year.

It turned out that the manoeuvring wheel for the steam reduction on the port side engine was stuck and it took about 30 minutes to get it going again. So we sailed back to the west entrance and went in a second time. This time we docked as planned. The company sold the ship shortly after.

We will stay in Oranjestad until 23.00 hrs. tonight and then we sail to Willemstad Curacao, which is just next door. If the planning stays the same, then we will dock inside the port. Weather: more of the same standard Caribbean weather. Warm, windy and a chance of a local shower.

27 Feb. 2017; At Sea.

February 27, 2017 / Captain Albert / 2 Comments

As was expected we got more wind and thus more swell today; from the moment onwards that we cleared the Windward Passage and entered the Caribbean Sea. As a result the ship is showing a little movement. No real rolling, the stabilizers will prevent that, but a general jitter as if the ship wants to go one way and it is not allowed to.

Last night we sailed from the Bahamas southward and then this morning we had Cuba on our port side. Clearly visible as we were no more than 4 miles away. The whole Windward Passage is 45 miles wide, but the regular steamer tracks are all close to Cuba. In the old days when things were not regulated it could be mayhem in this area and a lot of collisions took place here. Ships coming from the Panama Canal and going North would cut as close as possible under the coast to save miles. Ships coming from the north and while going south would hug the Cuban coast as well and on a regular basis, ships were not adhering to the wise rule of port to port and not to cut in front of each other.

This did not only happen near Cuba but in many places in the world which were much busier, such as Dover Strait and Singapore Strait. Eventually the IMO (The International Maritime Organisation) brought regulations into force by creating highways at sea. Simple setups with two lanes, just like a regular road. The rules are simple, if you do not want to be in the Vessel Traffic Separation or VTS, then you have to stay away from it completely but if you want to sail through it, then you have to follow the rules. Stay in the right lane, stay out of the middle zone and do not cut over at the end of the VTS. Worldwide there was a great reduction in ships playing bumper cars as a result of this, and I have not heard of a single collision around Cabo Maisi since the implementation of the VTS systems since 1974.

Cabo Maisi during day light (Courtesy University of Carolina who had this link.. for some reason)

Cabo Maisi is of course the most eastern point of Cuba and I have to say it looks much more impressive at night than during the day time. There is whopping bright light on top of a high lighthouse which shows the Cape and during the night it is visible from a long distance. You can almost feel and touch the sweep when you are standing on the bridge wing. During the day time, with clear weather, you see a beach with a mountain range rising up behind it but that is about it. If we would go much closer than we might see a few more things but the rules are that you stay out of the 3 mile territorial waters unless you have a good reason to be there, like sailing to and from a port.

The Saga Sapphire ex ms Europa.

We have left the Eurodam long time behind us as they had only a speed of 13 knots to make, while we need 19 knots to be on time. But this morning at Cabo Maisi we overtook the Saga Sapphire of the British company Saga. To a certain extent comparable to Holland America on the longer cruises as far as the age group is concerned, but they sail nearly exclusively for the English Market. What gives this ship a bit of a history is the fact that she used to be the ms Europa of Hapag Lloyd and was once considered the most luxurious cruise ship in the world. Built in 1980 she was of the then standard size of 30,000+ tons and carried between 600 and 758 guests. She was then hailed to be the most luxurious ship afloat. That lasted until 1986 when the Royal Viking Sun came on the scene. She is of course now our ms Prinsendam. But both ships are a credit to their designers, that even after so many years, and with an absolute boom in new cruise ships, these ships still can sail full and keep a faithful audience who returns to them time and time again.

ms Prinsendam as she was in 2002 when she came into the fleet.

During the night we will continue crossing the Caribbean Sea and then we should be docked in Oranjestad Aruba by lunch time.

Not much to say about the weather. It is regular Caribbean weather at the moment. Partly Cloudy, a bit breezy and warm.

26 Feb. 2017; Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

February 26, 2017 / Captain Albert / 0 Comments

I mentioned a few days ago that the weather normally happens on a three day cycle; and if you hit it right you can have perfect weather. Last cruise with the Eurodam we caught the wrong day for Half Moon Cay but things were getting better during the afternoon. That showed in Fort Lauderdale which had the last of the wind during the night and then a very nice day. That was day 1. We sailed with that nice weather towards Half Moon Cay, day 2, and thus we are now in the middle of the best.

Half Moon Cay as it was a number of years ago. The company is continually developing and offering more facilities. Photo Courtesy Holland America Line.

And it was a Grand Day, as the Irish would say. The sea was as flat as a mirror, the sun was shining and we did not have a care in the world. 4000+ guests and crew could enjoy themselves today on the white sandy beaches or participate in any of the activities which our private island has to offer. I mention 4000+ because we were together with the Eurodam for this call. Two ships is the maximum Holland America allows at the island at the same time. More and there is the danger that the island gets crowded and people cannot enjoy all the facilities anymore. The Island is also open to other company’s under the Carnival umbrella but only when there is no HAL ship calling. So we will never be together with “those who choose another company”.

The Half Moon Clipper acts as a supply boat for the ships. It was built for ferry service in Nova Scotia so it can handle a bit of rough weather.

The call at Half Moon Cay is a tour de force in organization. Even more when there are two ships. The ships supply everything for the island as the refrigeration capacity there is limited to day storage and what the island needs for itself. Thus when we arrived the Half Moon Clipper, the local ferry and supply boat, came alongside to collect everything. Most of the time the ships work together and one ship will supply all the food and the other ship will supply all the beverages as that makes it much more simple to keep an inventory and to return the left overs (very few) to the correct ship. Then crews from both ships go ashore for the service. Apart from them also medical goes ashore as they man the first aid post in the village. The watersports, shops and other activities are staffed by local Bahamians under the direction of the island manager. Most of these staff live on Eleuthera and come over in the morning with the Half Moon Clipper.

Transferring supplies from the ship to the Half Moon Clipper.

If there is one ship, then the whole business of ferrying the guests to and from the shore is done by the shore tenders, the Annie Bonny and the Henry Hudson and they are also helped out by the Glass bottom boat before tours start. When there are two ships then one ship has to use their own tenders to supplement the shore tender capacity. Normally the captains of both ships then have a little chat of how to help each other the best way. Normally that works as follows: The largest ship (today the Eurodam) gets the shore tenders. This ship goes to the anchorage which is the furthest away from the port. The smaller ship (today the Zuiderdam) will stay on the engines and float right of the entrance. Here is no anchorage but the shorter tender distance is of great help if you have to use your own tenders. And then of course they mix and match the use of the shore tenders when needed.

The Henry Hudson one of the two purpose built passenger tenders for the island. Each can take about 300 guests in one go.

This scenario worked to perfection today and the guests had a great time, as was borne out by none of the ships leaving on time. So both ships had to crank up their engines a bit more to get to their next destination on time. The Zuiderdam is heading towards Oranjestad in Aruba, which is a high speed run, so from the moment of departure it was pedal to the metal. Tonight we will sail in between the various Bahamian Islands and then in the early morning we will cross the Old Bahama Channel to enter the Windward Passage. This is the gap between the east end of Cuba and the west end of Haiti and from there we enter the Caribbean Sea. Then the day after tomorrow we will arrive at Aruba around noon time for a late evening stay.

Weather for tomorrow, more of the same; but we are coming under the regular influence of the Trade Winds again, and an easterly breeze should establish itself with the chance of a rain shower. The captain announced rain bows at noon time tomorrow during his departure speech. So let’s see if he is right.

A satellite photo of the Bahamas and the North Caribbean sea. Not a cloud in the sky. (Photo Courtesy. www.weather.com)

25 Feb. 2017; Fort Lauderdale; Florida, USA,

February 25, 2017 / Captain Albert / 5 Comments

As planned I crossed the street today walking from Pier 26 to Pier 21 and transferred from the ms Eurodam to the ms Zuiderdam. If nothing changes, then I will be here for 3 weeks until March 19^th. The ms Zuiderdam is making 10 and 11 day cruises from Fort Lauderdale. Calling at Half Moon Cay, Oranjestad, Willemstad, Cartagena (11 day), Panama Canal (Gatun Lake) & Colon and then back to Fort Lauderdale. If you have the time on your hands these are the cruises to make; not too short and not too long and they give a nice balance between sea days and port days. A lot of our guests really like sea days and that makes this a perfect cruise. Perfect enough to be sold out for this departure and the next ones are already booked close to capacity as well. Captain in command of the good ship Zuiderdam is Captain Bart Vaartjes who was my staff captain for a number of years on the S class ships, so he has been around with us for a long long time.

Our route for this cruise. For the 10 day cruise the ship does not call at Cartagena. Thus we have on board quite a few guests who are doing a back to back: both the sunfarer and the wayfarer cruise to catch all the ports.

When we came in this morning, it was a really small world, with some very low hanging clouds over the port. My wife tried to follow me on the webcam of Fort Lauderdale when the ship was coming in but she could only see the Zuiderdam which was coming later and at that time, the fog was starting to lift and things got a little better. But it took until 10 am. before the last of the haze was gone and it was really something that we could have expected. No wind to bring warm or cold air over the area as there was hardly any wind at all and thus the sea and air temperature were close enough together for the moisture in the air to condensate and turn into clouds. We call it fog because we are sitting right into it but it is nothing else than a low hanging cloud; a cloud that touches the surface of the planet; but if you fly over it then it looks like the top of any other cloud. It is necessarily even flat. There where the temperature varies a bit there might even be a billowing cloud rising above the general surface cover. A sort of cloud we call Cumuli Nimbus when we can see them in the normal blue sky, high up, during a normal summers day.

Tonight the Eurodam and Zuiderdam will be sailing in tandem from Fort Lauderdale to Half Moon Cay. Both will arrive at the same time and both will depart at the same time. Then they will follow each other until they are under Cuba. From there the Zuiderdam continues south, aim for Oranjestad and the Eurodam will curve to the south west and will aim for Grand Cayman. Because 10 + 11 is 21 days the ships will see each other again on the 19^th. Later on the Eurodam goes to Alaska and the Zuiderdam will go to Europe. In Europe she will make a mixture of Baltic and other European cruises before returning to the East coast of the USA & Canada for the Fall Foliage season. By October she will be in dry dock in Freeport where she will get the same upgrade the Oosterdam and Eurodam already have received. Removing the Disco and replacing it with a Gallery Bar and introducing the Billboard on Board with the Duelling Pianos and the Lincoln Classic Music setup. At the same time there will be an upgrade for the cabins and the installation of the interactive TV in the cabins.

I will spend my coming three weeks focusing on crew training, drills, reviewing procedures and making a complete walk through of the ship. That will keep me happily occupied for the coming period and then the ship should be more than ready to deal with anything the auditors might throw at them.

Dealing with auditors is always a sort of chess game. You know what they try to find, so you make sure there is nothing to find and then the auditors have to start digging in the rules and procedures to see if they can find something else. These audit process are already going on in our company for a number of years and thus is there less and less to find. Audits are good as it sharpens the knowledge and procedures of everybody on board; on the other hand you cannot always be aware of every little minor and miniscule rule or procedure somebody has dreamt up and hidden way somewhere in an obscure directive so auditors will always find something. The game is just that they should not find anything they could be really proud about.

The weather tomorrow should be back to normal. North Easterly wind although not much of it but it will enable both ships to lay with the bow to the island side by side and conduct a regular tender service. But the little wind will make it very warm on the island, so I think it will feel much warmer than the 79oF / 26oC which is forecast. I hope the shops have enough sun block 35 in stock.

24 Feb. 2017; Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

February 24, 2017 / Captain Albert / 3 Comments

This time the weather forecast followed the forecasted schedule and we got exactly what was expected. Based on that, the captain could also decide to make the call and stay for the day. When we arrived things were pretty miserable with strong winds from the South West and a lot of rain around us. During the night the winds had been very strong here and thus the waves were still quite high. But shortly after 8 am. the rain was gone and the winds slowly started to abate. Making it possible for the shore tenders to come alongside and start ferrying the guests over to the Island. With a bit of a bumpy ride, but a very short bumpy ride.

The winds will continue to die down during the coming night and on arrival Fort Lauderdale it is supposed to be nearly wind still. So by next cruise the ship might be on a 3 day cycle which will help us dodge the strong a wind days in port. We will see, or better said the ship will see, as I will not be there.

I am transferring tomorrow to the Zuiderdam until March 19 and then hope to return to the Eurodam to continue my work here. The Zuiderdam has asked me to come over and help out with preparing for an inspection and as “higher up” thought that was a good idea, there I go. So tomorrow I will walk off the gangway, turn right cross the road and will walk straight up the Zuiderdam gangway. (After of course having successfully navigating security)

The Zuiderdam is on berth 21 and we are at the usual Holland America Line berth at 26. These berths get assigned by the harbor master office and if there are only a few ships in, then it is an easy gig. They all go to their own terminal and the only thing the harbor master has to do is to decide the entry sequence in such a way that it makes it as easy as possible for the pilots and captains to bring the ships in. Some – times that requires for a ship to arrive earlier than the captain had intended but so be it.

The lay out of the port of Port Everglades. Berths 7 to 15 are normally tanker docks and anything higher than 26 is normally for cargo ships and tugboats. 29 is also a cruise terminal but only used when it is very busy.

It gets more complicated when we have 6, 7 or 8 cruise ships in. Then ships are sometimes moved to other berths, depending on their size. With ships the size of the Oasis class, there is only one berth (nbr. 18, 17, 16) which can handle them and thus the whole setup has to be worked around them. Also a Carnival ship takes up 2 berths, 19 and 20 and if they want to have that berth then they have to come in before an Oasis Class and before a ship scheduled for 21. Once in, then it is very difficult to get out again as nbrs. 18 and 21 take up a lot of space from the middle docking basin. Princess is normally on 6, 5, and 4 and will always have one ship there. Then that leaves the rest. Holland America has medium sized ships compared to the big boys and thus we are sometimes moved to the other berths. 21, 22, 24, 25. Tomorrow there are only five and as a result the puzzle was solved as follows:

Ship Pilot Berth

Harmony of the Seas 05.00 hrs. 18 portside alongside. (Biggest cruise ship in the world)

Eurodam 05.30 hrs. 26 Starboard

Caribbean Princess 05.45 hrs. 02 Starboard

Zuiderdam 06.00 hrs. 21 portside (Smallest cruise ship in port)

Independence of the Seas 06.15 hrs. 25 portside

As you can see all ships are fairly early and that has to do with the fact that they all want to have the gangway out by 07.00 hrs. when CBP and Longshoremen are starting their regular day.

Thus tomorrow the Eurodam will finish her cruise at 07.00 hrs. and start embarkation at 11.30 hrs. for the next cruise. This will be a sort of “around Cuba” cruise, sailing via Half Moon Cay and then down to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. The Zuiderdam will also call at Half Moon Cay at the same day but then dive into the south Caribbean to visit Oranjestad as their next port. I will let you know in the coming days how they will “dive south”.

23 Feb. 2017; At sea.

February 23, 2017 / Captain Albert / 2 Comments

Today we are sailing back towards Florida and are on our way to Half Moon Cay our own private island. We are taking the outside route again, aiming for the North side of the Bahamian Islands. Then at the last minute we will dive inside and sail along Cat Island towards Half Moon Cay. That is not really the islands name; it is officially Little San Salvador, as it is a smaller version of San Salvador Island which lays more to the North East. San Salvador Island is supposedly the island were Columbus discovered the new world. I say supposedly as there are several other islands which lay the same claim to the same fame. And nobody really knows the truth. Columbus did land somewhere in the area in 1492 and did discover the new world although he thought he was in India. He only later found out that he was not there but had stumbled into a new piece of Real Estate and nobody really understood what it was.

That honor came to a gentleman called Amerigo Vespucci, he figured out that this newly discovered land was not part of the Far East but something separate and as a result the Americas are now named after him and not after Columbus. Maybe not fair but then the Vikings were there way before Columbus and maybe it should have been called Erickson land. On the west side the Chinese came to the Vancouver area before 1492 and thus the land should have been named after the Chinese admiral who led the (large fleet) that got there. But as is the case most of the time, the guy who is the best in public relations gets most of the credit. As Amerigo was also a cartographer he could put any name on new land and thus put his own onto it.

The chance we still find new land, even if it is only a reef, is very remote as with satellite cameras and with google world Omni present, each piece of land has been well photographed. There are still new names given to certain features; it is a tradition to give long serving Environmentalists and scientists who work in Antarctica the name of a glacier. There are still plenty out there without a name so no scientist has to despair for the time being. Although the question is, with the current warming up of the earth, if there will be enough left in the future to continue this tradition.

For sailors the only real option left to have something named after him or her is to find a reef or something similar. That can be done by running onto it (not appreciated by the boat owner normally) or to try and get it officially approved by the Cartography industry such as the NOAA. I have been told, anecdotally, that the rock which Capt. Schettino found while sailing passed Isla Giglio is now named by the locals after him. Probably the result of so many tourists asking the locals were it exactly is and how to get there to take a selfie. I do not think that I would want to get immortalized that way.

As it is now so long ago I can tell a little story: I tried it myself a long time ago. Not to run aground but to get my name on the chart. In 1986 when I was 3^rd officer on the ss Rotterdam, I saw in the chart a rock which was called the Api Rock, in an area called Red Wood Bay north of Cape Decision. My nick name in those days, a Dutch short cut for Albert was Appie, so here was my chance. I submitted to the NOAA a request for a spelling correction Api to Appi and waited to see what would happen. A friend of mine in the USCG kept an eye on its progress as he thought it was quite funny. Well it made it through the first review and I kept my fingers crossed. Then there was somewhere a cleaver clog who checked it out and it did not make it to the approval for the next chart issue. As a matter of fact, the name Api Rock disappeared for a time completely from the chart. I do not know who or what Api was but that was not the idea either.

Tomorrow the captain is not going to try to get a reef named after him, as a matter of fact we are not going to anchor at all but stay on the engines to avoid that chance. We were supposed to have Easterly winds which would have kept the ship behind the anchor; but we have a new cold front coming through from the North West and that means if we would anchor, the ship would drift onto the beach. By staying on the engines we can make a good lee for the shore tenders and stay nicely in deep water. The first tenders will come alongside and start ferrying the guests ashore by 08.00 hrs. So the weather is going to be a mixed bag; windy but later subsiding, dry with a chance of a shower during the day.

22 Feb. 2017; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.

February 22, 2017 / Captain Albert / 4 Comments

Today we are in Charlotte Amalie in the natural harbor they call Havensight. So good and so sheltered that in the good old days the pirates sought a safe haven here. Nowadays there are two cruise ship docking locations. The one here at Haven sight , which can handle four medium size ships or 3 big ones, and Crown Bay which can handle two medium to large ships or four very small ones. Crown Bay was an addition in the late 80’s and was originally known as the Submarine Base where the US Navy had a station. When they moved the docking area was redeveloped with the help of Carnival money to create an over flow dock incase downtown = Havensight was full. In the beginning it meant that the Holland America ships went there and the Carnival ships remained at Havensight. Then we were joined by the Princess ships. Now we are going the other way again as the Mega Liners from RCI are directed to this dock. Such as the Oasis and Allure of the Seas.

Havensight under reconstruction. Please not how long the spring is. Only one bollard left to use.

Havensight under reconstruction. Please note how long the spring is. Only one bollard left to use.

As a result the ms Eurodam docked at Havensight nbr 1. All the way in the corner. Behind us was one other ship, the Norwegian Gem which had been with us yesterday in San Juan as well. What happened to the 3^rd one I do not know but if it had been known there were only two ships in, then we could have docked more to the middle and that would have been a lot easier. I already mentioned in my blog in December, when on board the Oosterdam, that the pier section in this area is under repair and it still is. The mess is just less big than last year. The whole pier is been restructured and new and stronger bollards are being installed plus new fenders. Very good for all of us but at the moment the ships are docking in a building site with only a little bit of space left for the gangway. And as most of the old bollards are gone there are not many left to put the mooring lines on.

Where once the Pink Hotel was and to the left, where the blue canopied boat is, used to be a very nice Bar.

I remember docking here in the 80’s with the old Statendam which had a draft that allowed it to be put all the way forward and later did the same with the N ships. This berth was always more shallower than the other berths and thus a selection was made on draft. Our old Rotterdam had 32 feet of draft at the stern and had to dock in the middle or near the end of the pier. There was not always space as larger ships – more passengers – would be given preference and thus we had to anchor very often in the bay. The good thing about that was that the guests were taken directly to downtown by ships tender, the bad thing was you had to wait for a tender to go and to return.

A nostalgic view of the late 1980’s. The ss Rotterdam docked behind a Carnival Holiday class ship.

When we could dock, the draft still caused a problem, which the captain solved by giving the ship a list of 1 or 2 degrees so the draft on the high side was 3 feet less and then we would winch the ship against and sometimes a little bit up the sand bank until the gangway could reach the dock. On departure we gave slack on the lines and the ship then slid back into deep enough water. You just had to make sure to arrive on lower water than what you had on departure. If that option was not possible then we had to rig up a long gangway, which we did not like as it was very narrow and tended to sag.

Is it a new Bar Restaurant ??. It looked closed and no details could be seen from the Eurodam bridge

The whole area has now been developed and the old pink hotel has gone, being replaced with more shops and also the old Bar & Restaurant on the end of one of the Marina Piers is also gone and replaced with new docks. That Bar was in the 1980’s a real meeting place for yacht and passenger ship crews as it was for everybody in walking distance, sometimes crawling distance, to the yachts or cruise ships. The ships now have Alcohol policies and St Thomas Real Estate policies so the Bar is no longer there. It looks that they have built something new, a sort of octagonal Dove Cote, but it looked very closed so I could not know yet if it is going to be a shopping hut or if it will be a Bar and Restaurant. It does have a perfect location.

St. Thomas is the furthest point we go on this cruise and now we will sail North West again, retracing our route and then call at Half Moon Cay the day after tomorrow.

The weather prediction of yesterday came partly out. The wind did turn but earlier than expected. It did so at 09.00 and Charlotte Amalie got a downpour straight away. But then it was sunny for the remainder of the day. Going back we will have the Trade Wind behind us and that will be good for Half Moon Cay, where you need Easterly wind to have a swell free beach. If we had gone to Half Moon Cay on the first day of the cruise, we would most likely have had to cancel as the swell and wind would have rolled directly into the Bay. But things look good this time.

21 Feb. 2017; San Juan, Puerto Rico.

February 21, 2017 / Captain Albert / 3 Comments

The frontal system turned out to be quite strong and while sailing towards San Juan we had a very strong breeze blowing from the North West. Exactly in the same direction as the ship which was travelling along at 19 knots, while the wind was making 21 knots. Giving us a nice light air on the ship of three knots. As a result it was extremely pleasant on deck and the guests were out in force. With the north westerly wind my prediction also came out that it would be dry and although there were lots of clouds in the area it remained sunny. Still a north westerly wind is not bad if you go ashore in San Juan. Most of the streets are shielded from the Trade Wind which nearly always blows and which can make it very hot and humid in the old town. The north westerly wind blows a bit more through the streets making it a bit more airy. An excellent day to walk on top of the old fort, Morro Castle, which guards the entrance to the port.

San Juan always had a deep water and sheltered bay which curved in a sort of Boomerang shape around an Island upon which the Spanish built a Fortress, Morro Castle which we can still see today. On board I found a temporary drawing / water color of how it looked in the original days.

The bay of Porto Rico. The ships now dock at the first indentation at the lower side of the island and nearly all the other water areas have been dammed in. The Original of this water color is kept in the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam.

As all Holland America Line ships have, also the ms Eurodam has a large art collection on board, some of it antique, some of it modern (Lido area) and some of it nice reproductions. The middle staircase could have had the name Rembrandt Staircase as there are reproductions of paintings of him on every deck. Unfortunately Holland America is not that rich yet that we can afford to have a real one hanging in the ship. The aft staircase has mainly reproductions of water color paintings and drawings by Johannes Vingboons. I had never heard about this person before but a quick search on the internet gave, that he was quite prominent in the Dutch Golden age and made charts and drawings of the Dutch colonies and strong holds around the world. Also areas which we did not own or occupied were saved for posterity. Thus he also painted the port of Port Rico as it must have been like in the 17^th. Century. I say “must have” been as we know that some artists were quite creative in making things a bit bigger, a bit nicer and quite a bit more impressive. Vingboons was known to try to be as accurate as possible and this made him well known, quite famous and also quite rich around 1660. Thus his water colors give a good impression of how the harbor / bay of Puerto Rico looked like before humans started to “improve” the area and enclosed and rebuilt the surrounding area until the bay now has a current triangular form with docks and an airport on all sides.

And how the port now looks as seen on the electronic chart on the Radar. The whole greyish/brown area on the right is reclaimed land and now the local airport.

Cruise ships have been calling at San Juan on a regular basis since the 1920’s and then we do not count those who made a voyage for pleasure on one of the regular passenger ships sailing to the island. Those early ships docked at the down town side and that has never changed. Only the docks are now longer and have been rebuilt several times so they can now handle the largest cruise ships. Today we were in port with the Freedom of the Seas of RCI and the Norwegian Gem of NCL which was docked at three East on the port side of us. Holland America ships have nearly always a berth at Pier 4 and the very big boys are nearly always docked at pier 3. Smaller ships go often to berth 1 although it can handle a 1000 foot ship as well. (Berth 2 is nothing more than a small ferry terminal)

Tonight we will sail at 23.00 hrs. and then cover the 90 mile distance to Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas. At the moment we are scheduled to dock at berth 1 at Havensight that is all the way in the corner. This means that we will go in first and the other cruise ships will dock then one after the other behind us.

Weather for tomorrow: That will be interesting. The wind is supposed to veer from the North West to the East North East tomorrow and thus back to normal. Depending on when that exactly happens will affect the weather tomorrow. A late change in the wind and it will remain dry an early change and we might get a shower. Still it will be warm, 28oc . 82 oF.

20 Feb. 2017; Grand Turk Island.

February 20, 2017 / Captain Albert / 1 Comment

One of the things that cruise schedules and brochures have introduced is that cruise companies refer to smaller ports of call by the name of the island instead of the name of the place visited. That is nothing new, they already did so in 1900 when the first real cruises were made. (See the story of the Victoria Luise elsewhere in the blog site at: Of Days gone by) When a ship goes to New York or to Charleston, we say that we are going to New York or Charleston. We do not say we are going to North or South Carolina or to New Jersey or to Upper State New York. But as soon as we go Island Cruising it becomes the Island. We go to St. Thomas and a lot of cruise guests do not even know or remember that the ship called at Charlotte Amalie. We go to Barbados but why do we not go to Bridgetown?? I have never figured that one out.

So today we called at Grand Turk Island which forms part of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The name Turks comes from a Turkish cap, called a Fez and that comes from a Cactus whose top looks like this Turkish fez. For the rest it has nothing to do with Turkey what so ever. Contrary the islands are part of the United Kingdom. The main town on the island, just north of the ships docking pier, is called Cockburn town and thus that is officially the place we are visiting. Although a lot of cruise guests did not go there and were quite content to stay in the especially made resort at the end of the pier.

The ms Noordam docked at Grand Turk during the inaugural call for Pier & ship. Note that the encircled area s the only deep water space available for the ship. Not much more than two ships widths.

The pier construction was sponsored by Carnival Corporation and as a result the whole setup looks similar to Mahogany Bay and other Carnival designed or influenced piers around the Caribbean. It was opened a number of years ago with our Noordam being the first ship to call there. The pier can handle two large ships at the same time and then there is room for a 3^rd ship at the anchorage but that is really weather – very good weather – depending. The anchorage is very exposed to swells curving around the island from the north and the south and from the Trade wind which blows over the island. This is one of the reasons why the dock is there. It is a nice port of call but for anchoring the weather is often not good enough. Build a pier, send ships with strong thrusters and you have a much higher chance of making it when the weather circumstances are less than perfect.

Today the weather circumstance were not ideal, although the weather guru’s, see my yesterdays’ blog, had promised sunny if windy weather. Today we got a bit of everything as a weather front dipped further down than was foreseen and provided: sunny and calm /early morning followed by rainy and wind /middle of the day and then windy and very bumpy waves near the end of our call. This would not have been a pleasant day if we would have had to anchor here. But we docked and as the rain is not so cold as at home, we could all live with it.

Arriving in windy weather here can be a challenge as they have only dredged a small area on both sides of the pier. No more than a double ships width. Thus there is very little room for drifting and that means you need a lot of power available to go sideways against the wind when you slide a ship alongside. Leaving is less of an issue. While going astern you can keep increasing speed all the time and the more speed, the less drifting and before the wind can get a good grip on the ship it is in open waters again, where drift is not an issue.

And that is what was done this afternoon. With the swell banging under the stern, the Eurodam popped like a rocket out of the docking area and back into open waters. From there the ship sailed around the north point of Grand Turk to the East and then South East, heading for its next port of call San Juan, Puerto Rico. We are scheduled to be docked there by 13.00 hrs. and stay until 23.00 hrs. when will make our hop to next door, St. Thomas. (Officially Charlotte Amalie, Havensight pier)

Expected Weather: Sunny 82oF / 28oC ………………. Although we have to see if that works out. Predicting the weather for San Juan is very difficult. Most of the island is covered with a dense Jungle type rain forest which creates its own micro climate around the port. You never know exactly what will happen during the day. Apart from being sure that it will be warm, a safe bet is always that the sun will shine but there will be at least one moment of liquid sunshine during the day. We just have to hope that that moment will be in the morning when we are not there yet. The weather gurus are predicting mostly sunny skies and a North Westerly wind of 11 knots. Normally the wind is the easterly trade wind but if the wind is still North West, caused by the passing frontal system of today then we have a fair chance that that wind will push all the rain clouds to the south and it will stay dry all day.