We are now on our way to our first port of call Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas US Virgin islands. To get there takes 36 hrs. at full speed so we have scheduled two days at sea, otherwise you would arrive around 8 pm in the evening. Most of our guests prefer to be in dinner at that time. To get around this schedule, many cruises call at San Juan first and then go St. Thomas. If you do that, then you can be docked in San Juan by 14.00 hrs. and stay there to midnight and go to St. Thomas the next day. San Juan is a very nice city to spend an evening in. Why do we not do that? because San Juan has still not recovered from the devastation of the last Hurricane. Work has been done in and around the San Juan but parts of the island are still without electricity and even in San Juan there are still areas where traffic lights and other basic utilities are out of order. That complicates the tours and that makes night life not yet what it was before and what it is supposed to be. And we do not want to disappoint our guests. On our old schedule we were supposed to be there on March 12 but we will be in Antigua instead.

There are two ways to get to the upper Eastern part of the Caribbean from Ft. Lauderdale. Sailing above the Bahamian Islands, its sand banks and reefs or going under it.  Going north is about 40 miles shorter, going south, through the Old Bahama Channel, is more sheltered.  It is up to the captain to decide which route the ship will take. The word shelter is only important if there is a storm raging out there in the North Atlantic and you do not want to expose the guests to a roller coaster experience for two days.

Route A takes you North of the Banks, Route B, South of the Banks. Wouldn’t be handy to have a channel straight through Andros Island ?? (Thank you to whoever posted this beautiful photo on the internet)

When going north you leave the shelter of the Bahamian Islands around midnight after departure, and then you are exposed to the vagaries of what the North Atlantic can throw at you. Going south keeps you sheltered until late the first day at sea when you finally leave the last island (Great Inagua Island) behind.  This time the decision was not so difficult for the captain. Although it is horrible up north, near the Eastern USA Seaboard, it translates for us only in wind from the wrong direction and some scattered rain clouds. The swell that is running hardly affects the Veendam and thus the captain is taking the shorter route.

Even these rain clouds were of little concern; by the time the guests arrived on deck most were out of the way and we had glorious sunshine. Tonight the wind will turn to the East again and then we have the regular Caribbean weather back. Pending unforeseen circumstances, it looks that we will have a regular Caribbean cruise for the coming 10 days.

Scattered clouds are seen on the radar in yellow. The Veendam is in the blue ring, the white square is the Koningsdam sailing ahead of us and the green lines are indicating the 12 and 3 mile boundaries from the shore lines.

Picking up where I left off yesterday, the organization behind the scenes for our emergency drills. Our biggest challenge is to get everybody to the cabin in an emergency or to the lifeboat station, depending on what sort of emergency we are dealing with. The emphasis is on the word EVERBODY. 90% to 95% of the guests will march to the captain’s tune after one or more announcements. Our challenge is with those who might panic, those who do not believe that it is for real, or those who just plainly refuse to go. For that we have Sweep Teams. Sweep teams are groups of crew members who go through all the public areas, all the crew areas and all the cabins to get reluctant guests out and on the way. As humans can react differently under stressful circumstances we teach those crewmembers a few tricks to handle un-cooperative guests.  I like to help out here as I found out that it is easier for a captain to convince a crewmember that he /she is allowed to yell and raise his/her voice against a guest. We are not used to that as we are in the service industry and always try to make the guest as happy as possible.

Hand signals are an important part of communicating as we do not always speak the language of the guests.

I once saw a little Philipinna hairdresser, all 5.2 feet tall and 80 pounds of weight, take my lessons to heart and having a go, with all guns blazing, against a 300 pound 6 foot 8’ USCG inspector who was testing her knowledge.  He was really impressed and remarked that for a moment he felt as if he was confronting his wife in a bad mood.  The ship passed the inspection with flying colors, just on her actions alone.

Tomorrow we have our 2^nd day at sea, with more sunshine and good weather while we sail closer and closer towards our first port of call Charlotte Amalie. Tonight the clocks will go an hour forward as we move into the local time zone but everybody can sleep in if they want to as it is a sea day.

We sailed from Key West to Havana and from there to Cienfuegos. Grand Cayman lies directly below Cienfuegos and thus we sail the same way home as we came down the Cuban Coast. The ships that were with us yesterday went another way as they will return to Florida for a Saturday or Sunday turn over. We are currently a Wednesday ship and there are not many ships and companies who can do that. Most Americans only have a short vacation and thus the cruise has to fit in a Sunday to Sunday or a Saturday to Saturday setup.  We sail with guests who have more time (and/ or money) or who are retired and then it does not matter what day we leave or arrive. We have even quite a few on board who will stay on for the coming 10 day cruise. Be in port on a midweek day is at least nice for using the airport. Ft. Lauderdale airport is a bit on the small side to handle 10,000 or so guests who might arrive on a weekend day but the 4000 coming off the Koningsdam and the Veendam tomorrow it can easily deal with. And it will not even be that many because some guests came by car, live nearby or fly from Miami, 45 minutes away with the shuttle.

The Veendam sailing around the west poing of Cuba Cabo San Antonio again, staying nicely at the right side of the VTS or our highway at sea.  At 07.30 we were exactly at the most western point of Cuba.

So yes we are in with the Koningsdam and nobody else. The locals will have to be content with a HAL-only ship parade. Veendam is expected at the pilot station at 05.00 hrs. followed by the Koningsdam at 05.15 hrs. At least according to the harbor master of Port Everglades. Although that might change because why would we arrive so early if there are no other cruise ships coming in.? I will find out later tonight what the Captain’s plans are.  Nothing happens anyway until 07.00 hrs. when the longshoremen start with the luggage.

While we are still happily completing the winter season cruises, the company is already in full swing for the summer. More and also Larger ships are going to Alaska, bringing more guests and thus we have to keep working on our own infrastructure. If you make a Holland America cruise you can do that on a HAL ship, then go inland with a HAL bus or a HAL train and while doing so you will stay in a HAL hotel. Although the company does not brand everything HAL, the hotels have their own name. Overland tours into the Great Land are becoming more and more popular so we continue to expand the hotels.

This is an artist impression of the centre of the Chalet Park as planned in 2015. There are no photos yet of the new section, as building is  still in progress.

At the moment the focus is on the McKinley Chalet Resort. It was greatly expanded in 2015 when it went from a pure chalet park location to a more inclusive Resort with everything that comes with it. Now with even more Hal guests arriving they are expanding with more upgrade accommodation. A wing with 55 Junior Suites is being added to offer more choice. So if you now book a balcony cabin on the ship, you can keep a balcony cabin while you are inland. At least when you go to McKinley. At sea you can wake up with dolphins outside your balcony and here you can wake up with a moose outside. I have never been there, as although the company offers employees the option of overland tours they are nearly always sold out, as they are so popular, or we are stuck with the CPB ruling that we have to leave the country straight away after the end of our sailing contract. So I have to wait until I retire and then might have a go at it.

Tomorrow is the end of the voyage but quite a few of the guests are staying on. So will I. I will do one more cruise on the Veendam and then transfer to the ms Eurodam. At least that is the plan but until now not much has gone to plan in the current function as Fleet Support Master I never know what the challenges tomorrow might be.

We are still under the influence of some nasty weather up north and tomorrow we can expect a band of rain and wind to come over Florida around noontime. How much we will get, remains to be seen, a lot of it might rain out over the northern part of the state. But the wind is expected to change to the south west and that is quite unusual.

A band of rain currently laying over the north of Florida and slowly coming down. (Photo courtesy: www.wsi.com)

And thus I transferred ships yesterday; walking across the street from Pier 26 to Pier 21 and after safely negotiating around a speeding Park and Ride shuttle, I made it on board the ms Veendam. The Veendam is of course one of my old ships and has not changed very much inside since 2006 as it is too small to really incorporate the Music Walk in all its options.  That does not make the ship less popular it just means that the focus is much more on the destination than being a destination in itself. But the latter still appeals to guests as well as the Veendam had in the recent past a few guests who remained on board for nearly a year, making the Veendam their permanent home.  It can be a lot cheaper than a retirement home, but you need to have good insurance as we are not a retirement home, so there has to be a plan B for the case of.

Our 7 day cruise with focus on Cuba.

The Veendam is the ship that has been assigned to open up Cuba for the company and the ship has made a few calls there already. On some cruises it is just Havana but this cruise we are doing two ports, Havana where we stay until 2 am. the next morning and Cienfuegos, located on the south side of the island, where we anchor inside a large bay. Both ports are new to me and even after 39 years at sea I have still something to be excited about.

However we are calling at Key West first and that is today. We sailed shortly after 1700 hrs. and followed the coastline of Florida all the way along the keys. It has been a while since I saw the sun setting over Miami but last evening the skies were so clear that the guests had ample opportunity to take a photo of Skyscrapers bathing in the golden rays of a sun not obscured by clouds. Shortly after Miami the Florida Keys start and then it is hard to see very much. Plus we have to stay a considerable distance away from from them as most of the area is protected by a Conservation Order to ensure the fragile eco systems are not endangered.  The ship tries to stay as close as possible to the border line of these areas to avoid the edge of the Gulf Stream. We would not affect the areas anyway as we keep all over boards inside except water called permeate, from the filter plant we have on board. There grey and black water is cleaned back to potable water, although the health laws prohibit us from using it as such. Therefore we call it technical water and use it for cleaning the ship when needed. But at sea we make too much with all the guests on board and thus we are allowed to discharge this extra clean water anywhere 24 /7.

Our dock is really the breakwater/ outer pier of the Navy dock. By modifying the top end, it can now be used for large ships. The track shows that we swung on arrival at 07.15 hrs. and we did so as it was flooding and that way we could keep the flood on our starboard side and help us push towards the dock.

Key West has three piers, Mallory in downtown at Mallory square, the B pier opposite the White Hotel and the Navy Pier outside dock which is now permanently available to cruise ships as the Navy scaled down their operations here a number of years ago. We were the only ship in today but had to dock at the Navy pier which is the furthest out and it is even a long way to the gate. To alleviate that problem they run these little tsjook-tsjook trains to and from the ship. Why can we not dock in downtown?, because we are leaving too close to sun-set. Watching sunset from Mallory square, surrounded by buskers and all sorts of other artists, is a time honored tradition and the locals and non –locals ferociously protect that right. With three ships in you can get a number of exemptions, so you can stay past dark but they are not easy to obtain and the complaints are loud and clear when one is given. So we happily docked at the Navy pier and the small trains shuttled everybody out of the port.

Havana is located just at the other side of the Straits of Florida and when we sail out, we have to kill some time by going slow in the Gulf Stream. That will bring us to Havana pilot station by 06.15 and then we should be docked by 07.00 hrs.

Weather for tomorrow: 30oC / 86oF and very little wind. It will be a warm day.

Sometimes the authorities do not make the life of a captain easy. Last cruise we docked inside at the Matthey yard and that is nice for the guests as downtown is just around the corner. But for this cruise that was not possible, for unspecified reasons, and we had to go to the new Mega Pier nbr 2. Then last night the news came in that we had to go to Mega Pier 1.  Why, nobody knows as we are the only ship in port today.  We think it has either to do with the shop keepers or with very large ships going into the port, into the large harbor behind the entrance. But the officers on watch did not see anything major passing the bow. Also the agent was bemused and so we will most likely never know what deep thinking lied behind our final docking location. Luckily Mega Pier is not so much further out in distance than the walk around the port when you are docking inside and have to go over the bridge.

I got the chance to take this photo of the Zuiderdam to day as I photographed the dock for the company’s port database.

Thus in accordance with the port authority orders we docked just after 07.00 at the Mega Pier Nbr 1. and hooked two gangways up again to get the eager shoppers off. A few days ago I showed a photo of our happy quilters on board. Are we amazed that they were not quilting today??? Who can resist the bargains of Willemstad where the prizes are the best of all the ports on this voyage?

I was immerged today in drills and made a simulated attempt to put the Engine Room on fire. While the teams drill very much in standard locations so the primary skills remained honed, I take the chance normally to offer the ship something more out of the box.  An unusual location with a few un-foreseen pitfalls; which then require creative thinking from the teams under the leadership of the On-Scene commander. Today was no different and the challenge that the teams came across this time was that the hoses were too short. We have drawings and protocols for attacking each section of the ship with detailed listings of what you might come across (locked doors for example — do not forget the master key) and what would work best. But if you then suddenly turn things around and go against the established protocol then everything works the other way around………… or not.

This is the Electricians cable store in the engineroom on D deck starboard forward. Not much space.

Thus the attack plan has to be amended and the teams in this case had to add extra hoses as the normal route was not available and the team had to come from a longer distance. Then there is a 1,2,3 routine required. 1. We move as far as we can. Hose is too short.  2. Take a hose from another hose station nearby and move ahead of the first hose. 3. Now the team with the first hose is protected by the 2^nd hose and can depressurize their hose, add a section (about 35 feet normally), pressurize again and then bypass hose 2 again to continue the attack.

What is so difficult about this, is that it has to be done by teams in full battle gear with heavy gloves in tight spaces or narrow corridors. Everybody is on air with Scuba on and that reduces communicating considerably. The team leaders can talk via walkie talkie to each other and to the Commanders but not to all their team members and that communication is done with hand signals. So you are in a tight space, you wear heavy gear, you communicate with hand signals and you have to pull and relocate heavy hoses. I am therefore not always popular with the officers and crew but we prepare for real life situations.

Now why do not all the fire team members have Walkie Talkies so they can talk? It is done to keep the chatter and confusion down, if everybody starts talking. So all team-members channel their communication through their team leader.

Tomorrow we have a sea day and we will be on this notorious course when the ship does not roll, it does not pitch, it does this cork screw thing in between. How much we will get is a good question. For most of today the wind was very light but in the late afternoon it started to breeze up again. That will push up the waves again and hit us exactly under the wrong angle.

Who says that modern cruise ships can not be scenic. This is Megapier 1 and 2 during sunset. As we are now one happy family I can put the Carnival Vista and Crown Princess on my blog without much hesitation. I do not know who took the photo but it came courtesy of Capt. Ryan Whitaker (ms Maasdam)

Today we have the first of two sea days to get us back to Ft. Lauderdale. The first one will be used to cover the distance between Puerto Limon and Cuba and the 2^nd day, to sail North of Cuba up to Florida. The weather is improving, at least the rain has mostly disappeared, but there is a gale force wind blowing from the North East, a sort of turbo – trade wind – but as it coming from a slightly different direction than before, we have less swell. The swell system is sort of filling each other out and the ship sails a lot steadier than before. We still have the occasional wobble but not much to worry about.

Now for to sea days the ship has to provide enrichment, entertainment and diversion to the 2000 guests on board. The regular facilities will take care of some, the Lido is nowadays open all day and there are constantly guests present. The line for the ice cream parlor collided this afternoon with the line for the Pizza and spaghetti section. This should not be the case as the lines – line up – in opposite ways but somebody started queuing on the wrong side and then it rolls from there. It took the Lido manager some time to sort it out as nobody wanted to move the moment they were in the Food Line.

While in the past, the enrichment activities were mainly limited in the morning and a movie was the most that was happening in the afternoon, nowadays this has changed considerably. I started with the arrival of the Music Walk, introduced on the Koningsdam in 2016. Now all the larger ships have a variation of this on board. And with more performers on board, more activities can be scheduled.

Line Dancing in the BB King Show Lounge. Today they were learning “The Wobble”. I did not know it even existed but I suppose it is something you dance after a few drinks when everything wobbles a bit easier.

Looking at the program for this afternoon, we have: Afternoon movie, Wine tasting, Casino & shop activities, lecture by the Shore ex staff (now called EXC guides) in a dedicated area in the crows nest. Classical Matinee in the Lincoln Arts Centre, Line dance class, drinks mixing (and trying them….), Computer Class and America’s Test Kitchen.  For those who have withdrawal symptoms there is always Bingo at the end of the afternoon.

The Lincoln Art Center with the afternoon Matinee. Completely full, so full that the area behind it was full to overflowing as well.

Today the activities taper off a little bit at 1700 hrs. as it is formal night and first sitting guests need some time to spruce themselves up. 2^nd sitting guests tend to go for a quiet time in the cabin as they tend to hang out later in the ship. For those who do not need that, Happy Hour starts at 16.00 hrs.

Holland America has found out that our guests have in general a great interest in knowing more about whatever they come across. This sort of traveler is known in the industry as a globetrotter. Going everywhere and when doing that, wanting to understand why something is there when they see it. And thus the EXC lectures are always full (Dedicated area in the portside crows nest) Lincoln arts center is over- full as with the music comes a Q&A as was the case this afternoon and when we run the BBC nature experience where all the ships orchestra’s combined provide the underscore of the documentary shown, the Main Stage is full. (I have now watched it several times. The documentary’s you can watch as well at home, if you have a large 4K TV, but to have a live underscore by real musicians, is something totally different. Somehow Mahler’s – From the New World- sounds much more awesome in the ships show lounge than at home.

Who says that Holland America ships are boring inside, is far from correct with one exception, we do not do a Conga Line around the swimming pool at lunch time.

Nice to see. All the dark clouds are still near Costa Rica and only a few rain clouds around Jamaica. (Photo Courtesy, the Weather Channel)

So tomorrow is our second sea day. We are already on Florida time as the clocks went one hour forward last night.  During the 2^nd sea day we will sail through the Yucatan Channel and then turn North East at Cabo San Antonio and follow the Cuban coast up to Florida. Then we will also sail out of the wind and that should result in a wonderful last day at sea.

As you can see Puntarenas or Punta Arenas is half way up the Golfo the Nicoya. The current comes in and most of it will follow the east shore. But when it comes to the islands in the middle, the flow is distorted and calculations are of little use. So we look at the buoys and watch the drift.

Slack tide for docking in Punta Arenas was calculated for around 05.30 hrs. and thus the Westerdam was there at the precise moment making sure that as soon as the current fell away, she could go alongside. And then the current did not fall away, it diminished somewhat and thus a safe docking could be made but it needed all the power of the thrusters and the Azipods and the help of a tugboat to accomplish this. One hour later and the flood current was still running.  And that is what fills captains with dread every time they have to go here; you cannot rely on the predictions, not even the ones made by the most experienced pilot.  Get the timing or the estimation of the flow wrong and you have a dent or even worse. Due to the flow of water passing by and going further up the inlet and the option for the water to circle around further up the inlet, the currents are not straight forward in and out as with regular tides.

The water is shallow here so a long pier had to be built. It causes the water / current to flow freely under the pier and that is not nice for docking.

Luckily today we had very little swell and that saved the day. On occasion we could hear a bump under the stern when a low wave got caught under the transom but apart from a gentle sway along the dock, it was a nice and quiet day. It being the time of the season, we were blessed with the occasional rain shower but the positive side of this was that it brought down the temperatures. As with a sunny day it can be very HOT here as there is then normally no wind while the humidity remains high.

Punta Arenas is a small town so for the guests who do not go on an excursion, there is something to look at and maybe pick up a small souvenir. But most of our guests go on shore excursions here and quite a few of them on tours up to the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose, two hours’ drive up the mountain. I was there long time ago and visited the National Museum. I found it most interesting as it was a museum with bits of everything.  Including a six feet KNSM (Dutch company called Royal Boat in English) model of a small passenger ship called the Cottica in an original show case. To my horror they had it standing on a covered Verandah but not in a temperature controlled environment. I wonder if it is still there and survived the tropics. The maritime museum in Amsterdam would have drooled over it.

Another thing going on bellows decks. Medical were doing flu shots today. The company strongly encourages all crew to get their yearly shot, so the medical officers are holding several clinics during the cruise to get all 800 crew through.

While the guests were exploring Costa Rica, on board life continued. For those who remained behind were treated to the occasional announcement for testing the P.A system. An unpleasant intrusion but for safety we have to test all the speakers on the outside deck once a year in case we need them during an emergency. We use as many people as possible, by parking each one of them under a speaker so we can keep the number of announcements down but we had to “ding dong” a few times during the day as there are a lot of them. We always find one that has stopped working due to water ingress and then we repair and then have to test again.

Another activity I see every morning when I go for breakfast, yearly morning yoga. Now the question is, why are there only two guys participating and so many Ladies ??

Then there were more announcements at 10.15 hrs. as Yours Truly was running a Fire drill. This time only the captain was aware of it, as once a month we have to stage an un-expected one as the law makers have recognized that too much routine for the crew is not good. We are human and if we can prepare for a drill, mentally (thinking about a fire scenario in advance) and physically (already on standby for the time scheduled) then you lose your edge. Thus once a month there is an un-expected one and if I am on board then it is really un-expected as nobody knows what I might come up with.

Leaving Punta Arenas was easy to day, the tide was again off schedule but very weak and thus we could just push the ship off the dock and sail out of the bay. Tomorrow we are in Corinto Nicaragua, where we are scheduled to arrive at 10.00 hrs.

Weather for Corinto sunny in the morning rain in the late afternoon. No wind and temperatures around

83oF or 28oC with high humidity.