01 December 2008, Key West.

With mixed feelings we approached the Key West pilot station. Two days ago the pilots had already arranged with the port authorities to change our berth as the weather forecast indicated the passage of a cold front during the course of the day. Great was everybody’s amazement and relief that when we arrived at the pilot station and saw the wind dying down to 14 knots and near the berth to less then 10 knots. The Weather front could be seen on the radar about 20 miles away but only very slowly coming closer and so we could dock without any problems.

An hour later our amazement was even greater when the cold front started to dissipate right in front our eyes. As a result there was no more than a steady fresh breeze blowing in the port. The associated rain showers and wind gusts never materialized and thus it was a good day under the circumstances. It remained chilly but they have not had a warm day in Key West for the last three weeks. At least not warm for their standards. I could not change my dock back again to Mallory based on the changing weather situation for a number of reasons. First of all, the moment that the change took place, the whole town knew that Mallory would be free to watch the Key West sunset and you do not want to upset the locals. Secondly, the USCG does a security sweep of the piers an hour for arriving and any changes to a dock location would need another security sweep and that would delay the ship. Thirdly the Carnival Freedom, knowing that we were going to the Navy dock, had parked more forward and it would have been a very tight squeeze to get the Veendam in. Lastly we would have to pay for double docking and handling fees. The shuttle operators would have had to be paid anyway as they had been ordered. The navy pier is so long that we need little shuttles to get all the guests to the gate. Walking is too far and too time consuming. Thus Navy pier for this call.

The long Navy pier winds all the way around a docking basin. Hence the little trains to transport the guests through the navy compound.

Our ISO 14001 audit came to a successful conclusion and the auditors only had praise for all of us here on the Veendam. The environmental practices were in accordance with the requirements but also in accordance with what the company had put on paper. So what should have been done according to the company standards was also done onboard by the company standards and that was what this whole audit was all about. ISO 14001 is a regulatory and operational system and the audits are meant to check if we are all marching to the beat of a rhythm that we ourselves (the company) have devised. So compliments all along and all was well in the world.

We left on time from Key West and started to run away from yet another cold front that is coming down from prairie land. They must be eating a lot of brown beans up there this year to produce so much wind. Every winter we have cold fronts to deal with but this season it just goes on and on and recently we had four in a week. All these cold fronts reach into the Caribbean and our friends in Belize and Santo Tomas are all complaining about the (relative) cold. For most our guests it is not so bad, if you come from the Northern part of the USA or Canada a day with 80oF is still warm and pleasant, however the locals are used to 90oF and thus consider it chilly.

With this small cold front dissipating before our very eyes, it will be less rocky tonight than it was last night. There is less wind to sustain the waves. The ship will still move about a little bit, but much less and also much less jumpy. Further down into the Yucatan channel it is still breezy but with following winds.

Tomorrow we are at sea and if there is nothing exciting to report except I will do another Q&A session.