03 April 2018; Amber Cove, Dominican Republic.

With dark clouds gathering above the hills around Amber Cove it did not look as if it was going to be a good day. This weather was not in the weather forecast for today but in the forecast for the day after tomorrow. However there is always hope that these are only “Caribbean Clouds” as we call them. They gather during the night and often release some rain when the temperature goes down and the outside air reaches its saturation point due to that drop in temperature. Then when the sun rises, the temperature goes up and the rain clouds dissipate and the moisture it contains is just added to the high humidity again. That does not always work, if the local weather is disturbed by a cold front coming down from the North Atlantic, but if the weather is stable then you can more or less count on it.

The dock at Amber Cove which can handle two ships. Here an Aida ship as Aida is also part of Carnival Corp. Note the little bike taxi’s available for those who are not as agile as they used to be.

And today we could count on it. An hour after arrival, the dark clouds had moved away and it turned in to a perfect Caribbean Beach day. Although technically we are not in the Caribbean but in the North Atlantic. I mentioned last week that Amber Cove is an artificial port, constructed with the help of Carnival Corporation, and thus it is used by all the Brands under the carnival umbrella. So you see Carnival ships there, Princess ships, Cunard ships and Holland America by means of the Eurodam and the Koningsdam. Because cruising is becoming more and more popular and there seems to be no end to the demand, the cruise company’s deal with it in two ways. A. bigger ships B. more ports. Building bigger ships is not so difficult as a shipyard will build anything as long as you pay for it. More ports is not so easy as you have to find locations that are sheltered, are deep and safe enough for the ships to get in and out, and fit in the average cruise voyage plans of 7 to 10 days.

Aerial view when construction was not yet completely finished. But it gives a good idea of why it is so popular with families. (Photo Courtesy Carnival Corp)

Thus the companies are looking for options in the 7 day “maximum travel distance”. Somewhere out there must be a Cruise Destination Explorer, who peddles from bay to bay around all the Caribbean Islands and then thinks ”can I park a cruise ship here”. With the very modern ships, that might look like apartment buildings but are very powerful sea ships, they have those options.  If you would look at the cruise ships from the 1980’s, then these ports would be hardly worthwhile to build as quite often the wind would be too strong to let them dock without tugboats. And in these ports there are no tugboats of course. But now the ships have bow thrusters and Azipods which are so strong that they can visit when the wind blows up to 25 to 30 knots or even more. As an example the ships of the Allure of the Seas class, have over 30,000 horse power of bow thruster capacity; that is more power in the bow than our Prinsendam has in its whole engine room.

For those who do not sun bathe, there is also shopping and related options to enjoy.

This means that areas can be developed that would have been a complete no-go in the past. When constructed the understanding is there that once in a while a ship will have to cancel because the weather is simply too inclement. That happened to the Eurodam four weeks ago when heavy storms on the North Atlantic caused mayhem on the US Eastern Seaboard and the swells they generated caused mayhem in the bay of Amber Cove. The bay is sheltered on three sides but not to the North side and that can cause in the winter time the occasional problem. But with spring coming, I think that cancelling Amber Cove will be not happen anymore until December of this year at the earliest, if then, as it all depends on the angle of the Wind in those winter storms.

The approach course is the same as the prevailing storm wind direction in the winter and then sometimes we have to swap Amber Cove for something else. (Photo courtesy Carnival Corp and picture taking during construction)

Today we did not have any care in the world, and the ship was mostly empty for the day, with only those staying behind who had been there and bought the T shirt already. Tonight we will cross the Mona Passage and then make land fall in the early morning. The Approach will start around 08.30 and then we should be parked in the port by 10 am. Weather for the day, same as today 83oF / 28oC but with a good chance of a shower.