04 November 2008, Belize.

Belize is always an early arrival, due to the time that it takes to get through the reefs. It is a winding route that takes the ship about two hours to cover measured from the Pilot Station to the anchorage. Due to the tight turns, some of them 90o turns, the ship has to go slow, otherwise it tilts, or lists too much and that accounts for slow progress. The fairway winds through the coral reefs that lay in front of the coast of Belize. This is a natural fairway, based on an old natural gully through the reefs and only at the entrance, where the gully ends in the open sea and at the anchorage area is it very shallow.

The pilot boards about half a mile from the entrance to the reef. They come with a boat from Belize City but have a little shelter on the island where the leading lights are located that cover the entrance to the fairway. Leading lights are normally two lights located on two stands that can be seen in line, if the ship is aligned properly with the entrance course. These leading lights are used all over the world and make it very easy to see if you are steering the right course but also if the ship is drifting off course, because as soon as that happens, the lights will not be perfectly in line anymore.

In most ports of the world pilots are compulsory to have on board. In how far they do something when on board, depends on the local situation, or on the detailed requirements set under the pilot’s charter, or one that the captain agrees to. Starting with the Captains situation: A pilot can have the conduct of the ship, e.g. he gives the rudder orders and sets the speed but the captain remains in charge at all times. Thus in principle the captain has to approve everything the pilot wants to do. If the pilot does something wrong, then the captain will be responsible for what went wrong. The pilot might face disciplinary action under the local pilot regulations but the Flag state will investigate the captain and it will not be easy for the captain to prove that he could not prevent what the pilot did wrong. That makes the relation between pilot and captain a very complicated one and sometimes there are issues as a result of that.

The captain’s relation with the pilot is partly regulated by common sense, partly by company regulations but mainly by the laws of the Flag State. Holland American Line’s ships fly the flag of the Netherlands, or Holland, so the captain on board is regulated by Dutch Laws. For pilots the Dutch law says; that a captain will utilize a pilot, when it is compulsory, when it is customary, and when it makes sense (e.g. when it is good seamanship to do so). The first one is an easy one, the 2nd and 3rd are more complicated. There are ports where pilots are not compulsory, such as Copenhagen in Denmark. However there is a pilot station with 14 pilots and two pilot boats, and that makes it for me “customary” that I should take a pilot. Good seamanship, the 3rd one is logical when you go to a port where you have never been. If a captain does not have any local knowledge, then each bit of information that he can lays his hands on, will help a safe arrival.

I have been to a port, where I had never been before and the only person available was a local fisherman, who had never been on a cruise ship in all his life. He did not speak much English could not navigate a big ship but with a pencil he marked several spots in the charts saying “no go here, no deep”, including lining out a bank that was not mentioned in the chart but had started to develop in the past season. So for just that one pencil mark, it was worthwhile to have him on board.

In Belize the pilot “Cons” the ship and they are very good as well. They sail the ship nicely through the winding channel towards the anchorage and the only thing I do, apart from making sure that the pilot does not make a mistake, is keeping an eye on the helmsman and adjusting the speed, so we take the big turns with a little bit less speed.

Belize was a beautiful day. The sun shone all day and the forecasted thunderstorms never showed. That may be had something to do with this “possible tropical cyclone” brewing near Panama. Thus far nothing has been happening there but if it starts to develop, the Veendam should be on its way north again long before anything materialises. Still I am keeping a close eye on it though.