For a change the weather system passed over us at the time that we calculated that it should have done. So while it was nasty out there with gale force winds and heavy rains at times, the guests were happily tucked away inside the Veendam and nobody was the worse for it. By the time the sun rose, it was a beautiful day again with the sun brightly shining and Veendam nicely on schedule heading for Tampa.

My day was filled with all sorts of official functions with the Mariners party being the main one. We had two today, as we had over 600 mariners on board. Last cruise, on the Amazon everybody was a mariner as the cruise lasted 36 days. This cruise we had a lot of the Tampa faithfull on board and that resulted also in a high mariner count. Thus we had to do two luncheons to recognize everybody properly. It always nice to see some familiar faces that come back year after year for one or more cruises on the Veendam and there were quite a few of them. The main point of interest during the gathering was, what was going to happen when the Veendam leaves after the 2009 winter season ?? The ship is scheduled for South America cruises during the winter (their summer) and in the 2010 (our summer) sail from New York to Bermuda.

Luckily the ship will be replaced by the Ryndam which is a sister ship. Thus very little changes, apart from the interior colors and the crew. I have currently chief officer Mark Rowden onboard, who will be appointed captain to the Ryndam next spring and that gives me the chance to teach him some tricks of the trade in regards to operating an S-class ship and in regards to Tampa. He is onboard as a company trainer at the moment, giving background training to the deck department and getting some training himself at the same time. By the time he leaves the ship, he will be well versed in the routines of a ships captain on the Tampa run.

The Carnival Legend sailed abeam of us for most of the day and then in the course of the afternoon started to lag behind. Not because there was anything wrong but because of the scheduled arrival times. As we are going to Berth 3 and they go to Berth 1, the Veendam enters Tampa Bay first. Thus we arrive at the Sea buoy about an hour apart. That results in us docking about 30 minutes apart and not being in each others way. I have to swing the Veendam around on arrival and back towards the dock for a starboard side landing, while the Legend can just slip alongside, also starboard side but their docking is under another angle in the turning basin. Swinging around takes a bit of time but with no another ship docked in the turning basin, I have more room to do so.

We enjoyed a beautiful day at sea with the amazing fact, that apart from the Legend, we did not see any ships traffic at all until late in the afternoon. Normally we always have a lot of cross traffic when we sail through the Straits of Florida into the Gulf but it was extremely quiet to day. A bit boring for the navigator as keeping the ship on a straight line for four hours is not the most exciting thing in the world. Therefore it is good that the juniors rotate over the company ships with their different routes so that they also get a taste of the English Channel and Singapore Straits. There navigating is overseeing un-controlled mayhem with hundreds of ships in the vicinity and not all of them adhering to the Rules of the Road.

With the open seas free of “uncontrolled mayhem” we sailed on a North Easterly course heading for the Tampa Seabuoy. I will be there at 01.30 tomorrow morning and then pick up the pilot just before 2 am. If all goes according to schedule, the Veendam should be safely docked in Tampa by 05.45am.