10 Feb. 2015; Gustavia St. Bartheleme.

With a windy Caribbean day on the schedule the Nieuw Amsterdam arrived at 11.30 at the anchorage of Gustavia. For a deep drafted cruise ship that anchorage is quite a distance out of town. First there is the shallow area then a deeper area but with rocky pinnacles and finally regular deeper water where a ship can safely anchor. It was not too busy today and thus the NA could come closer than otherwise is sometimes the case.  And how deeper in you can get the more sheltered the anchorage is.  St. Barths is a hot spot for the Jet set and there are always a few gin – palaces parked there while the owners are making money somewhere else or sitting in a villa on the island. Today it was fairly quiet and most of the outer anchorage was open and empty. I have seen otherwise.

It is a all that blue stuff – shallow water – which keeps ships far away from the small harbour of Gustavia.

Somewhere in the archives is a story about my call with the Prinsendam at St. Barths just after Christmas. Everybody who was somebody according to themselves was at the anchorage with their yacht. On top of that Ambramovich had parked his yacht the Eclipse right on the deep sea anchor spot where I was supposed to go. And as that yacht has about the same length as the little Prinsendam there was no way I could sit next to it. That meant I had to anchor much further out thus causing the wind and swell to hit the ship from both sides, curves both from the north end and the south end around the island. So I gave up and sailed on to Antigua.

Today this was not necessary the Nieuw Amsterdam could anchor safely although the Seadream II had pinched the best spot as they had arrived earlier and we could not do that with our schedule. Thus the guests have a bit of a wobbly ride to the island but in the evening it should get better as the dying off of the wind after sunset will cause the waves to subside a little bit.  Our last tender is at 10 pm. and then we hop around the corner to St. Thomas.  In the meantime the guests should have a great day. The sun is shining and the beaches on the island are very beautiful. We should have a lot of happy campers today.

The ships training room with a capacity of about 60 seats.

In the meantime it is time to reveal the secret of the “Bubble”. This elevated deck part on the bow was a very clever way of creating a space needed for three items which would otherwise take up valuable space inside the ship. Still they were needed and thus came the bubble.  Inside we have the training room which is an absolute necessity nowadays giving the amount of training crew need to take.

Part of the Officers Bar. Which also has a dance and game area.

The 2^nd item is the Officers Bar. In this location no noise can bother anybody so another win, win. The remainder of the bubble is given over to offices for the Safety department which has also greatly increased since the proliferation of the safety and audit requirements. All for the best but the paper trail causes far much more office work than ever before.  I think that the “Bubble” is going to be with the fleet forever.

The Safety department forms part of the Deck department and is headed by the First Officer who went from being the senior watch keeper to this function, then the next step is Staff Captain. He is assisted by a 3^rd officer who is assigned to safety duties outside his watch keeping duties.  The remainder of the department is made up of fire safety attendants, Lifesaving attendants, a locksmith and a number of security guards who help out with safety checks.  And for all of those you need a big office and gathering place.

Tomorrow we will be in St. Thomas with a weather forecast of regular Caribbean weather. A bit windy, partly cloudy and temperatures around 80oF or 27oC.