According to plan and schedule we arrived at the pilot station of St. Maarten and then proceeded to the berth. Even with 90,000 ton and 1900 guests on board we were the smallest ship in town today. From left to right we had: the Celebrity Summit outside of Pier 2. Freedom of the Seas inside Pier 2; Regal Princess inside of Pier 1, Celebrity Eclipse, outside of Pier 1, forward dock and us the Noordam, outside Pier 1, aft dock.
The two piers in St. Maarten. The Noordam does not have a helicopter on board and thus I could not take a shot of todays Pier situation from above. (Photo courtesy, internet unkown source)
The next question is then, how do we dock apart from having been allocated a location to go to? Nose in or Nose out? It is most of the time better for the guests to have the ship docked nose in as most ships have the gangway closer to the bow than to the stern. Going nose means that their walking distance to get by the ship and to town is reduced. For ships with the gangway in the amidships area it does not makes any difference of course.
However in St. Maarten there is a 2nd consideration to take into account. Swell which causes the ship to move while alongside. Quite often the swell, coming from the North Atlantic Ocean to the East can really swerve around the East Cape of Groot Baai in which the docks are located. The ships can move considerably alongside the dock and breaking mooring ropes is not unusual. To reduce that movement it is better to dock nose out. The sharp bow cuts the waves rolling in and a wave chopped in half has a lot less influence, while the square stern is lifted by the full wave. The closer you can dock to the shore side the less influence this swell has.
According to this logic the ships were lined up accordingly. Both Regal Princess and Celebrity Eclipse were docked nose in, as they were deepest in the sheltered corner of the cruise terminal area, while the Celebrity Summit, Freedom of the Seas and the Noordam where docked nose out as they were more exposed to the swell.
Luckily the swell had greatly reduced overnight as the winds had abated last night from 35 knots to about 15 knots and with the sustaining wind gone the waves died down quite quickly as well. Also the wind had shifted more to the North East and thus it did not push the swell so much into the harbor as normally. Although all day long the ships did gently move on the still present swell but it was neither annoying nor dangerous.
Philipsburg St. Maarten had to cope with 14,000 shoppers today and if everyone spent $ 100,– then you cannot say that they had a bad day. I heard one couple complaining that it had been too busy in the jewelry store and they had left disappointed and empty handed. Luckily for them there will be more Caribbean ports and more jewelry stores coming. At least everybody had very nice and sunny weather and the temperatures were pleasant with 80 – 82o F.
The Noordam sailed at 3 pm. as it has to make St. Lucia on time, located about half way down the eastern circle of the Caribbean Islands. The others stayed a bit longer as most of them were going to St. Thomas which is about 90 miles away and for that hop you can sail at midnight and still be early at the pilot station of Charlotte Amalie.
On our S.E. journey we will pass St. Eustatius and Saba on our portside. These are also two islands which together with St. Maarten are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Together with Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao they form the six Dutch islands in the Caribbean. Some of them, St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire are fully part of the Netherlands the others have a more associated status and are running a more independent governmental system.
Tomorrow we will visit St. Lucia and it is a split call. In the morning we are docked at Castries and in the afternoon we do scenic cruising at Soufriere and the Pietons while we re-embark the overland tour.
Weather forecast: temperatures in the high 70’s with a chance of showers.
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