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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

12 November 2012; Oranjestad, Aruba.

The moment you talk about Aruba, the first thing a sailor asks is “how is the wind” because it can blow there…. considerably. Even with the port located on the south side of the island it is still a windy happening as the island is basically flat. There is one real hill, called the Hooiberg, or “Hay Mountain” rising up from the flat land but it does not offer any protection to the ships entering the port. Thus the wind is of great interest to any ship’s captain coming in and certainly to captains coming in with floating apartment buildings that seemed to have been constructed to catch even the slightest breeze and turn it into a challenge. So I keep a close eye on the expected wind in the local forecast and when we arrive we check with port control whether the “Forecast” is indeed also happening in the port. 

This morning it was quite good. No more than 15 knots expected and although full on the beam, it is a wind velocity that we can work against.  Today we were in port with the Zuiderdam, who left Ft. Lauderdale together with us three days ago but they have first have to make a call at Half Moon Cay. The Vista class has more engine power than the S- Class/Statendam and thus they have the option to do so. Still it is a very fast run for them and as a result they are scheduled to arrive at 13.00 hrs at the pilot station.

oranjestad-cruise-port

Stock photo of a full day in port. Top is the cargo terminal only in use on a very busy day. Next is F berth for ships up to 220 meter length. Then C Terminal and B Terminal all the way at the bottom. 

The port decides the docking location, depending on the arrival and departure times and tries to prevent that ships have to sail past each other when coming in, or going out. Going out is not so bad, as the wind is pushing you away from the dock anyway  and you only have to be careful when you sail past a ship, as you then suddenly loose that pushing wind which will come back as soon as you are clearing that ship.

Based on that philosophy they had the Horizon planned for F berth, (that is the side berth) as she was scheduled to arrive first and leave last; that way she would out of the way for all the other ships coming in and going out. In the end that ship never showed and thus there were only the two Hal ships to deal with. We were arriving first and leaving first, so we were allocated cruise terminal C and the Zuiderdam cruise terminal B, giving each ship a clear channel to sail out.

The key to arriving in Oranjestad, with the wind full on the beam is to keep up the speed to reduce the drift angle. That can look a bit unsettling for the guests on the bow to see the ship thundering into port and then suddenly coming to a standstill in mere meters. But that is the way it works and we sailed in with a good 8 knots and we kept the speed up until the bow started to pass the first terminal. Then it was a matter of going half astern on two engines and getting the speed out fast while the ropes were going ashore before the wind could catch the ship.

That makes for a quick arrival and by 09.30 we had the gangway out for all to go ashore. The weather remained the same for the whole day with slightly overcast skies and that made it very pleasant.  The Zuiderdam was docked at the scheduled time but during the morning our guests had the whole town to themselves.  They are building a tramway from the dock gate to the town and I was a bit disappointed that it was not operational yet.  Last cruise I had been told that the tram way would be commissioned within 14 days but they were still working on it. Completion time unknown.

We sailed at 17.30, all our guests being back on board nicely on time and then sailed out of the port via the East exit, only to find a tugboat on our course line, towing 4 Yokohama fenders (big rubber sausage shaped bumpers that hang between large tankers and the dock side) Last cruise we had a tanker, that should not have been there, now it was a small tugboat that kept from racing out of the port. So we sailed slowly around her and then sped up, heading for the Panama Canal.

Tomorrow we should have a nice sea day with following winds while we sail north of Colombia.

4 Comments

  1. Captain Albert:

    I used to climb the Hooiberg as a youngster while living in Aruba in the 50’s.
    Re floating apartment buildings: I understand that the Statendam does not have any Veranda/Balcony cabins. I have read information indicating that ships with balcony cabins are much more affected by the wind at slow speed, since each one of them is sort of a “drag pocket”. Any comment on that, since you have mastered many types of HAL ships ?

    Thanx…..Ruud Hartog

  2. Missed Career at Sea

    November 14, 2012 at 12:57 am

    While you are writing about the Vista class and the S-class HAL ships, Captain; the Company blog has received over 70 comments about the new plans of building a Pinnacle class ship! No need to say that the opinions are divided. I am just worried that the middle-size ships are going to go to the scrap yard, what with the capital the parent company can play with, just like ‘buying gods’ do. I now suspect that Captain Frans Consen knew this was going to happen, as he already had a name in mind during his “Captain’s Toast”evening – – the “Bolder-dam”, referring to the Cruise Director’s home town 🙂
    Any chance that HAL will phase out the R-class and the S-class ships, Captain?

    • Good morning,

      Mr. Arison mentioned in his press release that there is the option of phasing out some older tonnage, when the new ship comes in. I think we will have to wait until 2015 to see if that really happens. I think some of it will depend on how the cruise industry develops in the coming period.

      Best regards

      Capt. Albert

  3. Missed Career at Sea

    November 14, 2012 at 10:34 pm

    Thank you, Captain. Just read up on who Mr. Arison is … Now that I know that “the thought” is there, time indeed only, will tell which way the cruise industry is going. “The pendulum is bound to swing the other way” (???)

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