12 October 2012; Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 It was indeed very breezy when we arrived; there was so much wind that I had ordered a tugboat just for the case of. Then at the pilot station the wind went into another gear, now blowing 23 to 35 knots so after the Master – Pilot Conference we went for a 2nd tugboat. Part of the reason was that we had to dock “in the hole” of berth 4. All other cruise docks are under refurbishment for the coming season. The governing authority is investing $75 million in the terminal buildings to improve flow, handling and general facilities. As the Statendam was the only cruise ship in today we had to go to Pier 4 as that one had been spruced up during the last season. When there is no wind, it is not a problem, but with a lot of wind, plus the necessity to go stern in, it becomes an issue of intense focus. So two tugboats was our plan B and all went well. With another 6000 HP available for the stern and another 3500 HP for the bow, we had time to line up perfectly without the fear of not being able to control the drift in the basin. Then slowly but steadily we inched back into the basin of berth 4 & 5  with the pilot controlling the tugs and me the ship. By 06.30 we had half our job done.

 The other half was to come to a position that pleased everybody ashore. That is not easy. Everybody wants something different, but as the ship cannot move 15 feet astern and 7 feet ahead at the same time, we cannot please everybody. A little pattern evolves then, multiple stake holders put in their plea’s (normally formulated as threats) to agent, pilot and security officer as they are the easiest to reach, either vocally or by walkie talkie. Then we move the ship a little bit, as it makes sense to us. Now some other people are outraged. (Mostly the linesmen, if we want to shift ropes from one bollard to the other) then I get upset and decide not to do anything. Doing nothing and being silent is a very forceful tool. People do not expect that and after a minute of ominous silence from the bridge, they start talking among themselves.  Then suddenly bingo, we are in the right position, and we can stay where we are. So we did and then the daily mayhem of a changeover day started.

1,450 tons bunker fuel, hull cleaning, heavy loading, offloading of recyclables, guests on and off, crew on and off, service technicians visiting, and then on top of that we had USCG inspection. This is a twice yearly happening when the USCG officers come on board to inspect the ship and to see if we are in compliance with all the rules and regulations. Unfortunately with our schedule we only call at two American ports during this cruise, thus we have to do the inspection during a turnover/changeover day. Although the USCG always makes a supreme effort to work around all the challenges that we have during such a day, they still have to do their inspection. That entails a full fire drill and a full abandon ship drill. That involves all the crew and so in the middle of all that was going on the ship came to a grinding halt for about 45 minutes. After the drills, there are the tests of the various equipment, the walk through of the ship, the checking of the officers licenses etc. etc. and then they had to wait to observe the passenger lifeboat drill, to see if all of that was according to standard. However, all was well in the world and we were approved and cleared for another six months. The staff captain was a happy man, because he received compliments for the level of training and drill execution and I was very happy that all marched as expected, and we still managed to start embarkation on time and sail on time from the berth.

Patty running out of steam. Yesterday she was still plotted to reach Cuba by the 15th. Now she is falling apart over Half Moon Cay. (weather map courtesy, Weather Routing Inc.)

 As I had hoped, Tropical Storm Patty could not build up more momentum and was downgraded to a tropical depression. That means, still strong winds during the coming night and day, but then later on just a gentle breeze when we come to the East of Cuba. We are now starting the first regular pendulum cruise of the season, with 14 days to and from San Diego, only interspersed with a dry- dock in January and two 30 day cruises in November and February.