12 & 13 July, 2015; Vancouver and going north again.

Today a combined blog as time is flying by with all sorts of items happening. Inspections, trainings and paperwork. One of the things I also do is maintaining a port database of all the ports I have visited in the world; something which started around the year 2000, when digital camera’s came into full use. My first one looked like a Thompson Machine Gun as it recorded directly onto a small CD disk. The ultimate in Digital cameras at the time until they invented the Flash drives.  Now of course the cameras are small enough to fit in any Ladies purse and the simple ones are so cheap you get keep them with a box of cornflakes, so to speak.

Since 2000, my database has been steadily growing and now with going around all the ships, I can pull off the computers whatever the ships have collected themselves during their voyages.  My total “harvest” now stands at about 627 ports of which I have roughly visited about 350 myself.  All this material will eventually become part of a Holland America Line database but it takes time to enter all those 1000’s of photos in the system. That will take place this coming winter. We have a 2^nd Officer Lady at home who recently had a baby and instead of letting her go, the company has given her the option to work from home, so she can combine motherhood with still working for her employer. Holland America is really good in trying to set up these sorts of arrangements which work in favor for both sides. In this case we do not lose the knowledge of a good officer and the officer does not lose the job because of family circumstances. As she lives in England I will deliver my database in September and that should keep her in business for most of the winter. Today I merged what the Zaandam had to offer and tomorrow I will upload it all to the ships Main Frame.

My errand yesterday for buying an overhead projector did not work out as planned. All the shops in Vancouver down town had them but not the ceiling mounted version. Ordering on line is not ideal with me travelling from ship to ship so I had to leave it at that.  Back on board I thought, well if the thing does not work anyway, I might as well have a look inside. Navigation Officers are supposed to be experts in everything so why not in projectors.  So I took the thing apart, gave it a good shake, applied a vacuum cleaner to get the dust  out; tightened up the lamp and voila it worked again. It made the Bo ‘sun and sailors happy campers as they can do training by power point again (and show movies in the evening…………). They will need a new one eventually but for the time being they are back in business.

The captain had to make a decision today about when to sail for the tide. Seymour Narrows slack tide was at 21.55 hrs. in the evening, with only a small window to go through on either side of the tidal change; and with slowing down, expected traffic  etc.  it would be very tight to make. Going for that early tide gives more time for sightseeing (as we did last cruise northbound) but if you miss it………………. then you went fast for nothing and have to hang around for at least 5 hours until the next window opens. In the end the decision was to go for the later tide, just after 02.30 on Monday Morning, and not to do any sightseeing after the Narrows.  But it did give time to go sightseeing before Seymour Narrows and so the good ship Zaandam sailed into Howe Sound just outside the Lions Gate Bridge.

Howe Sound. I googled this map and I think it belongs to a tug & barge company. Thank you for letting me use it.

All on board had a good look to see how the rich people from Vancouver lived. Being close to the city, having an awesome view over the Sound ( It is basically a Fjord which runs all the way up to Squamish) and it is easy to see that Real Estate goes for premium prices here. (2400 sq. ft. with a view is available for just under $ 1 million) So we looked at the good people on their balcony’s and decks and they looked at us. We do not go all the way up Howe Sound but make a turn around Bowen Island which takes about 3 hours to accomplish and then we are out again before the sun sets ………. And the show on board starts.

It started out with a gloomy day but in the afternoon the clouds lifted and we had a spectacular sightseeing event. However sunshine means……………. Restricted Visibility and I think we will hear the ships whistle sometime in the morning.