15 December 2008, Key West.

It was indeed a breezy day and it remained that way. The pilot was worried about the current and the wind and the Carnival Freedom, thus I came up again with my plan B theory. He did not like that either as they do not like it when ships anchor in the harbor but what can you do. Plan B is the emergency option and that is still better than to suddenly have a new Holland America hotel on Mallory Square. It might be highly successful in taking bookings when located at such a prime spot but I do not think that I would enjoy life as a Hotel manager very much.

However thoughts about plan B were at once out of our minds when another phenomenon came onto the horizon. A USCG cutter in the channel. The cutter Diligence was outward bound and the voyage planners onboard that ship thought that the easiest way for meeting was to pass each other in the entrance channel. However the entrance channel is only 300 feet wide, the Veendam is 105 and that leaves not much room to pass each other at a safe distance. Thus the pilot tried to convince them to either wait a bit further inside, where the channel is wider, or to sail just outside the buoys, which they could do with their lesser draft. But they were in the channel and they were coming out. That left me no other option but to make a full round turn south of the sea buoy to give the cutter time to get outside. It cost us 20 minutes and resulted in being docked 15 minutes late.

We docked at Mallory Square just in front of the Carnival Freedom, who was at pier B. They are too big for Mallory and also too heavy. Mallory dock is slowly crumbling and the City has not made up its mind yet to have it fixed. Thus each time we dock, it has to be gently gently. It is still the most convenient dock for the guests to go into town. It is also the dock that catches the most current, as it is closest to “the bend” where the main channel disappears behind the island. This time I had almost 4 knots sternway on the propellers to keep the ship in position. This does not mean that there was 4 knots of current but with the squat and the very low clearance under the keel I had to use a lot of power to create sufficient flow with the propellers to keep the ship at a standstill until we had the ropes ashore.

With the weather being warmer, the wind behind the cold front had veered to the South East; there were more buskers, fire eaters and other performers out than normal. Thus plenty of things to see; even when you were not going to leave the ship. What was also interesting for the guests to see were the linesmen and women who handled the ropes. Most of them still dream of the Flower power era. Most likely the reason why they live in Key West. Lately they have started to take their dogs to the job. Thus when the mooring ropes went ashore, the senior dog (no doubt belonging to senior linesman) carefully followed its progress by sitting right between the ship and the appropriate bollard where the ropes were going. The junior dog accompanied the whole procedure by barking loudly and had to be kept on the leash to avoid him actually from getting involved in the line pulling. At least Key West lives up to its reputation for doing everything slightly different, even the line handlers are different. Holland America used to have a mascot dog in New York on the piers in the bygone days. I will share that story with you tomorrow.

We left Key West right on time, after sunset. This evening the sun watchers had to gather at Pier B (Carnival Freedom left at 1700, so the pier was clear) as we blocked Mallory completely. Tomorrow we will have another Cold front coming over, a small one that will bring clouds in the afternoon and rain during the night.