15 October 2012; Oranjestad, Aruba.

This was shaping up to be a very good day. There was no wind, which pleased me, there was no rain which should please the Guests and there were two cherry pickers waiting on the dock for outside maintenance which pleased the Staff Captain and the bo’sun. The only thing was, we were the only cruise ship in port and that might not have pleased the local shopkeepers. But you cannot have it all. But we were definitely on the good side today. For the pilot it was an unusual day. Always used to having to battle against the wind to get the ship to the dock, this time it was prudent to stay more in the middle of the fairway. Lack of wind had turned the current around and now it tended to push the ship in the direction of the dock. The only thing I had to make sure of was to keep the ship under a slight angle so the current kept pushing, instead of getting in between the ship and the dock and creating a cushion that would push us off again. We were docked by 09.20 hrs giving the authorities’ time to clear the ship and the shorex manager time to count the buses.

And thus we settled down for the day. This morning I spent some more time on the coming long cruise , because we were figuring out when to do the time changes. This is more complicated that it sounds. If you have five sea days and a 2 hour to change, you have 6 nights to choose from. It does not matter that you are out of synch with local time, as everybody lives on ships time anyway. As long as you arrive on the local time, all is well. Even that is not a necessity which is proved week after week by the Carnival ships in the Caribbean, who simply stay all week on “Miami time” . I have done that in the past well, as long as we called at islands or places where there are no public clocks in evidence to confuse the guests. This is pretty much the case on islands such as Cozumel and Grand Cayman and thus there is little concern about guests not being back on time.

Note the square block on the blue line coming down from Alaska. Here the date line makes a jump and we loose and later gain a day while between Hawaii and Tahiti.

For the rest Holland America normally follows the clock and the ships are on local time when they pull into port. But at sea things are different of course, I can basically do whatever I want with the time changes and thus it takes some thinking. During the 30 day cruise we cross the date line twice, and we go several hours back (westbound to Hawaii) and several hours forward on our way back to San Diego. The Hotel Director would like to have an hour back every night so his guests stay out longer, if he could wing it; deck operation likes sunrise every morning around 06.00, which makes it easy for work during day light. Then there is the daily program to consider (will a time change during the day affect any of the activities, or even worse………the bingo) and the captain has to sit there and try to figure it all out. So in my ultimate wisdom I have now decided that the sun will rise over Honolulu at 06.47 on the morning of 26 Nov. (How is that for planning…………)
On a more serious note; it is of importance to get these hours right, so it has the least disturbance on the guests cruise experience and adds to the enjoyment if possible. The company has done a lot of tests with time changes over the years and we found out that hours back are the best if you combine them with formal nights. Guests tend to stay out later during these more festive nights anyway and then an hour back enhances that experience. Hours forward, or 30 minutes intervals where possible, are the best during day time. Jumping from 13.00 to 13.30 hrs is less noticeable than an hour forward during the night. People tend to return to their cabin earlier during such an evening and then they find out that they cannot sleep anyway. So there is a lot to think about when you have to decide what time the sun rises and sets over the ship. Just think about how many arguments there always are about summer and winter time ashore. Everybody has a preference and everybody knows better.

What I know best, is how to get out of a port and by 18.00 we were outside Oranjestad in Aruba, only to find a tanker sitting on my course line. More about that tomorrow.