With a predicted wind of 25 knots from the North West on my mind we sailed towards the Tampa Sea buoy. That would have meant about 10 to 15 knots at the dock and thus an easy docking. Coming closer and closer to the sea buoy we observed ever increasing winds until it was gusting up to 50 knots; that is heavy storm. Entering the narrow fairway with so much wind fully on the beam is very unpleasant so I opted to go north of the channel; make lee for the pilot outside the buoys and while he was boarding drift on the wind into the channel.

It just worked out well. With the draft of the Veendam I can stay north of the channel for the first 8 miles and that gives more room to drift while taking over the pilot. For the pilot to come onboard I have to slow down to 10 or 12 knots and that greatly increases the drift of the ship. Thus by going outside the channel buoys and then drift in, I increase the space available that I can afford to drift, while the ship is as well making the right speed to board the pilot. Inside the bay the wind was marginally less, with a sustained wind of 35 knots and with gusts of up to 40. In other words, we “breezed” through the bay. When you come closer to the port itself, the wind abates as you come into the shelter of the land. However it was still gusting over 20 knots in Sparkman channel and in the turning basin. As it is all very tight there, this could mean that with one sustained gust the ship will start docking somewhere all by itself and where you do not want to go.

There are some very strong tugboats available in Tampa and I ordered one as I was scheduled to dock starboard side alongside and that meant backing up Ybor channel. That also meant that I had to push the funnel through the wind and then keep it in the wind. So a tugboat is a good insurance when you come close to the maximum capabilities of thrusters and the main engines. There is a second issue and that is the way the American Victory is docked. This is a 2nd world war victory ship, parked between two cruise terminals, as a museum ship. The way it is positioned makes its stern obstruct the line of the dock in Ybor channel. That makes it difficult to judge perspective when you go astern while at the same time swinging the stern over to line up. If the wind then catches the ship, you would “touch” the American Victory and that would result in a lot of paper work.

Therefore we hooked up a tugboat, to control the stern if needed and made our swing. Of course and indeed, Murphy’s Law applied and the wind breezed up right when the wind was broadsides on the funnel and I did need that extra horsepower of the tugboat. With the wind factor taken care of that way, we safely docked on time at our cruise terminal.

Tampa day turned out to be sunny but relatively very cold. It been in the mid 80’s the day before, but after the passage of the cold front it was in the high 40’s during sun rise and it barely touched 60oF at noon time, even with the sun shining. I do not think that our boarding guests were expecting to start their cruise “in the freezer” when they stepped on board. However, according to the Weather forecast, the wind should greatly diminish during the day and coming night and that should help with better temperatures tomorrow in Key West. Although at sailing time the sustained winds at the pilot station were still double of what was predicted so things might still be a little off as well in Key West.

If this continues like this for the season, it is going to be a very windy season. Luckily the forecast is sunshine for Key West and that should still make it a nice day. A second front is predicted to come from the North by the day after tomorrow, so we will sail between two frontal systems to Belize. We should just get there by the time that the wave field of the first one is starting to dissipate.