17 Oct. 2017; New York, USA.

Well the weather forecast of a sunny but chilly day did not exactly happen. It was sunny but New York experienced a small heat wave today and the temperature rose to 79oF, hardly cold autumn weather. But it was all to the advantage of the guests and that is the only thing which really matters.

I stayed on the ship as I am doing a complete sweep of the Veendam for the captain. Deck by deck, locker by locker, space by space, and that takes up a lot of time. Looking at maintenance status, safety routines and compliance and anything that might need attention and which has not received the focus as the crew as they are busy with other priorities. A fresh pair of eyes can be very valuable, especially as I know this ship inside out, having been captain on it from 2004 to 2008. So I did today the outside decks from the top all the way down to the lower promenade deck. Taking advantage of the sunny weather and being able to walk around in a T shirt instead of a winter coat.

New York Skyline with the Empire State Building and the ventilation towers of the Holland Tunnel in the foreground

The nice sunny weather also created one of the best sail – aways from New York I have ever seen. With only a gentle breeze blowing it was very pleasant outside and with the setting sun shining on Manhattan, the scenery was nothing short of spectacular.

This is what 2 knots of current does. Barely out of the pier and instead of being in the middle we have already drifted south and are half way past our dock.

This morning the Veendam docked with slack tide which means there was no current running in front of the piers. So the ship could just shoot in without any danger of bumping into pier 90 on the portside or pier 88 on the starboard side. On departure we had a few knots of ebb running and that made it a bit more complicated to get out. The moment the stern comes outside the pier, it will push the stern back against the dock as we were starboard side alongside. Thus the trick was to angle the stern almost against the opposite pier, then go astern, and use the current to bring the ship back in line up with the pier and then just keep going astern until clear.

The old Holland America Line Pier. In 1964 the most modern passenger and cargo terminal in the world.

And then we sailed down the river. Apart from seeing the Empire State building from several angles, I was mostly interested in seeing the old Holland America Line Pier, Pier 40 at middle Manhattan. The pier is now is in use for various activities which have nothing to do with the sea anymore. A quick look at Wikipedia told me, that it is now being used as a parking garage and a sports facility. It is home to the New York Knights of the American National Rugby League but has a lot of other sports going as well.

Ellis Island until 1954 the main entry for emigrants by sea into the New World.

On the other side is of course Ellis Island where Holland America landed thousands of emigrants. The ships would stop off the island, the emigrants would go off and the ships would continue with the First and Second or Tourist class passengers to Hoboken docks where the company piers were situated until it finally moved over to Pier 40 at the Manhattan side. By that time Ellis Island was long closed.  Next to it is Liberty Island with the Statue of Liberty which was the main attraction for our crew on the forward deck. They all knew about it but as Holland America seldom calls at New York anymore, very few of the newer crew had ever seen it.

We have for New York, two pilots on board. One is the docking pilot, who does only the docking/undocking of the ship and is especially on board in case tugboats are needed. Today he had an easy day as they ship did it by itself with the thrusters. As soon as the ship was safely lined up, this pilot left and the River pilot of Sandy Hook pilot took over to guide the ship to open sea. That will take approximately three hours and thus we should be near Ambrose Lighthouse around 19.30 hrs.

A lot of excited crew on deck and as usual our entertainers are the most excitable among them. These three could not resist to stage a photo shoot with Manhattan in the background.

From there we go south and today the chief engineer was lamenting the fact that the ship will go against the Gulf Stream. First there will only be a weak influence but the closer we come to Fort Lauderdale the stronger the resistance will get. And thus he ran to run an extra engine to maintain the average speed needed and that costs fuel and that makes a Chief Engineer very unhappy. Tomorrow we are at sea for the whole day and then we visit Charleston, South Carolina.  Weather is supposed to be very good again and that should bring a very nice day on board.