The weather was beautiful when I woke up. The sun was shining with almost no wind and just a very low swell running from the East. A swell that was nicely handled by the stabilizers, so a beautiful day to end the cruise. The only thing that marred the perfect day were the ominous sounds coming from Tampa. There had been no wind there for a few days in a row and together with nice warm temperatures it created the perfect set-up for a chance of F.O.G. As matter of fact they had had dense fog in the bay last night, closing down traffic. Thus if that would happen again the coming night, I would have to drop anchor and wait for the fog to lift. That means a late arrival, missed flights, late embarkation, late departure, a complete nightmare. Thus I did the only thing I could do, kept up full speed and went for an early arrival. My experience is that if I get inside Tampa Bay before 2 am. and be at the dock around 4 am. then I beat the fog most of the time. Not always………but most of the time. Thus there the Veendam went, after burners on, white curl around the nose, racing towards Tampa bay.

Among the last day activities on my part are the Mariners meetings. The medal hand out, followed by two luncheons. Here is a little bit of background of where it came from.

The Mariner society was founded in 1970 although it worked slightly different then:
0. Member: after two voyages receives certificate only
1. Able Mariner: after three voyages: Ladies a silver broche, Gents a silver tie Pin
2. Cadet Mariner: After five voyages: broche or tie pin in gold
3. Grand Mariner: After 10 voyages: golden bangle or collier or golden sleeve cuffs
4. 40000 miles special award plus silver medal with blue ribbon with orange border
5. 100000 miles was a special award plus gold medal with orange ribbon with blue border and certificates are issued accordingly.

The first certificates were issued during the Christmas cruise in 1970 on the Nieuw Amsterdam II. Before that time there was only a repeater party without any recognition.
The initial idea was that the cruise director would hand out the gifts together with the purser. However the captains saw that the guests wanted him to do it and ever since it is the captain who does the honors.

When the full time cruising started, the number of mariners became too high to keep handing out gold and silver pins. This was then amended to Delft blue crockery. If you keep an eye on E bay you see occasionally Delfts blue popping up with Holland America on the bottom of the plate or the pot or the cup but without any further information. These are those items handed out in the later years until around 1983.

In the late 90’s we changed from counting miles to days. (Conversion rate: 300 miles to a day). This made more sense than counting people by the miles and by the cruise.

By 2005 this had progressed to the following benefits:
* Special pricing on many Holland America Line cruises.
* An invitation to the Mariner party during the cruise.
* Recognition awards for the number of days sailed:
25 Days Lapel Pin blue
50 Days Lapel Pin red
100 Days Lapel Pin and copper medallion
300 Days Lapel Pin and silver medallion
500 Days Lapel Pin and gold medallion
700 Days Lapel Pin and platinum medallion
* Collectable gift in stateroom, (Delft tile). NOTE:
* Special bag tags and badges in with the cruise documents. (Assuming the mariner number is provided at time of booking).
* Mariner magazine sent three times a year to the most recent and frequent guests.
* Mailings announcing new programs and special offers.
* Mariners may bring up to 4 staterooms of family and friends on the same sailing with them at the applicable Mariner rate.
NOTE: As we now do the Mariners luncheon; the tiles are handed out at the table during the lunch.

Since the computer has come of age, everybody has a mariner number, which tracks the number of days. That is, still, not watertight as guests keep noting down their details in a different way. (Mr. Jones, might one voyage be: P. Jones, then P.K Jones, then Peter Jones etc etc. and address changes are not always passed on to the company and thus there are mistakes in the counting) Some ended up with multiple accounts, which take time to combine and hence each cruise you get a flyer asking you to verify your dates.

It is officially called the Holland America Line Mariners Society however one guest recently called it the Cling-clang group as you could hear the medal holders because of the noise that they made, when walking through the ship.

So I went to bed early for a very early arrival and I think that it will be ok. It is crystal clear outside and normally if the fog comes down early, there is already haziness in the air as soon as the sun has set.