20 December 2010; At Sea.

Thus with our last port of call behind us, we set sail towards Florida. The shortest distance from Aruba to Florida is by means of the Windward passage located between the Westside of Haiti and the East side of Cuba. That meant a North Westerly course all the way until we reached the South West point of Haiti and from there it means one course change to the NE, to line the ship up under Cabo Maisi. That is the furthermost East point of Cuba and it has a very strong lighthouse on it. Clearly visible for everybody after dark. The route from Aruba to the Windward Passage is not sought after by many ships. Mostly the cruise ships, whose routes do not make that much sense to the cargo ships community anyway and the occasional tanker that has been deviated to Aruba or Curacao while on the way to the USA. More traffic can be found in the Windward passage, as there the traffic flows come together from the South East (US), the East (Easter Caribbean) and the South West (Panama Canal area) That makes it for the navigator more interesting as there are ships to look at and ships to avoid.

Overview of the Windward Passage. Starting with Navassa Island at the South West tip of Haiti and ending at Cabo Maisi the Eastern tip of Cuba.

Ships that go through the Windward Passage then either start the crossing to Europe or bend around Cabo Maisi to the Gulf of Mexico & Southern Florida or cut across to the New York area or Canada. Ships that are coming south can chose from the three opposite ways. All these ships coming together in the same area on different courses can be a recipe for mayhem. Thus the IMO (International Maritime Organization) decreed that around Cabo Maisi a traffic separation scheme should be established, that keeps the northbound flow apart from the southbound flow. We were going north and thus we kept the outer line, while southbound traffic kept the lane closest to the shore. We passed Nevassa Island on the South West point of Haiti and by 19.30 we passed Cabo Maisi light and thus completed the transit of the Windward Passage.

That might be exciting for the navigators but for the guests Mother Nature had something much nicer in store. A Lunar Eclipse. The 3rd one of this year but the first full one and we were exactly in the right area to observe it. By 2 am. tomorrow morning, the whole happening will start and it lasts for about 3 hours. It will be the first full lunar Eclipse to occur on the Winter Solstice since 1638. That is 372 years ago. So I made the appropriate noises on the Tannoy at 1 pm. during the Voice from the Bridge and tomorrow morning, I will find out how many guests stayed awake, or got out of bed to see it. I will not join them; I cherish my bed still too much since the long standbys of the Amazon.

A 3rd surprise for today was the wind still weather that continued. Yesterday in Aruba it was wind still as we were sitting exactly on the border of two weather systems and that border line went straight north and covered our whole course track until we came around the corner at Haiti. Here the North Easterly Atlantic winds blew into the Windward Passage and suddenly we had white caps all around us. However by 20.00 hrs. we had that wind in the stern and together with the following current we received a free speed improvement of about 2 knots. That should remain with us for the remainder of the night until tomorrow then the wind is supposed to turn more to the North. However every bit of speed bonus is appreciated and gratefully accepted.

The North Easterly wind is a bit on the cool side and that helps to blow the clouds away so tonight we should have a very good view of the Lunar Eclipse. Tomorrow we will sail all day North of Cuba until we come to Florida Straits late in the evening. The weather should be good again with sunny periods, but the temperatures are going to slowly drop. Luckily no frost is expected in Florida for the coming days otherwise we would end the Amazon cruise in fur coats.