Things turned out right indeed. Visibility was still good when the Veendam made it to the Pilot station just after midnight. Going through the channel I kept up the speed as much as possible and as a result we were docked by 04.30, instead of our normal 06.00 hrs. The nice and calm weather outside had helped a lot to gain all this extra time. The Captain of the Carnival Legend had opted for the same logic and was hot on my tail, docking 20 minutes after me. The fog eventually came in the form of patches around 7 am. However it was not as thick as the night before and thus Tampa Bay did not need to be closed down for the traffic.
The pilot was all excited, as on his traffic movement sheet it was indicated that there was a barge parked alongside the American Victory near our dock. That would make our docking a bit more difficult as it would take away another 60 feet of the channel width. I was not unduly concerned as I have no problems parking in tight spots as long as there is not too much wind. This time there was no wind at all, hence the chance of fog, and so I was not expecting any problems with this barge. It turned out in the end that the barge operator had wisely decided himself to move his barge away from the Victory for our arrival and so there was the normal space to maneuver in. Now the pilot’s excitement gave way to agitation as his movement sheet had given him the wrong information.
The barge in question came back to the American Victory the moment I had parked the Veendam. This was a barge full of clean sea water. Every so often the aquarium next to our dock needs fresh seawater and that is brought in by barge. The barge loads the sea water somewhere deep into the Gulf of Mexico where the water is clean and not contaminated with sediment and then it is brought to the aquarium. The barge is parked alongside the American Victory and then a 12 inch steel pipe is rigged up that runs over the deck of the Victory to the other side and then over the dock into the Aquarium. All the sea water is pumped via this pipe to the tanks on the shore side. I was not able to figure out why it was necessary to run a fixed 10 inch pipe over the Victory, necessitating first to pump the water up from the barge to deck level and then on the dockside down again. It would have been easier if the barge had docked at the cruise terminal and had just run a hose over the dock. However there are steel gates that separate the various terminals, so maybe it was a security issue. It just looked strange but it worked as the pilot said they do it several times a year.
Today the ship embarked a top capacity load for our Christmas cruise. The ships base capacity is 1266 lower beds and as there are always single guests who book a cabin by themselves, we normally have a full house with 1210 to 1240 onboard. This cruise there will be just over 1400 guests sailing with us. Every cabin is full to the max and we also have all our collapsible cribs in place for a large number of toddlers. It will challenge all of us to the maximum to deliver an excellent Christmas cruise but no doubt TEAM Veendam will deliver as we always do.
On top of a heavy work load we are also practicing our Christmas choirs. We have three this year. Philipino, Indonesian and International. The philipino choir has the catchiest songs, the Indonesians the best harmonies and the International choir always gets the price for being the loudest. That comes including my own efforts. My imitation of a fog horn is always clearly “enhancing” what is being sung. Luckily the Show Cast is part of the International group and their voices normally manage to smooth over the worst. There are not sufficient Dutch officers onboard the Veendam this time otherwise we would have had a Dutch choir as well.
We sailed right on time. Although the weather up north was atrocious, we only had six guests missing their flights and they will join in Key West tomorrow. Under the guidance of Unit one, the most senior pilot of Tampa, the good ship Veendam sailed out of the bay on the way to Christmas. It should start well, as Key West is supposed to give us a sunny day.
December 23, 2008 at 6:12 am
Have a very Merry Christmas .And may the seas you travel this week be smooth and the winds at your backs.
Mr Veendam
December 23, 2008 at 6:54 am
Merry christmas Capt. Question .Do the harbor piolts steer or drive the boat or do they just stand by and help your piolts .I have heard different accounts .Also why do you need them .Im told your people could do it just as well .Thanks for your reply and info you give out .I read it almost every day .I think in another life I must have been a Ship Capt.
December 23, 2008 at 6:54 am
Captain, wishing you calm seas and fair skies, contented passengers and crew, perfectly functioning engines and a very Merry Christmas!
December 23, 2008 at 7:24 am
Merry Christmas to you, your wife and all your wonderful crew. I hope the passengers behave themselves so you can all enjoy the season! A special hello to our waiters Yudi and Bagus (now on room service). We enjoyed our Amazon trip so much with you.
December 23, 2008 at 8:54 am
Captain,
Merry Christmas to you and all Team Veendam. I really enjoy your daily postings and look forward to sailing Veendam next May 24th on the Southbound Alaska trip from Seward to Vancouver. You, of course, will be aboard Prinsendam but the information in your posts will be helpful in making our trip more interesting.
Thanks again.
The Rolls Family
December 23, 2008 at 8:54 am
Captain,
Merry Christmas to you and all Team Veendam. I really enjoy your daily postings and look forward to sailing Veendam next May 24th on the Southbound Alaska trip from Seward to Vancouver. You, of course, will be aboard Prinsendam but the information in your posts will be helpful in making our trip more interesting.
Thanks again.
The Rolls Family
December 23, 2008 at 8:54 am
Captain,
Merry Christmas to you and all Team Veendam. I really enjoy your daily postings and look forward to sailing Veendam next May 24th on the Southbound Alaska trip from Seward to Vancouver. You, of course, will be aboard Prinsendam but the information in your posts will be helpful in making our trip more interesting.
Thanks again.
The Rolls Family
December 23, 2008 at 12:03 pm
There are sayings in England (usually used in the context of awed admiration of somone’s selling skills) about ‘taking coals to Newcastle’ and ‘selling snow to eskimoes’; I think that importing seawater from the Gulf of Mexico to Tampa Bay trumps them! What a great wheeze, and it even sounds to be recession proof.
Merry Christmas, Captain to you and your crew. May you all be in fine voice for your rendering of the seasonal chorals.
December 23, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Is the Captain up to some escapade again? Would you send a tape of the International choir including the fog horn to my home address, please? Too bad there are not enough Dutch officers on board; what would they have sung?!
May you and your wife, Lesley, enjoy the festivities, at the same time not forgetting the lone souls on cargo, container and tanker ships. Your officers and crew will feel just as lonesome unless their families and close friends are with them on board . . .
December 23, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Question for the day – when one of the HAL ships stop at a place (such as Santorini) where you can’t tie up, do you use an autopilot integrated with a GPS system to stay in place? My experience is in large jet aircraft that have a flight management system that includes GPS input. Since an aircraft can’t come to a stop, we use holding patterns to stay at the same location. It would seem that you could, use the azipod system with an autopilot, and essentially come to a stop and then hold that position including mantaining a chosen heading. Since you no longer offer bridge tours, I didn’t get a chance to ask this question.