After all the excitement of yesterday, today was a nice quiet day at sea with a bit of sightseeing in the afternoon. As predicted it was indeed wind still and the seabirds appeared as if scheduled. They only stayed until lunch time and were then not seen for the remainder of the day. I think it was simply too hot. Without wind and with few little clouds in the sky, temperatures rose well into the 90’s (30+oC)and that gives food for thought for tomorrow when we are in Puerto Caldera and much closer to the rain forest. The ships speed provided a little breeze but it was very warm today. There is not much change forecast and that might mean that the coming Mexican ports are also going to be a very warm affair.
We sailed into Golfo Dulce around 1 pm and embarked the local authorities at the entrance to the port of Golfito at 14.00 hrs. It is a nice arrangement, while they clear the ship for today and tomorrow (Puerto Caldera is also located in Costa Rica) we do our sightseeing. By 16.30 they disembark again; we have our clearance and they had a good lunch and ice cream on board. Because of the latter it is always a question how many officials we will get. This time there were 7 plus the agent. The small boat was filled to capacity. It they had to comply with our safety regulations then they would never have been allowed to leave the dock.
For a change we were not alone. While sailing in, we passed the Island Sky outbound and we saw the Windstar lying at anchor inside Golfito port. The Island Sky is a small cruise ship that takes about 120 guests. It is in charter for a British company called Noble Caledonia but I believe they are marketing worldwide. They specialize in Eco-tours and other stuff that is especially suitable for these small ships. The Island Sky belongs to a group of eight ships built by the now defunct Renaissance Cruise Line back in the late 80’s. That company started out of nowhere and built 8 small ships in two groups of four. They were doing so well that they then decided to build 8 much larger ones around the Millenium. However 9/11 came along and with it the temporary downturn and the R1 to R 8 were laid up as the company lost its cash flow. In the end the 8 ships were sold to various operators where they are doing quite well. With 30,000 tons they are a nice size that fits in a lot of ports where the big ships cannot go to. Not unlike our Prinsendam.
I remember asking Mr. Lanterman, our then time CEO and Chairman, if it would not have been a good idea to get one or two of them. He said he had looked into it but found that the yield on these small ships was only 7.5% and for the S class it was 12.5%. thus it is was better to invest in larger ships. There must have been a change of thinking afterwards as in 2002 the Prinsendam was transferred to HAL and has been sailing for us with great success ever since.
The Windstar is a four masted Motor Sailing Yacht and belongs to Windstar cruises. She is of course very well known to us at Holland America as from 1988 until fairly recently it was a 100% subsidiary of the company. In the end the company was sold off as the two products were moving in opposite directions. The company is now owned by an American Equity company who seem to have good faith in the product as they are investing quite heavily in the ships. My wife and I made two cruises on the larger Windsurf (ex Club Med 1) and found it a great product but a bit too informal for our liking. We do like to dress up for the evening and with Windstar it is all elegantly casual. They offer a lot of things in the Incentive Market (corperate charter etc.) and for that it is a great product. I believe you can even get an IR tax break over it, if you do a certain amount of training or working hours during the cruise.
We did not see much wildlife this time which was a bit amazing, as the whales are on the move to Alaska and in the past there would always be one who made a detour into the Bay. Nothing this time, but the sun shone on the Rain forest so we had a very clear view of the area. Tonight we will continue to sail along the Costa Rican coast and then by 05.00 tomorrow morning, we will start approaching the dock in Puerto Caldera. I will be on the bridge before 04.00 as I am expecting a large amount of fishing boats in the approach to the port area. Then it is important to give the bridge team a bit of mental support and encouragement while zig-zagging between the fishing nets.
Leave a Reply