23 December 2010; Half Moon Cay, Supposedly.

With the petrol tank loaded to the brim we sailed out of Port Everglades harbor into the Straits of Florida. This time the HAL fan club (living in the apartment building at the entrance) were at home and 3 HAL flags were on display on the balconies. The bells were ringing and the horns going and all other sorts of noise was coming from the building. Good enough reason to blow the whistle extensively to say thank you. The Prinsendam can blow two whistles (or sound two horns, anyway you want to describe it) at the same time and it gives a nice and sonorous sound that reverberates all over the harbor. The pilot was off very quickly and I cranked the ship up to warp speed to make Half Moon Cay on time.

Normally we meet a lot of traffic in North West Providence channel and that means that we will have to make a wide curve course change around all the ships that try to follow the shortest route. That brings them so close to the reefs that collision avoidance becomes a real issue here. So I instruct my navigators, that the moment they see a concentration of ships above the reefs (Great Isaac Light) to go wide. Meaning going higher up in the channel to avoid them all. That costs mileage but it is a lot safer.

There was a lot of traffic out there but most of them were floating around, waiting for docking space. Freeport is turning into an important harbour, to receive feeder containers ships (smaller ships that bring containers to and from minor ports) and to store and re-distribute empty containers from the area. MSC is the largest player here, with 6 ships calling every 24 hours. 3 go in between 0600 and 1800, the next three between 1800 and 0600, and there are always one or two waiting for a gap in the schedule. Hence we had 5 MSC container ships floating around for a berth. MSC has in the region of 240 container ships and Freeport is one of their hubs. Thus a bit of zig zagging was required.

For the remainder of the night we curved around Eleuthera Island sailing south to little San Salvador Island on which Half Moon Cay is located. I arrived on the bridge by 0600 and things were not looking good. The wind had not shifted and had increased a lot in velocity, so there was at times a wind force 7 blowing. BLOWING FROM THE WEST. That is bit of a problem as it pushes the waves straight into the bay and onto the beach. Apart from that, it also does it with any ship sitting at anchor there. That means problems with keeping the ship off the rocks, problems with keeping a lee for the tenders as the ships thrusters cannot battle against a wind force 7 and problems with getting the guests back onboard safely. The later pertaining to the fact that the tenders would have to battle back to the ship against the swells. Too many problems to be considered challenges; and to be dealt with accordingly. I looked at it for about 30 minutes, checked the latest weather forecast that was now advising even more wind for later in the day and decided that it was a good plan to stay at sea.

Thus I turned the Prinsendam away and set sail for Gustavia in St. Barths. That was the easy part. Now the paperwork began and with it my back up plan. Most guests do not mind three days at sea but it would mean three days in the North Atlantic Ocean. The weather will just be windy but near Cape Hatteras it is really bad and the long swells are making it all the way to where we are sailing. Plan B., was St. Maarten for an afternoon call. Thus this was proposed accordingly to our Think-tank in Seattle who after consultation where all in favor.

Tomorrow, Christmas Eve will be a sea day, then the 25th. a morning at sea followed by noon to 9 pm. docked in St. Maarten.

I announced the plan during the Welcome Onboard toast and it went down very well. The long day was closed off with a final rehearsal for the Christmas choirs at midnight. These holiday cruises are a great but they are a workup, as the weather is very changeable and all the extra activities take up a lot of time and planning.