29 Oct. 2015; At Sea from Cadiz to Ponta Delgado, Portugal.

Cadiz is sheltered under the Portuguese coast and because of that we did not feel any movement at all during the first few hours. Then late last night, the gentle movement of the ship started caused by the motion of the ocean. Finally we were really back at sea again and so it stayed for the remainder of the night. By this morning, the wind slowly started to pick up from nearly zero to a good 25 to 30 knots by lunch time. As the wind was mainly on the bow, the ship went against it with 15 knots, which is a force 4 and if you would have been able to stand out in the open on the bow, you would have had a severe storm experience. However the Zuiderdam has wind breakers on the top deck and an enclosed promenade deck near the bow and the thus the guests were kept nicely out of the wind.  By this afternoon it started to get overcast with darker clouds and we saw rain developing in the distance. We are coming closer to this weather system which will produce the high waves.

With the increasing wind there should have been more swell already and thus more motion but that was not the case. We had “confused swell”.  Swells and seas from various directions and they dampened each other out quite nicely. Giving for the North Atlantic in autumn a very comfortable ride.  Still there were a few guests rumbling about the moving of the ship and in one instance a gentleman demanded a solution from me at once. I was a bit puzzled about how he singled me out but by now the crew all know me and they gingerly deflected his problems to me. “Ask Captain Albert, he is from Corporate, he knows everything”. ———— I am going up in the world day by day.  So I explained to the gentleman that Holland America had created happy hour in the bars just for this purpose. Two drinks for one and all your problems are solved. The Front Office believes in green apples and crackers, I believe in a planter’s punch or a high ball to cure sickness.  I have never been sea sick on a HAL ship so it must work.  The gentleman did not look completely convinced and opted for a lay down in his cabin instead.

The blue circle was our location today, the green circle is for late tomorrow morning when we enter the wave field. (Courtesy www. Swell-forecast.com)

However the confused swells are not going to last and by tomorrow morning the heavy swells from the North West will start to take over. As you can see from the wave chart we are still expecting 21 feet, while today we had about 12 to 14 feet in confused seas and swell. How much the ship will move will depend on the period of the swell. If it is a nice and long swell then the ship might nicely climb up and go down with the amplitude. If it is a short running swell it might lift the ship up and then drop it down again; we call that pitching and sometimes it becomes severe enough for the bow to bash onto the waves and you get this banging noise which vibrates all the way through the ship.  For those who can stand it, it can give some spectacular water displays over the bow, visible from the crow’s nest. For those who can’t there is the option of green apples, crackers, planters punch and highballs.

With the wobbly ocean it is hard to see night wild life in the ocean and although I looked for a while, I did see anything, neither birds, nor fish. Just a lonely cargo ship heading the other way. For the guests it did not matter that much as the ship was in full swing with lectures varying from flying over the Andes to Portugal and its Empire. Then there was bridge (when isn’t there bridge??) and for the more active people there was Bean Bag Toss, and the Dancing with the Stars competition.  For those battling sea sickness there was Premium Wine tasting, Beer tasting, Mixology class and for the non-alcohol minded the Indonesian Tea Ceremony.  (And that is of course only a small sampling of what is crammed into our daily program)

With the crossing of the Ocean we get time differences and tonight we go our 2^nd hour back and that will bring us on the Azores time. With an hour back it is a good opportunity to have the crew show as it basically means that the crew is not losing any sleep while giving this extra performance for the guests.  Tonight it is the turn of the Philippino’s and if the waves will indeed hold until tomorrow then they should be able to do their regular program.

Tomorrow we will have our 2^nd day at sea and I expect that the afternoon will be quite lively until it dies down again in the evening.  At the moment it does not look like that we have to worry about our call at Ponta Delgada.