31 October 2008, At Sea.

Today is the last day of our 36 day Panama Canal and Amazon cruise. After a successful day yesterday at Half Moon Cay, today was a day to wrap things up. Guests were wondering how to get the packing finished by pushing the volume of four suitcases into the two they had brought with them and at the same time still trying to savor the last day at sea. The wind consistently blew from the North East and as we were going West that meant that the wind was with us. We were doing 21 knots, the wind was blowing at 28 knots, so there was a gentle breeze of 5 to10 knots over the decks and that was just nice.

My crystal ball gazing into the Gulf Stream current worked and by staying under the coast of the Florida Keys we did not feel any adverse Gulf Stream current at all, and we made very good speed. In the course of the day it turned out that I could even better my arrival time at the pilot station. So a good day all around. If luck holds out I will be at the pilot station around 2 am tomorrow morning and then docked in Tampa just before 6 am. the preferred time for the Customs and Border Protection Officers to start clearing the ship. As we are coming from a non US port, that will take some time and a timely arrival is therefore of the essence.

Yesterday something very interesting happened. Well it had happened a while ago but I did not know about it as I was not on board at the time. I only found out when Sallie Lange our roving pianist mentioned it to me. For those of you who read my blogs regularly, you might recall that in the blogs I discussed the calls at Haines and was plugging the Hammer Museum. Basically because most people did not believe that it really existed. Well it does and
for a hammer museum it is quite big. It has a website and it does not get enough visitors, thus reason enough for me to mention it. www.hammermuseum.org

After I went home, a major crisis developed in the Art Auctioneer department. The gavel that was being used for hammering of the sale had disappeared. Either it had been taken home by the previous art auctioneer or by a guest, or by a crewmember who envisioned him/herself to be the next Sotheby’s high flyer. However word reached the owner of the hammer museum. As a gavel is also a hammer, he did not hesitate and donated one directly to the ship to solve a major crisis. You cannot do an auction without a gavel. A very nice gavel as well, antique and in perfect shape. My art auctioneer is a very happy man and for me, the appropriate thing to do, is to say thank you to the hammer museum for the donation. If the good people of Haines are still following my blog; as you can see the gavel is in use and carefully looked after. Mr. Dave Pahl, thank you very much for your thoughtfulness in helping the Veendam out.

A happy art auctioneer Brandon Weiss with his gavel from the Hammer museum in Haines.
Photo courtesy Photo and Video manager Noel Chirayath.

So while the art auctioneer was hammering away with his Haines gavel, (he raised over $ 500 for the crew fund when he auctioned off the route chart from this cruise) we sailed by Key West and rounded the Dry Tortugas into the Gulf of Mexico. From there it was one straight course towards the Tampa Sea buoy, which is in a position more than 15 miles from the shore. The west side of Florida is very shallow and that means that there is a long entrance channel leading from the Gulf towards Tampa Bay. By the time the ship reaches the sea buoy it will still be 8 miles to the pilot station and then about four hours sailing to the dock. That means that the evening before Tampa is always an early one for me as I will get up at midnight and will not be back in bed before 7 am. tomorrow morning. However the weather looks good for Tampa, sunny with noon time temperatures of around 80oF, not too much wind and we are docking at terminal three which is a very nice one.