We arrived exactly on schedule at the pilot station. The pilot was slow in coming out and as a result he stepped on board when I was about to start the turn into the harbor. The weather on arrival was un-expectedly very windy (so much for weather forecasts to be correct) which caused the ship more to “drift” into port, than to “cruise” into port. As we were to be docked at the inner side of the far end of the breakwater, the approach was mainly making a turn of 90o to the West stopping on time, and slowing the ship’s sideways movement down by the thrusters, so that the wind did not push the ship too fast to the dock.

We were docked at 09.15, for an official arrival time of 10 am. This gave the local authorities ample time to clear the ship, the shorex department time to set up the buses and thus there was no delay for the guests, as the first one could step off the ship at 09.40. During the day the weather cleared and the sun came out, although it remained chilly. Some of our guests were expecting Mediterranean temperatures, but it is only April and the Ocean still has some Northerly winds blowing.

The second day of Easter did not seem to be a big thing in the town, as the port was fully operational and all the shops were open. However as we were docked at the end of the breakwater, the guests had to get all the way to the beginning of the pier to make it into town. A shuttle bus was laid on and for those in big hurry taxi’s were available in good numbers. It was good to see that the port is building a dedicated cruise terminal on the town side. This terminal with a dock length of 350 meters is supposed to be ready by April next year and then the guests can just walk from the terminal directly into town without having to go through the cargo port.

For those who have an interest in cargo operations, a small cargo vessel, docked in front of us, was unloading corn in bulk. Bulk means that it is not packaged but loaded directly into the cargo hold. Before a ship loads such a cargo an inspector comes on board to see if the hold is clean, spotlessly clean, and when satisfied approves loading. The corn is then “pumped” into the hold(s) by means on a Grain Elevator, which is nothing else but a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks the corn from the storage silo into the ship. Here into Punta Delgado there is no Grain Elevator to do the work, so a crane with a grabber is used to discharge. That makes the process much longer. Thus the longshoremen had to hurry up, because after the Veendam’s departure two other cruise ships were expected, taking up a bigger part of the dock, so the cargo ship had to be out before 6 am. the next morning and the dock cleaned.

Departure was a quick affair and consisted of what I call the “blow-away-maneuver”. It just meant in this case going astern from the dock, and when clearing the end of the pier, let the wind push the ship out to open waters, while the pilot disembarks. Both on arrival and departure we had a pilot onboard whose presence is compulsory. I do need not a pilot for docking and undocking, but he is in contact with the shore side and most of the time that speeds up the docking procedures greatly.