16 December 2010; At Sea.

Our last reminder of the Amazon are the dead bugs that we still find and a number of crickets who have lodged themselves in the cracks and crevices of the ship. During our last sojourn to the Amazon in March, a few of these noise makers adopted the Prinsendam as their travelling home and it was not until July, when we were in the Arctic that the last one finally gave up. According to some “bug” experts they seem to enjoy eating the glue of the carpets and that makes a cruise ship a real heaven ofcourse. Although regular food is available in large quantities as well. Not in the food outlets of the ship, where we have a very effective pest control but in the cabins and the corridors. Little morsels are dropped when guests move through the corridors, when taking items to the cabins or just when eating a cookie or an ice cream while going along. The guests have been very good with keeping the balcony and accommodation doors closed and thus far we have not heard them inside the cabins or in the public rooms. There is one sitting at the moment somewhere in the top of the forward passenger staircase but luckily not close to the cabins. The problem is that these crickets are impossible to find when they decide to hide as their body size is absolutely not in line with the noise that they produce. Thus I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope that Mr. Cricket might decide to fly away when the air gests cooler.

This trip up and down to Manaus we missed a little bit the larger wildlife, hitching a ride on the ship. When I did the Veendam trip I had bats hanging on the propeller shafts of the tenders and large moths (5+ inches) sitting against the windows for most of the night. None of those this time. However the number of small bugs was much larger. Especially on the stretch from Boca de Valeria to Manaus and from Manaus to Parintins, where we sailed very close to the shore at times; lots of them ended up on the decks and the super structure.

As we had to conserve water on the Amazon, because we can not make any due to the mud in the river, the Bo’ sun did not wash the decks in the morning. Instead his sailors only swept the decks after day light when the bugs tend to disappear. At least those that are either ambulant or wise enough. The average harvest of one morning was a 5 gallon drum of creeping crawlies filled to the rim. Apart from making the decks walk able this way for the guests, it was also important for keeping the deck drains clear. With all possible the rain fall in the Amazon, the rain falling on the ship can only leave via the drains and if the drain covers are clogged up with accumulated bugs, we have a real problem. We only had one downpour this cruise and that was just before departure Santarem but the amount of water being drained off the deck, made the drain pipe end look like a 3 inch fire hose under full pressure.

This dealing with bugs is one thing that they do not prepare you for at the Maritime Academy. It is purely something that you learn while going there. It forms part of this ever fascinating job called being captain of a cruise ship. Every sort of maritime transport needs specialist people with specialist challenges. However the cruise ship business seems to generate a few that you would never think about and one of them is Amazon bug control.

Tomorrow we will be in Bridgetown Barbados and I am at the moment puzzled by the weather. My weather charts say wind force 5 to 7 and a lot of rain but the local newspaper says that it will all by gone before we get there. Thus I hope that the locals have it right this time.