18 March 2011; Bridgetown, Barbados.

Thus we arrived, bright and early. By 04:30 my phone ran and 15 minutes later I was standing on the bridge looking at the lights of Barbados twinkling on the port side.  The radar screen revealed that the other cruise ships were also approaching but nobody had changed their ETA, so there was not going to be a fight at the pilot station about the proper line up. The pilot was already awake and he was shifting the Braemar from dock 2, in front of the cruise terminal, to the Breakwater South berth. She had to make room for the Azurra which with 2,500 guests onboard was doing a change over in Bridgetown. The Azurra belongs to P&O and mainly sails with British guests. They way they do it is, they fly in half the new guests with two or three charter planes. They are being transported to the ship while, the first half of the disembarks go the other way. Then the planes fly during the night back home to the UK and then return the next day with the 2^nd half of the new guests and on the return leg take the 2^nd half of the disembarks home. Quite a logistical challenge but they do it every week or 10 days and the routine works quite well.

 The Azurra was scheduled for 06:15 and thus did we sail into the port first at 05:30. The Braemar was moving slower than expected so it was not before 05:45 that the pilot was onboard but I did not waste anytime and swung the ship around quickly and backed in, towards the dock. This was not far as we were allocated Breakwater North, so basically I only had to go astern one ships length and move sideways to the dock. By 06:15 we were happily docked and then could watch the whole parade come in. First the Azurra, then the Seven Seas Mariner, followed by the Celebrity Constellation and the final one, The World, the floating country club. That filled up the whole port. There was a small motor yacht docked at the pilot station and also one outside but that was big enough to be mistaken for a small cruise ship. Called the Kitara, she was 123 meters long and that is some length for a private yacht. She is currently the 9^th. largest in the world and was built in Germany. For the rest very little is known about what is inside this yacht, but the price tag of $ 300 million indicates that she must be quite luxurious.

 It turned out the best day of the cruise thus far; just a gentle breeze and we had sunshine all day long. In way it was a pity that we had to leave at 16.00 hrs already but that what was the schedule said and that is what I have to go by.  As we were docked nose out, departure only took five minutes and then we were in the open again.  I stayed about a mile from shore while sailing towards the South point of Barbados as from there we were starting our crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean. Although we are quite close to the equator we are staying North of it as both the Cape Verdes Islands and The Gambia are in the Northern hemisphere.

Normally I have a decision to make, whether we go Great Circle or to go Rhumb line. The farther North you sail, the biggest gain you can make by taking the Great Circle route as it follows the earth’s curvature the best. On a globe a straight line, is the longer line and the curved line, the shorter one. However sailing so close to the equator, the difference over 2000 miles is exactly 1.5 miles. At the equator where the earth is the widest, that difference is zero.

A quick over view of the currents of the North Atlantic. The Azores current is renamed in Canary current when it comes further down and then renamed in North Equatorial current when is curves West.

Also when you cross further north, you get the Gulf Stream in the back, as a following current, which gives a little bit of extra speed. No such luck this time, the North Equatorial current will be against us all the way to the Cape Verdes. Only the wind might change direction but for the time being it will also be against us, so it will be breezy on the forward decks.