Early this morning we left the Caribbean Sea behind and sailed through the Windward Passage into the North Atlantic. The area we call the Old Bahama Channel. Using the Windward Passage is the shortest route to go from Cartagena to the Bahamas. When you leave the Caribbean Sea proper, you sail between Jamaica to the West and Haiti to the East. This is called the Jamaica Passage. From there, keeping Haiti on the starboard side, you proceed straight north towards the Windward Passage which is located between Haiti and Cuba. Together with the Mona Passage (further to the East) the Windward is one of the most used passages to get in and out of the Caribbean Sea. Mona is mostly for ships to and from Europe and the Windward for ships coming from the East Coast of the USA and going to Panama. Ships from the Gulf of Mexico of course use the Yucatan channel situated of the West point of Cuba.
The VSS is very simple. Just a North south separation of the Traffic flows. Howver some of the sailing community still have problems with it.
I am always a bit weary of the Windward Passage, due to the fact that traffic streams from several directions are meeting here. For that reason a Vessel Separation Scheme (VSS) has been established around Cabo Maisi the East point of Cuba. Still with the “highway at Sea” in place, separating the North going ships from the South going ships, I have seen some hair raising situations here. Ships cutting corners, ships sailing in the wrong lane, ships cutting your bow etc.etc. The routes are clearly marked in the charts but still it seems that there are always ships that ignore it. I remember an occasion in the past when we saw a Chinese bulk carrier crossing the whole VSS under the most perfect 45o angle and thus managing to bother every ship in the system. Hailed and questioned by several ships, why this was going on, the mate on watch cheerfully announced that his captain had told him to ignore all those pink parts in the chart (pink denotes the separation of the traffic flows) as pink was a color only for westerners.
Another time, we had a tanker coming from the SW and curving sharply around Cabo Maisi and once abeam started to cross over. That means he violated several rules. First he was sailing on the wrong side of the VSS and then proceeded to cross under a slight angle, instead of perpendicular or nearly perpendicular as required by the rules. When I called him to find out what he was doing, I was told in no uncertain terms that he was on his way, crossing the Windward Passage and that I had to stay clear of him. The latter I was doing anyway as you do not want to be in close quarters with anybody who shows such a blatant disregard for the rules. Thus with that in the back of my mind, I had instructed the navigators to be very careful with each Tom and Dick and Harry that would be coming into view and to keep the watertight doors on the lower decks closed. Luckily it was quiet and there was only one ship in the area, which happened to follow the standard courses of the passage but just outside the VSS.
Once clear we sailed straight north until we entered Bahamian territory when passing Great Inagua Island. From there we kept Acklins Island on our sb side and Long island (which is called that way because it is very long and narrow) on our portside. Tomorrow morning I will approach the anchorage at sunrise to start our tender operation at daylight. We only have a short call here, until 13.30 as we have to make Fort Lauderdale on time which is our final port of call and thus the end of the cruise. During the day I had my 2nd Mariners luncheon and that meant that out of the 1217 guests on board, over a 1000 were repeat guests. The weather for tomorrow looks extremely good, with partly cloudy skies and no wind at all. Great for the guests but not perfect for me, as normally the NE trade wind keeps the ship behind the anchor and off the beach. With no wind, the prevailing current might push the ship towards the beach and that means that I might have to keep one engine going to stay behind the anchor. Still things could be a lot worse.
October 13, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Ben zeer geinteresseerd in de verhalen die geschreven worden.
Als je dit zo leest is de opleiding van de Nederlandse Zeevarenden beter dan die in de rest van de wereld.
Heel goede reis verder. Hoop deze reis wel mee te maken
October 13, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Wat een vreemde vertaling in het nederlands
October 13, 2011 at 10:05 pm
I am so happy you are back. Love to read your daily blog. We are of to the Westerdam 11/20-12/4. Can’t wait! Thanks again for your effort.
October 13, 2011 at 11:43 pm
What ship will you be on Oct. 24th you were our captain a few years ago on the Vandam, the crew said me and my grandmother were the only ones they had seen get you to laugh in a photo, dont know if you remember that but it would be awesome if you were on the Zuiderdam. My grandmother has since died of cancer and she loved messing with you that day i carry that photo with me every where i go if you are the captain of the Zuiderdam on the 24th i will show you the picture. 😀 Hope to see you
October 14, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I will be on the Statendam on Oct 24th and will remain there until 9 dec. Sorry about that, but your Zuiderdam captain will be somebody else.
Thank you for reading my blog
Capt. albert
October 13, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Am really enjoying your blog. Will be aboard next March and love learning all this info you are providing, One question: how wide is the VSS?
October 14, 2011 at 12:05 pm
The whole VSS is about 5 miles wide, so there is ample room to sail inside it or to stay away from it. Ships can over take, keep there own speed or stop, whatever they want to do. the only thing that is being required, is that when in the VSS you follow the general direction of the VSS and enter and leave accordingly to the rules.
Thank you for reading my blog
Capt. Albert