14 April 2012; At Sea.

 It is becoming a common complaint among my colleagues about all the wind that we have at the moment. Not only where the Statendam is sailing but nearly everywhere. From Down under, to deep into the East Mediterranean. It is blowing everywhere and much harder than what is normal. Even the weather forecasts cannot keep up with it. Since we have left San Diego it has been blowing at least 10 knots more than forecast. Luckily we now have it all with us. Although we suffered when we were Northbound to San Diego of course. It already started when we sailed out of the port. The forecast had indicated this frontal system coming by, with rain squalls but by the time we were outside, that band of rain had just passed over. When we poked our nose out to sea, sailing past Punta Loma, we got the full brunt of the wind on the Starboard side and with 30 knots it was more than expected. And not much has changed since then. 

We now have following winds, so it does not really affect us and it helps a bit with the speed, but the point is it is so much more than forecast and for what is normal here. A lot of people will point towards global warming but that is something I cannot prove. It is just very very windy. We will keep that until we come under the coast near Puerto Vallarta and then we should end up again in calmer weather. We will be in the shelter of Cabo San Lucas for a while but I also expect a strong outflow out of the Sea of Cortez which will be on the port beam until we come under the lee of the Mexican mainland. Whatever is going on I do not know but peculiar it is.

Quartermaster in protective gear busy with the spray project. The QM. in regular uniform is just moving something out of the way.

Still life on board goes on regardless and today I have kick started another project. Sprucing up the bridge. When I left the Statendam in 2001, the instrument consoles were still in their light blue shipyard colors. Then in the intervening years some bright spark painted them over. Nothing against that, but the color chosen was drab green. That gave the bridge a sort of military look but also made the atmosphere quite depressive, at least during day light hours. This cruise with its many relaxing sea days is an excellent opportunity to do some painting. The chief officer bought a few boxes with spray cans and the Quartermasters are in full swing. Taping off the instruments and then spraying it all over. We should be able to complete the project by the end of this cruise. Then I still want new carpet for the bridge but I will think that I will hold off until after dry – dock 2013.

We are sailing this cruise with a real full house. Normally we have all the cabins occupied but there are always a larger number of single occupants that keep the total guest count under 1200. Now with 1233 on board we are coming close, to not only all cabins occupied, but also nearly all beds occupied as our maximum capacity is 1266. We normally only go over that number when we do 7 day cruises around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then the requests come in for folding beds in the cabins and or baby cots, when whole families (sometimes 3 or 4 generations together) book a cruise. On this ship we have less of a challenge with that because we do the 14 day cruises and Christmas and New Year is combined in one cruise.

The toddler area of Club Hal. There is also an area for 8 to 14 and then a teen area (called The Loft) for older.

We always have a few children but as the number is not that high, they have Club Hal almost to themselves with the Club HAL Lady. As a result it is nearly impossible to get them out of there. Much to the delight of the parents during the day but sometimes also to their dismay in the evening, when little Johnny prefers to go to Club Hal with pizza, instead of going to dinner with his parents in the dining room.

 Tomorrow we will have our second day at sea and we will do some sightseeing past Cabo San Lucas. I hope to spot some whales but at the moment we see more on our way down there, than in the actual area. The whales are moving up north and are supposed to arrive in Alaska by mid June. I think we will pass a few while sailing along the Californian and Oregon coast. We will still have following winds, strong winds of course and then by 13.00 hrs we will turn into the area under Cabo San Lucas. That will mean that the outside temperature will start to climb from 16 C /61 F to 23 C /74 F or so.