04 December 2012; At Sea.

So we made the hop over December 3 and landed safely on December 4^th. The lights did not go out, the bridge computers did not stop, the sun still rose in the East and the GPS told us that we were still going in the right direction. Tonight the guests will get the date line certificate in their cabin, giving them proof that they really did it. Later on there will be a certificate for the crossing of the equator. That crossing we will do both ways as well and eventually we will sail East and then North East back towards San Diego. The dateline crossing also did not make any difference to the weather, this morning it breezed up to wind force 6, as was indicated on the weather chart of December 3^rd. The weather sites that I use on the internet are mainly from the USA and Europe and thus I have to keep an eye on the correct date. Normally with planning a cruise, I am always days ahead of everybody; now during the coming few days, I will be a day behind everybody, at least as far as the weather is concerned.

We continued today on the same straight course line that we had settled on once we came around the East Point of Hawaii. With all deep water around us, there is no reason to change course. Now having been at sea for more than a full day, it gives you an idea about how wide the Pacific Ocean is and how sparsely it is dotted with islands. When looking at an atlas, you think differently as you see many dots all over the place; but the dots are in no relation to the real size of the island in comparison to the vastness of the sea around them.

I am trying to puzzle out how much swell I will have to content with while we are off the entrance. The gap into the Atoll is in the mid west side of the ring and if the wind is not too much to the south East, the ring will act as a swell breaker. The official – recommended- anchorage is on the West side of the Atoll, where there is the best protection from wind and swell. For us that area has no use as we cannot land our tenders there.  The tender pier is located in the inner side of the East entrance and thus I have to hover there with the ship. Hence my great interest of whether we will get a good lee or not. The less lee, the more I will have to maneuver and the bouncier the tender ride will be into the Lagoon.

So I am planning our initial setup when we get to the island and then it will all depend on wind, weather, locals and the tender service.  It is all a bit of an expedition, when you go to these very remote islands but that is part of the fun of it.

As this is a cruise with so many sea days, we are trying to do a lot of extra things for the guests. Items that are not standard in the program, nor required by the company. But TEAM – Statendam is all about service and so we put in a few un-usual things. Thus this afternoon the deck department held a lifesaving demonstration in the Lido pool, lifejackets, all sorts of equipment and the training life rafts were brought out to provide an educational and entertaining half hour for the guests.  This is done in between the officers’ watches and the maintenance jobs and thus there is not much time to prepare for these sorts of things. Hence we had the hiccup that the training raft malfunctioned during the inflation. We will repeat that another time during this cruise and then also bring out the equipment we use for retrieving people from the water.

Tomorrow morning we will arrive on the North side of Fanning Island. We will keep to the West of the Atoll and then approach the entrance in the islands ring from the South West and hopefully find a nice place to drift for the day.

Current weather prediction: Easterly winds (good direction) 10 to 15 knots (not too bad either) low South – Easterly swell.  (It will all depend how much East or how much South East that swell is, to make me a very happy, or a very unhappy camper.) 

We will be hovering with the ship just above the mid left gap in the Island. The little port of English Harbour is located on the lower side of the gap.