30 April 2013; At Sea.

Today was the 2^nd day at sea and we sailed with a speed of 15 knots along the west coast of the Californian Peninsula. We were now far to the East of the Axis of that Northerly flow 40 miles off the coast and where we were there was no more than 7 knots of wind. A gentle Breeze is what Mr. Beaufort calls that. A good thing as well, otherwise it would have been really chilly today. The noon time temperature dropped to the low sixties. Partly due to the cold wind and cold current, but also partly due to the fact that it was mainly overcast during the day. That was courtesy of the bad weather that was raging near San Francisco where it blew yesterday up to 60 knots. Today that weather is supposed to ease off and then return to more normal patterns. I will need that as we are going that way, the day after tomorrow. I do not want sick people on the two last days of the cruise. Plus we are embarking about 400 people for the coastal and they want to enjoy themselves and that excludes the ship acting as a roller coaster. But we will see; it all depends on how fast wind and waves will dissipate.

Last night we had our Orange Ball in the crow nest and it was a big success. The lounge was choc a bloc with people and also a lot of the non Dutch guests had dressed themselves with some sort of Orange attribute to be part of the happening. The Dutch guests formed the nucleus of the dance floor action and it lasted well into the morning. We had our 2^nd hour back this night, to get us on California time, and that did help of course.

So now the Queen has retired and we have a King and Queen. That means having to report to two women, The Queen being my legal Lord and Master and my wife taking care of the rest, the situation will now be more balanced. King Willem Alexander will now be in charge and no doubt Queen Maxima will tell him what to do. The Netherlands can look forward to another 30 years of peace and stability. Some people say that we should have a democratically elected Presidency but then you get politics all the way to the top and a monarchy stands more above it; as their concern is with continuation and not with the latest opinion poll of the day. My interest as being half Dutch & half British is to see if the Queen of England will also do something similar and opt for the chance to joy a bit of retirement. When I check the The Times I am amazed what sort of relentless pace she keeps up from day to day, year in year out.

This is what the guests found on their bed this evening. Instead of a towel animal, a towel crown.

On board we are now waiting for the arrival of the new State Portraits. The Statendam will need three of them.  One in my office and one in the Hotel Directors office. Those two are needed as a captain has to execute his office, “under the benevolent eye of the monarch of the Kingdom of the Netherlands” as it says somewhere in the rules. That means that there has to be a 2^nd portrait in the HD office, as there is where I address the naughty crewmembers as my own office is too small for that.

When I sit there, I have the Queen – now King gazing over my shoulder.  The 3^rd photo will have to go in the ship as that is a requirement as well. On the Statendam we do not have that at the moment, as we have a bust of Queen Beatrix just outside the Front Office.  I am not expecting that we get a new bust of the King, so I will have to find a nice spot for the new portrait.

Tomorrow we will be in San Diego; about 600 guests are leaving and about 440 joining us. Then in Victoria approx. 140 guests will leave and then we will have a full turn over (apart from a few guests who stay with us for Alaska) in Vancouver.

Tomorrow during the day we have our annual USCG inspection to renew our certificates and in the mean time I will worry about the weather.