22 September 2014; Halifax, Canada.

After a day in Halifax, I joined the Veendam. My waiting day, the 21st was beautiful during the day with the sun shining and a gentle breeze.  That gave me the chance to explore the Halifax sea front; and you can spend more than a day there.  It only turned very nasty in the evening. The citizens of Halifax, they call themselves Haligonians, are very proud of their seafaring roots and the seafront has been turned into a boardwalk with all that is there to remember of those days.

Sir Samuel Cunard founder of the Cunard Line in 1842, establishing Trans Atlantic travel with a scheduled service.

As an ocean liner historian it was very gratifying to see that there was a statue of Samuel Cunard, the man who put almost singlehandedly, North Atlantic Steam Navigation on the map in a professional way. His name still lives on in the Cunard Line, although the official name of the company is completely different and hardly ever used.

In the same way that people always spoke about the Holland America Line, while it was called the North American Steamship Company (Noord Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij – NASM) Then there is a very nice Emigrant Museum, Pier 21, where now the cruise ships dock and a very nice Maritime Museum.

Two large ships outside, HMCS Sackville and the Arcadia and beautiful displays inside.

HMCS Sackville was a 2nd world war corvette and the only one left from all those that were built

They had a travelling exposition going on about the tragedy of the St. Louis. A German passenger ship which went around half the world, trying to find a safe haven for all the Jewish passengers on board. Nobody in the new world wanted to grant them asylum, so the captain had to turn back and in the end the Netherlands and Belgium took them in. Quite a few of them then still fell into NAZI hands when the Lowlands were overrun in 1940. A very sad chapter in the history of human kind.

Of much more interest and gaiety was the Duck Race that was going on, yes, with rubber duckies varying from Bath tub size to the size of a house. There were cooperated sponsored races and individual sponsored races.

My money went on a cool looking yellow duck wearing sun glasses with the name Albert on its chest but unfortunately, once in the water,  he was more interested in a female duck floating next to him so his progress to the finish line was not to be impressed about. Then a heavy storm came over Nova Scotia with 100 km+ winds. It was going to last into the next day but if the weather followed the predictions of late Sunday night, then by 10 am. the next day it would die down sufficiently for the ship to be able to get into port.

When I woke up, I read that the port was closed but the decision would be reviewed at 10.00 hrs. So I did not worry too much. Just after 10am I got an email from the captain saying that he was coming in at 10.30 following the Norwegian Gem and followed by the Regatta. By noon time this whole cruise fleet was docked and in approx. 30 minutes over 5000 passengers flooded ashore to see the sights of Halifax. Although the wind was dying down in Halifax it was not dying down yet in the Sydney area.

So a decision had to be made about what to do next. In a case like this, it is a combination process between the ship and the office. A. do we expose the guests to a 2nd night of bad weather? B. what if the wind does not die down in time and Sydney harbor is still closed? C. What are the alternatives? It is the ultimately the decision of the Master whether he sails or not. What he does then involves the office. So after reviewing the weather maps and all sorts of alternative plans, it was decided to keep the Veendam alongside in Halifax to allow for the seas and the winds outside to settle. It would also give the guests a quiet night of sleep.

It did not look like Sydney would be feasible at all and thus the call was cancelled and the ship would sail directly to Charlottetown in the next morning, following the storm front instead of sitting in the middle of it. The Regatta also stayed in port as they were going the same way. The Norwegian Gem sailed but they were going southbound, away from the bad weather.

Unfortunately the port authorities could not make any last minute arrangements to man the terminal and thus nobody could go ashore for the evening. Since we have all this security stuff in the world, making last minute arrangements for re-opening terminals has become a lot more difficult; as the check-list culture keeps throwing up challenges against everything that is a deviation from the original plan.

So tonight the ship will stay in port and will then depart early in the morning to sail towards Prince Edward Island. It will still be very windy but the brunt of the weather will have passed. I will meet my next 4 training classes as part of the 3 alarm system change over. The Veendam is the last ship and by October 10, all 15 ships will ring the same bells in the same sequence.