During last night the swells slowly abated although it did not go as fast as the weather chart indicated. But today the swell got back on schedule again and went down to about 6 to 8 feet. Which is similar to the regular swells you find in the Caribbean Sea. Thus we are back to normal.
The Azores are back in the blue and the green. And with a bit of luck the red of another wave field will stay nicely to the North. (Chart courtesy of Surf-forecast.com)
For the arrival the swell did not bother us as Ponta Delgada is located on the South side of the island and thus completely in the lee of any swells North of the direct East and West directions. The Captain swung the ship around on arrival and we docked nose out at the Cruise Terminal. We were later followed by the Aida Vita who also sailed stern in but docked at the inside of the breakwater which is officially the cargo pier.
Docking nose out when possible is a sort of safety routine as you can shoot out from the berth directly into safety; into deep water. The only berth where this does not matter that much is the corner berth of the breakwater. If you are docked there, then you can just give full astern and you are in safety as well. With the other berths where you still have to travel a certain distance to get outside and then nose out works faster.
The cruise terminal with parking on the top and shops and handling area under it.
They built a new cruise terminal here a number of years ago, when the three cargo berths were completely insufficient to cope with all the cruise traffic. This is the first time I have been docked at it, as during past calls my ship was always the smaller ship and then they put the biggest one at the cruise terminal. They did so today as well, the AidaVita is smaller and thus it had to go to the cargo berth. For the guests it means a longer walk as you have to walk around the rim of the harbor. The cruise terminal ends up directly at the main street leading into town.
Ponta Delgada does not have a Big Red Bus to do a hop on hop off sightseeing tour and thus I decided to stay on board. They do some beautiful tours here on the island but you have to book and organize in advance. What many guests do and what works quite well, when not going on a Holland America tour, is to book a taxi. Many of the local taxi drivers speak very good English, are very knowledgeable and very proud to show you their island. The only danger is the ship will not wait if you get back too late, while it will wait from the ships tours if they are delayed in returning. If you would have missed the ship here, then you could rejoin tomorrow in Horta. There is a ferry system but it runs on a limited schedule outside the peak season.
This morning the whole crew went through the motions again of the full General Emergency system. Starting with a fire drill under the show lounge (First Stage Emergency Alarm) followed by the assembly alarm of all without a function (Crew Alert Alarm), followed by the General Emergency Alarm which calls everybody to the lifeboats and life rafts. Now it was only for the crew but in a real emergency the same system is used for the guests as well. At the Crew Alert Alarm all guests are told to go to their cabins to get ready and then at the General Emergency Alarm they will all go to their Lifeboat stations. So I ran around this morning through all the drills, to see if each and every team followed the company standard instructions and routines. Observations made are shared and then used for further improvement. Training and exercising on a cruise ship never stops as the crew keeps changing and need constant refreshment in the routines to stay on top of their proficiency.
Tomorrow we are in Horta on the island of Faial. This will be an anchor stop and also Horta is on the south side of the island. The only question, which answer we will only find out on arrival, is whether the remnants of the swell are curving around the island or not and will it reach the tender area or that we will have very flat and calm waters to enjoy. In the meantime we are back to a gently moving ship as can be expected on the North Atlantic.
Weather for Horta: Partly Cloudy, leaning to Overcast as they are expecting rain on Monday and a temperature of 67oF or 19oC.
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