17 November 2016; Trans –Atlantic Crossing, Day 8.

Today is the last day of our Trans – Atlantic crossing. Although I counted 8 days, it was really 10 if you include the call at Funchal and the sea day before.  Also today is not really a Trans – Atlantic crossing day but more a “sail around Florida” day.  We could see the first part of the Florida coast this morning around 02.00 hrs. when we came out of the North Providence Channel and then it came closer and closer as we crossed the Florida Straits near Fort Lauderdale. By 09.00 hrs. we were south of Key West and by noon time we had started the turn around the West side of the Dry Tortugas. Now we are on a nearly straight northerly course heading for the sea buoy at Tampa. We should be there tomorrow morning around 01.30 hrs. with a 02.00 hrs. pilot pick up. Then it is four hours to the dock with the plan to be alongside by 06.00 hrs. Today we had a very sunny but windy day but the wind is supposed to die down in the evening hours to a gentle breeze. On the whole we have had a VERY good crossing for November with on average very smooth and sunny weather.  no doubt some people will be disappointed as they were hoping for a real storm but most guests will be very happy with what the last 8 days brought.

The ship is only doing about 16 knots, while our average crossing speed was 19 knots. But all the way across we had a little bit of current in the back and that helped nibbling down our average speed to maintain. The bridge reported not too much adverse current while sailing under the Florida Keys today which means that the Gulf Stream axis was today quite a bit more to the Center of the Straits.  All these positive results also made it possible for the captain to come in a bit earlier and to be docked by 06.00 so the CBP can do its pre boarding. In Tampa they like to do that; a sort of pre inspection which ensures that when all the other Inspectors arrive by 07.00 hrs. things will run smoothly. Although the CBP is federal the local supervisors have a lot of independence and that means that every port has its own routines. That can be a bit confusing if you do not have a standard US home port but for Tampa it works quite well. Once you know the way they like it, it is steady going for the whole season.

Tampa is talking all the time about building a new cruise terminal outside the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which would make it possible to have higher ships come to Tampa. Now we are limited to the bridge clearance height which for the Oosterdam will be about 10 feet tonight. We as captains would love that as well as it would shave 3 hrs. from the transit. But they are still talking and not much is happening. A long long time ago, in the 1980’s, there was a very small cruise ship called the Vera Cruz which docked in the port of Manatee just behind the Sunshine Skyway Bridge but Holland America who arrived in 1982, has always docked at the top end of the port.  The port is also a bit too small for larger ships. First we went to the Holland Terminal (very appropriate name) and then some bright spark built a cruise terminal but did so in a not very clever place.

To get to the Cruise docks since then, we have to sail through Sparkman Channel, which is fairly narrow and often even narrower because of barges being docked alongside. This channel can be a real challenge when there is a lot of wind and that wind is mostly on the beam and so we drift. But the docks are there and until we get a cruise terminal outside the bridge we will have to go through the channel. Interesting for the guests to see on departure but questionable for the mental state of the captain. I have been in and out of Tampa well over a hundred times since 1993 and I am considered to still (fairly) be normal and thus our Oosterdam captain will also survive the run in and out. Still Sparkman Channel is not one of my favorite words.

Tomorrow is going to be a nice day with sunshine and high temperatures and very little wind. 84oF / 29oC and only 5 knots of wind. A little cooler would have been nice for the guests joining and leaving as lugging suitcases is hard work in the open with only bare concrete around.

Very nice weather around Florida and the upper Caribbean. And still a very dis-organized happening further south.

In the meantime we are keeping an eye on the weather in the Caribbean. It still looks like nothing but the weather gurus are convinced it will become something. They thought that three days ago and they are still thinking it. They have even reserved a name for this Tropical Storm that does not yet exist: OTTO.

I quote from the hurricane watch website:

An area of low pressure over the southwestern Caribbean, a couple of hundred miles north of Panama, continues to produce a large, disorganized area of showers and thunderstorms. While it is currently poorly organized, favorable environmental conditions are expected over this area for tropical development, and a tropical depression should form this weekend or early next week. Once this system becomes a depression, it should continue to intensify and there’s a good chance this system will become Tropical Storm Otto. During the past 20 years, most storms that formed in the southwest or western Caribbean went on to become hurricanes.