26 October 2008, Bridgetown Barbados.

After two relaxing days at sea it was time to hit the next port. Bridgetown Barbados. It being a Sunday meant that we were the only ship in port. Barbados is an island that tries to keep tradition going as much as possible and that has some impact on the cruise operation. Most shops close on Saturday afternoon at 2 pm. as there is the cricket game later on, and most shops are closed on Sundays as it is the day of the Lord. Hence most cruise ships are scheduled to call on weekdays and midweek it is not unusual to have four or five ships in on one day, including one or two mega liners.

I did not have the luxury of calling on a weekday, as the schedule simply called for a Sunday call. On the other hand if the shops are not open, you cannot spend any money and that has a positive result on the credit card bill. The cruise terminal was open of course and all the tours were available. For those on tours the Sunday call had the advantage that they did not have to share the highlights of the island with 10,000 guests from other ships.

Bridgetown Barbados has a nice port. Deep water with a wide entrance; where only one 90 degree turn takes you straight to the dock. As the weather had been very quiet of wind in the last few days, there was a considerable current running in the front of the harbor entrance. Normally the strong easterly wind pushes the water to the north west, now with very little wind, it was as if all the water wanted to flow back to the south east past the harbor entrance. It is a current that is not really predictable. You just find out that it is there, when you get there. Thus when we lined up for the pilot, the Veendam was set to the south with almost a knot of sideways speed. That might not sound to be very much, but if you only have 500 yards between the entry buoys, there is not much room to drift. Thus we lined up with a drift angle of nearly 40 degrees, while the pilot boarded and gently made our way into port.

It was a nice day, only marred with one torrential downpour in the early afternoon. Most of the time we get at least one shower in Barbados. It seems as if they try to emulate the British way of life as much as possible, including the rain. At least it had the great advantage that it washed all the salt from the hull. The chief officer with the sailors is working very hard to bring the cleanliness of the ship back to pre-Amazon standards. It is amazing how quickly a ship gets dirty if you cannot do the daily cleaning, which we could not do of course while going up and down the Amazon due to fresh water restrictions. Also this time we had had hardly any rain while on the Amazon and thus the chief has to pull all the stops out at the moment to get the ship back to par. For that purpose he had also rented a cherry picker in the port.

In the old days everything was done with a bo’sun chair hanging from the railing but nowadays the modern ships have so many angles and are so high that a bo’sun chair can hardly be used anymore. So where ever we can, we try to rent cherry pickers to work on the outside of the hull. For the same reason we will be docking in Tampa alternating with port and starboard side each week. That will make it possible to work on both sides of the hull on a bi-weekly basis.

My day was filled with the more social stuff and a few inspection rounds. Since joining the ship I had not had a chance to do a walk through the Engine room to see how the Chief Engineer was going on and today was a perfect day to do so. Also we started our monthly series of 2nd level meetings. This is when we call all the officers and petty officers together to listen to grievances, ideas for improvement (both for themselves and for the company) and to find out what their outlook is on the way we conduct our business. We have a similar system for the crew and all observations made and points raised are shared with the office. The result is that HR in the head office can more quickly react to the changing needs of the officers and crew on board than would otherwise be possible.

My day was closed off with a special dinner for the guests who occupy the Suites on board the ship and we served them an Indonesian Rijsttafel which is was of my favorites. I am afraid to say it was not a good day for my waist line.

Tomorrow we are at sea, and while the guests relax, there will be more meetings for me, parties in the afternoon, a Captains dinner in the evening and then one of the highlights of the cruise, the Black and White Officers Ball.