14 January 2010; Key West, Florida

By 09.00 we arrived as scheduled at the pilot station of Key West, only to find that we had to go slow as the Majesty of the Seas did not make her 08.30 pilot slot. As there is in Key West only one group of linesmen, the ships have to arrive at least 30 minutes apart to make a docking sequence with the line handlers possible. Thus we travelled with a slow speed up the channel, sailed around the Majesty of the Seas and docked at the best berth at Mallory Square. The outside temperature was around 61oF, which is cold for Key West and as a result all the locals were dressed up as if it was winter time. Except one linesmen who was still walking around in shorts and slippers. The consensus was however that he probably did not even own a pair of long pants. The way of life is very casual here.

Today the ships complement spend most of its time cleaning up behind the scenes and getting all the loaded stores and provisions from yesterday in their regular space. We do have a lot of storage space on board the Prinsendam, as the ship is designed for long cruises, the challenge is however to store it in such a way that we can find it back and also reach it easily when it has to be issued for use. However everybody is returning to their regular routine and is catching up with the lost sleep of the last few days.

Because we are in an USA port today, work on the aft section could not continue as the labor laws prevent non Americans from working while in port (unless they are ships crews, or have a working permit) As a result they had time to explore the sights of Key West. Two of them only made it back on board 30 seconds before sailing time and thus they will not get ashore at all anymore. The rules for coming back onboard are quite clear and those who do not listen will have to face the consequences. Also the teak deck work is taking more time than expected. Nothing we can do about it as the planned schedule was good but who could expect this kind of weather in Florida and the Bahamas. It takes more time for the underlay of the teakwood and the caulking to cure with the current temperatures and humidity.

I had a comment on my blog asking for a picture of the aft navigation pole when it was installed, well here it is. Only the Suez light is still missing, but as we are not going through the Canal on this cruise, that is not so urgent. It was installed during the last afternoon of our docking, but at least we sailed in compliance. The lights are doubled, which is a requirement and means that if one light burns out (that gives an alarm on the bridge) then the navigator can switch on the back up light while the burned light is being replaced. All navigation lights are on back up power as well, even to such as extent that these lights are the last ones to loose power.

My new navigation light pole on the aft deck. The double anchor light (on the top), the double stern light below and the Suez light yet to be installed.

On departure we followed the same sequence as on arrival. The Majesty of the Seas, docked behind us, leaving first, leaving the whole harbour for us to swing around in and then head for open waters. We will be using the Windward passage to get into the Caribbean Sea and thus we sailed on an Easterly heading North of Cuba. It will be very windy, but sunny, so regular Caribbean weather.