Today we started a repeat of the cruise from 14 days ago, going Fort Lauderdale – Amber Cove – San Juan – Philipsburg / St.Maarten – Half Moon Cay – Fort Lauderdale.  We are sailing with a full house, including many families as this is the Easter Holiday Cruise. We had Easter chocolate eggs this morning during Lido Breakfast and the Easter Bunny had deposited them at the Salad corner, because as we all know, Chocolate Easter Eggs are calorie free otherwise nobody would eat them.  Happy Easter from the ms Eurodam.

I will not make the full voyage as I have to catch my next ship, the ms Rotterdam, and will therefore fly from St. Maarten to Tampa as the Rotterdam is also a Sunday ship. Trying to make it from ship to ship in one day is too tight when taking into consideration disembarkation, waiting at the airport and possible flight delays. You can drive it in about 4 hrs. but with picking up a car and dropping it off, it is still very tight.

So I will leave the ship earlier as there would be nothing for me to do on the Eurodam after this cruise anyway as the ship will go to wet dock. The ship’s crew is already very busy with planning for that.

The ship will go to Freeport for a 10 day wet dock and after that it will commence the spring Trans canal cruise heading for Alaska. She will then be a Seattle based ship sailing 7 days to Alaska.  A wet dock is a maintenance docking of a ship whereby it is not lifted out of the water……….. , it is not going dry as it is not going into a dry-dock.  In the old days the ships went into dry dock once a year but with better underwater paint and better seals on the propeller shafts or Azipods that is no longer a requirement. Now the ships are going dry every 2.5 years but even this can be extended if Lloyds Register (on behalf of Flag State and the Insurance companies) agrees. This happens sometimes if the cruise schedule of the ship cannot be brought into synch with the regular dry dock schedule and then everything is a little bit extended.

Grand Bahama Shipyard is a big operation and does not only cater for the cruise ships of Carnival Corp.  Here we see from top to bottom, a Crane ship for oil rigs, a super tanker, our ms Maasdam, a small Feeder containership, a regular cargo ship (I think for emergency repairs as the deck cargo is still there), a product tanker and an Apartment of the Seas. (Belonging to RCI, so we also make money from the competition) (Photo Courtesy: I think this photo came via Cruisedailynews)

Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport is partly owned by Fincantieri, partly by the Bahama Government and partly owned by Carnival Corp in Miami and thus it makes sense to go there. If you have to pay for a wet or dry dock you might as well pay it to yourself. As all our ships have been built by Fincantieri (except the ms Prinsendam) it is quite handy to have them involved when specialized expertise is needed or Italian spare parts, which otherwise might be hard to get. With Freeport in close proximity to Florida, most of the ships falling under the Carnival Corp. umbrella that are sailing from Florida and scheduled for a dry dock can go there before disappearing to other parts of the world.

A lot of maintenance for a cruise ship can be done while remaining afloat and docked alongside a shipyard pier. It is certainly a lot easier for those on board as there will be no switching over to shore power, no loss of water supplies, steady air-conditioning, etc. etc. The ship has 10 days to accomplish a lot and today we had already service engineers joining us to seize up the scope of the work and to make the initial preparations. Our marshalling area, there where we load the ships supplies, is already starting to fill up with toolboxes, crates, cartons and other pre delivered spare parts. On arrival Fort Lauderdale on the 8^th of April a lot more will come on board as we have learned through the years that it is a lot easier to carry the materials on board with us than to start hunting for them in the ship yard.

Captain John Scott.

We also had a change of captain today; Captain Eric Barhorst went on vacation and he was replaced by Captain John Scott who has been on this ship already for quite some time.

Captain Scott is one of the English captains who joined Holland America in the mid 90’s when we had a shortage of Master Licenses in the fleet while we were expanding.

He was the first captain of the ms Noordam IV but transferred not too long ago when we had another round of musical chairs. I have a brief bio on the blog site but I hope to expand that in the future.

The good ship Eurodam pulled out nicely on time as all the guests made it safely on board without a delay. As the weather looks good, we will be sailing north of the Bahama Bank (Through the North West Providence Channel) and then come down to the south by passing the Turks and Caicos Islands why aiming for Amber Cove on the North side of the Dominican Republic.

With very nice weather, for us that means very little wind, we docked in Key West at Pier B. According to plan, the Disney Magic had arrived 45 minutes earlier so the CBP could get a head start there and then come over to us for a full inspection. They will have already done a pre inspection by scrutinizing the Guest List that each ship has to send in before it returns to an USA port. That list is really “scrutinized” and in the past there have been some (un-pleasant) surprises for some guests when upon the end of the cruise there was a welcoming committee waiting. Guests who still had warrants outstanding, had not paid a fine or an important bill, and once somebody who was accused of bigamy. A cruise ship normally has guests on board from all shades of life and thus we also have the good, the bad and the ugly with Clint Eastwood waiting at the gangway sometimes.

Today all was well in the world and two CBP officers processed all the guests on board as quickly as possible. That can take quite some time, not because of the CBP, but because of the getting the guests to the CBP.  We still have guests who do not understand that they have to go through CBP control when returning to their own country or do not understand why it happens here in Key West while the ships disembarkation port is tomorrow. Then we have two more groups; the ones who are not going ashore and therefore do not see any reason to see CBP and those who cannot understand the announcements. Everybody gets a nice letter in the cabin, exactly explaining what to do, why it has to happen, and when to do it, but we are all humans after all. Including myself so I got the question: Why are you the first in line? Well I have a split legal status: I am a crewmember except when I enter the USA, then I am service staff on the Guest List as I travel on a special Visa.  So with these sorts of inspections I try to be first in case the CPB officers want know more. I would not like it to be the last one to go through the line and then hold up the ship.

Mallory Square as it looked to day. By 19.00 hrs. the square will be heaving and full of buskers and artists and then just before sunset they will all line up at the edge to see the sun sink in the sea. (the cable on deck is the ships forward string light, they were changing broken bulbs)

As we were docked at Pier B, we were right on top of downtown, and the very large majority of the guests streamed ashore as fast as CBP could process them. Last time we had to dock at the Navy pier, to stay out of the sunset view from downtown as we were the only ship, but tonight it will not be a problem for anybody. The Disney Magic is at the Navy Pier and that already leaves Mallory Square free for the sunset watchers but with summertime, the Key West sunset is at 19.43 hrs. today, we will be long gone.  Even if we were delayed by stragglers who did not leave Sloppy Joe on time. Did you know there is also a Sloppy Joe in Havana?  Hemingway made Sloppy Joe in Key West famous but I wondered why did I see a second one in Havana, when I was there with the Veendam recently ?  The all-knowing Wikipedia advises there had been one in the ancient days and it was re-opened in 2013 after having been closed for 48 years. And they still had the original furnishings. I wonder if Hemingway had been there as well.

The Official passport of the Conch Republic. They come in different colors and also in a Diplomat Version.

Although we do not have to sail that fast to get back to Port Everglades; we normally do not wait until past the official sailing time before leaving the dock. The advantage of Key West is, if we leave some behind, we can get them by shuttle bus to Fort. Lauderdale and they can pack & pick up their suitcases upon the arrival of the ship. That does not happen very often but about 20 years ago I had the situation where a whole oriental family had missed the ship because of some dispute among the family. 20 minutes are after the official departure time, they were still not there. They were not seen anywhere in the main street, they did not react to the ships whistle and so I left.  They showed up at the pier about 3 hrs. late and having been found totally confused by a local police officer.  Apart from being late, why were they confused? Well a – concerned- local citizen had told them that as they had missed the ship, they now needed a Key West passport to re-enter the States at the border near Miami. And he had sold them for $ 25,– a piece each a Key West –Conch Republic- passport.  So when they made their way to the dock, they showed their new passports to this police officer who then contacted the ships agent who had put them on the Shuttle to Fort Lauderdale.  When they showed up on board, I did not know wether I should have been upset with them or take pity about them.

Tomorrow is the end of the cruise and we will be docked in Port Everglades by 07.00 hrs. We will be part of the Parade again; this time opened up by the Regal Princess, followed by the Celebrity Silhouette, the Eurodam, the Allure of the Seas, the Caribbean Princess and the Zuiderdam.

Weather: Exactly the same as today, another day in Paradise.

Today is the last sea day of our cruise and it was a glorious day with sunshine galore and just a gentle breeze blowing over the deck. We covered today the distance between Cozumel and Key West. With a nice push in the back from the Gulf Stream we sailed north from the island of Cozumel and then this morning we passed the west point of Cuba and then followed the Gulf Stream towards Key West.  For our whole route we can stay in the Gulf Stream and that gives us a free bonus of distance of 1 to 2 sometimes 3 miles every hour.  Between pilot and pilot we have 30 hrs. of travel and if we gain on average 2 miles an hour then we save 60 hours and that is 3 hrs. sailing at full speed. That is a lot in our business and we get it all for free.

The Gulf Stream as tracked by NOAA. It even flows into the Gulf of Mexico and then returns into the Gulf Stream. (Courtesy NOAA)

Thus the navigation team is totally focused and committed to trying to catch as much of the Gulf Stream as possible.  And here lies the problem as the axis of the Gulf Stream, there where most of the current flow is, moves from one side of the Straits of Florida to the other side and although there are enough theories that abound about the why,  there is still no watertight explanation about why it does so. NOAA is actively studying the Gulf Stream and produces daily charts which are getting more and more accurate but surprises remain. Hence we on board try to substantiate our educated guesses by moving the ship away from the intended cruise course and see what happens. A bit to the north or a bit to the south. And the focus is on trying to find more current but also if we have some current to at least not lose it.  Better one Bird in the hand than 10 in the air as a Dutch saying goes.

A modern bronze sculpture (weight 130 kg) in Lido. Made by the Dutch Artist Eppe de Haan.

Apart from my work on board, my job as Fleet Support Master or Travelling Master has the great advantage that I rotate over the fleet and sail on all the ships. When you are as a regular captain assigned to a ship you tend to stay at least for a few years on that one ship and then you might move. Maybe on own request, maybe because there is a musical chair happening going on and several positions are affected like dominoes in a row. We had that recently when one of the Seabourn Captains passed away while on board and to fill the gap several captains were affected including one promotion, earlier than expected.  But I see all the ships and that is a nice plus for my HAL hobby and so I am busy with documenting all the HAL ships by photographing all the decks and especially all the art work. Until the arrival of the Koningsdam, where most of the art work is modern and music related, all the Holland America ships had a lot of antique art on board. Either related to our history, including the colonies in the East or West Indies, or just beautiful antiques and art just to look at.

An old carving of the Sea God Poseidon. Except it is not old, but certainly traditional,  and is a copy of the original which was standing on board the Noordam III and that was an old carving.

But also here there is a pattern. Where the N-ships and the S Class were completely full of only old stuff, by the time the Eurodam came into being it had become a sort of a mix where old and new were on display in perfect harmony. In one corner an antique in another corner something new. Or something that hinged between both worlds. For this blog, I have selected three photos which show exactly that. The fact that the guests do enjoy what we display on board is visible by the cooperation Holland America Line has arranged with the Dutch Rijksmuseum and what has resulted in the lower Atrium of the Westerdam now being a learning center for the art in the real Rijksmuseum. Although I am not an art expert, I can only discern between what I like: nice, and what I do not like: not nice but I find it fascinating what we have in different art variations all over the fleet.

And this is something totally different, the Dutch artist Rodolfo Sanz was asked to create something that related to the cooking classes in the Queens Lounge next door. For which we  have a complete kitchen on the stage.  So he put an apple on a dining table that you can eat without cooking. (Maybe in case the cooking class failed ???)

We were supposed to be docked by 08.00 hrs. tomorrow morning in Key West but for operational reasons we will now arrive at 08.30 and to make it up for the guests we will also stay half hour longer. Reason for this is there are two ships coming in (us and the Disney Magic) who both need to go through a full CPB inspection as they are both coming from foreign ports, and with a finite number of CBP officers available, we have to share. Thus with staggering it a little bit, the CBP can clear both ships in the most economical way possible. We are scheduled to dock at Pier B, which is in downtown, only one block away from Mallory Square. For the weather it is going to be a very warm day again. 27 oC / 80oF with light winds.

The distance from Grand Cayman to Cozumel is too long to make it for a 08.00 arrival but if you can still give the guests a full day in port by staying later than it does not matter that much if you arrive late morning. And that is what our schedule called for; docking by 11 am. and sailing by 11 pm. Tomorrow is a day at sea and that gives us enough time to make it to Key West our last port of call. Everybody talks about Cozumel and that is the name of the island. We are really calling at the port of San Miguel as that is where the cruise ship berths are located. It is also the main hot spot of the island.

The one strange thing with Cozumel is, at least when coming from the East from Grand Cayman, that you are already almost there and then you still have two hours to go. Courtesy of the fact that Cozumel town is located on the west side of the island and we were approaching from the East side. Because the island is almost flat, the authorities in downtown can see the ships coming from a long distance away and start calling as soon as the sun is above the horizon. Also in our case, shortly after 07.00 hrs. shortly after sunrise, Cozumel port control came on the VHF asking for our best ETA to the pilot station and we were still 3.5. hrs. away. Not as the crow flies but including sailing around Punta Molas, the north point of Cozumel Island.

Air photo Cozumel. I googled this one from the internet, and courtesy and apologies to those who created it as I could not trace the owner.

Thus we also got confirmation that the original schedule, as published on the Cozumel website was not what the authorities had in mind. The downtown Lagosta Pier was taken up by the two RCI ships and Carnival and Holland America were on the twin piers of Puerta Maya further south. My logic is that they put the two ships which brought in the most guests together, and they were given the benefit of having the shortest distance to town. And thus we docked at the outer dock of the twin Puerta Maya Pier, which is next door to the TMM or International Pier which was the first pier constructed in Cozumel. It was originally a cargo pier with a Ro Ro ramp for ships owned or operated by the Mexican Company T.M.M (Transport Maritime Mexico) There is another ferry pier, very close to the Lagosta Pier in downtown but that is mainly in use by ferries sailing to Playa del Carmen on the main land. Very much in use as people can take a tour to the Ruins at Tulum by going across to the main land and even onwards to Chichen Itza but apart from the ferry that tour includes sitting in the bus for more than an hour from Playa del Carmen.

The beginning of the Gulf Stream. Once the current starts to pass the island, it follows the coast line. But how it does that varies from day to day, depending on the amount of water that is being pushed through and the wind at the time.

The challenge with docking at any of the piers in Cozumel is the current. The beginning of the Gulf Stream comes charging through the opening between the island and the main land with a velocity of up to four knots. The axis of the current can be in the middle, or a bit to the west or a bit to the east all depending on how it bends around the islands coast line. And only when the ship is in line with the pier, the current is not an influence anymore. Thus the pilot boat keeps an eye all day on where the current is and how much velocity it has and then the pilot can advise the Captain about the best approach.

This is the track line of the ship during the final approach. You can see that at the last moment it went a bit to the port, to compensate for the push back of the current while slowly drifting towards the dock. There is no room to overshoot so it has to work out just right.

If the current is very close to the dock it can be an eerie experience as you are set very fast towards the island, sometimes the current runs faster than your own approach speed and the moment you really start to get nervous about becoming a hotel on Cozumel beach, the current suddenly falls away. For this reason the ships are normally docked nose in so you can steer against the current. Ships do also dock nose out but mostly when the current is weak or a bit away from the docking area and the ship can be kept easily under control while swinging. The current curved a bit today so the ships at the Lagosta Pier could dock nose out and those at the International Pier and the Puerta Maya pier docked nose in.

If you can dock nose out, that is always an advantage, because whatever happens to wind and current during the day, the escape plan is simple: full ahead and get out of there.

We will be getting “out of there” sometime after 22.30 hrs. tonight, as soon as all our guests are back. We have quite a lively bunch on board this cruise so we might have to wait for some stragglers. But the authorities are used to that and they have quite a good system going of getting everybody back on time, and what is more, to the right ship.

For the next 24 hrs. we will sail through the Yucatan Channel, located between the Mexican/Yucatan Peninsula and the West point of Cuba and then into the Straits of Florida heading for Key West. We will have the Gulf Stream all the way with us, giving us a nice push in the back. That saves fuel and thus we will have a happy Chief Engineer.

To continue where I left off yesterday, the good ship Eurodam sailed south through the Windward Passage in the early morning hours. Then we made a sharp turn to starboard and sailed around the South East point of Cuba heading into the Caribbean. As you can see from the Radar/Electronic chart image we stay as close as possible to the coast to find the most optimum – shortest – course & distance legally possible. When you do not call at a country then you should stay at least 3 Nautical Miles off  the coast when safely feasible. (In areas such as Dover strait and Singapore Strait that does not work of course)

Sailing around the East Point of Cuba. As it was clear weather due to the cold front, Cuba could be seen very well.

For that reason the Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme (VTSS) off Cabo Maisi stays four miles off shore. We always try to do the same 3 miles + 1 to have room to change course to have no confusion. The 4 mile boundary is the green line on the screen. The arrow down on the top right hand side indicates the direction of sailing in the VTSS and right at the arrow is the echo of another ship which is doing what we just have finished doing, staying nicely on the ships highway.  It is not compulsory to use a VTSS, you can sail around it if you want, but if you are in it, then you have to abide by the rules which govern these VTSS’s. Our ship is on the picture still in the process of going around the corner and will end up on the Red dotted line again, as soon as the turn has been completed. In a turn it is nearly impossible to stay exactly on it, because the moment you change course the wind starts blowing under another angle and it will push you a little but off the planned route. On the bottom of the screen you can see a ship going the other way and that ship will follow the blue arrow UP, to sail north through the Windward Passage.

For most of the day, yesterday, we could see the coast of Cuba on our starboard side as we only slowly angled away from it. Slowly as Grand Cayman is not that far to the south of Cuba. The course led the ship to the S.E corner of Grand Cayman and then this morning we sailed south of the island to make our approach to the anchorage. Yesterday we were a bit concerned about the strong winds forecasted to be blowing, courtesy of yet another frontal system, and yes it did blow considerably yesterday and this morning. But when we arrived, the Norwegian Epic and the Carnival Paradise were already in position, so we knew we could make the call. As those two ships use shore tenders, they went to a pier to the west of downtown and our guests had the downtown pier to themselves.

Anchorage nbr 4. Laying with the bow behind the anchor on the reef and the stern in deep water. The yellow strip near the top is the Carnival Paradise which is at anchorage nbr 3. The little yellow blobs between the ship and the shore on the white heading line are the ships tenders.

There are four anchorages south of the port and today there were three in use, 2,3 and 4 while nbr. 1 furthest to the west remained empty. There is talk about building a cruise ship pier with two berths, but it has been in the political planning stage for about 15 years. There are different factions on the island who all have their own views and as these factions seem to be of the same size not much is happening. The area is quite limited where a dock could be built and thus everything has it pro’s and con’s and there is not much more space for more than two berths as otherwise the coral reef gets damaged. And if you put two berths in, then there will still be 3 or 4 ships that will have to anchor or float and those guests would be complaining…………. So maybe this political status quo is not such a bad thing.

We sail from here to Cozumel, where we will arrive tomorrow morning around 11 am. As we have 2 other ships in port tomorrow the total count will be six ships which mean that all the docks will be full. Carnival with the Glory, Miracle and the Paradise, RCI with the Brilliance and the Freedom and Holland America with the Eurodam. Long time ago, when I was a very junior officer on the Nieuw Amsterdam (III) our crew was asked to help open the new location of Carlos & Charlies in Cozumel. According to the captain at the time, we also closed C&C that night or better said early in the morning. We had an overnight stay as we had some sort of Tax Incentive Charter with Doctors.  The first part I remember, the 2^nd part, closing the pub, I don’t, so it cannot be true. But with six big ships in port, I am not going ashore to see if C&C is still there.

If I am not mistaken the Lagosta pier is the downtown one and if we get that one, then that would be nice for the guests. Short walk and no doubt in the late afternoon we will be able to hear C&C’s.  It is also going to be a very warm day, 29oC / 84oF, with a gentle to moderate breeze from the South East. ………… and if so then that will make docking a lot easier.

Today the good ship Eurodam is sailing around the Eastern point of Cuba and heading from there on a South Easterly course into the Caribbean Sea, on it’s way to Grand Cayman.  There we should be in position by 08.00 hrs. tomorrow morning.  More about that tomorrow.

But for today’s blog I am doing something different as tomorrow Captain Peter Bos of the ms Noordam is retiring after 37 years with Holland America and 44 years at sea.  I had already posted his bio in the history section of this blog some time ago, but I  am bringing it forward again as it not everyday that a captain retires with so many years of dedication to the company. I know Peter very well, we started to together on the ss Statendam in 1981 and then a sailed together for many years as with him being 4 years longer at sea than I, he was always one rank ahead of me. We sailed out together the Grand Dame of the Seas the ss Rotterdam in 1997 which was for both of us a high light in our career. Then I got promoted to captain as well and our ways split. Luckily with my current function of Fleet Support Master I met him again while he was contemplating his retirement. One day, when the mists of time allow, I will  post a few anecdotes.  He is with his ship sailing in Australian waters and the last cruise was not an easy one as the Weather Gods gave him a very stormy farewell.  Now it is Time To Say Good Bye and wish him a happy retirement and many more years of sailing, golfing and travelling.

Captain Peter Bos was born as Pieter Willem Fernand Bos on 22 March 1954 in Lagos Nigeria. His father was an agent for Holland West Africa Line, a Dutch cargo shipping line, but they also lived in Luanda, Accra and Douala and in 1959 the whole family (now with 2 boys and a girl) returned to the Netherlands as the local political situation in Africa became a little bit too unstable. The family settled down in the town of Baarn located just SE of Amsterdam.

Here he went to school and also fell in love with golf. Having one of the oldest and best known golf courses in the Netherlands on your door step made it easy to become a golf fanatic and to play 2 or 3 rounds a day when on leave and stay out of the way of the weekend warriors.

His mother being one of the first flight attendants for KLM and his sister doing the same later made him get the travel bug listening to their stories and his first move was a glider camp in summer in preparation for flight school. However due to the Ist energy crisis in 1974 the hopes of becoming an airline pilot were crushed and instead he joined the Maritime Academy in Amsterdam (Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart, until its closure the oldest one in the world).

He then tried the Dutch Royal Air force Academy for a year but decided upon a life at sea and became a cadet with Dutch Shell tankers in 1974. SS Katelysia was his first ship an old product tanker. The ship was built in 1954 as part of a series to replace lost war time tonnage. He returned to Shell after obtaining his 3^rd mate’s license and sailed on ever bigger tankers.

The ss Katelysia. One of a series of K Tankers which Royal Dutch Shell transferred from British to Dutch Flag.

In 1980 Shell started downsizing and Holland America once in a while borrowed officers from Shell tankers and Captain Bos applied after listening to a glowing report from an engineer who had sailed a contract with HAL. He joined the ss Statendam in October 1981 as a 3^rd officer. After that there was the old ss Volendam and Veendam and the old  ms Noordam new build in the St Nazaire yard and then the ss Rotterdam from 1986 thru 1997. He obtained his Master’s license in 1991.

The ss Rotterdam V seen here at anchor in Sitka in 1986.

From then on he rotated over all the DAM ships except the old ms Westerdam and stuck mostly to the smaller ships. He was appointed to his first command in 1996 and served on the Noordam and Statendam that year.

The early years of command.

He was privileged to sail the Grand Old Lady, the ss Rotterdam, out of Holland America service in 1997.As with many Holland America Line officers, this was also for him his favorite ship of all times. The ship is now a successful Hotel in the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

In 1990 he met his wife Kathy during a cruise and they settled in the United States moving several times, from Ft. Lauderdale to Minnesota and then back to Florida to Mount Dora, mainly due to his or her disagreements with the local weather.

When he settled down in the States, he realized a boyhood dream, coming from a country where cars had to be small as the roads were not wide. (plus the gas prices did not help either) So he bought himself a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. Perfect for touring with, visiting family and friends or his wife and the dogs; if there were no visitors for a change.

King of the Road. The 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible.

Since 2006 he lives in Bethlehem/Taylorsville near Hickory, North Carolina. There is a lake behind his house for water sports and golf courses nearby so ample opportunity to enjoy his various hobbies.

Over the last 15 years he has been dividing his sailing periods between Alaska and Down Under which are both his favorite sailing areas but he looks back at 2012/2013 on board the Veendam with trips to Antarctica and the Voyage of the Vikings as the nicest cruises he has ever done, better than World cruises. Coming this year April 2018 he will have been at sea for 44 years and has decided to call it quits. On 28 March 2018 he will run the  telegraph of his ship to – STOP for the last time and will say farewell to the cruise ships, Holland America, the sea and many friends among guests and crew/colleagues.

First on the Honey DO list is applying for his US Citizenship and then start traveling the USA.

In December 2017 they visited the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon and next on the list are the 4 famous South Utah national parks, Mt Rushmore and Niagara falls in the winter.

0Sunset in Bethlehem. If you retire to a scene like this, then it can not be so bad. 

Our cruise is different to last week. Holland America often does so, giving guests (Collector Voyager Guests or CVG’s) the option to do a back to back cruise. We are now making a circumnavigation cruise around Cuba, by calling at Half Moon Cay, Georgetown Grand Cayman, Cozumel Mexico and Key West Florida. If Half Moon Cay was located directly opposite Cuba, then we could have issued everybody with an official Circumnavigation Certificate.

Our Seven Day Cruise around Cuba, calling at Half Moon Cay, Georgetown, Cozumel and Key West.

The weather was glorious today, with just a gentle breeze blowing over the island and the sun shining all day. On top of that we were the only ship and thus our guests had all the facilities to themselves and 2000 guests ashore does not really make much of an impact on it all. The beach is more than large enough to handle triple the number but less, the better for the guests and certainly for the children. I saw today one shore tender coming back with several occupants showing signs of too much sun and not enough sun block and this is only the first port. They were accompanied by a large group of children whose immediate focus when stepping on board was the ice cream parlor, leaving mummy and daddy standing in the entrance with all the towels and all the various beach implements needed to  make it a successful day.  They made a lot of noise so it must have been a successful day.

From the 2000 guests on board about 1700 went ashore, the rest remained on board. Preferring shade or the tranquility of the pools. With all those ashore, the ship was very quiet and the first main event in the afternoon was “High Tea” on the ms Eurodam served in the Ocean Bar. I am still confused about what it is. Depending on some deep inspiration by the program makers, I have now been exposed to English-High Tea, Dutch High Tea, Afternoon Tea and just Tea. There is a distinct difference between High Tea and Afternoon Tea.  High Tea was an English invention to bridge the gap between Lunch and Supper (which was often served as late as 8 pm.) The word High was related to the fact that one sat on a higher chair as the food served was often more a meal than snacks and sandwiches.  Some of the The English (I do not know about the Scotts and the Welsh) mainly with children still call dinner Tea time. That confuses me as being Dutch, I relate Tea to a cup of tea with a cookie or a chocolate which I would get when coming from school at 16.00 hrs. It still does not make sense to me that the British can have Tea / dinner at 5 to 6pm but more and more now the English have dinner especially if a little later.

Afternoon tea was more for the posh people who had servants and kitchen staff who could prepare a range of nibbles and snacks to go with the tea. . Thus what we serve on board is Afternoon Tea as it comes with nibbles and (being a Dutch ship) also with cookies. I once opened a can of worms by raising the subject among hotel staff if it was a different “Tea” if you got those 3 story serving dishes with all the nibbles or if you had just waiters who were rotating by each time with an assortment of nibbles on a silver tray. As this group of Hotel staff came from different nationalities, quite a heated argument ensued which made me understand that it is not easy to have “TEA”.   Thus I stick with green tea, totally improperly made by means of a tea bag which I dip up and down in a mug of hot water.

The Sb side of the Crowsnest on board the Zaandam, when original. It varies considerably to the other two thirds of the room.

A little bit of Tea Trivia, when the S and R class was designed, the port side crow nest was configured for afternoon Tea by giving the place a little bit of a Colonial or Tropical feeling. It was never used as such because it was way too small for the number of guests who wanted to participate in Tea Time. Hence it is most of the time done in the Dining room or the Ocean Bar.

The ship sailed at 16.00 hrs. which is an hour later than when we go the other way, towards Fort Lauderdale. We have a bit more room in the schedule when going to our next port Grand Cayman and thus we can stay an hour longer. Our route calls for sailing down between the islands of the Bahama Bank, then crossing the Old Bahama Channel to sail into the Windward Passage and then sail southwest wards towards Grand Cayman.  The weather: not so great, there is a lot of wind coming in the next 24 hrs. but luckily it will be a following wind and that will make it not as uncomfortable on deck as it could have been. At least we were very lucky today.

After the passing of the Frontal System yesterday afternoon, the wind slowly but steadily turned to the North East and by this morning it had created a perfect weather situation for Half Moon Cay. North Easterly Winds from 3 to a (small) 4 and sunny skies. The Eurodam dropped anchor and 2 hrs. later, the ship was nearly empty, apart from a few repeat guests who said that they had already seen everything (and bought the T shirt) and were staying on board.

Children and ship wrecks always go well together. Playing Captain Hook and getting soaking wet will lay the foundation of future Holland America Cruise adults.

Normally that might be correct but the company keeps tinkering with the facilities at Half Moon Cay, although tinkering is maybe the wrong word where it concerns improvement and expansion. And we have just opened a new Half Moon Lagoon as recently as this week. It is basically a kiddies place where un-expected water jets spout up out of the wooden deck. 3900 sq. feet and 266 water nozzles to get all the kids squeaking and screaming.  For the children; but what I remember from my youth when we went on the yearly school outing and to a Fun park where they had one as well, then it was always full of adults. Often under the excuse of looking after little Johnny, they would be jumping all over the place. So I would not be surprised if this new attraction (which replaces an older and much smaller one) is going to be as popular with the adults as it will be with the children. The water is sea water and is freshly pumped on continuous rotation from the bay and will be the same as swimming in the sea itself.

The (sea) water is this time not only coming from the deck but also from lantern tops.

We were the only ship today and that makes the officers and sailors very happy as we do not have to use our own tenders then. Nothing wrong with those but it takes a lot of time and hard work and the capacity is only 90 per boat while the large shore tenders take up to 300 and are much easier to walk onto and off again. When we are with two ships, there is the pecking order that the largest ship gets the largest shore tenders and the smaller ship the smaller shore tenders and then has to run some of its own tenders to provide a continuous and adequate service. We have a lot of discussions going on, if more shore tenders would be feasible, but they would also need space to dock in the Marina and with the tours going on during the day (Glass Bottom, para sailing, etc.) the place is quite full. We always manage very well but a Holland America Line crew member does care about his/her guests, so we are always looking at a routine to see where we can be better.

We sailed at 15.00 hrs. and this always looks like a too early a time but we have to make Fort Lauderdale on schedule so the guests can disembark on time and make their flights. Also staying not much longer might have saved some guests from really getting sunburned as the gentle breeze today caused a very treacherous situation as it did not feel as warm as it really was.

We have to be on time for another reason as it will be rush hour with a traffic jam tomorrow. All the docks are full except 23 and 24 as they are still under construction. The harbor master has assigned a pecking order to make sure we all fit in and the parade will be led by the Carnival Conquest, followed by the Freedom of the Seas, followed by the Island Princess, followed by the Allure of the Seas, followed by the Eurodam and finally the Celebrity Silhouette. Especially the I.P has to get in first as she goes to 19, and the moment she is docked she will be blocked in by the Allure at the stern and the Eurodam at her bow.

The weather tomorrow is regulated by yet another cold front but this time it works in our favor as we will be in port the moment it goes from one dominant wind direction to another and as a result we will not have any wind at all. It will call for a cool day by Florida standards with the temperatures not climbing above the 73oF / 23oC. Perfect travel weather to come and go and that might make a very busy Ft. Lauderdale airport a bit more bearable hopefully.