Captain Albert: 06 May 2009, Crossing the North Atlantic

Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

This is our last day at sea before we arrive at Punta Delgada in the Azores. The weather is still holding, overcast as predicted and with a low to moderate swell (4 to 5 feet), which makes the Prinsendam gently pitch. It does not look like this weather will change very much in the coming period and that will mean that we have had a very good crossing, especially for the time of year, as summer has not arrived yet. As mentioned before, we have made up the time lost from our crew medivac in Bermuda and that means that we will arrive on time. I am even planning to be a little bit early so that we have time to clear the ship and set everything up before our official arrival time.

We had a bit of excitement today as we were first hailed by a French warship and then later on buzzed by a surveillance plane of unknown registry, although we think that it was a Portuguese one, as it came and went back directly in the direction of the Azores. We were not surprised that we were encountering navy in this area. The Europeans have stepped up their surveillance against ships polluting the oceans and at the same time are casting a forever watchful eye against drug trafficking. Although the latter is not so significant here, as we are in the middle of nowhere. Most drugs are transported over the oceans in regular containers.

However pollution is a major issue and navy ships work together with air planes to monitor traffic and to catch offenders. There are still ships out there who want to save some money by not off loading waste oil and think that they can dump it overboard without a problem. Although every waste stream onboard has to be recorded and thus also each amount of waste oil generated; cooking the books still happens and money is being saved by pumping engine waste directly over board. With an airplane these violations are easily spotted as a clearly visible trail can be seen from the air. From the surface it is much more difficult as the ships propellers disturb the ocean surface by their turning and that makes it very difficult to see for an observer if anything is being dumped. Thus the reason that there are surveillance planes around.

The French navy ship called us with a whole list of questions, I suppose to satisfy its own reporting needs and my watch officer was quite occupied with providing the correct answers. The moment supreme (most appropriate word I think when dealing with the French) came when the captain’s name had to be given. Thus was a hurdle for my English navigator, so I decided to answer myself and started spelling my full name. After the 22 letters there was a brief silence and then…………….Thank you have a nice voyage; end of questioning. Either my name did not fit in the check list that had to be filled out, or the operator was not in the mood to repeat it all or try to pronounce it. Anyway we continued happily on our way, leaving the French behind in the distance.

There is really no reason, apart from monetary, to dump oil residuals overboard. Each ship is compulsory equipped with an oily water separator that cleans up any oily water
onboard to acceptable standards, and then this water can be legally and safely discharged. The left overs, normally called sludge, can either be burned in the ships incinerator or discharged ashore for further processing. Nearly all the ports, apart from the very small ones, have sludge receiving facilities so operationally there is no reason what so ever for not complying with the rules. But there are always un-scrupulous operators out there, who want to save a few dollars and do not care about the environment. Thus there are spotter or surveillance planes and those who are caught are very severely punished with jail sentences and monetary fines. And so it should be.

As mentioned; tomorrow we are in Ponta Delgada. We are docking at the cargo pier and not at the cruise terminal although there is no other cruise ship in. The agent mentioned something vague about a festival, so we will have to find out tomorrow what exactly is going on. Good news is that our sick crewmember, disembarked in Hamilton is going to be discharged from the hospital. He will be flown home and kept under observation at home until the doctors are convinced that all is in good order again. A happy ending to what did deeply worry us for awhile.

To access Captain Albert’s historical writings on Holland America Line as well as photos and additional information about Prinsendam and his sailing schedule, click here.