We arrived bright and early at 05.00 hrs. at Cristobal breakwater; although bright is too much of a word as it was overcast with showers in the distance. For a change it was fairly quiet at Cristobal and later in the day we found out that for some unknown economic reason, traffic from the Atlantic to the Pacific had been much slower in the last few days than it had been the other way around.  That also gave the reason why we were scheduled to sail so late past Gamboa as I mentioned yesterday. Indeed this was confirmed by the pilot, and our southbound convoy only had 14 ships, while northbound had 27.  Number 27 was scheduled to clear Gamboa at 11.20 so we prepared accordingly and hoped that all might go a bit faster than foreseen. I wanted to do most of the Canal as soon as possible as there was no rain forecast in the Canal and that meant it was going to be a very hot day. Continue reading

 Right outside Aruba the wind up picked up again, although this time it was of less concern as it was a following wind and the weather forecast indicated that outside the Panama Canal it would be wind still. Thus 30 knots of wind in the back was not a problem. It gave the ship a bit of extra speed, free of charge, and it made it nearly wind still on the outside decks and that made the open decks a pleasant place to be. The strong winds have one disadvantage and that is that there are no birds to be seen. A soon as it goes over wind force 4, about 14 knots, all the sea gulls, brown booby’s and starlets disappear. For any life in the ocean it is the same, they either dive under, or the waves with the whitecaps and foam make it impossible to see them. As a result we did not see much at all during the last few days. I expect that it will improve once we get to the other side as it is nearly wind still in the whole area between the Panama Canal and Puerto Vallarta. Continue reading

The wind was blowing well over 30 knots when we started our early morning approach and I was on the bridge shortly after 6 am to decide if we needed one or two tugboats and to see (on the radar) how the Horizon was faring as she was going at 06.45. She went in and no alarms were raised and that meant that the conditions inside were not that bad. I opted for one tugboat, not as much to get the ship alongside but to have a backup in case the wind would get stronger while we were still giving out the lines.  Fortune was on our side as we were able to sail in between two squalls and the wind nicely dropped to about 15 knots, coming down from about 30 knots. Then it remained more or less dry for the remainder of the morning and for most of the afternoon and thus the visit at Aruba turned out to be better than expected.  We were at the C terminal which is the closest to the city area but only for the reason that it is much more difficult to dock, when you first have to sail past another ship. As the Horizon came in first, we docked behind her. On departure we will have to sail past her, as she is leaving later, but then we will be able to make speed and that will reduce the drifting. Continue reading

I have no proof that global warming is really a big issue or not but if you look at the wind in the Caribbean Sea, you would certainly say so. It seems that it is blowing harder and harder each year. The normal trade winds give around 16 knots but today we had consistently over 30 knots. That is Wind force 7 to 8; Gale force winds, while the weather chart did not really indicate stormy weather. Yes there is still a cold front in the area but it normally does not generate such winds. Luckily for us, the average speed to maintain to Aruba is about 17 knots and I let the ship run a bit faster while in sheltered waters yesterday and thus we could sail with 16 knots today. A nice speed to avoid the bow from bumping into each and every wave out there. Those who walked around the deck enjoyed a big push in the back the moment they came around the bow when going from starboard to port, counter clockwise, as the wind was mainly on the portside. Those were the clever people. The ones walking around the other way had to struggle against the wind all along the portside promenade deck. Most guests walk counter clockwise, it is a sort of natural thing to do on the ship but there is always one……… who has to go the other way. Continue reading

When you come back on board a ship after a vacation, it is as if you are gathering thread to continue knitting a jumper. Although your predecessor has left hand over notes, they can never cover everything and thus you have to start tying all the loose strands together again. Eventually you are then sitting as a spider in the centre of the web, from where you can over see everything. As every captain is different, you have your own focus points and one of the first things that you do is make a round in the ship and see if everything is still up to your personal expectations. Thus the one thing you want to do when coming on board is to run around ASAP and see the “lay of the land”. Continue reading

So Today I rejoined the Statendam for a contract that will last until May 17. Shorter than normal but that has to do with the Senior Management Conference that will take place in May of this year. I will explain that in one of my coming blogs. Getting to the ship was an interesting exercise as the Customs and Border Protection in New York threw a not so nice spanner in the wheel. There were long lines at the Immigration booths and it took me 2.5 hours even to make it to the cubicle where your passport is inspected and then stamped. What I had not expected was that they had re-instigated “2nd processing”. If you go to the States on a waiver program or with a regular visa, you get stamped at the cubicle and you are sent on your merry way. So when I go to the states for a vacation that is what I get. When I come to the States as a sailor it is different. You are pulled out of the entry process, marched to a separate office, where another CBP Officer does something top secret with your passport and then you get your stamp. By the time that it had been ascertained that I did not pose a danger to the country, it had been more than 3 hours and my flight to Fort Lauderdale was departing. Thus I spent the night in New York and flew this morning. Arriving at the ship at noon time, eagerly awaited by my colleague who this time did not go on leave but was going to retire. Luckily he was flying the next day and thus he was not inconvenienced by my late arrival, courtesy of the CBP. Continue reading

Today is our final day of the 7 days that it took to get from Nuku Hiva back to San Diego. Tomorrow at 05.30 we will be at the pilot station and coming alongside B Street Pier an hour later. The weather will start out quite chilly but is supposed to reach 70oF by lunch time.  It is not so bad to have bit of a cool port day, especially when it is a changeover day. For some reason, everything runs a lot smoother and faster when it is not too warm, or not too cold.  That should help with getting our guests quickly on the way to get home for Christmas. Continue reading

The wave field that I have been writing about that we would first miss and then not miss, intensified overnight and indeed came down to our track line. So by 11.00 the ship started to pitch considerably. Luckily the past two days have been very quiet and the current reasonably good, so we had built up some plus in the speed –to-maintain and thus I could reduce from 19 knots to 16 knots. That made the ship ride the waves much more comfortable but it was still a very bouncy affair.  I felt really sorry for the people on the Zaandam who are in the middle of it and had this weather all the way over from Hawaii.  But we also had to live with this wave field which lasted for the remainder of the day. Current projections are that it will diminish in the early morning and then be gone around 13.00 tomorrow; not pleasant but after this long cruise most guests will have trained their sea legs and thus it should not affect them too much.  At least I did not notice anything as my Hal History lecture drew a full house as unusual. Continue reading

The weather was this time in synch with the weather forecast; it did even better than the forecast. Sunny periods came through the cloud cover and the combined wave and swell heights went two feet below what was predicted. As a result the ship hardly moved and I could keep up the speed to go into the plus. I want to be a little in the plus, as tomorrow a wave field is coming down from the north west, courtesy of the bad weather north of Hawaii. If I have enough plus on my side then I can slow down and ride the waves a bit more gently. Easier for the people on board, who at some time will have to start packing, and also as we have the final Officers Ball coming up, it helps when the dance floor stays where it is.  So I am keeping up the speed until we see the larger waves coming. Continue reading

We have now lost the South Equatorial Current that was pushing against us and we are coming under the influence of the Equatorial Counter current, which is pushing us the other way. The ship is now making the same full speed through the water as over the ground, and we even get half a knot extra from the current. That will remain so until this evening, when we come slowly under the North Equatorial current. This one is more sideways and should not hold us back as much as the South version did. An unpleasant issue is that the weather is not according to what was forecast. The bad weather North of Hawaii is pushing further south and that brings overcast skies with occasional showers to us and increased swells. Not much of an increase, but each foot above 10 foot of wave height results in an increase in ships movement. In other words, with 12 feet of swell, the ship goes more up and down than with 11 feet. That will stay with us until tomorrow, when it is supposed to reduce to about 7 feet. (….according to the weather forecast) Continue reading