As a continuation of yesterday; the plan to dock at 16.00 hrs. at Colon 2000 Cruise terminal did not work out. While the ms Zuiderdam did sail out of the canal on schedule, sailing back in through the breakwater near Manzanillo Container terminal did not work out as planned. Two container ships that were supposed to come in after us, sneaked ahead and that gave a delay of an hour. In principle it is quite unusual for a cruise ship that it has to wait for box boats but in Panama it is not. All over the world cruise ships always get preference but not in Panama. We are just a ship like all the others. The Panama Canal Authority and the surrounding container terminals make much more money from Container ships than from Cruise ships. Maersk Containers, the largest container company in the world pays nearly a $100 million in Canal fees during a year, while Holland America’s contribution is probably not much more than 2 million. So the focus is not on us but on the better clients. And thus we had to wait until the better clients were out of the way and we could sail in as well. But by 17.00 hrs. we had the gangway back out and the tour guests could return to the ship.

The turn we have to make from the Canal to the port which is just next door.

Then today we were in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a beautiful country with lovely people but they have one problem, they do not seem to be able to build ports with proper breakwaters that keeps the swell out. When we dock on the west coast at Punta Arenas the captain says a lot of extra prayers for a low swell and here on the east coast it is the same thing. Hence ships captains do not like the port very much as it is one of those ports that we have to cancel quite frequently because a high swell prohibits us to go safely alongside the pier. Anchoring is not an option as the tender boats would have a hard time docking due to the swell as well. Either at the ship or at the shore, or at both.

The black line is our way in. It has a loop because we swung on arrival to keep the bow into the swell and so reduce the ships movement.

Today it was half reasonable. There was a high swell running outside but the angle was just good enough for a natural rock formation and an island next to the entrance to keep most of the swell away from our dock and we had only about 1.5 foot at the dock. That movement is something the ropes can handle and it does not affect the gangway too much, so guests can safely walk on and off the gangway.

Puerto Limon and the same on the other side, Punta Arenas, are ECO stops. Our main reason to call is to give the guests the option to immerge themselves in Mother Nature. We also have very popular tours going to San Jose the capital of Costa Rica, where the focus is on culture and history, but mostly it is about wildlife. Costa Rica is blessed with large areas which are still pristine Tropical Forest and the Costa Rican Government has had the foresight to change large swaths of it into national parks. And I believe they are still adding to it.

Most of the tours are full day tours so they come back just before departure. Today that gave some challenges as there had been a severe accident on the main road and the buses were stuck behind the pile up. I have joined my ships several times in Costa Rica or went home from here and I observed that a larger number of Costa Rican drivers have a very peculiar attitude towards safe driving. In the way that they do not seem to care if there might be traffic coming from the opposing side. When they come across a car or a truck which is going slower than themselves, they simply start overtaking. Whether it is up the hill, down the hill, or just before a blind corner. While being transported by Taxi to and from San Jose airport I had the chance to observe that phenomena several times. And almost participated in that exercise myself twice. Only forcefully explaining to the taxi driver that a. he would not get a tip and b. he would be put on the black list by the agent, might have contributed to the fact that I am still around.  The taxi driver and it happened twice, could not see my concern at all and invariably the remark was: Yes but he goes slow and I go fast…………………….

The green blob of high waves is still off the coast of Middle America and we are wobbling our way through it.

We will now have two days at sea to get back to Fort Lauderdale. The weather still looks a bit uncertain. It remains unsettled. So for the coming two days we will get the occasional rain shower, until we have passed Cozumel and it will remain wobbly as the strong wind keeps whipping the waves up.

Part of both the 11 day and 10 day sun farer cruise that the Zuiderdam is making, is the call at Gatun Lake for the overland tour. To get to Gatun Lake we have to enter the Panama Canal as without a Gatun Lake there would be no Panama Canal to start with. The Lake is the reservoir for all the water that is being used in the locks to get the ships up and down. So the Zuiderdam dips into the Gatun Lake, sends the tour guests ashore and then goes out again. As per captain Bart Vaartjes, today was the 171 st. time that the Zuiderdam entered Gatun Lake since 2002. Either to sail through the canal on a Trans Canal cruise or to dip in and dip out as we are doing today. For the Panama Canal Authorities it does not make any difference, what you want to do. They slot you into the morning convoy from the Atlantic and they slot you back into the Pacific convoy coming through in the afternoon. And you pay the full price for a Canal visit, regardless of dipping in and out, or going the whole way; in our case around $ 348,000 give or take a few cents.

In the waiting room, while a very wide Maersk Container ship makes its way through the Canal.

Because we had to slot in with the convoy, we had to be at the Colon / Cristobal breakwater at 05.00 hrs. and then get in line. Once in line we could only be as fast as the slowest ship in the convoy. Today we were a bit unlucky as we ended up behind a Panamax container ship, which means that it takes a long time for such a broad beam ship to push into the lock chamber. The water has very little room to flow around the ship’s hull. That costs us about 30 minutes and we need to start tender service as quickly as possible to ensure that we are finished on time to catch the Pacific convoy to go out again. Today the schedulers had decreed that we should be ready by noon time.

The tender dock in the Gatun Lake. From here the coaches leave for the overland tour.

Thus we made a quick sprint to the designated anchorage area between the old locks and the new locks, lower 5 tenders and started ferrying about 1000 guests ashore who wanted to see Panama from the other side. Although it was only a very short tender distance, the ship had 5 tenders on standby. Two for being ashore to unload and two for being at the gangway to load. The 5^th. one is then the backup tender in case one of the other tenders breaks down and to slot in when the tenders go for bunkers one by one. As the primarily function of a tender is a lifeboat, the fuel tanks always have to be full to comply with the requirement that a fully loaded tender shall be able to sail for 24 hrs. with a minimum sustained speed of 6 knots.

The Panama Canal Tender Inspector with the Zuiderdam Safety Team. Made up by the Ships Safety Officer (Yellow helmet) and the ships bo’sun, While the cadet (with the two helmets) is trying to learn as much as possible.

Because we are “messing” around in the backyard of the Panama Canal with our own boats, the tenders have to be inspected by the local authorities to see if they will not sink while in operation, that they will not leak oil and that they are manned with qualified drivers so they will not cause damage to anything that belongs to the Canal. Thus every tender driver has to carry his tender driving license on board the tender and show it to the inspector.

Because we stay at the anchorage (normally we do not anchor for such a short period but drift on the engines) Pilots and Panama Canal crew leave the ship once we have stopped and rejoin when we get under way again. Then we get different pilots to the ones of early in the morning as the Panama pilots work in shifts and are also engaged in getting more ships from the anchorage or to the anchorage. Not every Panama Canal pilot does the whole transit every time.

The pink slip which each cruise ship captain signs to get through.

Something not everybody realizes is that apart from all the ships having a Panama Canal Tonnage certificate (used to calculate the transit fee) the Canal also has regulations for the ships structure. Especially about things sticking out. With the Panamax Cruise ships, those that are the maximum size that fit in the Canal as the Zuiderdam is, there is always something sticking out. To be allowed in, the captain has to sign a pink waver declaring that any damage to the “sticking out parts” is not the fault of the Canal or its pilots.

By the way, it seems that all the Web Cams in the first locks, the Gatun Locks, have been broken since a few months, so very little chance to see the ship coming through the Locks, for those who were planning to have a look at the Zuiderdam.

By 11.30 we had all 1000 tour guests off and the tenders back on board again. And by 13.00 hrs. we were back in the locks. If all goes well, we will be dock by 1600 hrs.  at Colon 2000, the cruise terminal of Colon / Cristobal.

Today our port of call was Cartagena Colombia from 07.00 hrs. to 13.00 hrs. We cannot really stay any longer as otherwise we cannot make 05.00 hrs. Panama Canal pilot station. And if we do not make the 5 am in the morning then we might miss our slot of going through the locks and that would endanger our whole call in Panama.  The entrance to the port of Cartagena is located at the south side of the bay. And that entrance is called Boca Chica. Directly translated into English it means Mouth of the Girl but it can also mean little mouth or little entrance. And the latter is correct here.  There used to be two entrances and the very big one was where now the port is. But it was much shallower and only good for fishermen. The deep water entrance was the small mouth or the Boca Chica. Already in the 16^th century this was the case and two forts were built on either side of the entrance to keep those out who wanted to get in but who were not friends of the current occupier of the land all around. There have been several fights and The Spanish, The British and of course The Dutch all have been shooting cannon balls in this area but the Spanish Influence was the most predominant, hence the fact that most of south America, except Brazil,  speaks Spanish.

The “rail road track” shows the progress of the ship through the bay to get to Cartagena port. The ” big chica” can be clearly seen, it has now been sealed off from the sea by a small cause way as it had silted up too much.

The Zuiderdam was the first cruise ship in today, followed by the Norwegian Star and the Mein Schiff 6. The Mein Schiff 6 is a sister of the Mein Schiff 5 and 4 and the company TUI has decided that most people only remember the brand and not the ships name and thus they went for numbers. Not the first one to do so, maybe you still remember Renaissance cruises, they did the same thing and numbered their ships from 1 to 8 (or officially R one  to R eight) Most of those ships are now sailing for Azamara cruises and Oceania Cruises where they have been given more regular names.  As the oil is quite cheap here, most ships that stay for a longer period top up with fuel here. We used to do this as well but less frequent now, as the bunker barge was seldom capable of delivering the pumping speed needed to get the fuel on board before the sailing time of the ship.

Three mooring buoys have now been installed and we used the middle one for our stern ropes.

We were docked today at berth 5, which until not too long ago was only used for smaller cargo ships or very small cruise ships. But with the cruise ships getting bigger and bigger and more and more of them being around, Cartagena had to increase the number of cruise ship docks and has done so by adding mooring buoys. Then the smallest of all the cruise ships coming in, will go to dock 5. Believe it or not the Zuiderdam with her 86000 tons is now one of the smaller ships. I do not like mooring buoys very much. They are a cheap (for the port) and a safe way for docking a ship. But for us it makes it difficult to dock the ship with the nose out as there is now no pier to land the most forward gangway.

Today leaving on time was even more important as wind and swell was building up outside. And although following wind and seas were forecasted, you never know if that will help the ship or slow it down. So as soon as all the guests were on board, we raced out of the inner bay and via the Boca Chica back to open waters.

The forecast for 20.00 hrs. tonight. The greenish yellow bit  14 to 18 feet of swell will catch up with us and we will have a lively ship tonight.

There we were greeted by rolling waves with white caps and the wind breezing up to 35 knots on occasion. The swell was on the sb. quarter and that meant that all the guests could enjoy this cork screw motion again. The ship would roll a bit to one side, then the stern would lift up, pushing the ship forward and then the ship would roll sedately to the other side. The stabilizers are then trying very hard to keep the ship from rolling but every time the gyro compass sends a correcting signal to the fins, this lift up and push forward happens and that completely confuses the gyroscope. So we will now “corkscrew” all the way to the Colon Sea buoy.  There it should get a bit better as the elbow of Panama, that big of land sticking out to the north, shelters the anchorage area of Colon somewhat.

Subject to extremely much change, the plan is for tomorrow:

0500 at the sea buoy

06.30 entering the first lock of the three

08.15 exiting the last of the three locks

09.00 Start tender service to land the overland tour

11.00 turn around and get out of the Gatun Lake again via the locks

16.00 Being docked at Colon 2000, the cruise terminal at the south side of Colon.

Weather for tomorrow: Warm and humid with an un-expected downpour to be expected.

Our course line around the top of Colombia. (Chartlet courtesy: www. worldatlas.com)

We left Curacao just before 11 pm. last night and set sail for Cartagena Colombia where we will make a morning stop, tomorrow. Venezuela and Colombia are not small countries and as we also have to sail south along the west coast of Colombia to the Cartagena pilot station, the captain has to keep the pedal to the metal to get there on time. Luckily we have a strong wind in the back and that can easily help with the speed. Except ……….we are sailing as fast as the wind is blowing so the netto effect is zero. But at least it is not blowing against us and it gives a quiet / near wind still situation on the deck. Later today the wind is supposed to breeze up a little bit more and then we will get a little push free of charge.  We always have the wind here in the stern as there is, with normal weather, a super charged Trade Wind blowing. Which only loses its velocity when coming close to Panama. We will keep this wind until we are inside the Boca Chica, the start of the inland lake area where the port of Cartagena is located. Then we are surrounded on all sides by land and that often reduces the wind greatly. And as I have now mentioned a few times in the last few days, cruise ship captains do not like wind as it can blow their ship – read hotel – all over the place.

This morning at 08.00 hrs. we crossed the border between Venezuela and Colombia and as soon as we were over it, Dolphins popped up. It was quite remarkable. Nothing on the Venezuelan side and lots of them on the Colombian side. We will now keep an eye out during the next cruise to see if this pattern continues or if it was just a fluke.

The Adriaan Gips Barometer. A standard design made in the beginning of the 19th. century in Amsterdam. Estimated value around 10,000 euro.

I am always happy to answer comments on my blog, so here we go with two that came in recently. One what is the status with the Barometer? As you might remember last year while I was on the Maasdam I went to visit a dear old lady near Boston who was family of one our Directors from our glorious past, Adriaan Gips. Family lore had it that he received an old (200 years by now) barometer as a retirement present or something similar. Could I do some digging???.  Well, we are still digging (I say we, as most of it is all done by hobby friends who have much more knowledge than I have) and we have not found any connection yet. There are no farewell speeches in the archives, no mention anywhere about Gips and a Barometer. At the moment our most educated guess is, that it has been in the Gips family for a long time because they had a shipyard in the Dutch town of Dordrecht and it is a ships wall barometer. We are still trying to find a link to the 2^nd world war and Gips, as the war archives of HAL have recently been made available but thus far we have not found anything. So the search goes on.

Then one reader confirmed that he had also seen green car carriers with opera names, such as Rigoletto, Carmen, etc. etc. There is a bit more to the story. Mr. Wallenius loved opera, so his ships all had opera names. His biggest competitor was Mr. Wilhelmsen, whose ships were red and all their names started with a T. Too much competition is not good for anybody so they decided to merge but keep their own identity.

The Don Quijote owned by the Wallenius part of the company.

The new company was called Wallenius-Wilhelmsen, which was possible as the ships hulls were big enough to take all those letters.  When you make a Panama Canal cruise and you see car carriers, then they are most of the time either red or green and they do belong to the same company. I have always wondered if one ship would get the name Tosca, if they would paint it in Red AND Green.

The Tijuca owned by the Wilhelmsen part of the company.

The reason for the T is that the first ship that made a profit for the Wilhelmsen Company back in 1887 had a T name. So it brought good luck and they stuck to the T since then.
I love to see those things in the current age of branding. So stick to your traditions and in the end it forms a brand itself, in the same way as Holland America has been DAMMED ever since 1873. The day the company will call a ship the HAL Holland or something will be the day that I will jump over board. But I do not think that that will happen.

So tomorrow we are in Cartagena and according to the weather guru’s it is not supposed to rain. But as they have been wrong with the wind lately, I will wait and see what we get when we get there.

As usual all the Holland America Ships will be celebrating Christmas guests and crew alike. Where ever they are in the world, all of them at their local time. So the Noordam will be well ahead of the Caribbean ships.

In this case I would to share with you a bit of nostalgia from the good old days.  The old ss Rotterdam, Grand Dame of the Seas, is now a Hotel ship in Rotterdam. And for the first time she has been decked out (and even better) in the way we would have painted best wishes on her decks and raised the Christmas star.  The hotel company which now owns her, has a keen understanding of the importance of maintaining maritime tradition and has now agreed to resurrect the routines we as crew on board followed in the days before 1997.  Ex crew of the ship now, volunteering as hosts on board, showed the old photos and it worked

Happy holidays and a prosperous and blessed 2018, from me and Lesley.

I hope you will enjoy the photos.

Christmas flood lights on the bow.  The pole in front of the name, is the top of the Radarmast, which was taken down in 1980 so she could sail under Seymour Narrows power lines. I brought the mast back to Rotterdam in 2007 with the ms Veendam.

The colored flood lights are an addition by the volunteers as the ship would be in the dark when sailing, so the navigators could keep a good look out.

The Christstar has now returned. This frame would each year be repaired by the engineers and the electricians and then hoisted on the day the Christmas cruise started. (And checked every morning to see if it was still there and not blown away during the night.