The wind died down during the night and there was only a gentle breeze left. So I hope we are on a good three day cycle again which will give us a gentle to moderate North Easterly Breeze tomorrow so we have a perfect day in Half Moon Cay.

Today was a big day for the Zuiderdam as it had its six monthly USCG inspection. Twice a year the USCG carries out an inspection of each cruise ship which visits an USA port. Even if you only visit once a year, you will get an inspection.  The Annual inspection consists of an in depth inspection of the ship including multiple tests of the safety equipment and checking everything a ship might need in an emergency. 5 to 10 Safety Inspectors (depending the size of the ship) will take a whole day to accomplish it. The following six month inspection is limited to a walk through, a fire and boat drill and an observation of the passenger safety drill. That normally takes half a day. The challenge is that it happens most of the time in the home port which is normally the changeover port. Then on top of the controlled mayhem, we also have the situation that all crew are pulled out of this change over cycle for the drills.

But it is, what it is, and with good planning we are always able to minimize the disturbance to the guests on board and also the USCG is keen to plan the drills as soon as most guests are off the ship and well ahead of the new guests coming on board. And that happened today as well. By 09.30 the last groups were being called to disembark and behind them the alarms started indicating that the engine room was on fire and that the USCG would like to see how we were going to put it out. Once that had been observed, it was time to lower the lifeboats to see if they worked and if the crew knew how to handle them. Today the Harbormaster threw a spanner in the wheel as at that moment a container ship was entering the port and had to sail past us, to go to a dock higher up the Intracoastal. So we could not do the 15 minute lifeboat  sail around that is part of the drill to ensure the engines are not only working, but continue to work as well. Thus the boats went down and the boats came up again. Something none of the crew inside the lifeboats had any problems with.

At the end they observed the passenger boat drill and all was well in the world. They made some very complimentary remarks about it all to the captain and that concluded the inspection. Sometimes they find issues on board and if things are bad, they can even detain the ship and that still happens on occasion. Often it concerns issues of where the ship is quite helpless in doing anything about, either structural issues or “waiting for equipment to repair” issues, but sometimes they are not happy with the knowledge of the crew or the way they go about their business and then they can re-order the complete drill sequence. That can set back the embarkation time of the new guests or their lunch. (I do not know which one gives more complaints). But today we had a happy ship, a happy USCG as everything went very well. Kudos to the Zuiderdam crew.

Two big black hulled yachts on arrival. The portside one is just being lowered by the ships heavy cranes. In the background the Coral Princess.

While this was going on, and interesting thing was happening at Pier 21. Normally there is a cruise ship parked there, often a HAL ship but today there were plenty docks empty and they had now scheduled a cargo ship there. It was its cargo which was of interest. Yachts and big ones. There are two Dutch companies who run a regular liner service between Florida and Europe carrying sailing and motor yachts of owners who want to play around in Europe. Most owners think their yachts too small to sail them across, or do not have the knowledge and experience or do not have the time. However these big ones, were different. They are normally manned by capable crew and are sea worthy enough not to be afraid of a few North Atlantic waves. Maybe this is cheaper than crewing a long crossing, it is certainly better for the boats maintenance than running for two weeks or so in a hostile and salty environment.

Tomorrow we are in Half Moon Cay, our private island. Weather forecast: Partly cloudy with winds from the North East at 12 knots and temperatures of 27 oC or 80 oF.  We might have caught our perfect 3 day weather cycle. And we will be gone before the next weather front is coming through.

We had a bit of a bumpy night while sailing from Panama to Costa Rico, courtesy of high waves which were just under the wrong angle for the stabilizers to deal with.  That gave me a bad foreboding about the call at Puerto Limon as the angle which I observed rolls freely into the port and is nowhere stopped by a breakwater or anything.  But you still have to go there and observe the situation, consult the pilot and then make a decision. So by 06.00 the captain was looking at the swell rolling in, the waves smashing against the rocks and listening to the pilot who advised that the waves at the dock were going 5 feet up and down every 15 seconds.

That would mean that the ship was going to do that as well and apart from that, would also possibly be rolling. You cannot stay safely alongside the dock like that and certainly not have a gangway out. We could see that all the docks were empty and all the ships were sitting at anchor. Yesterday one of the cargo ships had broken all her moorings and a Princess Cruise ship had also sailed on after a good look at the situation. Yesterday was bad, today was not any better and tomorrow was also doubtful. So the only thing that could be done, abort the approach and cancel the call.

Point of no return. The red circle right under the black course line is the last moment you can still turn away without doing something drastic.

When we plan an approach to a port, there is always an abort point in the planning: also called a commitment point. This is the last moment you can turn safely away from the port without having to do anything drastic. Thus a captain will make a decision about going in, before the ship reaches this abort point. And when it does, it has been calculated with how much speed and how much rudder angle the ship can safely turn away. Today we used that exact point and while the captain was calling Fleet Operations, the Staff Captain sailed the ship back out again along the planned line.

The problem with Puerto Limon is that there are no other ports in the direct vicinity which would work as an alternative. All the nearest ports would need at least half a day steaming and then the port time left would be too short. In area’s such as the Mediterranean you often can just go to the other side of an island, or to a town at the other side of a mountain and you are back in business. Unfortunately nothing like that works in this area.

Puerto Limon is also the last port of this cruise and thus we now have 3 days at sea. The good thing is that we can sail a little bit slower now as we have more time to make Ft. Lauderdale. With the swell and the wind out there, a slower speed helps to make the ship ride a bit more comfortable. I expect that we will keep theses unpleasant seas until we are a bit higher up in the North West Caribbean and the 30+ knots winds might return to something of a standard Trade Wind.

Doctor Socrates explaining to all of us how the procedures work if you have too many injured people on board and only a few medical staff.

Thus the Guests were offered an alternative daily program and the crew had to deal with a full sea day instead of a port day, where during the day at least half of the guests are gone.  For port days we always have a lot of training planned as it does not affect the service for the guests and a suddenly port call cancellation means a lot of re-arranging.  With the world getting so complex everybody is involved in giving training and passing on information. Lately we even had the ships doctor in front of the officers to explain the latest procedures in the companies Mass Casualty Program. (More about that next cruise) The doctor’s name is Socrates Garcia and I asked him why his name was not Hippocrates. Well it turned out that his parents were teachers and were hoping for him to become a teacher as well, hence Socrates.  But maybe the Doctor will get it right with his next generation.

So we are looking forward to two more days at sea. Tomorrow we should have a frontal system coming over with a bit of rain and then we have to see what the balance between the weather systems on the American continent do, what will come from the North Atlantic Ocean and how strong the Trade wind is going to be. Those three items will dictate the weather we will have in Ft. Lauderdale on Wednesday.

Today we have a sea day as the distance Willemstad to Cartagena is too long to cover in one night. And while the departure  from Willemstad can be done quite quickly, arrival in Cartagena takes at least one hour as the ship has to sail through the whole inland bay. Spreading it out over a day at sea gives the need for only 12 knots and thus the good ship Zuiderdam is moving along quite sedately.

This area, above the Venezuelan and Colombian coast is the windiest area of the Caribbean if the Trade Wind is blowing at full force.  As explained before the Trade wind is mainly generated by a permanent imbalance between a high pressure system over the Atlantic Ocean and a low pressure system in the neighborhood of Panama. This high pressure is mainly generated by the sun during the day and becomes less during the night. Hence you see quite often the wind dying down in St. Thomas and Puerto Rico a few hours after sun set.  The more sea area covered by the sun, the more “push” the wind will get;  and the Trade Wind in this area has had the additional boost from sunny weather in the Caribbean Sea.  So while wind force 4 is normal in Barbados, wind force 5 is normal in Aruba and wind force 6 not unusual here above Colombia. Looking out of my window I can see indeed a wind force 6 blowing over the wave tops. But as we are going to the West and the wind is coming from the East, the Trade Wind is a following wind and thus helps us with the speed.

Going against the Trade wind can easily slow the ship down by ½ to ¾ of a knot. So it should be the same the other way as well. When going against the wind, the wind is quite easily deflected around the hull by the curved bow, and the flat but curved superstructure. At the back we have balconies and wind likes balconies. All those little open sided shoe boxes where the wind can bite into and cannot be deflected from.  So along as the wind is blowing faster than the ship is travelling through the water it will push against the ship, give the ship some extra momentum and help us save some fuel. And that makes the Chief Engineer happy.

He needs some happiness, as we have engine nbr 2 under major maintenance /overhaul. That happens after every so many 1000’s hours of operation and then the whole engine is taking apart until only the frame work is left standing. This is done to see if everything is in good order but it also means that something could be found so the C/E worries until he has made his big inspection and sees that all is well.  As the ship has five engines, it is normal for one engine to be off line as the other four are more than powerful enough to provide the speed needed for the cruise. We seldom need more than 3 engines so we even have a engine spare if something would happen to the other three.

This is how a 12 cylinder V engine looks like when the complete top has been striped away. You can see the 6 holes where the pistons are normally located. The other six holes for the pistons (although we call them cylinders) are on the other side. The dismantling of the engine is well on its way.

Unfortunately for the ship’s crew and the shore side specialists working on the engine, the overhaul period falls exactly in the warmest time of the cruise ship calendar. If it can be done, Alaska or Europe is used as a much better option as the Engine Room is then much cooler as the outside sea water is so much colder.  So I always have the greatest respect for engineers as I would be totally incapable of working down there, day after day, in a hot and humid environment, with greasy engines.  I am currently going through the engine room to review all the operational procedures there and the fact that I cannot look outside is already enough to have me look longingly to each escape door that I pass.

Tomorrow we will have an early day. We are supposed to be docked well before 07.00 and that means picking up the pilot at the Boca Chica pilot station in the dark and then spend an hour sailing through the inner bay. Quite scenic as the oil refineries and the High Rises of downtown are normally lit up like a Christmas tree but maybe too early for most of our guests. We will only stay there until 13.00 hrs. otherwise we will not make the Panama Canal on time.  Most of the morning will be spent by the crew on drills, and to make everybody’s life hot and horrible, I have scheduled a fire drill in the Oil Purifier Room which is the hottest part of the engine room (but also the most dangerous one) Outside the temperature might reach the 90oF / 33oC if the wind dies down early in the day.

Today, our next stop, after Aruba is visiting Willemstad located on Curacao. This is the C in the Dutch A,B,C Islands. So we have called at the A = Aruba but we will not call at the B = Bonaire. I believe the Oosterdam is making a cruise where it calls at all three, in the order B,C,A.  Still two out of three is not bad and as Willemstad is distinctively different than Aruba it is a good port to call at to keep the cruise exciting.  Willemstad was conquered by the Dutch in the ancient past because it had a deep natural harbor inside the island and a fairly narrow opening to get to it. From there the Dutch ships could control (and harass) anything that was coming or going from the south American coast. That narrow opening made it easy to defend, while a fleet was inside, and for that purpose two fortifications were built on both sides of the “Schottegat” The garrison was stationed at the eastern side and thus that has the largest fort. There is now a big hotel standing right on top of it.

Still to get in and out was and is not so simple. A sometimes very strong cross current runs from the East to the West right under the entrance. So although the sailing ships were a lot smaller than the current ships, they were also a lot slower and would take much more time to get in. The slower you are, the more time the current has to push you. And push you to a location you really do not want to go to.

Zuiderdam at its dock with the pontoon – pedestrian bridge closed

Captains still have to grapple with that challenge and that makes Willemstad a port we like and we hate, at least if we have to dock inside. We all love Curacao because of what it has to offer but we do not like to sail into the port, especially not if we have to dock right at the entrance after the pontoon bridge. The whole maneuver then looks a bit as if you drive with 20 miles an hour into your garage and rely on pulling the hand brake at the right moment so you do not hit the back wall. Can be done but it is tricky and you need the skills to pull it off.

The Zuiderdam moving to the middle on departure. In the back the Koningin Juliana bridge. they only way for motorised traffic to get from one side to the other.

Today was good for the guests as we were going inside. The outside –mega liner- pier was allocated to the Adventure of the Seas which is indeed much more of a mega liner than we are. Carrying more than double the number of guests. So we docked inside at the Otrabanda side of the town. Although the guests still have to walk over the pontoon bridge it is a lot shorter than walking all the way from the Mega Pier.  If you take a taxi it does not matter as the pontoon bridge is a pedestrian bridge so the taxi still has to make a 10 minute detour over the bridge to the other side.

ms Zuiderdam making stern way out of the port and speeding up to 8 knots to counter the cross current.

Because the Zuiderdam is still a big ship, it departs stern out and that gives another challenge. In the port there are no issues but as soon as you push the stern out of the entrance it is caught by this cross current of at least 2 knots and it starts pushing you very quickly to where you really do not want to go.  So if the ship leaves with a backing out maneuver, it will try to get as close as possible to the East side and then start making speed astern.  The Zuiderdam managed 6 knots by the time she came outside and was clear of everything before the current could get a good grip. Still we were set about 1.8 knots to the west while doing so.

Safely back in open waters with the pilot boat alongside to collect the pilot.

That also gives the strange situation that the pilot boat comes alongside to take off the pilot while the ship is going astern and not forward.  In the old days when the ships did not have that much astern and sideways power, you would sail all the way in, turn in the St.Annabaai and then make speed while sailing out. Sometimes that looked as a “Jack in the Box” suddenly popping out.

As this is so spectacular to watch, the locals and well informed tourists make sure they are all sitting at the little terraces on both sides of the port entrance to see a blue hulled apartment building first towering over them and then gathering momentum to race into open waters.

Tomorrow we are at sea and then we have a call at Cartagena, Colombia. This will be a shore excursion stop for half day tours, so we will dock at 05.30 in the morning and then depart again at 13.00 hrs. As we are touching with this call in South America and the Rain Forest is very close by we might get a few showers while on the way and while being there. But in this area the rain is warm, so it is not a big deal.

Note: All the photos were submitted via Captain Bart Vaartjes, who received them from Jimmy Plug an ex Holland America Line 2nd officer. He now works for a dredging company and was observing the departure from a vintage spot (read bar).