They always say the sting is in the tail and so it was today. After six days of an extraordinary quiet North Atlantic we had a wobbly day today. There was more rain and wind in the weather system that lays over Florida and stretches out to Bermuda and the wind whipped up the waves. So the ms Oosterdam is moving a bit on the waves and on the outside decks, especially on the portside it is a bit windy. It started this morning around 08.30 when we sailed into centre of the frontal system but by mid afternoon we were out of it and the sun was shining brightly again.

By that time we will also be entering the Bahamian Islands area and sail through North Providence Channel located between Nassau (to the South /portside) and Freeport (to the North / Starboardside). That will take us until tomorrow morning and then we will be in the Straits of Florida. We are crossing the Straits under an 45o angle so we cut  quickly through the Gulf Stream, which is not our friend this time, and then near Miami we should end up under the coast. By hugging the coast the aim is then to avoid the axis of the Gulf Stream and even hope for a bit of counter current caused by water which flows back. A natural thing as otherwise there would be holes in the Straits of Florida as the 4 mile current would take all the water with it.

The NOAA gives daily advise about the approx. location of the west wall of the Gulf Stream, then the axis is another 4 to 6 miles or so to the East of it, at least in the area of Key West. When the Gulf Streams curves to the North following the Florida coast it comes much closer to land. So we know that whatever luck we have, we will get a certain amount of current against us, until we are past the curve in the coast south of Miami. Hopefully the stretch to Key west and the Dry Tortugas will then bring some counter current.

One of the ships AC stations.

Today I carried out an inspection on Deck 1, the lowest guest deck and met a guest who was quite intrigued into what was hiding behind the doors I was opening and closing. So I showed him the entrance to our largest Fan Room on board, which runs from the Forward Guest staircase to nearly the middle staircase all the way. Here there are hardly any inside cabins, all is taken over by Space for the air conditioning and ventilation. Then they run up three decks as well, so there is this s large engineering space right inbetween the guests cabins where hardly anybody has any idea about.   I simply did not realize the significance of this but if you do not know the lay out of a ship very well, or the basic construction features of a modern cruise ship, then you have no idea about the vast spaces given over to the ships operation outside the Engine Room itself.

And this the next deck up. And then you can go another deck up. Here the floor is made of gratings which can be taken away if major maintenance has to be carried out.

In the old days, the much less sophisticated Air conditioning systems were smaller units spread all over the ship. Now centralization has taken over which results in less space needed while still being able to get the output needed. The amount needed is calculated when a ship is designed and then approved by the regulating authorities. Sometimes that calculation is a little bit on the generous side and then when a 2^nd ship is constructed of the same design, the tinkering starts. “We now have room here for an extra cabin, or we can put a locker there, or make the walk way a bit wider” and that is also one of the reasons why ships in the same class are seldom exactly identical. There is in the interior  – read operational – layout between the Zuiderdam , first of the Vista Class and the Noordam, last of the Vista Class, quite a bit of difference.

So tomorrow we battle against the Gulf Stream while keeping an eye on the activities in the South Carribean. For the time being it is still static there, no change from yesterday, and will not affect the weather in Tamp for our coming call.

The Okeechobee Waterway, cutting up Florida in a northern and a southern part. It takes a good 15 hrs. to transit at least if you want to do it in one go. I wonder if they have pubs along the route as we have in England and Holland.

Then a correction from my side, I mentioned yesterday that there was no canal to help us get to Tampa without sailing around Florida. One of your good readers pointed out, there IS a canal. It is just no big enough for large ships. It is called the Okeechobee Waterway and runs roughly from 80 miles South of Cape Canaveral to 77 NM  South of the entrance to Tampa Bay. Maybe it would be something for Carnival Corporation to adapt the Canal to our needs. Although it would mean the upgrade of a lot of bridges and rebuilding of  quite a few locks as Lake Okeechobee is fresh water. A sort of mini Panama Canal so to speak.

Today we have another glorious day at sea. The low swell of yesterday has diminished somewhat and now there is for even the most persistent moaners and groaners very little to grumble about. (That does not stop them from doing so but the weather is absolutely not giving any reason to be negative)

I went on my fact finding mission last night to see the Super Moon and apart from it being a little bit brighter I did not see much difference. Not bright enough to read a book by. I suppose with the vastness of the ocean, a 13% increase in size does not mean that much. So I took my photo and will file it until 2034 when we have the next chance. I do not think I will be in the same location then but on the other hand you never know. We have regularly 100 year old people on board so nothing is impossible. I think the oldest one on board this cruise is 93 years of age and still playing a mean game of Black Jack. There is always the chance to win enough to pay for the next cruise.

Super Moon from the stern of the ms Oosterdam. Just East of the Bahamas.

Apart from a myriad of other things which I am doing while on board a ship, one is the standard topic is reviewing on behalf of the Master of the Vessel, the ships mustering procedures. This entails checking if all the paper work of the officers and crew involved in watch standing and major safety responsibilities is correct and up-to-date. Captains have to check that as well, but it is so much and such detailed work, that the time is simply not always there. You think that it would be easy having all your paperwork in order; same as carrying your passport when you go on vacation. But we have so many that it can be a real challenge. Last time I counted I had 28 certificates or papers to my name which approved me to be proficient to do something or the other and that was outside of my Masters License. Apart from the sometimes bewildering numbers, the most important ones are issued by the Country of origin of the bearer.  But they must be compatible again with International Standards and that sometimes requires a cover certificate by the Flag State of the ship.  Then there were countries who issued exemptions for certain certificates which makes it even more complicated.

Ever wondered what a Dutch Masters license looks like ?. This is it. Good for any size ship anywhere in the world.

To get things a little bit under control the IMO (International Maritime Organization) issued controlling standards and updated regulations under what we call the Manila Convention of 2010. Now by 1 January 2017 these 2010 rules will become compulsory and exemptions and national deviations are not allowed anymore. Our company, by means of the Human Resources people, has been working very hard to get everybody qualified or re-qualified before the magic date of 31 Dec. 2016. With about 9000 sea farers involved in our company that is not as easy as you think it might be as some of our crew are notoriously bad in following up and taking action during their vacation period. Even when all trainings are paid for and you get your lost days back again later. Even with a constant bombardment of emails, attacks on Facebook, one liners on twitter, there are still some out there who are hard to get out of their (beach) chair.

Thus on every ship I spend a day, going through the paper work, certificate by certificate, seaman’s book by seaman’s book. Looking if everybody will be in compliance by 31 Dec. 2016. Some crew will go home before that date and then they have their leave in 2017 to sort things out but for the rest there is the deadline and if not in compliance disembarkation will follow and no pay check until the person is back in compliance again. What I mostly find is that certificates have been left at home and/or only a copy has been brought to sea. It is quite funny to follow the hunt for these certificates. Wives at home who cannot find anything and then a domestic ensures by means of email; parents who refuse to search as son or daughter dear left such a bomb explosion behind in their room, that they have simply locked it. Then there are those who have no idea where they might have stored it.

There are always an amazing number of officers who have their certificates with them but have not signed them. An unsigned certificate is not valid, in the same way as if you not having signed your credit card. You can use it, until a clever clog turns the card around and then has to refuse it. (At least if they follow the rules) So I create some ruffled feathers once in a while but it is all in a good cause.

We have two days left at sea from today; of which 17 November will be spent sailing around Florida, due to the lack of a Cross Florida channel.

We are sailing now under that grey cloud cover but there are broken clouds so we have sun as well. In the Caribbean, you can see the rounding presence of a possible Tropical Storm but the pattern is not solid yet.

For tomorrow the weather looks nice again but the weather gurus are still worried about the system in the South Caribbean Sea which has to potential to develop into a Tropical Storm. Luckily it is going so slow that it will not affect our arrival in Tampa and neither our departure from there again.

I have to start with a correction; the last time there was a Super moon was not in 1942, it was in 1948. We have clear skies today so tonight around 22.30 to 23.00 at our location the moon is at its biggest and hopefully I can take a few nice photos. While we have lost the clouds and the sun returned but we have gained a low swell coming in from the North West. Roughly in line with Bermuda to Cape Hatteras.  Always the place where depressions are created and which then generates a wave field which rolls  all the way down to Puerto Rico.

I was Captain on the Maasdam in 2003 and 2004 and we were making cruises from Norfolk to the Caribbean. Unfortunately San Juan was our last port of call and during the months of January and February we often had to bounce for 2 days against a high swell to get back to Norfolk. On occasion arriving several hours late; instead of being docked at 06.00 hrs.  Although the guests from the Norfolk area were very happy with the Maasdam, it was a bit hard on the guests to bounce home for two days of the 10 day cruise and thus we stopped it. If we had turned it into an 11 day cruise we could have done the cruise the other way around (Surf with the swell instead of bouncing against it) but somehow marketing did not believe an extra day would sell. I am just a simple ship’s captain so I have no idea how they came to that conclusion but maybe it had something to do with flights etc. which often dictate what is possible or not.

The thing with the Super moon is optical trickery as the moon is not getting bigger or smaller. It was Super in 1948, it is Super now on 14 November 2016 and it will be Super again on 25 November 2034. I will have a look then if it is the same size as in 2014 otherwise I can tell everybody that Super moons were much better in the old days.

But what is happening? The moon circulates / rotates around the world but that rotating movement is not a circle. It is an oval. So when the oval is coming the closest to the location of the Earth, we get a Super moon. Hence NASA being able to calculate exactly the date of 24 November 2034. The moon will appear to be 14% bigger than we normally see it and about 30% brighter. So I will do a test if I can read a book in the moon light while sitting in a dark spot under the bridge where there is no ships glare.  A cruise ship is normally lit up like a Christmas tree and only the bow section is in the dark to ensure the Navigators can keep a sharp look-out.

We still have a day and a half in the open ocean before we enter the Bahamas. Then it is a day and a half to get to Tampa as we will have to sail all the way around Florida to get to the pilot station sometime after midnight, for the 4 hour run in to the dock. When are they going to cut a canal through Florida, straight from East to West? That would have a very positive influence on the cruise business from the Gulf of Mexico ports.

We are back in the blue area just East of the white streak extending over Florida but in the South Carib it is getting interesting.

In the mean time I am keeping a sharp eye on the turbulence in the Caribbean Sea. I mentioned yesterday that something might be brewing there and I am upgrading that opinion that something is brewing there. As you can see from the little chartlet above, the green and red spots are becoming more circular and that could mean a tropical storm in a few days from now. Maybe when the weekend starts or over the weekend. No worries thus for our arrival at Tampa, unless things really speed up, but it could will be of concern for next cruise.  But we still have days for us to think about it and days for the system to fall apart.

We still have nice weather but now it is overcast and a bit gloomy. Although the weather system with the thunder storms pulled north and dissipated, another one developed but this curved nicely behind us but it pushed enough clouds towards us to have an overcast and grey looking sky. Because the sun cannot get through the sea look a bit grey as well and that makes for a gloomy day. But no complaints, nobody is sea sick.  We do not want sea sick people as it upsets the Bar Manager as the revenue goes down and it upsets the Cast in the Show room at Sea as they then have to perform for empty chairs.  Entertainers do not like that very much.

Going back to yesterday and the Fast Rescue Craft. As you can see from the picture it is a very nice and very fast speedboat, pushed forward by a water jet. It appeared first on the cargo ships and there is was a wonderful invention as it gave a cargo ship captain a very good tool to get a boat down quickly to offer help. Before that they had to lower a regular lifeboat. Cruise ships also had regular lifeboats but at least two of those boats had winches which could go at double speed, to lower or hoist very fast. But they were still lifeboats, and lay as a cork on the waves and bounced all over the place as they were really designed only to be operated with a full complement of survivors. So when we had to rescue people or do anything else we lowered a tender. Two engines and not very maneuverable.

The ps Fast Rescue boat of the ms Oosterdam. The orange drum on the top is a sort spoiler, meant to keep the stern down for better water flow.

Thus we were also looking forward to getting Fast Rescue boats. And when they came, the officers liked them. Boys with toys. Great to play with. There was only one challenge, the Boats only seat three people and then there is not much room left. And we prefer to go down in the water with a medical person with us, quite a bit of medical gear and if possible a stretcher as well. So through the years it showed that these boats were not so ideal for our kind of operation.  To get that sort of thing changed takes some time but eventually the situation was reviewed and a decision was made about how to make it better.

Boys with toys. A deck officer and an engineer putting the boat through its paces.

The Koningsdam is now the first ship which has a modified lifeboat which works well. Its main purpose is still being a lifeboat but it can act as a Man Overboard Boat or M.O.B. (That name is still from the old days; now we also loose women overboard and thus it should really be renamed in a Person Overboard Boat or P.O.B.  However that might take a while to trickle through in maritime legislation.) What is different to this lifeboat is, it lays deeper in the water and it has a bow thruster, just like a big ship. When the boat is kept in position while offering help, it is much easier to keep the bow also under control and provide a nice stable platform to get a person out of the water or to transfer a patient from another ship. I played a little bit with that boat while I was on the Koningsdam and it all seemed to work very well.

Maybe one day they will retrofit all the ships which such a lifeboat but for the time being we still have on the Oosterdam a Fast Rescue Boat. Much to the delight of the deck officers, who have absolutely no problems for volunteering for the monthly test run.

Just while I was hoping that all was going to be plain sailing to Tampa, we have to be alert again. A system is developing, which could change into a storm, and could change from a storm into something worse and then go the direction of Tampa. We will keep a close eye out and time will tell what is going to happen, or not.

Tomorrow we still have a normal quiet day and we should have a super moon to look at. The last time there was one was in 1942 and thus I have also never seen one. I hope that the clouds break up so we can see something.

We are very lucky thusfar, very little wind, very little swell and the rain nicely moving around us. But have to keep an eye on the South Caribbean.

We are still doing well. We have even less wind than before, down from wind force 4 to a small 3 and the sun keeps shining as if it is all free of charge.  And for every gift we say thank you and happily accept it.  At the moment there is not much to see outside, wildlife in this particular area of water is fairly quiet as it is too far from land for birds and for some reason this is not much of a dolphin area. The Navigators on the bridge have to get excited about spotting buoys as those are very much the only things which come floating by. And as most of the buoys are either white, red or yellow you can easily see them.  All of them lost over board or broken free from nets during storms.

Under water it is a different story. A few thousand feet down we are looking at hills, mountains and valleys. We are about to pass over the Mid Atlantic Ridge and it would be really interesting to see this. But the only place where you can see it is on Iceland and that is one of the reasons why Iceland has so much volcanic action.

Iceland walking through an alley with America to the left and Europe to the right. .

The same reason applies here as I already mentioned for why Madeira is there. A crack in the ocean floors crust which molten rock comes up out of the core of the planet and solidifies as a new crust. The gaps where this material comes up, we normally call Volcano’s as the material tends to pile up in the same way as candle wax settles on the sides of a candle. If the crack moves a little bit, then a volcano goes dormant and eventually the place becomes inhabitable until it blows up again. Mount St. Helens was a prime example of this.

The ridge all the way from Iceland down to the Far south Atlantic.

The cracks in the earth’s crust and the fact that they do not always remain in the same place is caused by the Tectonic movement of the earth’s plates upon which the continents rest.  They are in a continuous if very slow motion and the European plate is disappearing under the American plate in mid ocean. If we waited long enough a piece of material which is going down here at the ridge would come up again somewhere else……………….. eventually.

On average the most active plate only moves a few centimeters a year, so the process takes a while. What we notice is the occasional earth tremor, strong or less strong, when the plate is releasing its pressure as it moves along.

Right below were we are, the crack is quite active and the ocean bottom is full of smokers (small pipes which nature constructs from the minerals which come out of the earth’s core and are cooled down by the water of the ocean. In the recent years it has been discovered that the warmth and escaping minerals have created a complete own and very local biosphere. Regardless of the enormous pressure down there, nature thrives. With modern technology in the form of unmanned subs, we now finally know that a lot of things are going on down there.  It is just a pity we cannot see it all from the ocean surface.

What was visible today, for those who were walking around the ship, was the crew who are forever cleaning, painting and maintaining. This morning there was the strange sight of some sailors with lifejackets on sitting in the Fast Rescue Boat. Always a bit un-nerving: “Do they know something we do not know”? But they were at work and we have the regulation when you are close to the side of the ship, and there is no railing, you wear a lifejacket and a safety line.

The Fast Rescue Boat is an addition to the ships since the 1990’s. For Holland America they appeared with the Vista Class. The idea was, heavily promoted by the Safety authorities (remember my blog from yesterday), that if you had a dedicated boat on board, which you could lower very fast and sail very fast, then you could pick up somebody from the water very fast.   It works quite well for shore organizations such as the lifeboat stations along the coasts but for the cruise ships it is a bit more challenging.

Todays picture of the North Atlantic. Not much mayhem to be seen.

As said the weather is still holding and it looks at the moment even the thunder storms are moving away. We might be lucky.

Another glorious day at sea. The weather is still holding with little chance of bad weather. There is a chance of thunderstorms a bit further down the road but nothing that gives reason for real concern.  So we can happily keep going on and stay on our course towards Tampa.

There are various ways to get to the same position/location when crossing the ocean. On a long distance we have two options; either going by Rhumb Line or following the Great Circle. Because the world is a globe, the shortest route is really a curved line and a straight line is longer as it has to be “stretched out” to fit over the globe. Also due to the curvature of the earth, the Great Circle line going further north as the globe is getting smaller in girth while going away from the equator. But going more north means coming closer to less pleasant weather or at least the greater chance of encountering less pleasant weather than when being further south.

Just imagine folding the globe open and pressing it flat and see what it does with the two lines. The great circle becomes a sort of short cut to the same destination. Constant azimuth means keeping the same course. With the Great Circle you make small course changes all the time to keep the curve.

The Rhumb line provides the most southerly course the ship can take and thus also staying further away from the bad weather up north.  The captain has to decide between the two options.  Shorter route means less fuel consumption but a heightened chance of more inclement weather and the longer route will cost more fuel but might help with finding more reasonable weather.  In our case there was some inclement weather looming after day 3 from Funchal and thus the captain decided to go more south. We will have to travel an additional 15 nautical miles or so but that is much better than bouncing around in a depression. Plus if you are in a depression and the ship starts to bounce then that costs speed as well so it might not even save time.

The sailing of the Oosterdam back to the States coincided this time with a considerable change over in Officers who all joined shortly before the crossing. One lady 3^rd officer was even relieved in Funchal and flew home to Holland via Lisbon. Once we get to the other side, there will be another considerable change over on the 18^th. and the 24^th. and after that date Deck and Engine will not much change anymore until close to Christmas. Now we have 8 sea days to enjoy, it gives an excellent time to refresh some routines which had gotten rusty or which needed some focus as during leave the focus was on other things. Thus we have now embarked on a whole program of trainings, drills and policy reviews which will help to raise the Officers awareness while doing their jobs.

One of the reasons for all this extra focus is the fact that our policies are forever being updated. Where on the shore side a law might seldom change as the political process is either very slow or a large group is against it, at sea things are different. Sailors do not have the option very much to say, this is nonsense, let’s keep it the same as we do not have any political clout. Plus it is hard to go against something that is being sold under the label “it improves safety”.  But what we see going on very much in the industry is consolidation and more detailed implementation. I call it : once we walked around the building keeping to the left and now suddenly we walk around the building keeping to the right. The result is still the same. The ship still sails safely only the routines have been changed.

For the coming winter we will be sailing in the North American hemisphere and this brings with it a whole set of new rules to get used to again. Nothing really new; just different ways to approach an identical topic. It does not really matter if you fight a fire the European way or the American way (metric or imperial) the result is the same but the approach is different. For officers who are new to this or have spent the last few years in Europe and Down under, there is the challenge to get familiar with the new approach. And now we have all those sea days to accomplish this.

What we were really worried about has dissipated to the north but there is still a tail with a lot of rain and thunder and that might not be gone by the time we get there.

So while this captain is dealing with that, captain Kan is dealing with a whole set of regulatory requirements to be fulfilled in order to be allowed to sail into Tampa on the morning of the 18^th.  In the meantime there is also the weather to keep an eye on. Depressions are nowhere in sight for the meantime but we still have a sort of frontal system looming which might bring some thunderstorms.

The weather is holding and the ms Oosterdam is ploughing with a speed of nearly 19 knots through a very calm sea. There is just a little movement caused by the regular ocean swell but the ships stabilizers are taking care of it very well.  Stabilizers can only deal with 90% of a rolling movement so there is always 10% or so left. That is the amount that the stabilizers need to “feel” that the ship is rolling. The gyroscope which controls the stabilizers needs some sort of push or jolt to measure the difference between being completely horizontally and not been completely horizontally before it can do its job. And therefore there is always a tiny bit of movement whatever the situation.

We are going faster than we need at the moment as we need to build up a good amount of reserve time because of the adverse currents we will get once we have passed Freeport in the Bahamas. At the moment we have a little bit of current with us, the equatorial current, which is curving away from the African coast and will eventually become part of the Gulf Stream again and so rotate in a never ending oblong circle. We probably get a 0.25 of knot for free each hour, which still helps if you count the total number of hours we will be under its influence. Once we start the battle against the Gulf Stream we will have at least 2 knots against us for most of the time. Unless the Gulf Stream axis is really well over to the Bahama side then we might be able to use the counter current which runs under Miami and Key West. But we cannot guarantee it and thus we build up a bit of “plus” as we call it and then can make it with the same engine configuration all the way to Tampa.

The top of one of the engines. The cylinders are arranged in V shape and thus the covers are under an angle as well. The red drum at the far end is the Turbo Blower. Most cars have a turbo, the ships have them as well.

Today I did some review work in the engine room of the Oosterdam. The construction of the Vista Class is an evolution of the S class and the R class but with a big step. This was the first class with two separate engine rooms. In the 90’s the regulators were starting to get worried about the size increase of the cruise ships  and having that whole ship rely on one engine room. It would only take a small fire and the whole technical heart of the ship would be out of service.  Thus came the idea to split up the engine room in two parts and have two or three engines in one compartment and two or three in another. As all the new ships were Diesel Electric this was very easy because they did not need a connection to the propeller shafts. Only a few electric cables are needed to go from the engines generator to the transformers and those transformers could be located anywhere in the ship if needed.

The engines run three decks high. This is D deck level. Then the real foundation is another 5 feet down towards the bottom of the ship. The round eyes sticking out were used for lowering the engine into the ship by a crane during the construction of the ship.

The Oosterdam is number 3 of the Vista Class and thus has a Forward and an Aft Engine Room. Forward there are 2 engines with a Gas Turbine engine in between and the aft one has three 3 engines.  Three of them have 16 cylinders and two of them have 12 cylinders. The Gas Turbine was a bright idea before 2010 and they were installed in quite a few ships between 2000 and 2010. The Queen Mary has one as well as an example. The idea was that if you needed some extra speed then you could use the turbine which would have less maintenance and a lot less weight than a normal engine and could produce the same or more output.

On board the jet engine turbine is completely sealed away in a protective housing. It produces a power of 11000 volts and you do not want to get close to that.

At that time the price for the fuel it needed was still low and thus it was economically feasible and operationally a nice perk.  As we know the fuel cost rocketed after 2008 and then jet turbine became a sort of white elephant. The turbine is indeed similar to an airplane engine and thus we call it so. It is hardly used anymore and ships which were constructed with the emphasis on these jet turbines (Royal Caribbean had a few) received additional motor engines to bring the cost down. If we would run it now, then the chief engineer would have to go around collecting money first from the Guests before he could afford to start the machinery up.

The engine is connected by a 12 inch thick shaft to a generator. Which is a sort dynamo and generates electricity.

Each engine is connected to a Generator which changes the shaft movement into electricity and that electricity then goes to Transformers which bring the power down to a current which can be used by a converter and this converter powers an Azipod which pushes the ship forward. Not all the power goes there; some is diverted and used for the ships operation. And when we go in and out of port, the bow thrusters run on electricity as well.

All engines need cooling and these are the 6 feet high cooling pumps for three engines.

All ships are so configured that the average speed needed for a cruise can be handled by one engine less than the total on board and the engine not in use can then be put under maintenance.  THis is done on a regular rotation; varying from small repairs and regular piston inspection, to a full stripping down of the whole engine when the maximum running hours have been reached. We take our cars to the garage after so many miles, a ships engine is completely taken apart while the ship is in operation. New parts come on board beforehand and the old –exchange- parts go ashore for refurbishment.

Tomorrow is the 2^nd day of our crossing and now the question slowly arises what the weather will bring. As always it will all depend if there is no hurricanes coming over and staying south of Bermuda or a depression created off Cape Hatteras decides to drop down, instead of curving northwards and head directly for Iceland.

At 06.00 the good ship Oosterdam was at the pilot station of Funchal and the pilot hopped on board right on time. Then the main discussion was: are we going portside or starboard side alongside? The captain wisely decided to dock with the nose to open waters. Always easier to get out in case something happens un-expectedly and of course it makes the departure time a lot shorter than if you have to swing first. And we are in a sort of a hurry as the average speed to maintain is quite high and for quite a long time we will be going against the current. Especially when we get to the Florida Straits.  Of course we did not sail on time as we had a “short” port call.  All on board was 14.30 hrs. but as it was so short, everybody came back late and then you do not sail on time. Thus swinging on arrival nibbled off some time from the delayed departure.

We had in port with us today the AidaBlu which came in an hour later. She was not on the agent’s schedule so I wonder if she was a late addition or had swapped ports or route. On the dock side stood a very loud (and very intoxicated) German bellowing a warm welcome to his German countrymen. It was 07.00 in the morning but I think for him time had stood still since the night before as he kept yelling Guten Abend (which is not exactly good morning) As he was partly obscured by the bow of the Oosterdam his welcome speech was a little bit marred due to lack of exposure to those on the AidaBlu. He then wanted to walk along side the Oosterdam to reach the docking location of the AidaBlu behind us but for that purpose he had to walk through our security zone and thus he was stopped. Still happily bellowing he was then guided behind the Cruise Terminal and disappeared from view and from ear shot.

We have: Tui, Indonesian Flagm Tui, Tui, RCI, Tui, Westerdam, Aida, USS Taylor, unknown and the ms Nieuw Amsterdam. The crew names are old, as that is not allowed anymore.

Funchal is one of the very few places where they still allow you to paint logos on the dock wall. They even encourage it as long as it has a design and the end effect is pleasing. They only let you paint over old signs if and when they have completely faded; otherwise you have to find a still bare space. Holland America is very well represented and so is TUI, which makes sense as with their “Mein Schiff” fleet (they have just commissioned Mein Schiff 5) they make a lot of calls here as does the Tui small cruise fleet which focuses on the UK market with the ex Holland America Line ships Thomson Spirit and Thomson Celebration (ex Nieuw Amsterdam and Noordam).

The Oosterdam did not undertake a paint project as we were too short in port and opposite our location all the wall spots were already taken. You have to be further inside to find a piece of bare breakwater wall., but maybe next time. At least we could see the Westerdam and the Nieuw Amsterdam proudly in place right across from us.

The ms Oosterdam docked at the S.E end of the inner breakwater.

The port of Funchal mainly consists out of one large breakwater which runs for 2000 feet in an East – West direction and offers place for two very large ships and a lot of smaller ships. The ships dock on the inside and the strong and high breakwater wall keeps the bad Atlantic weather out. The only challenge we have is the North Atlantic Swell rolling into the port. If by chance the swell is from the South East and not the South West (which is the norm) then the waves roll in, hit the island side, bounce back and make the ships at the Breakwater dock surge along considerably. Not pleasant for the gangway, which then moves with the ship, and not good for the ropes which on occasion brake due to the friction on the mooring cleats.  Today it was nice and quiet.

The mighty breakwater as seen on departure. This time minus the shouting German who stood right under the lighthouse on arrival this morning. The Aidablu sailed later.

By 1500 hrs. we were on our way and will now have 8 full days at sea and then arrive in Tampa on the 18^th.  Weather looks quite good at least for the near future with little wind and little swell. There is a frontal system hanging north of Bermuda but we have to wait and see how far its influence comes south. Hopefully only a little bit of swell which can be looked after by the ships stabilizers.

Yesterday morning the Oosterdam was the first ship to enter the port of Malaga and last night she was the last one leaving, at least of the three HAL ships. Then it was pedal to the metal to maintain the schedule for Funchal. The weather forecast for the Mediterranean between Malaga and Gibraltar was spot on, but once in the Ocean there was more wind and swell than initially forecast. Sometimes I have the impression that forecasters fine tune their forecasts by looking out of the window. Something that does not work for the Open Ocean.

The Dutch weather observation ship ms Cumulus. No stabilizers, not nice in the winter. (Photo courtesy Stegro publishers)

In the old days when there were weather ships, you still had a window or a view from the bridge, but those ships are long gone. With that I mean stationary ships, moving explorations ships such as the NOAA has and most navies are still out there in abundance.  When I was at the Maritime Academy between 1976 and 1979 I met officers who did contracts on the Dutch weather ship the ms Cumulus and that happened on a sort of a one by one loan basis from the Merchant Navy. The ship was of course parked where the worst North Atlantic weather could be expected and thus there was little interest for a 2^nd contract unless it was in the summer. The ship did very valuable work and I remember my first captain contacting them directly to ask for the weather in the area. No doubt they provided the answer by looking out of the (bridge) window.

The island of Madeira and the smaller Savage islands to the S.E. The darker the water, the shallower it is.

Now the ms Oosterdam is on the way to Funchal on Madeira, which is the largest island of the Madeiran Archipelago.  The other islands known as the Savage Islands are very small and the preponderance of the population lives on the main island. The island is a bit to the south of the latitude of the Straits of Gibraltar and thus we are steering a SW course of 249o. Which is always good. The further to the south the less waves there tend to be. There lays a frontal system over the Azores (as it does very often) and that is sustaining a swell coming from the north hand which is just touching the 3 meters or 9-10 feet. It is hitting us under an angle and as a result the Oosterdam is not pitching or rolling; it does both but not consistently. Thus we have a bit of a strange movement. The Azores are about 1200 miles to the North West and thus we are very happy that we are not there today.

The North Atlantic Ridge and the boundaries of the most important Tectonic plates. (Somewhere off the internet, could not trace the maker)

The islands are all the tops of Volcano’s which were created by mountains ridges rising very sharply several thousand feet from the sea floor. Thus when we left the Straits of Gibraltar behind, we fell off the Continental Shelf and are now sailing over very deep water. That will remain so until about 2 am. tomorrow morning when we approach the ridge running S.E. of the islands and then it gets shallow quite quickly. Shallow in relative speak, it will still be several hundred feet but with an average depth of several thousand feet it can be considered shallow. Then it does down again to very deep water until we arrive at the pilot station where Madeira itself rises up from the depth.

All these rises and depths (Madeira, Azores, Cape Verdes) are all the results of cracks in the earths crust. The major one is the North Atlantic ridge where the European Tectonic plates (the Eurasian and African plate) are being shoved under the North American plate. Madeira is sitting on the border of the Eurasian and the African plate) where the Earths crust is breaking or cracking up, there are normally fireworks to be seen when that happens but on Madeira things are very quiet. The island itself is a shield volcano, which means the island is part of a Volcano rim. But as it is a big rim, there a numerous small volcano cones near the highest points of the island. They are all dormant and the city of Funchal has been built all over them.   As the chance of seeing the island being blown up by volcanic activity is fairly remote, and Funchal is the most important cruise port of Portugal to which country Madeira belongs. It is situated ideally for trans-atlantic crossings but as it is only one sea day sailing away from the European shores it is also for that reason a nice port to go to, when on a 10 day cruise or longer from a Continental home port.

The plan is to have the pilot on board at 06.00 hrs. tomorrow morning and to be docked before 07.00 hrs. We will stay until 15.00 hrs. and then set sail for Tampa Florida. Madeira has a very temperate climate and tomorrow it will be on the low side of temperate with temperatures of 57oF or 14 oC.

And thus I arrived on the Oosterdam in Malaga.  I left San Diego on the 5^th, and flew via New York to Amsterdam where I arrived on the 6^th in the morning^. Then the late afternoon flight to Malaga which brought me to the Hotel in Malaga just before 8 pm.  I had to wait for most of the day in Amsterdam for a connecting flight but if you have to wait somewhere in some airport then Amsterdam is one of the best airports there is to do so.  Even if you are not a big shopper, there is sufficient stuff to look at to keep you busy for a good number of hours. And the KLM business class lounge is in my opinion the best in the world. You never run out of food or drink and there are always sufficient newspapers to catch up with the rest of the world. Everything is help yourself and that is something I prefer as in other lounges where they have bar tenders, you always get the feeling that they want a tip and sometimes the tipping glass is standing on the bar, quite prominently. I have nothing against tipping but I tipp for service above what can be expected and thus I see no reason to tip somebody who is just doing is/her job.  I had the same last night with the Taxi driver who brought my suitcase nicely all the way to the hotel desk and that deserves a good tip; this morning the taxi driver did not even know where the Cruise Terminal was and thus there was no tip. Taxi drivers in Spain do not exactly expect tips, so there is not much of an argument but I exercise the principle everywhere in the world the same way and then you can have some interesting experiences.   I do not have children but if I had had them, they would have been dead by now (including my parents and my grandparents) if I had to believe the Taxi driver in Alexandria Egypt. He got rather upset when I explained to him the difference between the connection of a tip and service and no service and still expecting to get rich in one day.

I am now on the Oosterdam and hit the deck running as they call it. The ship is on its Trans-Atlantic crossing cruise which started on 3 November in Civitavecchia, Italy. Today is Malaga and then the day after tomorrow we are in Funchal and after that only sea days until we arrive in Tampa on the 18^th. As the ship is coming back from Europe, it will face a very heavy day in Tampa and the captain wisely decided to start preparing for that event as early as possible. There will be a full face crew inspection by CBP, A full USCG inspection, heavy loading & provisioning, fuel bunkering, offloading of recyclables and the start of a Carnival Corporation 5 day audit. And then we also still have to disembark 2000 guests from this cruise and embark 2000 guests for the next cruise which is a seven day West Caribbean.

All the Oosterdam crew except an odd 30 or so who were needed to keep the ship running.

So this morning, the staff Captain called the whole ships complement together in the Showroom at Sea after the General Emergency Boat drill. Most communication in the ship goes by email but that is A. not always conveying the importance of a situation and B. it does not always reach everybody as you depend on the supervisor to pass it on, or on the crewmember to read what has been posted. Most crew never visit the Show room at Sea and thus is it a nice perk to sit on comfy chairs and couches and hear the staff Captain preach the latest “HAL – Gospel”

Staff Captain Jonathan Edwards explaining that nobody can expect a day off during first call Tampa.

The good ship ms Oosterdam (I) is under the command of Captain Robert Jan Kan whom I sailed with the 1990’s and onwards when he joined Holland America as a Navigator. Today he led the Holland America parade into Malaga as behind us are the Prinsendam and the Eurodam. It is very seldom that you have 3 company ships in port and even more seldom that they are docked at the same cruise terminal. Thus I did have to run ashore to take a photo of the occurrence. Unfortunately the cruise pier in Malaga is long and narrow with water on both sides, so I could not walk far enough to get them all lined up in a row.  An angle was the best I could do. Maybe a local newspaper sees the uniqueness of the happening and diverts a helicopter for a few moments.

Ocean Liner row in Malaga. ms Oosterdam, (I), ms Eurodam (I) and ms Prinsendam (II). Also in port but at other docks: ms Amadea and the ms Aegean Odyssey.

Tomorrow we are at sea after having sailed through the Pillars of Hercules & Gibraltar during the late night. The weather forecast looks very good and with that I mean not sun or rain but wind, waves and swell. Those things which makes a ship wobble and the guests unhappy. For the time being it looks very good. The 20 knots of wind we currently have will died down to almost nothing and the waves are not supposed to be higher than 2 meters or so, 6 or 7 feet.  And that is very good for this time of the year.