USA California has a long coastal line and so has Mexico California; and since 2 pm. yesterday we are sailing along it and can see it continuously on our starboard side. Some of it is fairly flat but in some areas the mountain ranges almost reach the water line and then we see high sand dunes which are really rocks covered with sand. We will continue to follow the coast until we reach San Diego, which is about ten nautical miles north of the Mexican Border. From San Diego it would at least be another day of sailing along the coast to get to the northern boundary, there where California meets Oregon. The Veendam will not do this as San Diego is the turnaround port and from there she goes back to Florida.

The Yorktown Clipper a number of years ago. I did not have my camera with me, so I could not take open sea shot this morning.

This is really the start of the winter season and thus I was not so amazed to see a little blue hulled cruise ship sailing by which looked like the Spirit of Yorktown. But I was amazed to see that it was her. The latest news I had read about her was that she had been seized by a bank due to some monetary issues but obviously she is back in business. She is one of those little ships who sail in Alaska in the summer and then sail the Gulf of Cortez area in the winter. Specializing in wildlife explorations. (The Gulf of Cortez is the sea area between the Mexican Coast and the Californian Peninsula)

We had a very nice sunset last night and that brings me back to the need to complete my blog of a few days ago about sunrises, sunsets and twilights. For people ashore the twilight zone is the moment between light and dark, the time of sunrise and sunset. For us at sea things are a little bit more complicated as that time of the day is an excellent moment to take celestial fixes to determine the ships position. We now mostly look at the GPS but the old skills are still important as you never know if some politician might switch the system off. (USA, Russia and the EU all have an independent system developed just because of that reason)

It has nothing to do with fishing but everything with finding out where you are. (Courtesy In-Fisherman)

Twilight is the time of dusk or dawn, when we go from full night to full day or vice versa. The sun is below the horizon but it is not completely dark yet. For the explanation we will use sunset. There are three phases in this period, Civil, Nautical and Astronomical twilight.

Civil Twilight is the period which ends when we humans think: now the sun is really gone. We cannot see terrestrial objects very clear anymore. We can see planets but stars are not very clear. Then comes Nautical Twilight. Now the stars are clearly visible and the horizon is as well. By using a sextant (which measures the angle between a heavenly body and the horizon) we can find our position by obtaining “a fix” of several objects at the same time. 3 observations are enough, 5 or 6 are better. Once the horizon is no longer visible we enter the period of Astronomical Twilight. This is a period when astronomical observations can be made; I am not too familiar with this but as far as I know astronomers need sometimes this period as they cannot do certain observations if it is really night.

Scientists have of course figured about exactly between which angles of the sun, which twilight exists. We at sea do not really care much about those angles. We need the time. We calculate when we can expect nautical twilight and we are already in position with our sextant well before that time so we have the longest period possible to catch those stars and planets which will give us the best fix. So once we can see the horizon or until we lose the horizon we “shoot the stars”. Which is nowadays not so easy anymore as we have closed bridge wings; and thus we have to go to the deck above the bridge and then come down again. Because Navigators are not allowed to leave the bridge, you need other officers to come up and make the observations.

One from the old days. Officers shooting the noon time sun on board the HAL cargo ship ss Arkeldyk in 1950. The officer with the 3 stripes is the later captain H.L. Van Deventer. (Courtesy R. van Devener , son)

Not a bad idea anyway, because by taking multiple sightings, you can improve your final calculation considerably by middling the results and discarding an observation if one is a bit too far out. That was why in the old days all the deck officers would come to the bridge for the”noon time fix”. This is a way to exactly measure your latitude by taking an observation of the sun when it is at its highest point. As the sun is only there for a few seconds, all officers would take a reading and then decide on the correct one. (Most of the time, the one of the most senior officer involved) But that is another story.

Tomorrow we are in San Diego and I will leave the ms Veendam behind, my work being done here. I was Captain on her from 2004 to 2008 and it was good to see her back. From San Diego I will fly via New York and Amsterdam to Malaga and there join the Oosterdam for her Trans-Atlantic crossing and then for cruises from Tampa.

So tomorrow there will be no blog as I will be travelling. Even if I was not, then there would still be no blog as tomorrow I will be 35 years with Holland America Line, so I would have raised a glass to myself in the best Bar on the ship. Now I will find one in an airport .Cheers.

We arrived just after 06.00 with a spectacular sun rise behind us. The weather turned out as expected the only thing which we had not hoped for was that all the fishing boats were assembling just outside the port, to go for a fishing derby. The mother ship was calling out the numbers who had checked in and by the time we drifted by, heading towards the anchorage, the count was up to 139 and still going up. Although the authorities were doing their best to keep all the boats together it was a hopeless challenge and the Veendam had to go very slow, to avoid them all. As was expected and as did happen, there were a few of course who wanted to get out of the way but did so by crossing our bow. At for them a safe distance, but for those on the bridge quite scary as the dead angle of view is 45 meters and most fishing boats consider 20 meters more than enough.

The ship had to carefully navigate its way through quite a few of those.

The good thing about it was that the fishing competition emptied out the harbor and that gave more room for our tenders to get in and out.  So we dropped the hook and just before 07.00 hrs. we were in full swing. Full swing is a big word; we were trying to swing, as apart from the guests on tours nobody was in a hurry to go ashore. My prediction of yesterday that a lot of guests were not going ashore at all came through as it remained quiet. By 10.00 hrs. the Cruise Director gave up all hope of enticing people to collect a tender ticket and then it was a free for all. Which exactly generated one more tender full of guests. No more than half of all on board decided to have a look at Cabo San Lucas.

Not that the captain minded, it also meant that everybody was back on board on time and the ship could leave the anchorage at 14.00 hrs. It is a tight run up to San Diego and there is the additional challenge of sailing around the South point of the Baja California, with is Sunday sailors, sightseeing boats (whales) and fishermen. That can cost considerable time. Then the ship will try to arrive early in San Diego as we are coming from a non USA port and thus everybody has to go to immigration.  An early start is helpful here, especially to get all the pre paper work done.

View from the tender. The port of Cabo San Lucas. This is after most boats went fishing.

In the meantime the four ships tenders kept up the shuttle service with the trainee tender operators running the tenders when empty. Today was a big day as they had to perform under the watchful eye of the officers on the bridge and at the gangway. Tonight they will receive their certificate and on the Eastbound Trans canal they will get a few more tests and then they can be put to work when needed.

Apart from keeping my eye on the trainees, my day was filled with crises management training. When I am on a ship I try to grab the chance and give the Stairway Guides a bit of in-depth training in regards how to handle, obstinate, fearful, obnoxious, scared and panicky Guests in an emergency. We have a few tricks for that, but to get it across some acting is needed and the officers who are normally giving the training are not always comfortable of acting like a fool and getting the rest to act like fools as well. I have no such problems and then the crew is more willing to join in as soon as they see that I am willing to drop my five stripes. And thus we had small far eastern ladies contemplating how to handle big and brawny guests.  If it really would happen then the results will be quite scary for those big and brawny guests………..

Tomorrow is the last day of the cruise and most guests will be packing although there are a few who will return with the ship to San Diego.  I met one family who joined in Montreal, stayed all the way through, will visit friends in San Diego and then sail back to Florida to spend the winter season there. Not a bad way of living if you have the time to do so.

Tomorrow should be another nice day, with similar weather as today, and as today was nearly cloudless we might have a spectacular sun set tonight.

The good weather continues and we had another day in paradise, right here on board the Veendam. Today there was a lot of wildlife around and those who frequented the outside decks could have seen, dolphins, seals, all sorts of birds and turtles. We even had a hawk hitching a ride on the bow. Normally we do not see hawks in open waters but we are less than 20 miles from shore so maybe he/she flew out a bit too far and used us as a resting platform before turning back again. Turtles (or tortoises) are more common and I am always fascinated by them. We literally see hundreds of them and in the beginning I was always afraid that they might be hit by the ships propellers as they are not the fastest of swimmers.

This is the sort we see from the bridge along the Mexican coast

But through the years I kept an eye on them and it looks like that we, at least the bigger ships, cannot do them any harm. With their shields they lay on the water as a cork and they are simply washed away on the bow wave. They might not enjoy the sudden swell rolling by, but when caught they are pushed away a considerably distance. When I follow them I normally seem them 100 to 150 feet away from the ship by the time the stern passes them and they are just bobbing up and down the waves created by the ship. There are a lot of turtles out there but we always only see one sort. A big brown shielded version in size anywhere between 30 and 80 centimeters. (As guessed from the bridge wing)

Tomorrow we are in Cabo San Lucas and then we will see more wildlife in the form of Pelicans and seals which are normally present in large numbers around the port entrance. With so many sport fishermen going in and out of here, there is a fair chance of an easy meal. Then after the departure I have high hopes for whales; some who are here all year around and some who are on the way down from Alaska, as not all Alaska whales go to Hawaii.

Cabo San Lucas has three anchorages. This radar screen shot shows anchorage 2 in the center, we will be all the way to the left. In that direction is the ship/echo heading which is following the dotted line.

Cabo San Lucas is a tender port and the preparations for tomorrow started already a day before. The tenders need to be made ready and the agent has advised us what to expect. We will be the only ship into tomorrow so we can go to anchorage number 1, which is the closest and also the best sheltered from the ocean swell. That saves a considerable time and less tender distance to cover.

Then we have to prepare the operational side of the tender operation as we will be using our own boats. Most of us have all been there but still we take the whole deck department with all sailors and officers through a tender briefing to ensure that the operation is safe but also as efficient as possible. We are in port from 07.00 to 14.00 hrs. which is a short period to get 1200 guests ashore and also back. (Unless a lot of the guests are not going ashore; most have been here already before and will have bought the T shirt)

Bo’sun and sailors assembled in the Bo’sun store listening to the wise words of the First Officer on the left.

Thus today all the troops gathered in the Bo ‘sun store and the First Officer gave his briefing. Route and Safe navigation (the area is normally full of six-pack navigators or worse), Emergency tender procedures, Safe Working Practices, docking, undocking, standby locations, checklists, etc. etc. That takes roughly about a hour, as we want to make sure that there are no glitches. And if there is one, then it is at least not caused by something we could have foreseen.

We will start approaching the anchorage by about 05.30. Have the hook down by 05.45, send our first tender ashore at the same time to collect the officials and as soon as those have cleared the ship, start our tender operation. Hopefully we will be in full swing before 07.00 hrs.

It will be a hot day again tomorrow, with temperatures in the low 80’s and a lot of sunshine. If I was a guest and I had already bought the T short, I think I would prefer to stay on board. I will be up and about early. First to see the anchor operation, and then monitor my school class in helping operate the tender service.

I will continue my story about sunset/ sunrise after Cabo.

For those who are interested I have uploaded the biography of the Master of the Veendam

Captain Noel O”Driscoll under Current captains and their schedules.

It takes two days to sail to our next port of call, Cabo San Lucas, and we have to sail at a fair clip as well. Just over 18 knots to make sure we get there on time. I think a lot of people do not realize how big Mexico really is. Maybe not that wide, but it is long. Especially in Europe the common knowledge is that Mexico is located under the USA; Mexico City has millions of inhabitants, it has lots of Mayan ruins all over the place and some very nice places to go on vacation. But not many people can put a real finger on the fact that it takes quite some time to get from the one end to another.

That gap in the Sierra Madre which is causing all those windy problems.

Last night we had our first Mexican adventure, the Tehuantepeccer wind.  When I checked the weather forecast yesterday afternoon it was unclear if it would happen as the angle in the Gulf of Mexico for the wind there was not completely right but in the late afternoon things shifted just a bit and the wind started to blow through the gap in the Rocky Mountains /Andes called the Sierra Madre range.  Then the question was how much were we going to get? The tehantepec wind can vary in strength from 40 to a 90+ knots, and the closer you are to the coast, the more wind you catch but also the less waves it can whip up.

An example weather chart, clearly showing the outflow of the wind. (Courtesy NOAA.org)

For a captain who wants to keep his ship straight up and do not let it wobble too much, it is worthwhile to try and find out how strong the wind is going to be.  Although you cannot predict with complete accuracy, you can have a fair shot at it. Normally you take the predicted wind for Salina Cruz and then add a knot for each mile you are out in the open, until about 50 miles away. Salina Cruz is a tanker port which sits under that wind gap in the mountains. As it is located below the gap it does not get all the wind. Most of it blows higher up directly into sea.  The Salina Cruz weather forecast gave 25 to 30 knots by evening, we were 20 miles away from the coast and thus we could expect 45 to 50 knots of wind. And that is what we got. The wind topping just 50 knots when we sailed through the middle part.  If well prepared (all tanks on the wind side full and lee side empty) an S class ship can compensate to about 50 knots. And thus we did not list. 20 miles of free wind is not enough to build up strong waves and thus we did not move that much either.  If the list becomes uncomfortable than we can do a bit of zig-zagging and keep the wind under an angle. An Angle in relation to the super structure so the list decreases again. But that costs time and speed and we were lucky last night that the Veendam ballasting capabilities were a full match for the wind.

The 2^nd very important thing was the one hour back last night. We are now on West coast time and ready for San Diego.  Time zones were invented to make sure everybody got a sunrise and sunset at a workable time. At least everybody, except those above & under the polar circles, they get all or nothing.  Because we go in jumps of one hour we never get it completely steady for each day and thus the sun can rise a lot earlier on board than would be expected. With two days at the sea, we had three nights to give this hour and the Captain decided that after all these hot and busy ports it would be nice for everybody to have a lie in so it was done last night.

There is this moment between dark and light which is the sun rise and sun set as the changes from light to dark, the twilight zone. At sea we have several twilight zones. More about that tomorrow.

Neptune has not yet decided to rock the boat, so the weather of today sunny with a slight haze and flat calm waters, with a low swell is set to continue to tomorrow. It was nearly wind still today and thus the ship could produce its own relative wind, giving a gentle breeze blowing over the deck.  A near perfect day for cruising.

The Pacific Ocean remained Pacified and docile today and thus we sailed into Puerto Chiapas without any problems. No rolling and hardly any yawing (ship behaving like a dog’s tail) on the waves who roll under our square stern and then try to lift it up. But because the ship is moving forward, the angle is constantly changing and then the stern starts a sort of cork screw swaying motion.  The quartermasters behind the wheel find it then nearly impossible to keep the course and then the only thing the captain can do is give rudder orders and “catch” the ship by anticipating the next movement. But nothing of those troubles today, it was very quiet at sea and docking was a routine affair.

Today it was my pleasure to create – controlled – havoc in the Hotel department. We had our General Emergency drill this morning —- all crew in action —- and my focus was on the Hotel staff. Two years ago the company restricted our safety setup by re-aligning everybody’s duties so it was much clearer to see who was doing what and who checked on whom. For that propose the organizational influence of the Hotel Staff was increased and the Captain and his bridge team stepped back and only kept overall control. From that moment on, the Hotel Director was organizing all the movements of the crew and guests, once the Master of the Vessel had given the order.

Two of the 10 Ladies and Gents of the Muster Control Support Team who keep track of 1400 guests and 650 crew.

The Hotel Director is now called Muster Control and the front desk Muster Control Support Team. They have to make sure that everybody on board makes it to their lifeboats and liferafts. For that they have a plethora of teams available to help with searching in case people get lost, do not want to report, do not want to participate, or had an accident. Those teams have to be trained and kept on their toes and that is where I come in to stir the pot a little bit.

So what we did today, I parked 5 cadets and 2 officers in the ship, two in cabins, two in public rooms, two in crew area’s and one in a handicapped toilet. Then I just watched to see if a: they would be found, b: what follow up the finding-team would provide and c. most important, would the person who was found end up at the correct lifeboat/life raft station and was this all properly tracked by the Muster Control Support Team.  The objective is to be able to report to the Captain: “everybody accounted for, and all ready to disembark the ship”.

This is the Crew Sweep Team made up of cooks and kitchen helpers. They check/sweep all the crew area’s to ensure nobody has been left behind.

By now my reputation is travelling ahead of me, so the teams were expecting something and were ready to roll. However the handicapped toilet was one they were not expecting. I had put a cadet in there and as soon as the alarm went, he pushed the emergency button which all our toilets have. These buttons are tested once a month and if you push it an alarm goes off in the Front Office. Company routine is then for a Front Desk attendant to grab VHF, grab the AED and go and investigate. This all went according to protocol and then she heard a person hyper ventilating and being very unhappy in general, inside. Next step obtain the Emergency master key from the Hotel Director and open the door. Based on the initial report of the Front desk attendant, Muster Control relayed the message to the Bridge (which we call Command & Control during emergencies) who alerted the medical team. By the time the door was opened, medical was present and “the patient” could be treated. It took less than 4 minutes to have the patient out and cared for. The cadet inside was quite happy as he had five Ladies fussing over him. He was taken by the stretcher team to one of the ships tenders as our medical staff are all assigned to a tender. Tenders will act as a sort of ambulance when all the lifeboats and life rafts are in the water, making it possible to get medical help very quickly to one of the other boats.

All missing peoples were found before the captain was giving the order abandon ship and thus Muster Control reached its objectives. Leaves one Philipinna Lady who is very upset with me as she thought that the person in the toilet was a real emergency as it looked as if he was almost collapsing ………… Well I cannot be blamed for having a cadet who turned out to be a very good actor.

The coming two days we are at sea, sailing along the Mexican coast. From the far south (Puerto Chiapas) to the Far North (Baja California) to reach Cabo San Lucas.  We are expecting sunny weather and our hope is that there is no Tehuantepeccer blowing tonight which might make the ship list.

It was a sweltering day in Corinto and it was a sweltering day today in Puerto Quetzal. Although here we had about 10 knots of wind and that made it a bit more bearable.  Better than yesterday when there was hardly anything at all. We were the only cruise ship in port and thus we occupied the cruise terminal. Much to the relief of the bulkcarrier captains no doubt, who are otherwise kicked out of the port when there are more “Fur coat” boats  coming in. For them time is money as well and thus they do not like to be delayed by sitting at the anchorage for the day. Even more galling must be that those cruise guests who get preference are happily waving at you when they get in, and then even more happily waving at you when they get out of the port again.  So today nobody had reason to be upset.  But then it was Sunday and the people who normally like to be upset, as it gives them something to do, were having the day off or at least having Sunday lunch.

When I tried to raise Port Control to get permission to lower my tender, there was deadly silence. No other ships movement was planned until 3 pm. so they were all having a nice Sunday lunch I suppose. Every ship’s captain knows how that works and in order to avoid somebody getting upset when they return from lunch, the purser normally has a list with requests prepared and then has it signed  (and stamped) by one of the officials coming on board to clear the ship. And once we have a stamp; we are in business.   Puerto Quetzal has even gone one better; they have their own list to make it easier for the cruise ships, so we do not even have to ask. Thus I already had pre permission to lower a boat as long as I strayed no more than 30 meters away from the ship. The local authorities do not want us to get lost in their port. But we normally call in as a courtesy to let them know what we are doing where and when.

And so today four new sailors were introduced into the secrets of operating a tender with two engines, two rudders, and how to use those to come alongside and sail away from the tender platform.  We only had ten knots of wind but an empty tender lays as an egg shell on the water and thus drifts, and that concept takes time to understand. So for the first few attempts I had some deeply concentrated sailors trying to bring the tender alongside and either missing or bumping into the platform.  But once they really believed my phrase “use the wind as your friend” it started to improve by leaps and bounds.  To be continued tomorrow. Then they have to do with only one engine.

Somewhere near the fire, but safe, there is a staging area where everybody meets. Here an engineer is checking if all the gear is properly in place before a team is being send in.

I still have to explain the “un-expected fire drill” of yesterday. It is company policy (and all shipping companies are the same) to stage on a regular basis an un-expected drill. Nobody has already been thinking about it, nobody is mentally prepared, and if it happens at a time when “nobody in their right mind” would do it, then maybe it could be for real. Then we get the adrenaline going and suddenly all the trained routines have to be executed under pressure as “it might be for real”.  It is always difficult to keep things quiet on a ship as it is one big village, and its inhabitants love to gossip, but with me around, the captain has the extra card up his sleeve as I can avoid anybody if needed. A second item we have to train is fires in port. Then 50% of the 4 fire teams might be ashore and then the On Scene Commander has to combine whatever he has available into at least two attack teams. So we combined those two things yesterday and at 14.15 I have everybody having a near heart attack by simulating a fire  in the electric power station of the winches.

8 Minutes from happily having an afternoon snooze to be fully alert and in “full combat gear” approaching the fire is not bad going.

What do we look for: response time, still following the correct procedures and no short cuts, correct announcements and staying on the ball once it becomes clear it is a drill. I was really impressed with the response time, 8 minutes from jumping out of bed, to be fully kitted out and sitting in position behind a hose and a CO2 extinguisher and ready to enter the compartment where the fire is. And behind that attack team all the backup & support teams are in place to make sure everything is done safely. Such a drill does not have to take long, it is about the response and the time needed to surround the fire and once surrounded, getting it out is not so difficult. Thus the whole evolution was over in 20 minutes. So I could give compliments to everybody although it did not mean they were very happy with me but then life is never perfect. The captain made an elaborate announcement afterwards about the why and the when and then also the guests understood the importance of it all. And my apologies for waking those up who had just settled down for a nice nap after all the excitement of Corinto port.

This evening we sail at 19.00 hrs. and then our next port of call is Puerto Chiapas. This can be a nasty place to get into to if there is a high ocean swell running, but at the moment the Pacific Ocean is really peaceful so we should have no issues what so- ever.  Weather for tomorrow; same as today. Chiapas is only 140 miles away from Quetzal and without a mountain ridge in the way, they share the same heatwave.

The docks of Corinto are located on the river and that river ends in the sea south of the town. So the port is nice and sheltered but you first have to get there. The town straddles a sort of peninsula with the sea on one side and the river on the other side. And that sea can be tricky sometimes, if there is a long ocean swell running. Then the main thrust of that swell is under water as the energy amplitude of the wave system continues under water and stays there as long as the water is deep. When the water gets shallower and shallower the wave is “lifted or pushed” up and up and forced to disperse all its energy at the water’s surface. That causes high and short waves and can make a ship roll as a pig in the mud. Except the pig will like it, the people on the ship don’t.  Corinto is approached through a channel with about a mile of very shallow water on each side and that can cause very nasty waves. Sometimes so nasty, that the call at Corinto has to be cancelled.

The Corinto pilot boat: the ms Taiwan. How (un) local can you get??

Yesterday I observed that there was little swell at Punta Arenas due to the calm weather in the North Pacific and today that weather continued and also here there was very little swell. So we were in business, the captain made his safety announcement urging everybody to sit down and in we went. The pilot has a new pilot boat since the last time I was here and this work boat is named Taiwan. Peculiar name for a Spanish speaking country. My hunch is that it must have been a gift from one of the container companies calling here.

The statue of the national poet Ruben Darrio. Why not name the local pilot boat after him ??

When coming in, the ship has to make a sharp turn around an island on which top there is a white lighthouse. Right behind it on a pedestal stands a statue of Ruben Dario. He is the founding father of Nicaragua and the national hero.  It is not often that a poet is considered the man to look up to but here in Corinto it is the case. His name is Ruben Dario and the main elementary school in Corinto is named after him.

I have to use a photo from last year as a big tanker was standing in front of the school. But it still looks the same. The Holland America paint is holding very well.

By 10 am. we were docked in front of a container ship and guests could stream ashore for what turned out to be a very warm day. No wind and no clouds. I followed the stream of guests as I was going to have a look at the school. It being Saturday is was closed of course but the head teacher lives next door so hopefully she was at home.  She was not and I had an awkward conversation with another lady who was very suspicious about me ringing the bell. (Or better said, hollering for attention as there was no bell) Sometimes it pays off to be world famous (at least in Corinto) as suddenly a bright smile appeared on her face as she recognized me from a photo in the sitting room.

This is the cover page of their Face Book page. The school is to the left, nicely in blue and white.

Being world famous in Corinto, means you are also rich and I was directed to the little shop around the corner, where I once bought the corrugated roof plates and was pointed to the dry-erasers again. So I bought them all; $ 52, — covered the whole inventory, and they will get to the head teacher  somehow. Dry erasers seem to be a big issue in Corinto schools. The school is now going in recess as high summer approaches. I could not get in as the keys where with somebody else in charge. But I learned a new thing from her, one of the Statendam crewmembers had put the whole paint thing on You tube at the time. The lady knew but I did not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcGJwTjgMTw

So the little effort by Team Statendam in 2012 still lingers on and is not forgotten by the locals. If we could do it again remains the question as it gets more and more difficult to do things without having to go through a lot of red tape. Not just here but everywhere. If I ever get back here, courtesy of my schedule not changing at the last minute, then I will try for dry erasers again.

Tonight we sail at 18.00 hrs. and then tomorrow we are in Puerto Quetzal.  Weather is going to be hot, sunny and humid again: 89oF / 32oC.  Not good for this poor man as I have to go down in the tender with my sailor class to teach them tender maneuvering. Today I had the whole ship running around because of an un-expected fire drill. More about that tomorrow.

This is a most peculiar place to visit as you have two options. In the good old days, we could only go to Puerto Caldera, which is the cargo port in the province of Punta Arenas. The provincial head town had a small pier as well but not suitable for our activities. So when we docked we had buses and taxis for those who wanted to go to Punta Arenas about 15 minutes down the road. Most guests go on tour in Costa Rica but for those who did not want to go on tour and for those who did not want to go to Punta Arenas there was a big flee market setup in the cargo sheds. Puerto Caldera dock is located behind a nice breakwater and protected from the sea swell for most of the calls and thus very much liked by captains. Happy Taxi drivers, happy vendors, happy captains as the ship lays stable against the dock.

The Veendam docked at Punta Arenas. The tour buses back down all the way from the beginning of the pier as there is no room to turn.

Then a new pier was built so we could dock with our nose straight into Punta Arenas downtown. That created for very happy shops and very unhappy taxi drivers. For the tours it did not matter, all the buses still parked outside the ship. For the captains it was less straight forward. Offering the best location for your guests is something you want to achieve but the new pier had some challenges.

The new pier sticking right into the open waters.

It was not sitting behind a breakwater so the swell ran in freely. This can make the ship bounce and surge along the pier if there is a long ocean swell running; and a moving ship creates problems with the gangway.  The other thing is the current. The pier is right in open waters and up to four knots of current can freely run under it. Four knots of current is not something you can control with your thrusters. Thus you have to synchronize your arrival and departure with the time that the current turns, slack tide. Which is not always at the same time and thus absolutely not in synch with the cruise brochure. Thus sometimes the Captain has to get the ship in much earlier (sail a lot faster than planned, burn a lot more fuel) or come in late and that affects the departure time as the tours still go with the duration.)

Today we were lucky. The turning of the tide was around 06.30 and for a 07.00 hrs. arrival it was just perfect. Departure was less of a problem as the current was going to push the ship away from the dock anyway. And it had been quiet in the Pacific and thus there was only a very low swell rolling in and the ship hardly moved. On top of that it was overcast and it hardly rained; all things came together today.

There are two strong tugboats on location to protect the pier in case the tide is misjudged. Looking over the bow you can see the pilot boat on the buoys observing the current.

What we do when we get there, and to make it alongside; the pilot parks his pilot boat on the nearest buoy and that provides him with information about the moment the current goes down to zero, a bit further out in open waters. The ship is in position about 300 feet from the dock where the current is already so slow it can be kept in position with the thrusters; and the moment the pilot boat gives a cry, the ship starts moving and then  it has a good window of opportunity before the current starts running again.

Punta Arenas. (Courtesy  from somewhere on the internet)

Punta Arenas itself is located on a sort of long and narrow peninsula running along the coast of the main land. Which is one of the reasons there is such a strong current, as the water finds its way around the peninsula to the North side.  In the last few years, no doubt because of all the cruise ship money coming in, the place has been considerably spruced up and a large part of “happy town” from the old days is gone and replaced with an open air theatre.  To my regret the little shop which sold postcards ………… old ones……….. was gone as well and replaced with a T shirt shop. I was a very happy camper a few years ago when I went by taxi to town and found this little place which sold antiques (sort of……………. Let’s say old stuff) but had a lot of old postcards from Panama and San Jose (Capital of Costa Rica). I have never seen an antique shop like that anywhere else in Middle America. But there it was and I made the owner very happy by ensuring a major donation went into his retirement fund. (Maybe that is why the shop is gone)

A postcard which made me very happy. The Nieuw Amsterdam of 1937 in the Panama Canal anytime before 1951.

Tomorrow we are in Corinto, Nicaragua. I hope to visit the school which we sponsored when I was Captain on the Statendam. Last time when I went for a look, they were closed for vacation but the school looked good from the outside. We had left some pails of paint behind and the parents had followed up by turning the school into a wondrous picture of Holland America white and blue.

Weather for tomorrow; As Corinto has less tropical forest than Panama and Costa Rica it is a lot drier. So tomorrow we are back to sunny skies and temperatures around 84oF / 209C. with hardly any wind. It is going to be challenging for some of our guests.

It remained slow going after we left the last locks and by the time we made it to open seas, it remained slow going. It is the time of the year that the Right Whales are in the area. I explained on 16^th or 27 October that we had to be very careful with the Right Whales and because they are spotted in the area of Panama Bay around this time of the year, a slow zone has been ordered. Important to do, and the right thing to do, but being already well delayed it made it even harder to get to Gulfo Dulce on time. I wrote yesterday that by 17.00 hrs. we were back on schedule; yes we were back on the Panama Canal schedule, not on our own planning and sailing schedule.

To make it easily to Gulfo Dulce we need to be at the Panama Canal Sea buoy at around 17.30 and then we have a little bit of leeway in our schedule to take care of the Right Whales. By the time we now made it past the right whales we were running about 3.5 hrs. late. And that meant no call at Golf Dulce. We normally made this an afternoon call and sail in the bay between 2 and 5 pm. Now we would have made it there by 5 pm and the sun was going to set at 18.14. An hour there does not make sense, thus the captain could only decide to forgo Golf Dulce.

For today it did not really matter as the rain was so abundant over the coastline that we most likely would not have seen anything at all. So we stayed at sea and sailed on to Puerto Caldera / Punta Arenas in Costa Rica.  The captain announced the news at 09.45 and then at 10.00 I started with my HAL lecture in the show lounge. So one captain had to bring some bad tidings and the next captain was able to bring some happy tidings and good stories about all the “Dam Ships” from past, present and future. Maybe I made up for missing Golf Dulce.

Our course line will now basically follow the Pacific Coast while we hop from port to port. In the coming days it will be busy for our guests, as day after day we will visit Costa Rica Punta Arenas , Nicaragua Corinto, Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala and then Puerto Chiapas in Mexico. Only then we will get two days at sea to recover before we come to our final port of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of the Californian Peninsula.

Our first port, Punta Arenas in Costa Rica is located deep in a bay, the Golf de Nicoya. So it will take a considerable time to get there, while the ship has to sail through the local fishing fleet. Then Corinto is located on the banks of a river and also that takes extra time to get there. Only Puerto Quetzal has a short distance between the pilot station and the dock. But there we still arrive early to facilitate the shorex flights to Tikal by plan, and that plane takes off at sunrise, so we have to be docked before.

Early days are coming not only for the Captain and the Ships officers but also for the guests.  Who said cruising was relaxing???????????.  Thus today having a full quiet day at sea, might not have turned out that badly.  Looking at the rain from behind a ships window is a great way to relax and several locations of gentle snoring were prevalent on the outside decks and in the lounges. So guests were exactly doing that.

The day was Sept. 7 1939 and the ss Nieuw Amsterdam was on its way from NY. to Europe. The occasion is not known.

One thing I would like to share today are a few photos which were given to me by a Lady whose father in law worked on the ss Nieuw Amsterdam in 1939. Also in those days the crew knew how to enjoy themselves with a good fancy dress party. What is special this time, the lady still had the 1920’s bath costume including head dress in her possession and brought it on board to show it. She certainly found in me a very interested audience.

The most amazing thing after 77 years the costume was still in the family and in good quality. Although I think the costume is much older, most likely from the 1920’s. Which would make it nearly a 100 years old.

Tomorrow we are in Punta Arenas, at least for the moment this port is on the schedule according to the Captain. We have to arrive there by slack tide which this time is at the very convenient time of 06.30 in the morning.  Weather?:  maybe rain, maybe sunshine, it will all depend on which way the wind is blowing the clouds.

And thus we arrived at the breakwaters of Cristobal at 05.00 hrs. and then nothing happened. Same for the Zuiderdam; they had arrived even earlier and nothing happened for them either. For some reason the planned convoy scheduling had gone awry and the cruise ships kept being put back.

The ms Zuiderdam one lock ahead of us. She was going into Gatun lake and then back for a call at Cristobal/colon

Thus it was not until 07.30 before we got some action and could follow the Zuiderdam in. Both of us were going through the old locks as it was now clear that the Panama Canal Authority was going to keep the regular ships separate from the Post-Panama max ships; those who can only go through the new locks.  We were all thinking it was going to be a long day, but later on we managed to catch up a bit and by the time we came to the Miraflores locks we were back on the original – published –schedule. How long a transit takes, depends on the slowest ship in the convoy and today we were unlucky as we had some real slow boats (deep laden tankers) ahead of us. I did the transit once in just over 6 hours and faster has happened as well. But today we had a regular day, with a lot of starting and even more stopping.

The weather was wet, with a constant drizzle or stronger all during the day. Negative is that you get wet, but the positive things outweigh it; the rain is not very cold, you do not get too hot and you do not get a sunburn.

My interest went out to the new part of the canal and unfortunately you can only see a few things of it. Now all the construction is gone and everything is flat there is not much to see unless you go through those locks.

A Post Panamax Container ship going through the new lock at the Pacific side.

Because there are no trains “the so called Mules” used in the new locks, it all looks basically as a series of basins with water in it and in some of those basins a very big ship floating.

Split in the Canal to the left the Pedro Miguel Locks to the right the new Canal part continues

Now all construction materials and ships are gone, the separating dykes are gone and the water ways to the new locks are open, you can see very well how they have done it.  Once you have sailed past Cristobal you come to a Y fork in the road, with the left arm being wider than the right arm. Left is the way to the new locks.  Same thing happens again when you come to the Pedro Miguel locks where the Pacific locks are located and again a Y with now the left arm for the old route and the right arm for the new route.  From then on it looks a bit strange.  The new Pacific locks are near the last set of old locks, the Miraflores locks but the ships following the old system are already descending with one step at the Pedro Miguel. So we have a big dyke which keeps the right arm of the Panama Canal from draining into what is now the lower part of the Canal.

The big dyke which keeps the waters separate. Note the little tugboat in the photo. You can hardly see it, so big scale is everything.

You are used to those dykes in Holland where you can see a ship sailing by about 20 feet above a car in the road. But to see it in Panama which is basically flat apart from the Continental divide is a bit unusual. Luckily all the dredging for this area was done by the Dutch so I have full faith in the dyke being capable to hold the water, regardless the size ship that sails through it.

This is what it looks like on the Radar screen. the new part is as straight as an arrow. While the old part retains much more of he original features from 1914.

For the guests it was also a long day as many were up and about just after 5 am. Luckily we know that this happens and thus the Hotel Director had ensured that the Lido Restaurant was also open at 5 am. so the lack of Panama Canal to see could be compensated with food. Always a good alternative. For the same reason the Bars were very busy in the afternoon. What is better than to have Happy Hour in the Panama Canal?

This is Happy Hour in the Crowsnest.

While I am writing this we are about to leave the last locks of the Miraflores and then it will be another hour to open sea. From there onwards we follow the Coast of Panama until we come to Costa Rica. Tomorrow afternoon we will be sightseeing in Golfo Duce and then the next day visit Punta Arenas or Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica. These two ports are next to each other and are interchangeable, so we will see where we end up. The weather will not be much different if it rains in Panama it also rains in Costa Rica. Maybe the weather will run out of water for a few hours and we have good visibility.

17.00 hrs. the ms Veendam in the Miraflores Locks. (Photo courtesy of my Lord & Master Lesley who very patiently  followed the webcams and tracked our progress)