Grand Cayman was still as it was and the way I remembered it from a few years ago. When coming from the South you could see the Oil Tanks on the South West corner but not much else. Then slowly the houses come in view and finally when rounding the South West corner, you see Georgetown. Only when you come very close you can see that there is a sort of harbor there. Consisting of a small square with tender piers on both sides, two larger cargo docks capable of receiving small container ships which supply the island and next to it a larger cruise tender pier built about 10 years ago when the Mega Liners started to call in.

Approaching Grand Cayman from the South

The weather looked really good with not too much wind and not many clouds around the island. The only thing that was indeed not very nice, and was going to be a challenge, was the wind.  Under ideal circumstances the wind is from the north east and blows over the island. Easterly winds are not very problematic either but south Easterly winds are not nice.  As long as they are not too strong they are not a danger to the ship but they do push swell and current around the S.W. corner of the island and that affects the tender operation.

Anchorage number 4 right opposite the port

We do not really want wind still weather at Grand Cayman; we want a regular steady trade wind from the NE or East.  The ships all anchor on the edge of the reef in about 30 to 50 feet water.  It is anchoring on a ledge. While the bow is above 30 feet of water, the rest of the ship is off the ledge and drifts above a 1000 feet of water. If the wind would stop, the ship could drift forward and then drift aground when it goes past where the anchor lays. It gets too shallow on the ledge very quickly. The constant trade wind prevents that. It pushes the ship away from the reef, while the anchor keeps it close to it.  There are four anchorages and we had 1, 2 and 4 in use today.  Carnival Splendor on 1, Carnival Pride on 2 and us on 4 which is the closest to the town. We anchored on a square area of about 100 square feet in order not to damage the rest of the reef.  To accomplish this, the pilot comes out in his boat, sits on the exact spot for the anchor, the captain brings the anchor above this boat…….literally on the foot…… boat moves away and anchor goes down.

A beautiful day. As you cannot see the swell and the current you would think it was a perfect day.

Today we had challenges with this S.E. wind as it pushed the swell over the anchorage areas. Which meant that we could only use our leeside (Portside) platform, as there was too much swell on the sb. side. Then the current came up around the ship as well making it necessary to tie each tender alongside the platform with two ropes to keep it from drifting away. Then the tender driver finds a balance on the engines and twist in such a way that there is no gap between platform and tender.  With only one platform available and the time it took each time to tie up safely, we had a slow tender operation. But safety comes first and thus not much we could do to speed the proceedings up. The captain had even hired a shore side tender to ensure that there was no lack of capacity. So the ship did its best but the battle against Mother Nature can be difficult even if she looks at her best.

By 3 pm. We had gotten over 1000 guests to the island and back again. The rest had been there, bought the T-shirt already and thus did not bother. Now it was time to set sail for Home port Tampa.  The two Carnival ships had arrived later and thus sailed sometime later as well. At least they were not in the way, as their tenders dock at the Whatley Pier which is a bit further away from town.

Tomorrow will be our last day of the cruise while we sail around the West Point of Cuba. The weather should be nice and warm and only getting chillier late tomorrow afternoon when we are past the Gulf Stream and enter the Gulf of Mexico.

Today we sailed from Aruba towards Grand Cayman,with the wind on the side and the swell three quarters on the stern. The latter can be a bit annoying as the ship tends to move then. Rolling a degree or so on occasion. We have the stabilizers going full out but they cannot cope with the elimination completely due to the angle.  For some reason all the ships with a square or semi square stern (and that is all the modern cruise ships) have this issue that if the swell catches the ship under this ¾ stern angle there is some rolling. The swell on occasion comes under the stern and as it not straight under the stern, it cannot make the ship pitch and as it is not full on the beam, the stabilizers cannot completely deal with it. But the swell lifts or pushes the ship up at just the wrong location. Only the Prinsendam in our fleet which has a very rounded stern does not suffer from it.   

If you have ships with a duck foot (that is a sort of spoiler on the water line at the stern), you get the strange movement that sometimes the ship seems “to hang & stay” on one side for a prolonged time before it comes back to straight up.  So modern ship design for all its improvements, has also introduced a few new quirky behaviors in the ships.

A duck foot is a flattened part sticking out from the stern over the water. It can be installed to improve stability. If you increase the width of a ship at the water line, you get a better margin to survive if the ship would take on water.  Or you can use it as a spoiler which presses the ship down on the water and thus reduces the fuel consumption as it optimizes the direction of the flow of propeller wash.

When you do practical drills on the ships it nearly always consists out of three parts.  1. The objectives for the drill: what do we want to achieve?  2. The execution of the drill according to the objectives.   3. A debrief: did we achieve our objectives during the drill? What went wrong, what went right, what can we do better next time.

The ships hull with two cracks

In Aruba we held a damage control drill, with the objective to close of two holes in the hull through which water was coming in.  The focus of the drill is to first make the area safe and then to have the teams brainstorm about what material to use and how to plug the holes to such an extent that if they cannot be closed completely, they can be sealed to such an extent that the pumps can easily deal with the still incoming water.

Initial attack = is the area safe

We exercised the drill accordingly, with the mockup I had built on the aft mooring deck and it all went well. The engineers showed great skill and insight in carpentry so if they ever decide to leave the ship…………. there will be a future.  When it comes to Damage Control it is the engineers who take the lead as there is steel – construction – involved and pipes and fluids. Plus most likely if we would have ingress of water, it would be in the Engine Spaces.

Area is safe, scuba gear comes off and we are hammering away

When it is above decks, outside the technical spaces when it mostly involves guests areas, the deck teams take charge as the needed routines might be closely linked to moving guests around and other disciplines which might be guest related. However when an Emergency is called, all the teams are in the same attack mode together, until it is fully clear under which expertise the issue can be resolved the best.

20 minutes later all the holes are properly closed off. The ship is safe.

Tomorrow we are in Grand Cayman and that is a tender port. To prepare for that evolution the Life Saving Officer calls the whole deck department together for a Tender Briefing. This is a gathering in the Bo ‘sun store where by means of a Power Point, the tender route is described, where the tender will dock, Navigational issues, Traffic that might be encountered, Weather, etc. etc.  This ensures a proper operation of the shuttle service and then the only thing that can really go wrong is either mechanical or weather related.

We should be arriving at 08.00 in the morning and then have the shuttle service going shortly after. The weather should be typical for the day, breezy with showers in the area. The only thing is, the wind might be S.E. instead of North East and could mean more swell at the anchorage.

For those who do not know what to do: Grand Cayman has over 600 banks who are registered there and thus have an official brass plate on one or the other official door and that is already worthwhile to have a walk around the town for.

The port of Oranjestad is really more a sort of coastal rim or beach which was eventually built up, than a properly constructed port, as its existence is fully due to the natural protection from a reef that lays in front of it. That together creates a natural harbor where the reef protects the port from the worst of the ocean swell.  This protected rim of the island has been changed into docks and they form a barrier between the water and the town itself. There is a Container / Cargo Dock, then several docks which are multi-purpose and then the docks A, B, C and F which are mainly dedicated to the cruise business. Dock C and F are the closest in walking distance to the town as for A & B people have to double back to get to town as they cannot walk straight off the Pier at location A/B as there is water in between.

Full house in Oranjestad. Terminal C is where the 2nd large ship is docked.

We were the only cruise ship today and dock C was reserved for us. If there are more ships, then the berth assignment depends on size and arrival and departure time. Smaller ships can fit in Berth D,E and F, as long as they do not stick out but the bigger boys have to go on A,B, or C and sometimes even have to overhang using the bow ropes going onto the dolphins.  I never like to be at Berth A, as it is a long walk back to the Gate for the guests but also because on departure it is very short distance from the dock to the exit of the harbor and you have to make speed quickly to make the turn. With the S class ships it is not such a problem as they have Becker Rudders which steer extremely well as long as there is flow over the blades.

However in the past when I came here with the old Noordam, Nieuw Amsterdam and Rotterdam berth A was not so nice as those ships needed to build up speed before sufficient flow would go over the rudder blade to steer and a safe turn could be made. If I had half the chance I would let the N ships drift back halfway down Dock B and then charge forward. With the Old Rotterdam we would normally hook up a tugboat for this turn as a steam turbine ship needs time to gather momentum.  The old Lady liked to Waltz, she did not like to Jive very much.

Oranjestad has the same current flowing past the entrance as Willemstad and when the ship sails in from the North West, there is a leading light to help steering against the current and to stay exactly on track. Once inside it is a matter of slowing down at the right moment and finding a good course to avoid the ship being caught by the strong Trade Winds which blow almost unhindered over the low island. They have a mountain called the Hooiberg (Hay stack) which rises steeply out of the landscape but for the rest the island is flat. (Or is it a hill ??, as I saw a movie once which claimed that a hill has to be a 1000 ft. high before it can be called a mountain ?)

ms Freewinds ex Boheme. Note the sloped flat stern which was once the Garage Door for the Cars.

Next to us in Berth F was the Freewinds. Nowadays owned by the Scientology Church and it potters around a bit in this area. We see it sometimes in Bonaire and sometimes here. I do not know whether it is a cruise ship for that church or a training center or maybe both. What I do know is that we are looking at a piece of Cruise History. This ship, then called the Boheme for Wallinius Lines, can be credited with starting the modern cruise business from Miami. The original concept was to run vacation – take your car cruises – to the Bahamas. That was not that successful so they welded up the car deck and it became a regular cruise ship and then it all started rolling. NCL showed up, followed by RCI, followed by Carnival and the rest is history. All back in the good old days of the late 1960’s. She is now 47 years and has been owned by Scientology since 1986. From the outside she looked in very good condition, so if the inside is the same, she might last for a long long time to come.

We had a long stay yesterday in Curacao; today was only a half day call, as we have a long distance to travel to make Grand Cayman on time. Tomorrow will be a sea day and Georgetown will be our final port of call on the day after.

Guests can now start worrying about how they are going to get all this stuff that they bought in the suitcases they brought on board which were already too small when they packed them. But the weather is going to be very nice. Sunny with following winds, creating a gentle breeze on the decks.

My day will be filled with debriefings from the various drills I threw at the ship and the sailor trainee’s will be excited as they will have their theoretical examination.

Willemstad is blessed with what I think is the best port in the South Caribbean. It is also the largest one, with a big sheltered internal harbor, created by the combination of the “Schottegat “and the”St Anna Baai”.

Almost All the cruise ship berths occupied. Two Holland America Line ships inside the harbour a Celebrity ship tucked away under the bridge and an RCI ship at the Mega Pier outside.

Because of this natural advantage the island is also economically further developed than the other islands. Apart from the Refinery which you also find on Aruba and Bonaire, the other two Dutch islands nearby, there is a shipyard and a lot more industry. It does not have to survive on oil and tourism alone, courtesy of having a deep and large harbor where many ships can dock at the same time. Sailing in, then swinging around inside either during arrival or departure and then sailing out again is a nice thing to do. Especially if it is an evening departure when you sail through the lit up houses on either side …… very close to those houses as well, as the fairway is not that wide.  

As you can see the entrance is quite narrow and a challenge for a high-out-of-the-water cruise ship on a very windy day,

But this was not the case today. We were the only ship and thus we docked at what they call the Mega Pier. It is not so Mega big but large enough to accommodate all the large cruise ships which do not easily fit inside the harbor. It would be nice to go inside but it is time consuming and the mega pier is a much better dock to moor at.  Today it was very windy and I would have been quite reluctant to have gone into the entrance, certainly in the early morning.  For the approach it is not such a big problem as the current is against the wind but about 300 feet from the entrance the current becomes a counter current, in the same direction as the wind and then it is less pleasant if there is lot of wind, like today. Especially if they want you to dock at the berth right inside the entrance. Then you have to put the brakes on as soon as you come in and that is a rather unpleasant maneuver. Luckily Captain Ryan did not have to make that decision; we were going to the Mega Pier.

Because the 3 Dutch ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) are so close together, we always stay a late night in one of them. Going to the next one is barely 5 hours sailing, with a sedate speed, and thus we can have a late night stay. For this cruise it is Willemstad but I have stayed late in Oranjestad (Aruba) and Kralendijk (Bonaire) as well. Because of the late stay we see more guests taking longer tours, as there is still time to explore the town, or to shop, even if it is a full day tour. There are no full day tours on Curacao, it is simply too small but we see quite a few guests doing a morning and an afternoon tour and then on return wandering into town or have themselves dropped off in town on the way back.

Regular cruise ship day. Bunkering fuel and the sailors touching up the hull

For the ship it was just another port day, except that we were refueling as well. Willemstad has a Refinery and that lowers the price of oil. There is not any cruise ship company who will let a bargain slip by. With the refinery close by, there is no need for a Barge or Tank trucks; the pier is connected directly to the pipe lines system and the ship can simply hook up.  The oil is pumped with sufficient pressure at source and thus there is no need for a noisy pump on the dock and it results in a very quiet bunkering evolution.  Good for the guests on the dockside and even better for the guests in the nearby cabins.

My afternoon was spent with rigging up one of my elaborate drills. Building a small section of a ship’s hull from wood with two big holes in it. Simulating a breached ship’s hull with the option of lots of water coming in. That “lots of water” being supplied with three fire hoses on the other side of the wall. Tomorrow morning, there will be the challenge for the Emergency Response Teams to plug off a broken gas pipe which threatens to create a gas explosion, to save two casualties with gas inhalation and then to plug the holes with wooden beams, steel covers, plugs, wedges or whatever they deem suitable as we have it all in our Damage Control Inventory.

Tomorrow we will be in Oranjestad (Orange City), Aruba, and will dock in the port which listens to the name of Paardenbaai (Bay of Horses) although I have never ever seen a horse there.  We will be the only regular cruise ship in port apart from the Freewinds but that is a private undertaking of the Scientology Church.

The weather will be the same as today: how could it be different as Aruba is barely a stones throw away? Warm and Windy.

After several days of Island hopping we had a quiet sea day today. Although quiet is relative when looking at the daily program. If you would want to partake in everything you would basically have to split yourself in 3 parts and then have a fourth part available to go to the Bar, as the Ocean Bar opens its doors at 10 am. in the morning.

Still 1200 people had to be kept occupied and that means activities, either in active form or passive form. There are always a number of guests who are happy to enjoy the peace fullness of a deck chair with a good book or music but a larger number on board want to be entertained. Then there are many choices and you cannot do it all at the same time.  Today I was thrown in the mix by holding my HAL History Lecture which took about 500 people out of the equation. By careful planning I managed to finish the moment the Mariners Luncheon started. As nearly all guests this cruise are Mariners it was quite a nice parade from the bow of the ship all the way to the stern of the ship. A good way to build up some appetite. A few guests left the lecture early to get a head start as of course you never know if the ship runs out of food, so better be early than late.

Sometimes we have days where there are little gaps in the daily program but today one could have gone all day nonstop:

0630 – 0700 Continental Breakfast.  0700 – 0800 early morning stretch. 0800 – 0900 Church (two flavors available) 0900 – 1000 Photo Editing.  1000 – 1100 Hal history lecture. 1115 – 1230 Mariners lunch. 1230 // 1300 Poker class / Cooking Class/ Bingo/Art Action / Health. 1400 – 1500 Dancing under the Stars. 1500 Trivia // Cocktail mixing // Tea time.  1530 Movie time (the hundred foot journey) 1630 Computer classes.  1700 Cocktail hour/ social gatherings/ music in the ship. 1800 Dinner. 2000 Main Show (Livewire playing Celtic Music) 2100 Classical live music 2215 Live music dancing.  2300 Disco // Late night buffet.

And I forgot to mention we had three of these as well today. (Photo courtesy; Holland America Stock Photo)

And that is only for one of the three parts as I have not even mentioned the marvelous invention of happy hour. Available to kill time between activities or to fill a larger gap in the daily activities for half price.

Compared to the longer and more unusual cruises there is less port lecturing than on a European Cruise. This has mainly to do with the fact that everybody has already been there before.  Shorex and the Port Shopping Ambassador hold their talks but it is more to refresh the people’s minds and maybe point out something new but most of our guests are very well versed in the ports to come. Some do even know the difference between dock A, B and C in Oranjestad Aruba. Those will be happy to know that we will dock at Dock C, which has the shortest distance to walk to the gate and thus to town.

We are going to Willemstad on Curacao first and we should be there around sunrise which has been scheduled by the Navigator to occur at 06.43 tomorrow morning. We will be docking at the Mega Pier, which is the pier in the open ocean. This is a mixed blessing. The ship can nearly always dock there as wind and current do not hamper the ship sailing into the narrow entrance of Anna Baai but it is further from the main town of Punda. Luckily this side of Willemstad, Otrabanda (or “the other side”) has been renovated so much in the last few years that people can spend a few good hours there as well. There is a small restaurant on the corner which serves excellent Sate, – with spicy peanut sauce – the way the Dutch like it and as are there until 11 pm a few of the Dutch officers might make a pilgrimage in that direction.

Weather forecast for tomorrow; Warm and very windy. Dangerous for getting a sun burn as with the wind you do not feel the sun that much.

We are now in the middle of the process of what we call “Island hopping”; everyday a new Island and everyday a new experience. Although the Caribbean islands have a large number of similarities there are also striking differences. Most of them are caused by the colonialisation in the old days that brought traditions and routines which are still observed today. Barbados closes it shops on Saturday afternoon because of the weekly cricket game; people retained the language from the last or most influential occupier or developed their own uniqueness among the other islands of the Caribbean rim.

St. Lucia is one of those islands as well. Although Tourism & Cruise Industry is a very important of the economy it seems that it has never taken over or dominated the island. Even at the cruise ship terminals, where most of the souvenir shops are concentrated it is not as over powering as in St. Thomas or in St. Maarten.  A slower pace still persists and that brings a certain charm to St. Lucia which other islands sometimes miss. It might help that only ships which make 10 day or longer cruises can call here, as it is just too far south to be part of a 7 day itinerary from Miami or Ft. Lauderdale and that cuts out most of the mega liners.

I have been calling here with Holland America since 1986, when we had to anchor outside due to the shallow harbor.  Cruise Tourism was still in its infancy here and we tendered into downtown and the local market. It was quite a long tender ride. Passengers were unloaded straight into the fish shop of a Mrs. Black, whose skin lived up to her name but she had off-set that with the most vibrant  colored dresses and head scarfs I have ever seen. She was a very large and friendly lady and equipped with a voice like a fog horn, so nobody could miss her when she sold her fresh fish. She was a great ambassador for St. Lucia all by itself. When landing with the tender it was the first impression you got about Castries and it was a good one.

Castries Bay full with cruise ships. (Stock Photo from some years ago)

Then the port developed two cruise terminals on the other side of the Bay. Seraphine I and Seraphine II. The harbor was dredged deeper and cruise ships could come in. The downtown dock was then mostly used by cargo ships.  Nowadays, on busy days, and or when smaller ships are in, the downtown berth is now also used again by cruise ships.

So today we saw the Braemar docking there who had followed us from Antigua.  St. Lucia is a very fertile island which can be seen by the lush green scenery all around the port and up into the mountains.

Downpoor at the Shopping Centre. Still life is slowly paced. Even the advertising clock for the local Jewellers was 5 minutes slow.

Occasionally you are reminded about how it is possible that it remains so lush and green when there is a sudden downpour. We were able to witness one this morning when just before noon time the heavens opened for a short moment and the torrential rain shower came down in the bay. Luckily they normally do not last very long and this one did not last very long either.

Gros Piton dominating the bay of Sourfriere. As seen from the Tender Pier.

Also as long as I have come here, we make this a two port call. We spend the morning and early afternoon in Castries and then sail along the coast towards Soufriere, near the south end of the island to retrieve our overland tour and at the same time look at the magnificent Pitons. Soufriere Bay is sheltered from all sides except the South West.  As there is seldom bad weather coming from the south west, it is a very popular place for yachts to spend a few days before heading out to sea again. The east side of the bay is normally full with them. The most dominant feature are the two boulders rising up to well over 2000 ft. The largest one is the Gros Piton (777 meters or 2548 ft.) and the smaller one is Petit Piton (743 meters or 2266 ft.)

They are not really boulders of course but cone shaped mountains. They are cores of two lava domed volcano pipes and most likely a left over from a larger Volcano. The sides of these Volcano Pipes eroded and collapsed away and the cores, made of harder material remained.  As the Volcanos have been dormant for the last 20,000 years, the Pitons and surrounding area is completely covered in dense Tropical Jungle and home to a large variation in wildlife, including Iguanas. Under that majestic view, we sent the tenders ashore to retrieve 197 guests who had explored St. Lucia by means of an overland trip and had thus seen most of the island.  Our tenders arrived at 5 pm. and the guests showed up at 5.05 pm.  So it was all working like clockwork.

The sun setting over the ms Ryndam.

The Ryndam remained floating in the bay as it is much too deep to anchor here.  I took the chance to get my Tender Operator school class involved and had them do the work on the tenders and observe the operation. They will have their exam in Grand Cayman so they had better be on the ball.

By 6 pm. we were on our way again. The Ryndam headed on a south westerly course and will now spend the next 38 hours or so crossing the south western part of the Caribbean, arriving the day after tomorrow at Willemstad  Curacao.

Forecast weather, hot and balmy due to the following wind with chance of showers in the early morning.

Same as St. Thomas (Bluebeards Castle,) the island of Antigua was for a long time a Pirates strong hold. Also blessed with a deep and sheltered Bay it was a safe haven for many of them until the worlds powers had enough of it and cleaned them all out. Then the bays, inlands and other sheltered areas were taken over by the Worlds Navy’s who controlled their strategic assets. Dutch, French, and English they all had a few islands under control and those served as a springboard to assert their claims in the area. A name such as Nelson’s dockyard still reminds us of those days. Nelson and the dockyard are long time gone and now the rich, super rich and sometimes not so rich can park their yachts in that sheltered corner of the island. The size of their bank accounts identified by the lengths of their yachts.

A scan of the Chart on the Radar. A long and narrow channel leads into a very shallow Bay.

The main bay with St. Johns as the capital of Antigua is located on the North West side of the island, completely sheltered from the Trade Winds. There is only trouble here if a frontal system comes in from the other – North West or West – side. Today the wind was regular and the Ryndam could sail in without any hindrance. The Braemar (Fred Olsen Lines) was already in. We docked at the Northside of the Heritage Pier and were later joined by the Costa Mediterannea who docked at the other side. The Heritage Pier is the pier that is closest to the down town area and the Ryndam basically docked in the middle of the town.

Same as is the case with San Juan, St Johns harbor is prone to silting up and when coming in we saw a dredger busily removing silt from the area which is called Rat Island. This used to be cruise terminal in the old days before the down town piers were developed and the bay dredged out. Now this is the main cargo/ container terminal. The dredger was called the Shoreway and is owned/operated by Royal Bos Kalis which is a Dutch company but the dredger was flying the Cyprus flag and that was a bit of a disappointment.  But the off- shore and dredging industry is really cut-throat and thus having subsidiaries all over the world does make sense.

A group of people on board which really fascinates me are the ships photographers or the Image Creators as they are called nowadays. If you talk about a group of people who have to constantly self-motivate and re-motivate themselves, then that is the groups. Seldom a compliment from the guests but a lot of indifference; and sometimes worse.   People do not want their photo taken, and if they don’t get one then it is not good either. If they like the photo then the prices are too high. Etc. Etc. It does take a very positive attitude to get through all that.  They only feature which is really liked is the Black and White studio which clever photo shooting can turn everybody into a fashion model.

One of the standard features in the photographers’ life is the Gangway Shoot.  Every port a different theme, sailor boy, pirate, Spanish lady, something done in relation to the port.  Today it was a Pirate theme and thus a photographer was standing at the gangway all dressed up in the hot weather. Again not something for the faint hearted. Cursed by Security as they are blocking the gangway flow, pushed aside by the guests who are in a hurry to get to their tours or to the shops. You wonder if it is all worthwhile to do it. But it must be, as every ship has a photo department and when looking to the new ships, the area allocated to them only seems to grow.

Leaving St. Johns is also an interesting feat as it just fits. The turning basin has to be constantly dredged as well and it is not very large. For the Ryndam there is sufficient room but for the larger ships such as the Costa M. next door it is a very tight maneuver with only a few feet to spare.

Once outside the ship set sail for Castries St. Lucia. An almost straight southerly course. We will be there tomorrow arriving around 0700 hrs. and we will be followed by the Braemar. Tomorrow will be a two port call as in the afternoon the ship will proceed to Soufriere Bay to pick up the overland tour which leaves from Castries in the morning. Additional benefit is the scenic cruising that it involves around the Pietons.

The weather is looking good, although there is a chance of one or two torrential downpours courtesy of a weather front that lingers over the N.E Caribbean and SW Atlantic.

From San Juan to Charlotte Amalie is only a short hop. The islands of Puerto Rico and St. Thomas are neighbors. Only San Juan is located at the north side of Puerto Rico and Charlotte Amalie is located at the south side of the Island. Thus during the night the ship sailed East North of P.R, then dives through the hole and continues sailing east south of St. Thomas.  We can be always on time; the question is just what time do we arrive? Although the Captain can indicate when he wants to arrive, the exact time is decided by the Port Authorities, with the eye on avoiding Traffic Jams. St. Thomas is so popular with cruise ships that the docks are nearly full everyday (except Sunday’s) and all the cruise ships want to arrive at nearly the same time.

Since the mists of time; cruise ships have come to Charlotte Amalie. First as an excursion to a quaint island in the Caribbean, but has it had a sheltered bay so good for the cruise ships they kept coming.  The Germans already had a dedicated little cruise ship calling there, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise coming here in 1900. Holland America showed up for the first time in 1934 with the Rotterdam (IV).  One of captains from those days; Captain Barendse, was so love with the island that he bought a piece of land there. Including a servant whose duty it was to raise the – HAL – flag each time his ship would come to port.

One of the earliest ships built as a cruise only vessel. The Prinzessin Victoria Luise from 1899

The West Indian Dock Company built a dock in the bay on the sheltered side and the rest is history. The Ocean Liners of the North Atlantic went cruising in the 60’s and 70’s and were then replaced step by step by dedicated cruise ships, and then the increase in size came. I remember that around Christmas 1981 (I was 4^th. officer on the Statendam IV) we were with 11 cruise ships in Charlotte Amalie, putting ashore about 5500 guests. Four ships alongside the berth. Two in the inner harbor, one on the engines and 4 outside the entrance.

In 2002 I was there again with the Maasdam (V) and now we had 5 cruise ships in port, putting ashore close to 12000 guests. Three ships at the dock, one in the inner harbor and one at the outer anchorage. Of course it did not stop here: the days of the mega liner arrived. The dock could barely hold of two ships and was even extended to make that possible.

To deal with this overflow the Submarine Base in Crown Bay was developed. In the 90’s the Navy closed the base and the dock was modified and extended with a shopping village built at the entrance.  So those with the money but not the stamina to go to down town could still spend and support the economy.  Holland America was one of the companies who opted for Crown Bay, having to make the decision between a quieter cruise experience or maximum shopping exposure. There is still shopping galore in Crown Bay, but it is not as hectic as in downtown or at Havensight.

From the bridge of the Maasdam in 2002. Crown Bay cruise centre under construction.

And thus that is where the Ryndam headed this morning; into Crown Bay, which is really more of a natural channel around an island. But the channel has three names: West Gregory, the entrance/exit to the West; and East Gregory the entrance exit to the East.

Both come together in Crown Bay. The routine is when docking nose in, you normally come in through East Gregory as you can aim straight for the dock. Then you leave via West Gregory. If you want to dock stern in, you come in via West Gregory, aim the bow towards East Gregory and then go astern into position.  You can do it the other way as well but it means a lot more of maneuvering and fighting wind and current.

So today we docked nose in on the north side of the dock and thus entered via East Gregory. Next to us was the Royal Princess who was docked nose out. At the Havensight dock there were two other mega liners and together we sent approx. 10,000 happy shoppers ashore.

I remember the good days when the town was already a shopper’s paradise but with a lot of diversification and interspersed with lots of restaurants and liquor stores. Now the very large majority of the stores are Jewelry stores.

But it was very nice weather and everybody should have had a grand day. Whether they bought jewelry or not. By 5 pm. It was time to sail and we followed the Royal Princess out and headed towards Antigua. We will be docking around 7 am. Tomorrow morning.  And will be in good company with the Braemar and the Costa Mediterranea…………………. and more jewelry stores of course.

San Juan is one of most impressive ports to sail in from the whole Caribbean. Morro Castle is towering high over the entrance and the ships sail fairly close to the shore, all the way to docks.  It can also be a challenging port to get into.

From the air the entrance looks quite wide. It is very shallow with only a dredged channel providing sufficient depth. Luckily for the guests this channel runs quite close to Morro Castle.

The entrance to the West of Morro Castle is almost perpendicular onto the Easterly Trade winds; running almost north – south. The more wind, the more drift you will have while entering the channel and the channel is not that wide.   You can reduce the drift by going faster and that is what most cruise ships are doing under windy circumstances. When it is windy the pilot stays inside as the chop (read waves and swell hitting the shallow water area) near the sea buoy can make it very dangerous for the pilot when transferring from the pilot boat to the ship.

Then the captain can sail in by keeping speed and only has to start slowing down once he is in the lee of Morro Castle. Just inside, the channel makes a sharp turn to the right and that is where the pilot boards in wobbly weather. There also ends the wind & drift issue as the wind is now coming onto the nose and is reduced as well due to the lee of the land.

It only becomes an issue again once the docking procedure starts. Once again the wind becomes perpendicular onto the ships course as the docks are all lined up south to north. Thus with a lot of wind you can either drift too fast onto the dock on the windward side or drift away from the dock on the leeward side of the dock.  If there is too much wind for the thrusters, then there are tugboats. There is a plan b.

San Juan is a very popular cruise port and on mid week days all docks can be occupied with mega liners

For us, today, there was not so much wind but we also had a perfect windbreaker in case there had been. The Carnival Splendor was towering high above us, located on Dock Four East and created a very nice lee which was appreciated by all.  I do not particularly like very large ships, but they come in handy sometimes. The Ryndam could nestle happily alongside dock Four West.

And thus we arrived and were happily alongside by noon time. The weather front was there but only its tail. It had lifted away from a forecasted track over Puerto Rico and now most of it was angled towards the Dominican Republic and San Juan saw only a few showers in the distance and strangely fluctuating winds in the harbor. Going from east to south and then to north in a bit of an irregular pattern. Only by 16.00 hrs. was the wind standard direction: East again.

Apart from trainings in the morning, I took the sailors down into the water to learn the basics of tender driving. Today they discovered the delights of maneuvering a Tender which lays high on the water and is pushed all over the place by the wind. Thus the most important lesson today was where is the wind coming from and where will it try to push my tender to.  For that purpose I train in steps.

Step 1: before you move the tender, check the wind direction.

Step 2:  when the tender is let loose from the fall blocks or from the gangway rope, watch how the tender starts to move by itself. Where does it drift to?

Step 3: Whichever way the wind/ current is pushing the tender, is the way you are going. If you enhance that movement is goes a lot better than when you fight it.  So if the stern gets pushed off by the wind use the correct engine to increase that momentum. Does the bow gets pushed off, then do the same with the other engine to increase that momentum.

And that makes it possible that suddenly you can maneuver a two engine tender; ……. with one engine.

Our nice lee side, the Carnival Splendor, left at 16.00 hrs. amid much thrusting to get the ship off the dock against the strong winds. The Ryndam had to put her thrusters on line and stop all gangway traffic to counteract all that power of the Splendor and to keep the gangway safe.

The Ryndam sailed in the late evening, giving the crew a chance to go ashore for a few hours as well. By that time the wind had died down completely which is normal for San Juan as the Trade Wind is mainly caused by differentiations in air pressure caused by the warming up of water areas. The sun gone, the water cools down slowly, reduces the imbalance in air pressure and eventually the wind dies down as well. 20 knots on arrival reduced to 6 knots on departure.

Tomorrow we are in St. Thomas and will be docking at the Crown Bay dock. Weather should be nice and not too breezy.

We entered the North Atlantic today leaving the shelter of the Bahama Banks behind. However the weather is very good with very little swell resulting in no ships movement at all. It remained windy though with an average of 27 knots on the bow, creating a relative wind on the bow of 43 knots. Not pleasant to lean into but the Lower Prom – walk around – deck is enclosed at the front and thus still not a problem to walk around in.

Map of the area we sail in. my apologies for the crude course line. Paint Shop is not my forte.

When the ship clears Cuba it crosses the Windward Passage, which is located between the East point of Cuba, Cabo Maisi and the west side of Haiti. It is a gap through which a lot of traffic enters or leaves the Caribbean Sea. When inside the passage the traffic is regulated by a Traffic Separation scheme. Once through it is a free for all and the ships scatter to all directions. That makes it very interesting for the navigators as the behavior of the ships is not predictable anymore.

To keep track of what those ships are doing and whether they are of concern to us there are a number of support systems available. First of all there is the bottom line: keep a good look out, by looking out of the bridge windows. Secondly keep a good eye on the Radar as it can pick up targets much farther way than the naked eye can see.  Within a range of 24 miles every blip on the screen is plotted (checked for its movement: e.g. direction and speed) and that gives a good idea what could become a problem or not.

The information seen on the Radar screen when clicking on the vessels icon. A read out on the side of the Radar screen with some the pertinent information needed for the Navigator.

Then there is a more recent invention which is another Aid to help make up the Navigators mind whether something is of concern or not. It is an Aid, as it is not fail safe and thus you cannot rely on it. It is Called A.I.S Automatic Identification System. It sends out ships specific information which is beamed up to satellites and then beamed down again to other ships. Every ship which has a receiver can display this information either on the AIS receiver itself or on the Radar Screen.  If the display says that the ship is going to New York, the navigator will get a pretty good idea which course it will follow once coming out of the Windward Passage and going north.  But the information is entered by humans, thus we come across ships who think it is funny to have strange messages transmitted. I remember a small ship on the Thames in England who displayed its destination as: From Here to Infinity.

Still, keeping a good look out, using the radar properly and using the AIS as well gives the Navigator a very good idea about what is going on. And then it is just monitoring if the ships keeps doing what they were doing and apply the Collision Regulations properly, so we do not get a collision. To run a bridge watch there is a team of 4 while in open Sea. Two Navigators and two Quartermasters. One navigator is the senior and is officially in charge of a watch, the other is the assistant. If both have the same seniority then the captain decides who is in charge. The two quartermasters rotate on a 30 minute cycle between keeping a look out and steering, or being on standby for steering.

Once the traffic gets more hectic, this bridge team is augmented with an extra officer who holds a master License. If the ship in a very hectic area or entering or leaving port, the Master is on the bridge as well.  Normally the team then counts at least 4 officers and two quartermasters. What they are doing during such an evolution can vary in tasks. Something nice to blog about on another sea day.

The weather front I mentioned yesterday is delayed a little bit. Initial forecasts indicated that it would hit Puerto Rico during our stay, during the day; now it looks that it will come over during the night or the next day when we are in St. Thomas. So we will wait and see, there is not much we can do about it and as we have to visit the ports on our schedule, we cannot sail around it.

Tomorrow we should be at the pilot station around 11 am. And be alongside by noon time. We will dock at Pier 4 west and have the Carnival Splendor on our Starboard side and the Independence of the Seas on our Port Side.