Today is the first of two days at sea. Our route will take us through the Straits of Florida and then into the old Bahama Channel located between the South end of the Bahamian islands chain and Cuba. Eventually by tomorrow morning we enter the North Atlantic Ocean after passing Great Inagua Island heading towards Puerto Rica.  Then it is sailing above the island of Hispaniola (Haiti & the Dominican Republic) until we make our landfall at Puerto Rico around 10 am.

The first part is going through the Florida Straits. Here we have the Gulf Stream that pushes us forward and if the Navigator manages to find the Axis it can help with up to 3 miles in the hour. Finding the axis is true statement as the strongest flow of the Gulf Stream is not always in the same location. Sometimes closer to the Florida Coast; sometimes further away. However that won’t last very long as the ship then has to head into the Nicholas Channel, followed by the Old Bahama Channel. Once it is there it comes under the influence of the Easterly Trade Winds. That is a steady wind which results in a steady push on the waves towards the West and it results in a Westerly current. So here we will lose what we gained with the Gulf Stream. The steady – opposing- trade wind varying between 15 and 25 knots costs us about 0.5 knot of speed. The opposing current is on average 0.5 knots as well and that means that the ship has to go a knot faster each hour than the average speed to maintain. That does not make the Chief Engineer very happy as it costs extra fuel to keep the schedule. Normally we make up for it again by the time we sail west from St. Lucia and later NW from Aruba to Grand Cayman and back to Tampa.

What is of more interest to the Guests is there something to see while we are sailing on this route. Yes there was this morning. While in the Gulf Stream we are too far from away to see the low laying land of the Florida Keys. Cuba is a different matter. It has a very high mountain range running along the island and on our courses we are sailing close to the Northern Cuban shore, just outside the territorial waters. We cannot go much further out anyway as the Old Bahama Channel is quite narrow at certain places (under water that is) and we have a Traffic Separation System in place with keeps the SE and NW traffic separate. To the north we have the 1000’s of reefs and small islands which form The Bahama’s and we do not see those either. Same as with the Florida Keys, most of them only stick a few feet above water and are not visible with the naked eye from a distance.

So, once we are clear of Cuba we will not see anything until we make our land fall at Puerto Rico. That is land we will not see. There is always abundant wild life out there, especially when land is not too far away. So we had all sorts in the morning. Sea Gulls, Brown Boobies, flying fish and guests reported seeing small dolphins, most likely porpoises. I think that it will diminish later on as there is more wind expected than blows normally. The Trade winds are normally good for 15 to 20 knots but 25 to 30 are expected tomorrow, courtesy of a Cold Front looming in the distance which might reach us after arrival in San Juan. (If so, that would mean a rainy day in that port.)

Cold Fronts are very common here in the winter. Florida normally has one every 3 days, big or small and that plays on into the Caribbean. On the one side it makes the temperatures a bit more pleasant while cruising the Caribe, on the other hand it increases the amount of rain and the wind…………………. It can be very windy on occasion in San Juan and as the docks are perpendicular to the prevailing wind, it can make docking an interesting experience.

Sailing here in the winter time can be very interesting as the area is caught in between the steady weather of the Tropics and the variable weather of the north. A good snowstorm cannot only upset the whole of the USA but it has direct implications for the weather further south.

Tomorrow we will find out how the weather is developing and how it will look for the coming days.

It was quite windy when the Ryndam approached the pilot station and that always gives to think about what you will get when you get in there. Luckily the Pilot boat sails by the docks when coming out and its report gives some indication. The 2^nd thing is the rule – of – thumb; call it past experience, and it has taught us that the wind at the dock is about 10 knots less than the wind at the sea buoy. Although low laying Key West is not that sheltered, there is still a high enough concentration of obstacles to dampen the wind velocity. That meant that for the day the winds inside would not be more than about 15 to 20 knots and that velocity is not really an issue.

So by noon time the ship had been cleared and everybody streamed ashore to inspect the local scenery. A few guests came back later rather shocked as the local scenery had been a bit more revealing than they had expected.  While that was going on, I took the Tender trainee’s down into the water to get the basics of ship maneuvering under control. Key West is a great port to do that, as it is always very busy with Sunday sailors and there is always wind and there is always current. Three ingredients which make a tender driver sometimes question his sanity; about if he really wants to be a tender driver or not.

The traffic in Key West is a mixture of Professionals (the large sightseeing schooners, ferries and catamarans), a group of those who study to become old-sea salts- but have not made it yet.  And the largest group, which are the six pack navigators who are let loose with a speed boat or a jet ski after 5 minutes of training.  Tender drivers have to learn the Rules of the Road, especially nbrs 1 to 20 and act accordingly. With the training course we teach the trainees to always err on the safe side and to find a common denominator that works the best. As an example; a sailing vessel has most of the time right of way. Not always but most of the time. To make it easier, we teach the tender drivers to give right of way to sailing boats all the time. Why, because a tender is much more maneuverable than a sailing yacht and getting out of the way early and staying out of the way is much quicker for the tender than for a ship that has to tack and relies on the wind.

The Ryndam as seen from the tender. Behind her the bow of the Disney Magic.

Today, just staying out of the way, was already hard work. It was breezy but not so much that small craft stayed in and everything that sailed, or somehow gave the impression that it sailed, was out there.

One that gave a lot of discussion was a guy on a sail board who was stopped in the fairway (or drifted into it) and sat on the sailboard fishing with the sail up.  So was it a fishing boat, was it a sail boat, what was it according to the Rules?  And was he doing in the fairway? As he was just floating, he might even consider himself Not –Under- Command, who knows?  After a lot of discussion the Golden Rule was accepted: If you do not know what the other party is going to do, and you can safely do so, stay out of the way.  So we did. Then the discussion came up if this guy knew what he was doing?? So I said why don’t you sound the Danger Signal (5 shorts blasts) and see what happens. We did and the reaction was: looking up from his fishing rod, giving a friendly wave and returning to fishing. He did not get the hint at all. So we stayed away. It must give the USCG a real headache when dealing with these sort of people.

Later on in the evening we had to deal with USCG, albeit in a very positive way.  Shortly after departure one our guests suffered a stroke and had to be disembarked. When that happens the fastest way to get help is to the USCG. If the USCG doctor at the location SAR Base agrees with the ships physician that it is urgent and help is needed at once; they will dispatch a helicopter. However being that close to Key West a helicopter did not make much sense so Capt. Colm Ryan simply turned the ship around, sailed back to the sea buoy and the patient was off-loaded onto a small USCG cutter. I am happy to report that the patient is doing well in the local hospital.

The hospitals on cruise ships are equipped to deal with regular walk in patients and with controlling an emergency. They are not equipped with supplies to solve the emergency. E.G. If there is a heart attack the medical team will stabilize the patient and keep him or her alive but they cannot take the cause of the heart attack away. That needs specialist help on the shore side. So if there is an emergency on board, the ship’s doctor discusses the situation with the shore doctor to see if a medi-vac is needed or that it can wait to the next port. You do not want to use resources unnecessarily. If it is needed, then the USCG is there very fast.  I wonder how many lives have been saved by all these USCG stations around the coast in the course of the years. I have never seen any statistics on it.

Tonight we have an hour forward and then we will spend two days at sea. Sailing north of Cuba through the Old Bahama Channel and then into the North Atlantic. We are expecting sunny skies and the regular trade wind breeze, so it should be beautiful.

It all ran as explained yesterday and the Ryndam safely docked at Terminal 6 in Tampa. Then the whole merry-go-around started with the disembarkation, refueling, provisioning and luggage in and luggage out. I observed the immigrations procedures by the CBP from the guest side this time.

When I sail as a crewmember I have a C1/D1 visa.   C1 = crew coming into the country, D1 means crew sailing on a ship in/out of the country. (Then there is a very popular D2 which you become appointed to when you go on vacation and leave the USA. Lots of crew are really looking forward to being D-two-ed……………) Now as a Travelling Master I hop off/on in USA ports and work between USA ports and that means I am on a L Visa which covers foreign labor working on USA territory. That Visa is there to make sure no Foreigners take over American jobs. So when I applied for this Visa the company had to prove that the job could only be filled by me.  Which makes sense and hence the special application. Requirements – long time sailing company employee – Command Status – Fluent Dutch Speaker – intimate knowledge and experience of HAL ships, crew and procedures. Maybe not so easy to find inside the USA…………  So of course my Visa was granted but that puts me on board as a passenger in the eyes of the CBP and thus I had to go through immigration; wait for the zero count of the ship and then return back on board.

Well, I was really impressed. There were about 150 in transit guests on board, neither of whom wanted to go ashore to see the sights and to keep the procedures a simple as possible we were all marched off the ship once all the disembarked guests were gone; Saw immigration and then waited in the holding area for 10 minutes until CBP had observed the Zero count === all guests REALLY off= == and then we were let back on board again. Painless, easy and all within the rules. Kudo’s to CBP. Very well organized.

We are now going on a 14 day circular Caribbean cruise. Tampa – Key West – San Juan – St. Thomas – Antigua – St. Lucia – Curacao – Aruba – Grand Cayman.  All docking ports, except Grand Cayman which still does not have a dock. Also in St. Lucia we will tender but only to collect the overland tour which comes back in Soufriere. While we wait for those people the rest of the ship can have a look at the Pietons, those strange Mountains that loom over the bay.

Key West is normally not part of an Eastern or all around Caribbean Cruise but has been put in to avoid spending 3 days at sea. Trying to race to San Juan P.R. is a bit tight in two days and by making it 3 days  you can put a Key West afternoon call in.  Last cruise we called at Key West as well and we were all by ourselves.  Tomorrow we will be in port with Mickey Mouse, Disney Magic who will arrive just after us and will dock at Pier B. We will be back at Mallory.

I spent the afternoon upgrading my Port Database. Since the time that digital cameras were available for a decent price (approx. around the year 2000) I have been taking photos of each port that I visit. Dock, mooring lines, navigational marks etc. etc. Anything that might be useful as a memory hint for the next call. Through the years the ports catalogued have increased and for a number of years now it has been a very useful tool for navigation.  I was not the only one doing this and as a result there is a lot of information floating around on various ships. Now while I am travelling around, it gives me the opportunity to merge everything and leave an updated database behind on each ship. Eventually each ship in the fleet will benefit.  Also the Ryndam had a lot of material accumulated and it took me all afternoon to merge it and to update the newest ports.

The good ship Ryndam sailed on time following Carnival and NCL out to open sea. By 20.30 we were back in open waters and then we overtook the Carnival Glory who was going to Cozumel, and with a sea day to get there, only needed 14 knots of speed.

We are aiming for a 10.30 pilot tomorrow morning and should be docked at about 11.30. Weather forecast Sunny, not too warm and breezy.

Today we had Valentine’s Day and the ship tried to celebrate it as best as possible. All the Ladies received a rose during dinner and a few activities were themed in that direction as well. The only challenge the Hotel Department had was that Feb. 14 happened to be the last day of the cruise and then it is very hard to get the guests motivated for an evening of partying as everybody is more concerned with packing and solving the problem of how it is possible that the suitcases are suddenly too small.  It is a well-known fact that during the cruise your clothes start the shrink and get tighter and tighter the more you come towards the end of the cruise. However suitcases are doing the same; and normally with the same ratio as the number of ports the ships visit and people go ashore to visit. Some suitcase manufacturers have tried to alleviate the problem by having extra zips sewn in but that does not solve the issue. So the guests tend to retire early to solve the insolvable and proof comes the next day when we see a much more hand luggage carried off the ship than was carried onto the ship.

To keep the guests as long as possible in the ship the company has come up with a very clever idea; Happy hour. Drinks for half price. Everybody likes a bargain and we do see bar traffic increasing during these periods. Even more so during the last evening when there is the extra challenge of finishing off the drinks card from the cruise. I walked past the Ocean Bar last night and there was a man sitting at the bar with 4 bottles of beer in front of him. Making sure that there was no credit left on his card. How he got home after 4 beers was something I did not want to find out.

While sailing towards Tampa the question for the captain is: will there be “very low hanging clouds” in Tampa Bay. If that is the case then the Harbor Master is closing the port as it is too dangerous to go through the last part of the voyage, Sparkman Channel. It is quite narrow and on the North Side there are numerous fuel barges and docks and you do not want to hit those.  Rule of thumb is then to try to make it to the pilot station by 23.30 and to get past the Sunshine Skyway as soon as possible afterwards. The clouds normally start to descend after midnight and as soon as you are in the channel, there is no other option to continue as the fairway is too small for turning around and anchoring in the fairway is also not really appreciated.

Then you have to hope that the clouds are lifting around 4 am. If not then the ship is re-directed to East Bay where you can then dock at the old Holland Cruise Terminal. In case of this emergency guests who came by car can then be bussed back to the regular terminal. I always liked that terminal as you did not have to go through Sparkman channel but the authorities wanted to have the cruise terminals closer to town and thus we have to go through Sparkman Channel.

However the Captain could sigh in relief as the weather forecast did not indicate any nastiness. And so we did continued with our regular speed, enhanced by a push of the Gulfstream to arrive as scheduled. We will be first in the channel as we have to go to the terminal deepest in the port, followed by Norwegian Sun who parks in front of us and lastly followed by the Carnival Glory. The last one is restricted vessel, so big that no opposing traffic is allowed to pass as it takes up too much of the channel. The Glory docks in the turning basin at the Garrison Terminal and will be the first tomorrow evening to leave again.

I did my best to give the guests a good memory of the cruise by doing my Holland America History lecture and then spent the rest of the day on paperwork preparing for the next cruise. Tomorrow morning the ship should arrive around 06.00 near the dock or so and then by 08.30 we should be well on the way with dis-embarkation.

Weather forecast for tomorrow, chilly, with a bit of wind, but sunny and dry. There should be no reason why the guests from this cruise should not be very happy campers as we had good weather all the way.

Note: For those who are interested in how the light weight ship survey turned out ? Well we do not have to go on a diet or start dismantling part of the ship somewhere. We were well within the acceptable tolerances for the safe stability criteria.

Costa Maya is a newly created port in the same way as Mahogany Bay on Roatan. The cruise industry boom gave rise to the need for more ports as the existing ports were filled to capacity or awaiting further expansion and thus several completely new ports were created.

Costa Maya was one of them.

It is located about half way between Roatan and the island of Cozumel and consists of a T shaped pier with 3 berths and a small resort attached to it, with bars, restaurants, a large pool and an open air theatre where Mayan and more recent local history is interpreted with various performances.

Not really safe for use after hurricane Dean came by in 2007. Photo Courtesy: Costa Maya authorities

The Hurricane could cause so much damage as the pier is built right on the edge of the shore; there where the shore line plunges into the deep. That meant that the force of the waves was not diminished by the reduction in water depth, but the whole momentum of the deep ocean could hit the concrete. This deep water also affects the arrival of the ships. The Gulf Stream can still be felt and 1.5 knots of current running along the pier is not unusual. Also the ocean swell runs freely under the open pier and can cause the ships to sway on their mooring lines if there is a lot of it.

Holland America has been calling here since the beginning with the exception of a short period in 2007 when the Piers were almost demolished during the hurricane season.  In the beginning the port acted as a sort of overflow port for Cozumel but now it has come into its own stride; offering a smaller and more low key resort option compared with Cozumel, which tends to be a bit on the loud side and very busy.

Today we were lucky. For the last few days a strong northerly wind had been blowing, courtesy of a cold front over Cuba, and that had reduced the Gulf Stream current almost to nothing.  Which made it much easier to dock. The Ryndam had to go to the inside of the T pier and to accomplish that you have to back all the way in, and while doing so you can drift considerably towards the land. The dock location is assigned according to a pecking order – read rotation and frequency of calling – and depending how many ships there are in port.  If you are the only ship, you just pick the dock that is most favorable under the prevailing weather circumstances.   Today we had 3 ships in; The Norwegian Dawn on berth 1, Ryndam on berth 2 and the Thomson Dream at berth 3, which is the cross berth.  A full house with roughly 6000 guests streaming ashore to enjoy Costa Maya.

High Rises on either side. With the Thomson Dream ( ex Westerdam, ex Homeric) at the end on the cruise berth.

With  northerly wind or southerly wind for that matter, the two ships on 1 & 2 (Ryndam and Norwegian Dawn) produce a funnel effect for the wind, as their hulls are like towering walls above the dock side forcing the wind to continue in one direction only.

It might be blowing 15 knots in the open but between the two ships it can then easily go up to 25 knots.  The guests then have to have to lean into this artificial wind to get back to their ships.

If you look at the portholes of the Thomson Dream on the lower levels, the ones on the left are larger then the ones on the right. That is were the new section was put in by Holland America in 1989/1990 when we stretched the ship. The new portholes/windows were larger.

I had hoped to have a quick look on board my old ship the Westerdam (now the Thomson Dream) but Security took a very official stance and the staff captain was not willing to wave the 72 hours notification period. He/she legally has the right to do that, if he/she is convinced that the visitor is entitled to such a waiver.

So I had to be happy with a look outside. Not much had changed there but the ship was sailing full, with generally British guests as it is marketed in the United Kingdom with fly-sail cruises.

The Ryndam called here today from 0800 – 1500 hrs. The early departure has to do to with making the homeport of Tampa on time. As it is a resort most people have had their fill of sand, sun and margarita’s by that time anyway and thus a happy crowd came marching back to the ship around 2 pm.

Tonight the ship is sailing past Cozumel around 9 pm. where it will pick up the full force of the Gulf Stream, which can run here up to 4 knots of velocity, and that will propel us nicely towards the Gulf of Mexico. Tomorrow is the final sea day and then on Sunday Tampa, were we will end the cruise.

Due to the strange curvature of the countries in Middle America, Roatan is on the same level as Santo Tomas and thus it meant that the Ryndam sailed on an almost straight course to the West into the Bay that gives access to the harbor.

Is not far, it is just a long way in, as the ship has to almost double back on itself when going into the very shallow bay to the dock. The port we are docking in is the container port of Santo Tomas and it is fairly new.  Until the late 90’s the only dock there was, was a two ship pier located just outside Port Barrios. It could handle two ships of a maximum length of about 230 meters and it was closed off by a single gate from the town.

You could walk straight from the ship into the nearest Pub which was literally located under the bow. It gave everything a certain “color – de – locale” which a lot of travelers really enjoy. However these Pubs and restaurants also had a curtain leaning to the deeper parts of the establishments and there were very friendly ladies, who comforted very lonely visitors. A lot of them advertised their friendliness on the street and that was not exactly what cruise ship guests were looking for or expecting.

Puerto Barrios with a Chiquita Banana boat alongside.

So the decision was made to build a new port for containers and general cargo port at Santo Tomas. It would double up as a cruise ship terminal was well, and Holland America has been calling their ever since. The Barrios pier is now mainly used by Banana boats and they load containers full of Bananas and most of them go on a weekly service to Tampa.

For the new port a channel was dredged, using an existing River bed as guidance, and this channel leads the ships from the outer bay, to the inner bay Bahia de Amatique,  which is also the turning basin when arriving or when sailing out.  The Ryndam was early in arriving as the Tours for the Maya ruins leave very early. These are great excursions but there is quite a bit of driving involved and for the 9 hour long one, also nearly an hour of flying, so the ship has to be early to get it all in. For the less adventurous there is the flea market in the cruise terminal and for the very adventurous, Puerto Barrios is only a 10 minute Cab ride away.

The Ryndam at the cruise terminal in Santo Tomas. (Photo courtesy; somewhere from the Internet)

At the dock there was the Ryndam and three small size container ships, each with their own loading gear and that earmarked them as Feeder Ships.  The very large containerships do not have their own cargo gear as the container ports have the large cranes that can deal with containers very efficiently.  A lot of smaller ports do not have these very expensive cranes and they are serviced by cargo ships which have their own crane. Santo Tomas has one container crane, which also can be used for other cargo work and it can ride over the dock to the ship concerned.

The Staff Captain saw it as a good reason to dispatch the cadets so they could have a look on a cargo ship. Most important impression; the ship had open mooring decks so you could get wet during standby’s. Here on the cruise ships we have the luxury of having all our mooring decks covered over as there is accommodation above (Stern) or the Observation deck (Bow) this was not always the case. Only with the arrival of the Statendam in 1992, did we get a covered mooring station forward. Until then the Officer and Sailors forward where also exposed to the elements when on standby.

For the officers, me among them, standing forward was not always pleasant as the Staff Captain on the bridge could see exactly what was going on with the anchor or the ropes and was of course not restrained at all in giving his opinion about it.  No you were better off at the stern, which was covered over and so far away from the bridge that neither Captain nor staff Captain could see what was going on, so they had to take for granted whatever was done there.

Just after 5 pm  we pulled out and set sail for Costa Maya in Mexico. This is a resort, a T shaped pier which sticks out of the shore straight into the Caribbean. T-shaped means it can handle 3 ships, and three ships will be there tomorrow. The Ryndam, the Norwegian Dawn and the Thomson Dream, which is our old Westerdam (II). It will be nice to see her again as I sailed on her for about 4 years in total.

The weather looks good, a bit windy but partly cloudy so a nice resort day to enjoy, without the sun completely burning everything away.

Honduras has not been in the spotlight in a very favorable way in the past months with all the violence and political issues. Normally it means that cruise ships pull out straight away as such things are not part of a safe and carefree vacation. In this situation it does not matter as Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras which makes it much easier to exercise a good security program. All the troubles are on the main land and as a result the resorts on the island are safe and offer an enjoyable stay.

Holland America has been calling at Roatan for about 10 years or so, maybe even a bit longer. Originally we went to Coxen Hole Bay, where there was a sort of cruise ship dock. If you were the 2^nd ship in, then you had a real problem as the anchor depth was about 75 meters (over 225 ft.) and you could not pay out too much anchor as the swinging space was quite limited. Not nice to be if there was a chance of thunder storms.

Mahogany Bay from Sea with a Carnival ship docked inside

Then some bright spark at Carnival Corporation came up with the idea to develop Mahogany Bay, which was just an inlet, or better said a water outlet for a river on the North side of the Island.  A new pier was built which can handle one Mega Liner and a Medium size one at the same time. Thus Holland America shifted to Mahogany Bay and the Ryndam arrived here at sunrise to ensure that it could dock first at the aft part of the dock.  The entrance is just wide enough to sail a ship in, you cannot swing around and thus the Ryndam went in stern way to the aft part of the pier, leaving space for the Emerald Princess to take the forward part of the dock which is slightly longer.

The Forward part of the Pier with the Emerald Princess alongside

I had never been here before and thus I went ashore and here is the report.  It is a resort, a cruise ship resort, and thus the direct area outside the ship is given over to Duty Free. You are led in & out, through the Duty Free area in the same way as the airports do.

Then you have to walk up a gentle slope and you come to a square. Again surrounded by Duty Free, Diamonds International, local Arts and Crafts and a large open air Pub which specializes in cocktails.  It is nice and clean and well maintained with ample security around dressed as Police from the Colonial days.

A bit unusual: A ski lift in the Tropics. No snow or skier to be seen.

From there it is a 10 minute walk to the beach which is very nice and that is where most of the Princess Guests went and a fair sprinkling of ours.  Lots of water sport activities. You do not have to walk, you can take the ski lift and see the Jungle below while on the way to the beach.

A nice touch which I was really impressed with.

The Central shopping square. Same as anywhere else in the Carib, but much less hectic.

From the square you can get to downtown by Taxi. The taxi drivers are very creative in calculating their fares, so you have to negotiate to get to Downtown but in this case I would prefer to take an excursion.

There is one that goes to an area with 3 feet long Iguana’s, animals you normally do not see in your home town, unless one has escaped from the neighbors. All in all a nice place to call at.

Holland America has designed this cruise in such a way that there is a variation in ports.  Mahogany Bay and Costa Maya for the resort life, Santo Tomas for the Shore Excursions (Maya History) and Key west; well because it is Key West.  (Does that place fit in any category???)

The Ryndam at the aft dock. Please note the nicely dressed Security Guard on the right.

We stayed until after sunset, first because we had to wait for the Emerald Princess to leave and secondly as we are currently doing a Light Ship Survey.  Every 5 years it is compulsory for a ship to establish its weight. This to ensure that our stability calculations are correct.

Cruise ships are constantly remodeled, crew tries to get, and leaves, all sort of things on board. The ship is constantly painted and it all adds to an increase in the total weight. As we cannot put a ship on a set of scales; we do it the other way around. We have a surveyor board from Lloyds and a stability expert from the company and together they go through the whole ship calculating how much weight there is in the tanks, in the lockers, in the store rooms and what the changes have been made in the last 5 years and how that affects the weight.  That takes 4 to 5 days to accomplish on a ship the size of the Ryndam. Before they can then calculate the true weight of the ship, you have to see how deep the ship sits in the water.

Archimedes figured out, about 2000 years ago, that the weight of an object in the water is the same as the weight of the displaced water volume. By reading the Draft marks of the ship, the weight can be ascertained within certain limits. As we know the volume of the part of the hull that is submerged and together with the observations around the ship, the true weight can be established. For checking the draft marks, the ship had to come off the dock, so that the two gentlemen could check all the draft marks (portside, starboard and center stern) at the same time.  We had ample time to get to Santo Tomas de Castillo in Guatemala, it is just around the corner, so we had the option to do it now and it was a nice for the guests to see two gentlemen with clipboards puttering around the ship on a small barge.

Tomorrow we are in Santo Tomas and we dock at the Container Terminal, no doubt with some other (cargo) ships alongside as well. It will be an early arrival as the Tours to the Maya Ruins leave very early. The weather will be partly overcast and that should keep the temperatures down a little bit.

Today we spent the day at sea; travelling from the Florida Keys towards Mahogany Bay on the island of Roatan in Honduras.  That meant crossing the Florida Straits, sailing around the West point of Cuba and then basically straight down to Roatan.  Not much of an exciting voyage. The ship is staying too far west from Cuba to see land and most guests won’t see anything of the ships that sail around Cuba’s west point as it happens at night. The rest of the run is a course so unusual that only cruise ships could dream it up.  Nothing exciting to see while looking over the ocean.  The only ships that we could have seen are the Banana boats that sail between Santo Tomas and Tampa. However the Banana boat that you then might see was coming into Tampa when we sailed out, so one less ship to wave at.  We will be in Santa Tomas de Castillo two days from now and when sailing in & out we will see the Banana Boats at the downtown pier of Santo Tomas. We dock at the container terminal / cruise ship pier. The why, I will explain in the blog of when we call there.

So today was a nice and quiet day at sea. The weather forecast was correct and we had following winds, just a bit more than the speed of the ship and thus a gentle breeze kept the temperature nice and pleasant. Most guests grabbed the chance and spent a larger part of the day outside. Unfortunately some of them forgot that a cool feeling on the deck does not translate into less sun intensity. By evening we had a few “lobsters” walking around.  Just down the corridor from where I live, I overheard an argument that “Dear Husband” refused to put on a tie as he simply could not stand a tight collar because of the sun baked skin.

As mentioned before I, will be three weeks on the Ryndam and my activities will vary from training on Captains level & organizing large safety drills; down to refreshing the knowledge of various safety teams on board and helping out “where needed”.  That last item opens up a large range of possibilities.  One of possibilities is now being filled in with a Tender Driver Operator course. You might not know this, but a tender operator, the sailor that drives the tender which shuttles you between ship and shore, has to go through a lot of training before he is allowed to drive a tender. For that purpose the company has a complete training module out there.  Before a sailor is allowed to qualify for tender driver he has to have:

1. A  full Lifeboat Commanders certificate
2. A full SCTW (International standard for crew safety training) certificate
3. Training/ certified  in using the special release gear we have for the tenders / lifeboats
4. Done the theoretical Tender driver course on HAL University which is the company’s intranet training system.
5. Being an AB (= Able Bodied) Sailor which means he is a sailor who has the experience to do all the sailors work that is out there. His next step would be Quartermaster or Storekeeper.

Normally this course is given by a 2^nd officer or First Officer but currently there are not enough hours in the day for the officers to get all the regular work done, so I offered to step in.  For the next three weeks all on board will get dizzy from tenders going up and down at all hours of the day as part of the training program.

Today I started with the theoretical part which includes the Rules of the Road, reading Charts, recognizing buoys and what to do in emergencies.  By the time a Holland America Sailor has passed his exam to be a tender driver, he will be competent and we can put our trust in him to bring all the guests safely to the shore and safely back again.

Tomorrow we will have an early arrival, at Mahogany Bay. This is a cruise resort on Roatan and as the pier is long enough to handle two cruise ships, we have to be early to get in first as the outer dock will be occupied by the Emerald Princess and the bay is too small to sail around her.

Weather for tomorrow: very light winds, partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the high 77’s.  Perfect Caribbean weather, although “the lobsters” might think differently.

With good weather and no opposing traffic you can make it to Key West quite early with  running full speed and that is what the captain did. As a result we were docked about 40 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.  As this is only a short call, an early arrival was appreciated by everybody and as soon as the gangway was out, everybody streamed ashore to discover Key West.  Operationally it was an important day as well, as there was a change of Captains. Captain Werner Timmers left the Ryndam to transfer to the Eurodam and his place was taken by Captain Colm Ryan. His he is from Irish decent and lives in Nova Scotia while Capt. Timmers is from Dutch decent and lives in the USA. I live in England and we have captains living as far and wide as the Phillipines and Australia. Why; because she who shall be obeyed comes from there. Seldom do we see a captains spouse settling down in the Netherlands, not because they do not like the country, but because there is that ………………….. beautiful……………… language. And so we meekly go  where we are told to go. And as long as we can still tell the ship were to go, we can live with that.

Calling at Key West has it’s pro’s and con’s for the navigators. One of the pro’s is that you dock right in downtown, so even when not going ashore there is something to see from the bridge but a major con is that if the wind blows you have hardly any protection when sailing in or out or when being alongside. I believe the highest land part of Key West is about 40 ft. above see level and thus the wind has very little that hampers its progress. The docks are workable for normal operations but during windy weather we dearly would like to have a few bollards more to be able to set a better spread of ropes. The town is trying to do something about it, but it is and has been for a long time a very contentious issue. So we patiently wait until it will be resolved.

Mallory Square is one open air Craft Fair and Performance venue starting up just before sunset.

There is room for three ships alongside, one at Mallory Square, one at B pier and one at the Navy Pier. All ships like to be at Mallory as it is the closest to everything but when there are more ships, then there is a pecking order to make it fair.

Today we were the only ship and thus we had Mallory Square. This dock comes with one requirement and that is that you have to sail before sunset to avoid blocking the sunset – view from the square. Watching sunset from Mallory is a time honored tradition and that should not be hampered by having a tin- can full of visitors in the way.

On departure the ship moved past B Pier.

So shortly after 5 pm. the Ryndam swung around in the turning basin to make sure that she was completely gone before sunset (scheduled for 06.08 pm. Today).  The whole day had been nearly windless and sailing out was a simple and pleasant affair.

To get in and out of the port there is a channel that leads through the coral reefs but it is not that wide. If it would be windy, then the ship would drift and to compensate for that sail under a drift angle. The more the wind, the larger the angle and the more width of the channel is used up. A real hassle for the larger ships. Also here is talk of widening the channel so larger ships can come and visit but again things are stuck in politics without much progress.

With a short afternoon stop there is only so much you can see, but the guests all came back quite happy and thus we achieved our objective. For the crew the main focus is the CVS drugstore, conveniently located one block north of Mallory Square.  While most try to stock up in the home port, it is not always easy to do that as the home port is a change over port and thus a very busy day for most of the crew.

I spent my day finalizing my training and support schedule so by tomorrow I can get the show on the road. The challenge is that everybody always want training done at the same time, have time off at the same time and also has to stay within the maximum working hours that are allowed under the Maritime Labor convention. I have to adhere to those hours as well and that calls for even more creativity.

Tomorrow the good ship Ryndam will be at sea. Heading south to Mahogany Bay in Hondoras. It will be a windy day, but as the wind is supposed to be from the north, which makes it a following wind, it should be nearly windstill on the ship. Perfect for being out and about on the deck.  I have not seen the weather forcast yet, but the shops are planning a deck sale so I do not think that there is any rain expected.

Tampa has been on the Holland America sailing calendar since 1983, when the old Veendam started cruising from there during the winter season. In a way it was the beginning of the cruise boom for the western side of Florida as the only other cruise ship calling at Tampa was the small Vera Cruz. Since that time the cruise business has flourished and today there were three cruise ships in port. From Carnival, NCL and Holland America. Together good for handling close to 7000 guests during today’s sailing.  Normally the ships come in very early in the morning trying to be docked by 06.00 am to start the clearance procedures as timely as possible. The Ryndam arrived around 08.00 as she had had a medi-vac the day before which caused a considerable delay.  A critically ill patient was disembarked and but I can luckily advise that all is going well and a full recovery is expected.

Because of the later arrival, I could join the ship at the decent time of 08.30 in the morning. Normally they try to get all the crew and related persons onboard by approx. 06.30 as the C.B.P does not prefer to have crew joining during the disembarkation process.  I was impressed to see ship, shore and CBP working together in such a fantastic way. It ensured that the guests were off the ship, no more than 45 minutes later than normal.

The only challenge with Tampa is, is that the port is located at the north side of Tampa Bay and the Cruise Terminal is located in the far N.W. corner of that port and can only be reached through a narrow channel. That makes the voyage inwards, through the whole of Tampa Bay, last for about 4 hours, from pilot to dock and that is a long stretch for the Captain on the Bridge. It can get even worse when “very low hanging clouds develop”, because then the Harbor Master is forced to close the port. It is simply not possible to navigate some of the narrow channels safely for a large ship, without decent visibility. Ships are then kept outside and that of course plays havoc with the disembarkation of the guests and their subsequent flights. Sometimes those low hanging clouds do not dissipate or lift until noon time and that is rather painful for everybody, for those who are leaving and for those who are joining.

As a result there are now plans to develop a cruise port at Port Manatee which is just inside the Bay, inwards of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and not as much affected by reduced visibility as downtown Tampa is. But when that will come to pass is anybody’s guess. It would certainly make the cruise ship captains happy.

With that as a background I stepped  on board the good old Ryndam  for the first time since 1996 when I was Staff Captain on her. This will probably be the last time as well, as she will be transferred together with her sister ship the Statendam, to our sister company P&O Australia for cruises down under.

During the coming three weeks I will be carrying out a whole load of trainings and support activities starting with the captain, all the way down to the laundry. Part of it will be refreshing procedures and improving knowledge and part of it will be raising the bar as far as insight and experience is concerned.

The Ryndam will make two cruises during this 3 week period. We are starting with a 7 day cruise: Tampa – Key West – Roatan – Santo Tomas – Costa Maya – Tampa.

This is followed by a 14 day cruise: around the Caribbean.  Tampa – Key West – San Juan – St. Thomas – St John’s (Antigua) –  Castries & Soufriere – Willemstad – Oranjestad – Grand Cayman – Tampa.

I sailed for about 5 seasons from Tampa as a Captain (and a lot more as deck officer and Staff Captain; in total well over a hundred voyages) first with the old Noordam and then with the current Veendam and I always preferred the 14 day run. Partly as it meant only sailing Tampa Bay once in the 14 days but partly as it means doing the whole Caribbean circle, it brings a lot of variation to the ports. The East Caribbean is considerably different from the South West Caribbean.

We started our cruise under a good omen. Nice sunny weather and no wind when sailing out. Tomorrow in Key West the forecast calls for partly cloudy, leaning to overcast and also no wind. That will mean a pleasant arrival; as Key West is not much fun during windy conditions.