It almost looked like as if a curtain descended over the ship, the moment we left the Cape Verdes. Today was basically an overcast day, it was windy and as predicted yesterday the temperatures started to dip. That will continue tomorrow as well by another 2 degrees or so.  Luckily there is enough to do inside the ship to not to be detained by the weather very much and there are also a lot of area’s were everybody can sit outside the wind as well.  Life just goes on.

For the remainder of the cruise, which ends in Rotterdam on the 21^st. of December, we will be calling at Santa Cruz, Las Palmas and Arrecife in the Canary Islands. Then Agadir, Casablanca and Tangiers in Morocco, followed by Cadiz in Spain and Lisbon in Portugal. Here I will leave the ship while the Rotterdam continues its cruise with calls at Vigo and Southampton. By that time it will have completely circumvented Africa.  An unhappy part of the cruise was that due to Ebola a number of ports had to be cancelled and no other ports could be substituted are there were simply no other safe ports in the area. But that is always the challenge that one gets when going on an adventure.

Today the class was focusing on Damage Control and Security. That meant in the morning that yours truly spent some time going through the theoretical part of what we have to do if there would be a hole in the ship under the water line and what equipment we have available for that.  A ship is equipped with watertight doors which sub-divide the ship in 10 or 12 compartments. The Rotterdam is a two compartment ship which means that if the two biggest areas in the ship, between watertight doors, would flood, the ship would still stay afloat. If smaller compartments would flood then probably 3 or 4 could be flooded without endangering the ship.  A Navy ship could probably have 10 compartments flooded and still stay afloat but then those ships are designed to expect holes, if being shot at.

We have a lot of equipment onboard to close off a hole if we would get one. Varying from small plugs to close off small cracks; to shoring equipment to put big plates in place to cover larger holes. All that material is located in a damage control locker, well above the water line. In case the ship would start to flood we should be able to get at this equipment easily.  I know this is not really sexy, but some items are simply not that exciting, but very necessary.

Sleeves for pipe punctures

Supports for shoring up bulkheads

As is the case with everything that Holland America does, it has to be trained and exercised to reach a high degree of proficiency. Varying from discussing on how to tackle a problem by means of a table top discussion, to executing a real drill.  The latter is a bit of an issue, as we cannot make a hole in the ship to make it look real. We have to simulate. Thus this afternoon I spent some time with the sailors to build on the mooring deck aft, part of a ship’s hull. Made of strong wood and with a hole near the top. Tomorrow we will do the drill and then a lot of water will be pumped through that hole. As it is on the mooring deck aft the water will not damage the ship and as the water is pure sea water it can flow overboard again without damaging the environment.

The challenge will be to plug the hole (8 x 4 inches) while 5 fire hoses pump an enormous amount of water through the hole. With the pressure that we use we can pump approx. 10.000 gallons through the hole in an hour, which approximates the same ingress of water if that hole would be 18 feet under water. As the Rotterdam draws 28 feet, this is not un-realistic.

Whatever happens during this drill, one thing is certain, a lot of people will get very wet.

Today we had our 2^nd day in Mindelo. The weather started out the same as yesterday but in the course of the day the wind increased and it started to become more overcast. Maybe the islands are in for a rain shower tonight. I think that would please the locals as there is a constant scarcity of water on the islands. Most areas are really arid and thus do not hold any water and that prevents a cycle of moisture going up and coming down again. And if it would be going up, it would probably come down over water again as there is the constant trade wind blowing. Ashore in Praia I saw that on the lee side of the island where most of the rain falls, that the tree’s, up on the plateau were all bending towards the west, in the same way as you see on the Caribbean Islands such as Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba.

Today we had another cruise ship in the port. Although it was more built as a yacht. The Variety Voyager with a capacity for 36 guests and 31 crew. This ship belongs to a company which has a number of these little ships and focusses on what I would call Eco-tourism, visiting areas off the beaten path.  Behind it was a normal yacht, well normal, it was longer than the Variety Voyager but it was a privately owned vessel and it listened to the name of Papi – Papi.  Hopefully it means something special, otherwise the only thing I can think about is that the owner must have been inspired by the endearments of his little boy or girl.

Another amazing thing for which I do not have an explanation either is the fact that there are no church spires in Mindelo. The whole island is Roman Catholic; the Portuguese were present for a long time, but not a single church spire in sight. I scanned the whole town twice, asked the navigators to verify and indeed no church spires. Very peculiar.

Porto Grande as seen from Mindelo. (Stock photo from Internet

Mindelo is the name of the village or town which we see when looking out from the ship. However where the ship is, is not Mindelo. It is called the Porto Grande or grand harbor and that is more or less correct. The large bay has good anchoring ground which means that even during very windy days, the anchor seldom drags.  So technically our brochure should not have said Mindelo, but Porto Grande. There are more ports that have the same confusion. Look at Florida, our ships dock in Port Everglades but nearly everybody talks about Fort Lauderdale.

The Radar/chart screen, showing the way we came in. Going out, we sailed between the yellow part of the main island and the small rock of Dom Luis.

We left right on time with the last guest hopping onboard 5 minutes before the All On Board Time and then it was a matter of giving a bit of astern power, backing out of the pier and heading for open sea. All without the help of the local pilot who was already on the ship coming in, which took our spot as soon as we were gone.  Then we sailed North West as we are now on the way to the Canary Islands.  Mindelo is located on the island of Santo Vicente, which we kept to our right and the island of Santo Antao which we kept to our left. The channel is 6 miles wide and thus plenty of room to sail safely in the middle.  The channel is called Canal de San Vicente and that keeps it all nice and simple. There is only one rock in the middle called Dom Luis with a cross and a monastery (?) on the top. Clearly visible so easy to avoid.

We will now spend two days at sea and then arrive on the 7^th. of December in Santa Cruz. We will call at two ports while in the Canary Islands and the next day we will be in Las Palmas.  To get to the Canary islands we will be sailing on a North Easterly course as the Canaries are located right off the coast of Morocco. Due to historical happenings, the islands belong to Spain and not to Morocco. No doubt that will be of great interest to our guests once they start preparing for their next land outing in the coming days.

One thing will be certain, the outside temperatures will drop. We keep heading away from the sun and moving towards Europe and thus the temperatures will plunge. Today it was still 24oC / 75oF tomorrow there will already be a dip of 2 degrees and more to come.

We did not see anything of the volcano on Fogo. Latest news is that its activity has reduced considerably in the last few days and without big fireworks we were too far away to see anything.

Mindelo is located on the smaller island just under the big one at the top left corner

Mindelo is located on the northern side of the Cape Verdes island group and thus we spent the night trundling with a speed of 13 knots through the islands.  By 07.00 the ship made her final approach and by 08.00 we were safely docked.  Mindelo has a large anchorage area and also an extensive dock area but there are basically only two deep sea berths.  The inner – smaller one – was occupied by the Azamara Journey and we docked at the inside of the outer breakwater. 

This can make a Staff Captain really happy. All the ropes on different bollards.

We fitted in with about 25 meters at the stern and the bow which made for a happy Staff Captain as he had a lot of spare bollards to put his mooring ropes on.  We are staying here overnight and thus a few more ropes were paid out. Not that it is really necessary as the weather is not supposed to change but it is company policy as in other parts of the world an overnight squall can create un-expected havoc with a ship.

From the ship the distance to town did not look that far but Mindelo is really spread out in an arc against a high mountain range. That gives a false perspective in distances and quite a few guests who thought they were going for a nice walk into town, soon found out that “town” was a considerable distance away.

As the weather forecast turned into reality we had the chance to do something that we all liked. Messing around with boats.  The group was split up in 2 of four with a captain and down we went with a lifeboat each.  I do not have to teach these people how to operate a lifeboat. They are already qualified navigators, but they need to be familiarized with the equipment and to learn how we teach the crew in operating a lifeboat. So for nearly 3 hours, we sailed in an out of the harbor, inspected the inventory, made approaches in returning to the ship with the focus on stopping right under the fall blocks which lower and hoist the lifeboat and to sit still under it regardless of wind and current, so the blocks can be hooked in safely by the boat riggers.

A lot of blue. What a pity that they are from different company’s.

In the mean time we had to stay out of the way of the Azamara Journey who was departing at 14.00 hrs.  So we stayed at a safe distance while the ship moved to open waters.

In Mindelo there are always a lot of small ships at anchor and it is not always clear if they are waiting for cargo, have been impounded, abandoned or are in the process of being sold. We happily sailed around them all and while passing one, I saw the most disgruntled Chinese person I have ever seen.  He looked absolutely unhappy being there, on a small ship at this anchorage and with a 6 foot long sulk on his face he hung over the railing glaring at us from above.

Last time I was here with the Prinsendam we were told that Mindelo nightlife was less than exciting unless one went around the mountain to a sea-side resort.   This time some of the more focused crew had done their research and this morning there were a lot of discussions going on about Disco, versus Restaurants, versus Taxi’s and how much to pack into the evening for as little money as possible. Well the “rich captain” paid for the taxi & all yesterday but my Disco days are over, so today I was not going ashore. Too much to do. I need the time to prepare for the coming lessons for the Trainee’s.  We have 4 more days to go and then they are finished and my colleague and I have to ensure that we have covered everything.

Tomorrow is the 2^nd day in Mindelo and we should have the same weather as today. Partly cloudy skies, a temperature of 24oC / 75oF with a humidity of only 50%. …………………………………..And breath taking scenery all around us.

And so we arrived at the most southern port on the most Southern island of the Cape Verdes. The weather forecast was correct and we arrived on a sunny morning. 

The “Boxy Lady docked behind us, loading and discharging boxes.

It has been indicated to us that the port/ dock was being upgraded but it was interesting to see that this meant an extension of the old pier, a complete renewal of the pier surface and the construction of a new container area. And it was all new; the wet paint had not dried yet so to speak. With the new pier, there was enough for two ships and behind us was docked the “Boxy Lady” which I think is a very appropriate name for a container ship. I would love to meet the person who had the sense of humor to come up with that name.

After 7 days at sea, most guests were very eager to get ashore but also the bridge officers were itchy as too many sea days plays havoc with practical training such as lifeboat drills. Also some other trainings and tests we prefer to do in port, needed to be done.    The trainee’s had three items on the agenda today. Witness water-mist release onto the main engines, follow the officers during raft and boat drill instruction and observe a simulation with the tender to sail out the oil spill boom.

Water-mist is a sort of shower system that we have above our engines. If an engine would go on fire, we will open the valve and a very dense water mist would descend over the engine. It is a very effective way of stopping an engine fire as the very small mist particles have a very high cooling capability and cool the surrounding area down so much that there is not enough heat to sustain the fire.  Beautiful system and more and more ships have it.

A nice view . Praia on the plateau overlooking the harbour, while our lifeboats are exercising.

Boat and raft drill is of course a common occurrence on our ships and the trainee’s had to observe what the regular deck officers were doing and how. Hopefully they will learn something and will do it as well and maybe even better than what they saw today.

Simulating an oil-boom deployment is something a little bit more obscure. All Holland America ships have an extensive oil spill containment and clean up kit onboard. We instruct and we train with everything we have, except with the oil boom.

Slowly pulling the boom towards the ship, while catching the “simulated” oil.

The boom is made of soft and absorbent material and can only be used once.  So the accountants would not enjoy seeing us using the real boom for training. But we can substitute a floating mooring rope for the boom and do it that way. As you need some specialized knowledge to do that in a successful way, I gave some training yesterday and this morning we did the real thing.

By the time that was finished it was nearly noon time and then it was time to explore Praia. The chance that we will come back here in the very near future it not so great so I urged all of them to grab the one chance they might have in their sailing career. Not that this meant that I was staying onboard as it might be my only chance as well.  Due to the new dock, it was quite a distance to the main town and as it is located on a plateau up the hill as well, it meant getting taxis. Luckily there are plenty of them and they are not expensive, even when they try to hike up the –tourist- price a little bit, they are still a very good deal.

I teamed up with one of the trainee’s whom I bumped into in the corridor and we did the sights.

Visit the anthropological museum in the Capital (all two rooms of it).

Then we drove to the old town Ribeiro de Santiago which was overrun so often by the pirates that most people moved to Praia. When we got there, I understood why: a fertile valley between two cliffs with a good anchorage, a prefect hideaway for any self-respecting Captain Jack Sparrow with his Black Pearl.

Then by 4 pm it was back to the bridge as the trainees have now accumulated enough knowledge to start getting the bridge (with all its instruments) ready for departure. It all went well as the ms Rotterdam sailed without any issues out of the port at 17.30 hrs.  Tomorrow we are in Mindelo, still in the Cape Verdes, but at the North side and we are staying overnight there.

The ms Rotterdam docked in Praia as seen from downtown

It was still dark and gloomy when day broke this morning but in the course of the day the weather followed the forecast and the sun came out. Something else was put in place instead. A very long moderate swell running from the North. Thus far Africa had been acting as a wave breaker and we had been in calm seas but when we fully cleared the main land the ship started to pitch a little bit. Observing the waves rolling in, I estimated them to be about 10 to 12 feet high. With a speed of 15 knots the ship rode the waves very nicely with movements varying from almost none to a nice lift up and down. Those who had been asking for real sea days with a bit of motion of the ocean, they got their wish today.

While on the south side of the equator we were under the influence of the South Equatorial current which pushed us to the East. Now on the other side we are being pushed to the West. Courtesy of the North Equatorial Counter current.  A current that is instrumental in bringing all the water back that was pushed into the North Atlantic by the Gulf Stream.

Currents produce water flow and normally also a mixture in the temperature of the sea water. Animals love that as it means that there is food.  Thus there was wild life a-plenty. Flying fish, small whales (still searching for the right name) and something that looked like Tuna; although that fish is not common and/or present in this area as far as I know.  Still, for the guests onboard who took the time to watch the sea, there was plenty to see.

Air photo of the port of Praia on the south side of the Ilha de Santiago

Tomorrow we are in Praia on the Ilha de Santiago. It is the largest city in the Cape Verdes and also the capital. It has a small port but with a long pier and hence the ms Rotterdam can dock there. Looking at photos, the town seems to be quite close.  The town was founded in the 16^th. Century and as it sits on a small plateau it could be defended against Pirates and that caused its upswing to being the largest city.

The Cape Verdes were a colony of Portugal until 1975 but it has been independent ever since. Independence also kick started its expansion as well.  Approximately 140,000 people are living there now and thus our arrival, with its subsequent invasion of land- thirsty shoppers will not make that much of an impact.

The city and the harbor are located on the south side of the island and as we are approaching from the south, it will be a straight shot for the dock. Sunrise is at 06.44 tomorrow morning and that means that the ship will dock while the sun is above the horizon and thus dock during day light. If a port is not familiar with a navigator then an arrival in day light is always preferred.  If you know a port well it is less of an issue as you  have already seen what can be lurking in the dark.

lha de Santiago is the largest Island near the bottom of the chart

Cape Verdes is a group of widely dispersed volcanic islands. Thus when going from Praia to Mindelo tomorrow evening we have to sail through a widely spaced out archipelago. On the way we will pass the island of Fogo with its erupting Volcano. If it is really active, then we might see some clouds and smoke, but only on the horizon as we will still be a considerable distance away.

The Weather Forecast for tomorrow looks very good. Temperatures around 25oC / 77oF. The sun is far in the south as it is nearly 21 December and thus it is considered winter here. For our standards a warm winter but I can deal with that sort of winter.

Today another day at sea and it was an overcast and rainy day. As a matter a fact it was a gloomy day. We are right in the middle of a frontal system which we ran into late yesterday afternoon.  We should run out of it by tomorrow as the weather for the Cape Verdes is forecast as  sunny and in the high seventies (oF)  At the same time we are moving away from the sun and thus is gets day light later and later.  Altogether it made for a gloomy day.

With the ship we have just passed the border with Monrovia and are now getting further and further away from the coast heading toward the Cape Verdes which are sort of on the same line or just north of Dakar. And Dakar is on the extreme west side of Africa. We still have one day to go and then we will arrive at Praia. Or to give it its full title Praia de Ilha de Santiago. Everybody onboard is looking forward to it. For the guests as we are finally hitting land again but also for the crew as I think that nobody has been there before.  I certainly have not. I have been to Mindelo which will be our second port of call but Praia is completely new.  So it is very high on my checklist to go ashore and have a look around.

13 Officers onboard as part of our Nautical and Engineering Excellence courses. To the right Capt. Marco Carsjens, Chief Engineer Willem Dullaert (Ret) and Yours Truly. (Photo courtesy: Grace and her team of ms Rotterdam Image Creators)

In the meantime life goes on onboard and that means that training continues. We are now 16 days into the program and slowly but steadily we can leave the theory behind and turn to practical items. It takes a while, many days in fact, before the group was ready to start tying all the strands together of what was discussed so it starts making sense.  And now we are getting there.

While the engineering group continued their voyage of discovery into the workings of engineering items, the deck side was moving towards the practical side of watch keeping. In groups of two they are now observing the watch keeping sequences and routines on the bridge and by the time that they join their own ship it should be familiar for them.

One of the ways that we do this is by means of touch drills.  It is something that we picked up from the Navy and it is a very clever way of getting familiar with certain routines. As an example we discussed what should be done on the bridge when a fire alarm comes in.  After a lot of discussion a list of items were compiled and these lists basically became a checklist that could be worked from.  Then it was time to go to the bridge and reenact step by step this checklist.  Not just by pointing, but step by step, going to each panel and simulating (touch – drill) pushing each button that is involved, making the announcement that goes with it and acting through the whole sequence.

Another item we are introducing now are case studies.  Incidents that have been investigated can work as lessons for the future and can be compared with the company regulations and doctrines that are there to avoid these incidents from happening again. It also helps to create a greater picture of what needs to be thought about when being on the job.

In the coming days, when we visit ports again, it will be a focus to run as many practical lessons as possible.

Today we have been sailing along the coast of middle Africa along the SW corner.  And by 19.00 hrs. we passed the town of Monrovia, after which the Country of Monrovia is named, The next well known city is located more towards the north is called Freetown, in Sierra Leone and thus it will take a while to get there.

Sometime in the past I dedicated some blogs to “Un-sung Heroes” onboard the ship. Crew members who work behind the scenes, and who are seldom seen, but who do play a vital part in the operation of the vessel. Whether on deck, in the engine room, or in hotel.  Functions onboard which are not noticed, until the toilet stops working, the laundry does not arrive, or the daily newspaper does not show up. One of those functions onboard is the florist.

For a long, long time Holland America has prided itself on having fresh flowers on its ships.  In my records I have proof that this was a regular routine since the 2^nd world war. I would not be amazed if they did it before that time as well.  In those Trans-Atlantic days it was fairly easy to accomplish this. The ships were in port every 7 days and a local florist could wheel everything ready made onto the ship.  Also when the ships went cruising it was not that difficult as apart from the World Cruise most cruises were of 10 to 11 days length or shorter and the ship returned to the same home port. There a local florist could again just wheel all the needed flower arrangements onboard.

Mr. Rustadi, the ships florist on the  ms   Rotterdam.

But Holland America started to make their cruises longer and longer and the logistics became more and more difficult. So a number of years ago it was decided to appoint an in-house florist but who works for an outside company.  While onboard the Florist reports partly to the Exe. Housekeeper and partly to his Boss ashore. All the ships florists come from Indonesia and thus fit in seamlessly with the Housekeeping Department.

A small display on the counter of the Explorations Cafe.

Working with an outside company, solved one big headache for the company and that was to get flowers onboard on a regular basis; especially when on a long cruise such as a World Cruise or what we are now doing now, going around Africa.  The whole African continent is full of beautiful flowers but getting them on the ship is another matter. For an outside expert it will be much easier to arrange what is needed than for the company itself whose purchasers and buyers do not necessarily have the expertise to get on board what is needed, desired and to timely source it.

The Florist has his own little Green house down stairs, although it is really a cold store to keep the flowers in good order until they are needed. There the large and small bouquets are made and then distributed in the ship according to a pre-approved location plan.

A large composition in the entrance of the Dining Room

On top of that the florist also takes care of the fixed plants and flowers in the ship such as the Orchids on the Lido Tables and the greenery in the various public rooms. The latter took a headache away from us to. Before the Florist was there, looking after the plants was in the hands of the Dining room, which is the most creative department we have here when dealing with displays. The Dining stewards appointed to look after the greenery onboard where quite often very exuberant with water and killed everything with kindness. Exactly the opposite of what they were trying to achieve.

So now we have the florist and as you can see, he has some beautiful creations on display in the ship.  One of our unsung heroes……. Crew members who make a Holland America Cruise just a touch more special.

What would we do, if a shipment of flowers would miss the ship?  We have a plan B. Look at our art onboard.  In the aft staircase on deck 4:  Flower Still Life called “Bouquet by night” by the Dutch painter Reynier de Muynck.

Tomorrow we are at sea again and then in the late evening we should start approaching Dakar where the ship can take a straight course to our next port of call, Praia in the Cape Verdes.

We are sailing North West and although it is more North than West, it still means that every day the sun rises a little bit later. We also went over the Greenwich Prime Meridian.  Thus we entered another time zone which meant that last night we put the clocks back one hour.  As a result we are now on British Time.  Everybody who has travelled knows about the issue with time changes and most cruises have one or several of them.  From one hour in Caribbean between the USA and all the Islands in the summer time; to losing a complete day when on a world cruise.

This around Africa cruise is more of a vertical than a horizontal cruise and that limits the time changes needed to stay on local time when in port.  From Rotterdam it was one hour forward to Greece and then another hour forward to the Suez Canal.  When going south the time stayed the same and when finally heading west the hours went back.  Since Capetown we have had 2 hours back and that will be it for the time being.  Once we are nearing the Continent again we will have to put the clock forward again.

On a world cruise putting the clock back is an almost daily occurrence when the ship is on a crossing. That is the good part as every evening there is an hour more to enjoy. The fact that you lose a complete day is hardly noticed.  Going the other way is much more irritating as you do gain a day but nearly every night on a crossing is an hour shorter.  Hence Holland America World cruises go west when you gain hours, not lose them. It was tried in the past to go the other way but the feedback was not very positive.  Not from the guests and certainly not from the crew.  There are still cruise company’s out there that go “the wrong way around” and they must fill the ships otherwise they would not do it but it must call for very empty ships in the evening and/or very quiet mornings as nobody wants to get out of bed.

To make things as best as possible we try to get the most out of these hours. If we can wrangle it the hour back is during formal nights, our crew shows are during hour back nights, and so are show buffets. We had the Indonesian crew show during the previous hour back and so last night, late-nite-comedy was scheduled in. It still gave the option for everybody to be in bed by 11 pm. – new time- if they wanted to go.  If most guests go, I do not know as I was in bed by that time. I normally get up at 06.00 to review the day’s trainings and by 06.30 it was still very quiet in the Lido.  Maybe a lot of people stayed out for Happy Hour which runs four times a day, including at 11.30 pm. offering the 2^nd drink for $ 1,–.

What is also different on a longer cruise are the lectures and the entertainment.  During a 3 month cruise you have to offer new things and thus entertainers fly in and join the ship in various ports of call. Same for the lecturers although if a lecturer has a large repertoire than he/she can fill a whole cruise. You have to see that in context I suppose. I was a bit bemused the other day to see a lecture about penguins while we were sailing in the tropical waters of the equator. You seldom see penguins there. But it was part of a series on Nature & the Sea so it did make sense in the context.  Today the lectures were about Woman Pirates and Wildlife of the Tropical Islands, while the Shorex Team and the Location Guide got everybody informed about the Canary Islands.

Looking through the daily program there is another significant item. More and more extensive – fitness options.   07.00 sunshine stretch, 07.30 Fab abs, 08.00 Tai Chi, 10.00 Healthy habits, 11.00 Spa Seminar, 11.00 Acupuncture,  11.00 Hot Stones,  11.30 Dance Class. And then it starts all over again in the mid afternoon.  If you do not want to be fit, the only places you can hide is at the Lectures or in the computer classes. Or go to High Tea in the dining room.

Today we had mixed day at sea with a bit of everything. The winds varied and the cloudiness varied. We are now nearing the continent again having passed over the Basin of Guinee and tomorrow morning we will be sailing past Harper which is in South East Monrovia. From there the land will move away from the course line again but our courses will now follow the coast of West Africa until we can turn to the north but that will be another day.

Today we reached a highlight of our cruise which gave everybody the possibility to walk in four quadrants within a minute. North Western half, North Eastern half, South Western half and the South Eastern half.  At 3 pm we reached Point Zero. The crossing of the Prime (Greenwich) Meridian and the Equator.

As you can understand, the ship was not letting this pass by without it being properly celebrated. Hence the plan of just sailing over the mark was not going to happen. The ship had to be stopped to make it possible for all the guests to get “on the mark”. King Neptune was invited and the Cruise director grabbed the chance to throw a party.

I was a bit disappointed in King Neptune. You would expect that if he and his better half were invited to come to the ms Rotterdam he would arrange for perfect weather. Well the sun did shine but also the wind did blow. We are officially not yet out of the doldrums but it seems that the doldrums had decided to take a break as it was blowing up to 30 knots. That made it a lot more difficult for the captain to get the ship on the spot and to keep it there. Thus I am disappointed in King Neptune as I had expected better from him.

To make it even more complicated it was decided that the zero position should not be on the bridge but in the Lido pool making it possible for all the festivities to take place right on Point Zero.  This meant that it had to be calculated how much the bridge had to be north of the Equator to get the Zero – Zero exactly in the Lido Pool. Once that was achieved the ship had to be kept there for 45 minutes while all the fun took place in the pool area. Together with the North Equatorial Current pushing the ship to the East and the strong winds pushing the ship to the North West it made the whole affair a challenge to say the least.

We are there. The Lido pool is about 30 meters aft of the GPS antenna and to sb. hence the numbers not being zero.

However, what the Cruise Director wants, the Captain shall deliver and thus it was done. Not as easy as everybody had hoped for, as the wind tried to keep pushing the ship to the North West but by using all the maneuvering capabilities of the Rotterdam, the “Zero” was kept in the pool.

How they did it. Put the bow in the calculated position, have a blue circle on the pool location and then watch the predictor (2nd ship’s layout on the screen). As long as the predictor stays on top of the ship, the ship maintains position.

On deck other things were happening:

First King Neptune and his Queen popped up and were parked in the orchestra booth so everybody could see him & her and after he granted “ safe passage” (although a windy one) to all on board, we had a little show featuring a cultural aspect from each of the four quadrants.  Russian Dancers represented the North, Indian Dancers the East, the South was represented by South African paintings and local music and the West by Argentine Tango dancers.

For those who were more into Alcohol than Culture, the Beverage Department had created 4 special drinks commemorating each quadrant to enhance the party atmosphere and indeed some guests did look very happy indeed.

By 16.00 hrs. the good ship Rotterdam was on its way again continuing on a North Westerly course towards the Cape Verdes. We are almost halfway now, so we still have a few glorious days at sea to enjoy.

Barely an hour after we left Point Zero, the wind fell completely away. The doldrums were back from their break. We could have done with that wind still weather while we were at Point Zero. King Neptune will have some explaining to do when he steps onboard next time.

HAPPY THANKS GIVING TO ALL MY AMERICAN READERS.

Slowly but steadily we are nearing the equator but what is more exciting is also the Greenwich meridian. The captain is going to attempt to get 00.00 N/S & 000.00 W/E on the GPS so that the ship is exactly on the equator and the zero Meridian at the same time. Getting to the main zeros is not so difficult but getting to ALL the zeros is extremely difficult. It means that the navigation team has to get the GPS antenna within 3 feet of the crossing of the two imaginary lines.  Thus 800+ feet of ship has to sail within three feet of accuracy to get the magic number.  So I am keeping my fingers crossed. I managed with my own ship the 00.00 Equator once but I have never gotten the chance to go for the “All around zero”. For a navigator this is exciting stuff as it goes beyond the regular pin point navigation. 3 feet is hard to achieve and we do not get a 2^nd chance. It is not as if we can turn the ship around and try it one more time. Today we are 3 degrees south of the equator so we are not there yet. Expected time is approx. three o’clock tomorrow afternoon and the Cruise Director has planned a special party on the Lido Deck for this “once in a life time event”. He might be right there because the chance that somebody will make another cruise that follows the same cruise track is fairly slim. Plus it is Thanks Giving tomorrow for our American Guests and that could make it even more special.

For us the school class life goes on below decks. The 13 trainee’s in the group spend their day partly together and partly split up.  In the morning it was your’s truly who discussed the company’s fire fighting doctrines and the need to stick to the protocols when going through a fire evolution and later on the navigators got immersed in sprinkler systems and the engineers in something highly technical and complicated in the engine room.

Nowadays all ships have sprinklers systems. Those little nozzles that stick out of the ceiling in your cabin with the little warning on it: “Do not hang articles from sprinkler heads”.  Each nozzle has a little colored break glass that will crack if the room temperature goes up too high; which then normally indicates that the cabin is on fire.  Many a cruise

One of the many types out there. The red glass will burst if the temperature goes above 68oC

ship fire has been extinguished before it became a real problem by means of this system. There are several variations on this system, such as Hi-Fog etc. depending on how fine the droplets are that are being dispersed from the nozzle.  Whatever the system that is in use and we have several onboard our ships, it is extremely important to know how this life-saver exactly works and how to deal with it.

If somebody would knock a glass out of the nozzle then 9 bar of pressurized water comes spouting out. That is a lot of water. In that case we all run to close the valve. A: to prevent the cabin from total flooding (and mostly also the whole neighborhood as it is an awful lot of water that comes out) and B. to prevent seawater from coming into the lines. Once the glass has been broken the water flows out. That causes a pressure drop and that starts a pump. The water in the sprinkler lines/pipes is fresh water to prevent the pipes from rusting. That water sits in a pressurized tank. As soon as the water starts flowing that fresh water is very quickly pushed out of that tank and towards the location of the broken nozzle. Then automatically a pump starts and that pump supplies salt water to keep the extinguishing going until we stop it. We do not like that salt water in the pipes so as soon as the fire is out, or if there is not fire but a broken glass we we want to close the section valve even faster. Everybody has to know the location of the section valves (39 in this ship) and how to deal with them. That took up most of the afternoon as my colleague also included an engine room tour.

Dress up. Check your partner to ensure that there is no exposed skin.

In the mean time I prepared a little fire hose training. Most deck and engine officers will be part of the fire fighting squads eventually and the earlier we start the training the better it is.  Apart from the regular hose control exercises I also let them do the soccer game. The objective is trying to push a large ball into two goals by means of a fire hose handled by two opposing teams. That is nearly impossible due to the pressure on the water jet but it is a good excuse to get each other soaking wet. And thus it happened.  A very happy but extremely wet group of trainee’s finished another fruitful day at sea.

Two hose attack. One for protection the other to fight the fire.