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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

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13 Feb. 2018; Cartagena, Colombia.

February 13, 2018 / / 3 Comments

Today our port of call was Cartagena Colombia from 07.00 hrs. to 13.00 hrs. We cannot really stay any longer as otherwise we cannot make 05.00 hrs. Panama Canal pilot station. And if we do not make the 5 am in the morning then we might miss our slot of going through the locks and that would endanger our whole call in Panama.  The entrance to the port of Cartagena is located at the south side of the bay. And that entrance is called Boca Chica. Directly translated into English it means Mouth of the Girl but it can also mean little mouth or little entrance. And the latter is correct here.  There used to be two entrances and the very big one was where now the port is. But it was much shallower and only good for fishermen. The deep water entrance was the small mouth or the Boca Chica. Already in the 16th century this was the case and two forts were built on either side of the entrance to keep those out who wanted to get in but who were not friends of the current occupier of the land all around. There have been several fights and The Spanish, The British and of course The Dutch all have been shooting cannon balls in this area but the Spanish Influence was the most predominant, hence the fact that most of south America, except Brazil,  speaks Spanish.

The “rail road track” shows the progress of the ship through the bay to get to Cartagena port. The ” big chica” can be clearly seen, it has now been sealed off from the sea by a small cause way as it had silted up too much.

The Zuiderdam was the first cruise ship in today, followed by the Norwegian Star and the Mein Schiff 6. The Mein Schiff 6 is a sister of the Mein Schiff 5 and 4 and the company TUI has decided that most people only remember the brand and not the ships name and thus they went for numbers. Not the first one to do so, maybe you still remember Renaissance cruises, they did the same thing and numbered their ships from 1 to 8 (or officially R one  to R eight) Most of those ships are now sailing for Azamara cruises and Oceania Cruises where they have been given more regular names.  As the oil is quite cheap here, most ships that stay for a longer period top up with fuel here. We used to do this as well but less frequent now, as the bunker barge was seldom capable of delivering the pumping speed needed to get the fuel on board before the sailing time of the ship.

Three mooring buoys have now been installed and we used the middle one for our stern ropes.

We were docked today at berth 5, which until not too long ago was only used for smaller cargo ships or very small cruise ships. But with the cruise ships getting bigger and bigger and more and more of them being around, Cartagena had to increase the number of cruise ship docks and has done so by adding mooring buoys. Then the smallest of all the cruise ships coming in, will go to dock 5. Believe it or not the Zuiderdam with her 86000 tons is now one of the smaller ships. I do not like mooring buoys very much. They are a cheap (for the port) and a safe way for docking a ship. But for us it makes it difficult to dock the ship with the nose out as there is now no pier to land the most forward gangway.

Today leaving on time was even more important as wind and swell was building up outside. And although following wind and seas were forecasted, you never know if that will help the ship or slow it down. So as soon as all the guests were on board, we raced out of the inner bay and via the Boca Chica back to open waters.

The forecast for 20.00 hrs. tonight. The greenish yellow bit  14 to 18 feet of swell will catch up with us and we will have a lively ship tonight.

There we were greeted by rolling waves with white caps and the wind breezing up to 35 knots on occasion. The swell was on the sb. quarter and that meant that all the guests could enjoy this cork screw motion again. The ship would roll a bit to one side, then the stern would lift up, pushing the ship forward and then the ship would roll sedately to the other side. The stabilizers are then trying very hard to keep the ship from rolling but every time the gyro compass sends a correcting signal to the fins, this lift up and push forward happens and that completely confuses the gyroscope. So we will now “corkscrew” all the way to the Colon Sea buoy.  There it should get a bit better as the elbow of Panama, that big of land sticking out to the north, shelters the anchorage area of Colon somewhat.

Subject to extremely much change, the plan is for tomorrow:

0500 at the sea buoy

06.30 entering the first lock of the three

08.15 exiting the last of the three locks

09.00 Start tender service to land the overland tour

11.00 turn around and get out of the Gatun Lake again via the locks

16.00 Being docked at Colon 2000, the cruise terminal at the south side of Colon.

Weather for tomorrow: Warm and humid with an un-expected downpour to be expected.

12 Feb. 2018; At Sea.

February 12, 2018 / / 1 Comment

Our course line around the top of Colombia. (Chartlet courtesy: www. worldatlas.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left Curacao just before 11 pm. last night and set sail for Cartagena Colombia where we will make a morning stop, tomorrow. Venezuela and Colombia are not small countries and as we also have to sail south along the west coast of Colombia to the Cartagena pilot station, the captain has to keep the pedal to the metal to get there on time. Luckily we have a strong wind in the back and that can easily help with the speed. Except ……….we are sailing as fast as the wind is blowing so the netto effect is zero. But at least it is not blowing against us and it gives a quiet / near wind still situation on the deck. Later today the wind is supposed to breeze up a little bit more and then we will get a little push free of charge.  We always have the wind here in the stern as there is, with normal weather, a super charged Trade Wind blowing. Which only loses its velocity when coming close to Panama. We will keep this wind until we are inside the Boca Chica, the start of the inland lake area where the port of Cartagena is located. Then we are surrounded on all sides by land and that often reduces the wind greatly. And as I have now mentioned a few times in the last few days, cruise ship captains do not like wind as it can blow their ship – read hotel – all over the place.

This morning at 08.00 hrs. we crossed the border between Venezuela and Colombia and as soon as we were over it, Dolphins popped up. It was quite remarkable. Nothing on the Venezuelan side and lots of them on the Colombian side. We will now keep an eye out during the next cruise to see if this pattern continues or if it was just a fluke.

The Adriaan Gips Barometer. A standard design made in the beginning of the 19th. century in Amsterdam. Estimated value around 10,000 euro.

I am always happy to answer comments on my blog, so here we go with two that came in recently. One what is the status with the Barometer? As you might remember last year while I was on the Maasdam I went to visit a dear old lady near Boston who was family of one our Directors from our glorious past, Adriaan Gips. Family lore had it that he received an old (200 years by now) barometer as a retirement present or something similar. Could I do some digging???.  Well, we are still digging (I say we, as most of it is all done by hobby friends who have much more knowledge than I have) and we have not found any connection yet. There are no farewell speeches in the archives, no mention anywhere about Gips and a Barometer. At the moment our most educated guess is, that it has been in the Gips family for a long time because they had a shipyard in the Dutch town of Dordrecht and it is a ships wall barometer. We are still trying to find a link to the 2nd world war and Gips, as the war archives of HAL have recently been made available but thus far we have not found anything. So the search goes on.

 

 

 

Then one reader confirmed that he had also seen green car carriers with opera names, such as Rigoletto, Carmen, etc. etc. There is a bit more to the story. Mr. Wallenius loved opera, so his ships all had opera names. His biggest competitor was Mr. Wilhelmsen, whose ships were red and all their names started with a T. Too much competition is not good for anybody so they decided to merge but keep their own identity.

The Don Quijote owned by the Wallenius part of the company.

The new company was called Wallenius-Wilhelmsen, which was possible as the ships hulls were big enough to take all those letters.  When you make a Panama Canal cruise and you see car carriers, then they are most of the time either red or green and they do belong to the same company. I have always wondered if one ship would get the name Tosca, if they would paint it in Red AND Green.

The Tijuca owned by the Wilhelmsen part of the company.

The reason for the T is that the first ship that made a profit for the Wilhelmsen Company back in 1887 had a T name. So it brought good luck and they stuck to the T since then.
I love to see those things in the current age of branding. So stick to your traditions and in the end it forms a brand itself, in the same way as Holland America has been DAMMED ever since 1873. The day the company will call a ship the HAL Holland or something will be the day that I will jump over board. But I do not think that that will happen.

So tomorrow we are in Cartagena and according to the weather guru’s it is not supposed to rain. But as they have been wrong with the wind lately, I will wait and see what we get when we get there.

11 Feb. 2018; Willemstad , Curacao.

February 11, 2018 / / 2 Comments

Happy faces all around on the bridge this morning; the wind had dropped below 15 knots and that gave no headaches for getting into Willemstad. If we are the only ship a Vista Class size will dock at the Mega Pier 1 or 2, outside of the port. But today there was also the Costa Magica and the Norwegian Dawn in and they are bigger so they went to the mega piers. Better for the blood pressure of the captain, less good for the guests as it is a much longer distance to walk to the town. A Vista Class size ship is about the maximum size ship that can go safely into the entrance and dock downtown. But as the cruise ships nowadays tower above the port and the houses, they also catch all the wind, and in the entrance there is not much room to drift. So there is a maximum wind you can allow for when going in.

The red line is the optimum way in. You can see that we stayed almost perfectly on the line coming in. So the counter course against the current was good. Then almost at the dock, the ship was stopped with the bow heading towards the middle of the bay, and then the ship was moved over to the dock. The little dots on the lower left are the indications for the pontoon bridge, but we did not sail through them, the bridge opened on time.

Willemstad is a difficult port to start with anyway as there is normally a strong current running from East to West right under the entrance to the port which is called the St. Anna Baai. The deep water port behind it is called the Schotte Gat. Nice Dutch names. So you cannot sail under a straight line into it, you have to adjust for the set of the current. Today the current was not that strong but I have seen instances of up to 3 knots and then even the local pilots get nervous. But today the wind was reasonable and the current was reasonable and the Zuiderdam made it from pilot station to the dock within 10 minutes. If you have planned right, it is straight in, a course change to starboard, put the brakes on and go alongside. The challenge is not to hit anything while going in.

And there is always a lot of stuff around. Yachts and suppliers docked on the East side and on the West side there is the pontoon bridge which has to be opened to let ships in and out. The whole bridge is moved to one side and it makes the entrance somewhat smaller again. We cannot turn here. The bridge over the St.Anna Baai is too low for our class ship so tonight we will back out of the port as fast as possible. To counter act for the current we will go almost over to the East Side and then give full astern power and build up speed to about six knots. The faster we go, the less  grip the current will get on the ship and the more clearance we will have left when the bow is moving out of the entrance as the last part of the ship.

If this Koningin Juliana Bridge had not been there, we would have had a plan B; could have sailed all the way into the inner harbor, swing around there and come out again. But life is never perfect and as cars are not allowed on the pontoon bridge, they built this one.  The ship seen under the bridge is a supply vessel for the oil rigs off the Venezuelan coast.

Because we cannot sail pass the dock here, due to the bridge, the captain does not really have a plan B. In Aruba yesterday we could go up to 35 knots and if it had not worked, we would have sailed out of the port again via the exit to the East. This plan B does not work in Willemstad so it has to work whatever your plans is and that means that the window of opportunity is a lot smaller as you can only do it with not too much wind.

Not that this bothered any of the guests. They all streamed out of the ship, walked over the Pontoon bridge right behind us straight into downtown. The unfortunate part was that there they found another 6000 eager shoppers from the two other ships. Most of our guests are repeaters, who have already been here before have bought the T shirt, and thus were back on board by lunch time. Willemstad is also a nice place to look at from the ship with all the brightly colored houses. I do not believe that there is any restriction on the choice of color, although a pilot told me last year that the local council frowned upon the use of florescent pink.

The colorful world of Willemstad. This is Punta, the main down town area. Then to the right we have the Koningin Emma pontoon bridge which leads to Otrabanda where the Zuiderdam is docked. That area is as colorful and was really re-developed with the money that the cruise business pumps into the Islands.

Tomorrow we are at sea; sailing north of Venezuela and later north of Colombia on our way to Cartagena. We will have wind and swell behind us so it should be pleasant on the deck. But we might have a bit of movement (every ship has the same problem in this part of the world) as the swell will catch the stern on the sb. quarter and that can result in a sort of corkscrew motion. And the stabilizers cannot do much about it as it is not really a rolling movement.

10 Feb. 2018; Caribbean Sea / Oranjestad Aruba.

February 10, 2018 / / 2 Comments

We were not really hamper campers today as far as the weather was concerned. It had looked so good since HMC and then Mother Nature decided to flex her muscles last night and the wind started to whip up to 40 knots. Courtesy of a weather front building up in the East Carib. 40 knots, that is Gale force winds, although you do not really connect it to bad weather as the sun was happily shining and the ship was not moving that much. And as it was partly on the portside it did not affect the speed that much either, so we were still making Aruba on time. But would we get in? That was the million dollar question.  Vista Class ships can handle winds up to 30 knots on the beam without any problem. When it goes over and there is a tugboat available it goes up to 35 knots but beyond that it goes a little bit out of the comfort zone.

Thus the closer we came, the more often the Bridge Officers called Port Control to find out what the wind was doing. Just before noon time came the good news that the wind had dropped a little bit, went down to 29 knots with a gust up to 33 knots on occasion but not more. So we were in business. On top of that the wind shifted just a little bit more to the East and thus more towards the bow causing less drift than expected and that made it our lucky day. By 13.00 hrs. over a 1000 guests disembarked in under 30 minutes all eager to invade the island and the shops.

We were not alone in port today; next to us was the Freewinds which I still find amazing to look at it, as it was the first real Caribbean cruise ship. The ship that caused the industry to start and grow to what we now know it to be. In 1968 she was called The Boheme, owned by Wallinius and sailed cruises from Miami to Nassau taking cars on board if wanted. That caused basically the creation of cruise companies such as Royal Caribbean and Carnival.  Wallinius stepped out of the cruise industry as they were and still are basically a car carrier company. Nice thing about it is that the owner in those days was a real Opera Buff and named all his ships after Opera’s or persons related to Opera’s. Hence The Boheme. That is still going on in the current day and if you see a green car carrier then it will have an Opera name.

The Royal Netherlands Navy vessel Van Speijk.

Further down was a Dutch Royal Navy vessel, the Van Speijk.  This is a multipurpose Frigate and currently in use to catch drug smugglers coming up from the South American continent. Not so long ago they had a catch of over a 1000 pounds of pure cocaine. In street value it would have made enough to have turned all the crew into millionaires. The ship is named after a Dutch Navy man Jan van Speijk who during the Belgian revolution, when the southern Netherlands split from the northern Netherlands, blew himself and his ship up than let it not fall in the hands of the separatists. The Dutch King of the time then decreed that from then on there would always be a ship in service named Van Speijk.  They were docked at the old container terminal and conveniently just across from the local Fancy Fair or Kermis in the Dutch language.

The local fancy fair in Oranjestad Aruba.

In the course of the evening the wind started to die down as it often does in the Carib after sun set and that gave a very nice view while sitting on the deck and watching the sun set. Tonight we will sail at 23.00 to go just around the corner to Curacao; a maximum distance of about 60 miles. There we will be docked by 08.00 hrs. and we are supposed to go inside and dock on the west side of the Schottegate. For that we need less wind than we had today as the wind will be full on the beam when going in. But the weather system should pass through tonight and that means for tomorrow a lot less wind but maybe a rainy day. Not so good for our guests but I do not think that the locals will complain too much.

Sunset at Sea. The photo could have come straight out of a Holland America Cruise brochure. Courtesy:  ms Zuiderdam 2nd officer Jasper van Stratum.

09 Feb. 2018; At Sea.

February 9, 2018 / / 2 Comments

Today we had the first of one and half sea days to cover the distance between Half Moon Cay and Oranjestad in Aruba. Early this morning we sailed into the Windward Passage, the gap between the East point of Cuba and the West point of Hispaniola, or in the same way, between Cabo Maisi and Haiti. Then by noon time we cleared the Haitian coast and entered the Caribbean Sea.  There was a lot of cloudiness obscuring the sun this morning and that spoiled the sail by near Haiti a little bit. If the sun can casts its rays un-obstructed into the sea then in this area you can see the sea bottom very clearly.

The view of Haiti from the ship. this is near the south west point which is called Cape Tiburon.

Sometimes to such an extent that it worries the guests who think that we are in very shallow waters. But we stay about 4 miles off the coast and the water is at least 60 to 100 feet deep under the keel on the route that we follow. But as the water is so clear and the bottom consists out of fine white sand, you can see the sandy sea bottom well over 60 feet down.  I always tell guests who are asking about stabilizers on a day like this, to look over the side near lifeboat 7 and 8 when we are in this area, and then they can see them in operation. Not very exciting as it just looks like a stubby air plane wing painted in a red color. By they do their job and that is what it is all about.

I mentioned that the weather in Carib has been very boisterous in the last few days and although it has quieted considerably, the seas are still a bit confused. For a while a North Westerly wind had been blowing around here and now the regular trade wind is returning and is blowing the other way. Which causes the waves to come from two directions and result in a short wave / choppy sea.

Our route into the Caribbean. The density of the arrows give the strength of the current. Problem is that it is never the same so you cannot rely on a diagram like this to get it completely right.

For this run, the captain really has to calculate the miles and the most advantageous courses to steer as we come across some opposite winds and currents. While sailing down from Half Moon Cay we have a small current against us, then before we enter the Windward Passage we get it on the beam and then when entering the Passage we can get up to 2 knots with us and sometimes a push from the wind as well.

Then while sailing off the Haitian coast there is nothing, but once we are clear we get the N.E current in the open Caribbean Sea generated by the Trade Winds. That current is in the beginning sort of with us and then later sort of against us as we are sailing on a South Easterly course. The art of navigating is to figure out roughly (Navigation is an art, not a pure science as we are dealing with the ever changing behavior of Mother Nature) what to expect in current velocity with us and against us and see if we can offset the one against each other. It is always satisfying to arrive at Aruba and to see that the ship had been able to maintain the average speed needed without having to change the engine configuration to catch up and to avoid being late.

So going from HMC until this evening we went faster than we needed on the average, but tonight we might go a little bit too slow, then late tomorrow morning we will pick up some current again and that altogether should bring us exactly on time at the Oranjestad Pilot station, by noon time. Sometimes Mother Nature is not predictable and then we have to adjust. Sometimes we go too fast (That is a bonus, as we save fuel) sometimes we go too slow and we have to give the ship an extra kick on the engines to compensate.

But with average weather and average sea conditions it quite often works out the way it is planned.

Tomorrow we have half a day at sea, and if the weather does what it is supposed to do (follow the weather forecast) then we should have a regular Caribbean Sea day. With the Trade wind blowing over the port bow and a regular low swell coming from the East. But whatever the weather, it will be warm. Even the rain if it falls.

08 Feb 2018; Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

February 8, 2018 / / 1 Comment

Half Moon Cay or Little San Salvador Island lays sheltered between other Bahamian Islands.

Today the ship and thus all of us, spent the day at Half Moon Cay. We had a glorious day with partly cloudy skies and a gentle breeze. Perfect weather for a day at the beach…….. as long as you remember sun block 35. By late afternoon it became apparent that not all our guests had remembered that, most likely due to the cool breeze which made if feel a lot less “hot” than it was.  They might remember Half Moon Cay for a few days to come.

It is tight run to get to Half Moon Cay on time from Fort Lauderdale, requiring a 19 knot average speed. It was even more tight than normal as we left later than scheduled as by departure time yesterday, we still had 26 unknown guests outstanding. Unknown means in this case, we did not know where they were as they were coming with their own transport so we could not keep track of them. We always wait if we can and we have the golden rule that if there are more than 10 outstanding, then we take the risk of maybe being a little bit late in the next port. So we sailed 40 minutes later and most of the “unknowns” had shown up by that time. And we just arrived on time at Half Moon Cay.

Holland America purchased a never ending lease for the larger part of Little San Salvador in 1996 and renamed it Half Moon Cay after the sailing ship of Henry Hudson (The Haelve Maen = Half Moon) which until recently was part of the company logo.  Through the years the company has developed the area along the curved beach on the west side, keeping the rest of the island as a nature reserve. That is why there are no activities at the inner lake; we leave that to the local birdies.

The port of Half Moon Cay, with the various boats that support the operations here.

So we arrived right just on time and dropped the hook in 10 meter deep water which left about 3 meters of clearance under the keel. More than enough water to float on. The water is so crystal clear here that we could see the anchor chain running all the way over the sea bottom. We had today about 1000 feet of chain in the water with the anchor itself hooked into the white sand bank in front of the port. Nice and safe and ship stayed where we parked it.

The main square is the first place you see when coming off the ship. It is surrounded by shops, The First Aid post and the Rum Runner Bar. The First Aid post seen here right across the square is manned by the ships medical officers.

We were the only ship in today and that meant we had the sole use of the shore tenders and that made transportation very easy. A few runs with the big tenders and the whole ship was empty. As all the facilities are running on the island, regardless of how many people there are on the island, the 1850 we brought ashore this time, had ample space and there were no lines. The island can easily handle 5000+ guests, which was put to the test some time ago when 2 Carnival Mega Liners called here on the same day. Carnival can use our island but only if there are no HAL ships. You will never see a HAL ship and a Carnival ship together. We do have sometimes two HAL ships at the anchorage together but as all our ships are medium size it is still not very crowded. (Except maybe at the Captain Morgan’s Bar, as drinking room there is somewhat limited as the bar is located inside the hull of an old sailing ship)

Returning to the ship by shore tender after a great day ashore.

All food and drink is supplied by the ship itself; it goes ashore in the morning with a specialized boat called the Half Moon Clipper and on departure the left overs (very little) come back to the ship. Apart from some of the shops and the local sports activities, everything, including all the food and drink outlets are run by our own crew. Thus at the barbeque house you will see the same smiling faces as you see in the Lido every day. Still guests get confused sometimes and the remark of the day was: As I had free lunch here on the island can I still go back and have a free lunch on board????

On days like this you wish that you could stay overnight here with the ship. A night under the stars must be wonderful on the beach.  But more ports are calling and so we had to leave at 15.00 hrs. to maintain the schedule and to arrive in Oranjestad, Aruba on time. And there we stay late in the evening so the guests can stay ashore longer.

We will sail this evening south through the Bahama Islands and then tomorrow morning dive into the Caribbean Sea by sailing through the Windward Passage. Weather at the moment looks good with little chance of turbulence.

I found this Panorama view on the Wikipedia post of HMC. My thanks to the unknown maker. You can see Captain Morgans ship and bar prominently over looking the beach,

07 Feb. 2018; Fort Lauderdale, USA.

February 7, 2018 / / 2 Comments

Today real life re-surfaced as I rejoined to fleet. I will travel around again for the next three months, and if nothing changes, then I will be on the Zuiderdam, Veendam, Eurodam and Rotterdam. The first ship in the row is the Zuiderdam and here we are now. Although I went on vacation in the last week of November it looks as I have not been away at all, especially as most of my vacation was taken up by doing work for the apartment building I live in. An apartment building is not much different than a ship apart from the fact that it does not move. My years as Chief Officer / Staff Captain on the ships gave me some maintenance and management skills which are still handy for this sort of work.

A circle Western Caribbean Cruise which the HAL calls a Sunfarer Cruise

The good ship Zuiderdam is currently engaged in 10 and 11 day Caribbean cruises and this afternoon we started an 11 day cruise which will take us from Fort Lauderdale via Half Moon Cay, to Willemstad, Cartagena, in & out the Panama Canal, Puerto Limon, and back to Fort Lauderdale. This is a nice mixture of ports and sea days and as there are a lot of guests who have figured out that 6 ports in 7 days is not really a vacation and sea days are a lot of fun as well: the ship is fully booked.

The Zuiderdam is under the able command of Captain Bart Vaartjes and his bio is on the blog under the Tab, current captains and their schedules.  For those who are interested I have also just added the Bio of Captain Colm Ryan, currently Master of the ms Veendam. He was one of the captains who was on loan to P&O Australia when we handed over the Statendam and the Ryndam.

This time I am on board the ship to help prepare for one of the audits that all our ships have to go through and hopefully the younger officers will have some benefit of the experience that I will bring with me. The Zuiderdam recently went  through the upgrade which brought the Music Walk on board and also moved the Shore Excursion office to the Crows nest. These upgrades are taking place all over the fleet but they are not all the same for all the ships in each class.  On the Westerdam they have taken out the Atrium staircase and installed the Rijksmuseum experience with paintings and books but here on the Zuiderdam the staircase has remained and a sitting area with internet has been created where the Shore Office once was.  Time will tell what the guests prefer when they start comparing the various Vista Class ships.

While on vacation I have not neglected my historical work and I have been a little bit involved with a big exhibition which is coming in the town of Veendam about the four Veendam’s and the businessman who paid for the first Veendam, Mr. W.A. Scholten. The company named the 3rd new build in 1874 after him and when it was decided that all our ships should have a DAM name, the company named a ship after his hometown Veendam. I will explain some more about that in the coming weeks.  Also there was the yearly lecture (my own State of the Union) for the ships hosts on board the ss Rotterdam.  As you might know the ss Rotterdam V is now a hotel in Rotterdam and there are over 200 volunteers (Many of them have themselves sailed on the ship) who guide guests and visitors around and answer questions. As I researched the ships history quite deeply in the years that I sailed on her, there is always something new to tell, something that the hosts can then use again in their conversations with the visitors on the ship and those who stay as hotel guests.

The first newbuild of Holland America after it became a public company in 1873

Now we are on our way to our first port of call, Half Moon Cay, and if my ships schedule is correct, we will be the only ship there tomorrow. Thus far the weather in the Carib has been quite horrible with lots of wind and rain but from today on-wards it is supposed to improve and the crew is looking quite forward to some nice weather. I have fully taken credited for that, as the weather improved the moment I landed on American soil……………..

Weather for tomorrow in Half Moon Cay: very light winds, partly cloudy and temperatures at noon of 81oF or 27oC.

16 Dec. 2017. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

December 16, 2017 / / 6 Comments

As usual all the Holland America Ships will be celebrating Christmas guests and crew alike. Where ever they are in the world, all of them at their local time. So the Noordam will be well ahead of the Caribbean ships.

In this case I would to share with you a bit of nostalgia from the good old days.  The old ss Rotterdam, Grand Dame of the Seas, is now a Hotel ship in Rotterdam. And for the first time she has been decked out (and even better) in the way we would have painted best wishes on her decks and raised the Christmas star.  The hotel company which now owns her, has a keen understanding of the importance of maintaining maritime tradition and has now agreed to resurrect the routines we as crew on board followed in the days before 1997.  Ex crew of the ship now, volunteering as hosts on board, showed the old photos and it worked

Happy holidays and a prosperous and blessed 2018, from me and Lesley.

I hope you will enjoy the photos.

Christmas flood lights on the bow.  The pole in front of the name, is the top of the Radarmast, which was taken down in 1980 so she could sail under Seymour Narrows power lines. I brought the mast back to Rotterdam in 2007 with the ms Veendam.

The colored flood lights are an addition by the volunteers as the ship would be in the dark when sailing, so the navigators could keep a good look out.

The Christstar has now returned. This frame would each year be repaired by the engineers and the electricians and then hoisted on the day the Christmas cruise started. (And checked every morning to see if it was still there and not blown away during the night.

20 November 2017; At Sea.

November 21, 2017 / / 17 Comments

A quiet and sunny day at sea today; that is what everybody needed after hopping 4 ports in a row. The weather was true to form and we had a perfect cruise day to enjoy. Also the bridge team were happy as the expected current along the coast came through and pushed us along with 0.5 knots every hour free of charge. On 32 hours sailing that is at least 16 miles free of charge or a one hour sailing free. If the ship burn 90 tons of fuel every 24 hours then we are looking at, at least 3 to 4 tons of fuel saved. That makes the chief engineer happy and every little bit helps as well to keep costs under control. And lower costs will have a positive effect on the ticket price for a cruise.

With very little wind, there were hardly any waves, just a bit of a long low running swell coming from the Pacific Ocean. With a smooth sea surface it makes it a lot easier to spot wild life and we were not disappointed as we saw dolphins and loads of lazy turtles slowly peddling to a destination obviously important to a turtle. They always seem to go a in North Westerly direction as we always see them swimming in line with our course line. Never coming from port to starboard. Maybe they use the current to help them move along or there is somehow nothing of “turtle interest” along the Mexican coast so they simply pass it by.

My day was filled today with clearing up loose ends and to conduct some training’s and drills. Most important of that was a Damage Control drill for the engineers that make up the Damage Control Teams on board as plugging holes and pipes is a technical expertise. In the same way as the deck officers are responsible for lowering lifeboats in an emergency. My challenge is always to make a damage control drill realistic and meaningful. I cannot cut a hole in the hull of the ship and say “plug it” and I cannot put a compartment on board under water either.  So it needs creativity. Sometimes I have the option to build a wall on the outside deck with fire hoses spouting water through holes in the wooden paneling but then I have to block off a deck. And you do not want to do that on a nice day as we had to day. Guests wanted to be out there and so they should.

Smoke / white haze coming out of various openings which will need to be plugged.

This time I built a smoke box and the smoke simulated the ingress of water. The idea remained the same; plug the holes, if no smoke escapes any more than the hull is watertight again. Luckily a cruise ship always has plenty material available to create a mock up and with 3 luggage bins, damage control support wood, tarpaulins and a smoke machine we were in business. How you patch holes is something that you cannot learn from a book. You have the tools, you have the equipment and for the rest it is engineering ingenuity. Today they used a mattress shored up with wood for the big holes and wooden kegs for the small holes and in 30 minutes time it was all patched up and considered safe by the chief engineer.

Installing a Mattress to block the large holes.

Tomorrow we will be in Puerto Vallarta and that will be my last day on the ship. The ship will dock at 08.00 hrs.  and we will be at berth 2.  There is supposed to be a Princess ship coming as well and going to berth 3. Normally berth 1 is the cruise terminal but that is (still) under re-development and thus we are going to berth 2. Much to the satisfaction of the crew as berth 2 is a bit closer to the shopping center across the road while berth 1 is a bit closer to the city side. Berth 3 is the furthest out but benefits from having the buses for shore excursions being parked the closest to the ship. Thus every berth has something to offer and I do not know which is the best one.  We are looking at another good day in Puerto Vallarta. Sunny, warm and not too humid. I think the guests can consider themselves very lucky with this cruise.

The radar chart picture of Puerta Vallarta. Here the ship is docked at berth 3. Today we were at berth 2, close to the shopping center.

From Puerta Vallarta I will fly home via Mexico City and Amsterdam. I have been away from home for nearly 3 months so it is time to go and see “senior management” again.  Also next week I have to attend a training course at our simulator at C-Smart in Almere the Netherlands.  If I get the chance to take some photos then I will post them in due course on the blog.  And then my vacation will start until the first week of February.

If nothing changes, ………….. although it normally does,………………… but if nothing changes , then I will return to the Westerdam for another School Class with new Navigators. But that is all depending on cabin availability, so I might also end up on another ship. Never a dull moment if you work for Holland America.

Time to say thank you to all my readers from the past period. I hope you found my daily blog of interest and maybe even diverting at times. I should be back with the blog after the first week of February. I hope to add some more material to the historical past of the blog but that will depend among other things upon the “honey do” list of my wife and needs of the apartment building I live in. But the first job at home will be to get all the Christmas tree’s out of the loft and install them in the apartment. So from my side: Happy holidays and a prosperous and blessed 2018.

19 November 2017; Huatalco de Santa Cruz, Mexico

November 20, 2017 / / 0 Comments

19 November 2017; Huatalco de Santa Cruz.

To sail from Puerto Chiapas to Huatalco means crossing the Golfo de Tehuantepec. And there you can have this very nasty funnel wind. It seems as if it starts out of nowhere, it does not go anywhere, and it stops as abruptly as it starts but it can reach winds speeds of up to 50 knots or even more. Predicting it is not easy either as it depends on the weather in the Gulf of Mexico. But this time they did predict it and both the pilots in Chiapas and Huatalco were confirming the expected bad weather. So for us the first question was when?

This is what is causing this local wind. Wind being pushed through a small gap in the mountains. (Diagram courtesy: website: The Vane)

A Tehuantepeccer wind is caused by a weather front that drops down from the Gulf of Mexico instead of going up inland. If this happens, then it pushes a high pressure system into the curve of Mexico which on the Caribbean side ends up near the Yucatan Peninsula. The mountain range running down the middle of Mexico keeps that pressure system in the Carib or the Gulf. But there is a tiny gap where the mountains are less high. That tiny gap gives access to the Gulf of Tehuantepec. So the pressure can get through and is pressed into a small gap and thus increases in velocity. On the Pacific side you have the town of Salina Cruz right in the gap and Huatalco and Chiapas on either side. When the wind comes through, it keeps intensifying as it feeds off the warm water until the sheer size of open water lets it disperse.

This is what we do not like. the wind field is fanning out to the West and Huatalco could just be affected by it.

The important part for the sailor is the angle of the vortex of the wind. If it is perpendicular on the coast, then yes we will get a lot of wind while at sea but the ports will not be affected. If the wind blows under an angle into the open sea, then either Huatalco or Chiapas can be affected. Luckily for the guests, it is a land wind so it does not bring much swell that can make the ship rock. So while in Chiapas the bridge kept a close eye on the weather charts that are received every day and it did not look that the wind would start to blow until we were well past the middle of the Gulf. So we could get to Huatalco without too much wind. Once at the pilot station we could then see what would be the wise thing to do.  Go in or stay out, depending if the wind would hit the port or not. And thus the ms Westerdam set sail with high hopes for not having any challenges.

And then the pressure system in the Gulf did not want to drop down so the Tehuantepeccer never started to blow at all. We arrived with flat calm seas and a sunny sky at Huatalco and slipped into the port without any issues and the wind, any wind at all, never materialized. The skies remained sunny, the wind stayed away and luckily it was not that humid either, so we had a very good day here. Our guests did not come back all that hot and bothered from their sightseeing as sometimes can be the case in Mexico. Huatalco is a tourist resort created by the Mexican Government and as part of creating work for the locals also the cruise pier was built, which now is servicing cruise ships nearly every day. Most of the tourists that I see, if they are not coming from the ships, are locals from the nearby larger towns. Huatalco is just the beach front area with the bars and hotels. The inland part is called La Crucecita, close by but on the other side of a small mountain ridge and not visible from the ship and or the resort.

The resort of Huatalco. Two big ships of the Westerdam size fit at the pier and there is room for one ship at the anchorage. Then the ships tenders dock all the way inside the little marina.

We stayed until 18.00 hrs. and then backed out of the bay to head North West to Puerta Vallarta. Tomorrow we are at sea and as we now go from the far south of Mexico to the border of Mexican California, it is a high speed run with an average of 19 knots to maintain. The weather is supposed to hold, with clear skies and smooth seas. So we should be able to see dolphins and turtles.

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