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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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22 May 2017; Halifax, Canada.

May 22, 2017 / / 0 Comments

We left a little late from Bar Harbor as the tours were delayed which is sort of normal. Something to do with traffic somewhere along the route. As a result we just made it on time to Halifax but it took a while to get the gangway lined up (first time of the season) and thus a real avalanche of eager shoppers burst out of the ship once the ship had been cleared. The lone piper who welcomed us into port was drowned out by noise caused by the stampede going down the gangway. I have never seen a ship empty itself out so fast as today. But then it was a gorgeous day with the sun brightly shining, no wind and still having cool temperatures which kept the haze away from spoiling our visibility.

Thus very quickly the large majority of the guests were gone and the rest trickled off the ship shortly after. A good thing as well, as at once controlled mayhem was initiated by means of our weekly fire and boat drill. Regulations are getting tighter and tighter, based on incidents and past experiences and that is reflected year by year in the increase of the intensity of our drills. All very much with my blessing; as in my humble opinion you cannot train enough. And if I could get away with it, then I would have everybody messing around with fire extinguishers and fire hoses and everybody would be proficient in driving and commanding a lifeboat. Maybe in the future that will happen, now crew specializes in certain duties and that works as well but there is always room for improvement.

A ships firefighting team coming around the aft end of Main engine nbr. 5 In real life the smoke would be black from burning fuel but we can not simulate that so we use white stage smoke.

As a result of the regulations and the way they are interpreted, it means that every crewmember has to attend a fire drill each week and each crewmember has to attend a boat drill every month with instruction and exercise. We cannot have all 600 crew of the Maasdam running around with a fire hose so for most of them assembling and getting ready is enough. Thus with every weekly drill we now have the whole crew on the move. And that goes as follows:

  1. We sound the First Stage Emergency alarm because there is an emergency, normally a fire.
  2. This means the firefighting teams assemble and exercise. Today we put engine number 5 “on fire” and drilled all the procedures for extinguishing it again. About 100 people are involved.
  3. The captain gets concerned about how the “if we can extinguish the fire or if we cannot”. He orders to sound the crew alert alarm and all the crew is now on the move. The majority of them report to their assigned stations ready to support the guests. Those with non-specified functions report to the crew mess room and wait for further instructions.
  4. The captain is now getting really concerned and wants everybody at the lifeboat station, just “in the case “. We ring the General Emergency Alarm and simulate that the guests have already reported to their lifeboat stations and now the crew can follow. The crew in the ship gets dismissed by groups and starts to appear on deck. The more critical the function is, the longer they have to stay where they are. So the firefighters are normally the last ones to appear on deck.

If things go so far that we have to abandon ship, then the sequence continues with announcements over the outside P.A system as everybody is on deck anyway. Guests are sent away in the lifeboats and the crew follows in the life rafts. The last person to leave is the Captain who will only leave the ship when he absolutely sure it will not survive.

Not all the crew has to stay on deck for this whole procedure, as soon as everybody has been accounted for, 75% is dismissed and the remaining 25% get their monthly training. So during the required monthly period everybody will be trained, refreshed and kept alert.

While this is going on, vital activities have to continue such as bridge and engine room watches but also preparing for lunch. Thus there is a rota for that crew to get excused for one of the four monthly drills. The whole sequence normally takes 60 to 75 minutes and today we were all quite happy because outside it was such nice weather.

The route from Halifax on the soutside of Nova Scotia to Sydney on the North side of Cape Breton Island. Map courtesy:  www.maps.com.

Tonight we will sail around the northwest corner of Nova Scotia, what is called Cape Breton and then we will be in Sydney by 11.00 hrs. which is located on Cape Breton Island. We are still out running the rain, but it will catch up with us in the late afternoon. Still there is no wind expected and the temperatures should be around 61oF or 16oC which will make it quite pleasant.

21 May 2017; Bar Harbor USA.

May 22, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Bar Harbor has two anchorages for cruise ships. In principle there is more space for more ships but those anchorages are hampered by two problems. A. the tender distance to town is becoming to long to provide a good service B. those areas are currently full of lobster pots so you cannot anchor there without upsetting a lot of people,……. those who own those lobster pots.

But the two anchorages which are officially allocated are normally kept free of lobster pots (sort of…..) the most coveted anchorage is the south anchorage as here you can tender in a straight line from the ship to the dock.  Handy for the officer on the bridge to keep an eye on the tenders and handy for the tender drivers when the visibility gets less as they only have to continue sailing in a straight line. (That line they can see on a plotter which we have in the tenders and mark with GPS constantly the position of the tender. So if you have your first line on the screen, then you can just keep your tender on that line for the next run.

The South Anchorage. It looks nice and wide but the screen does not show all the lobsterpots

The North Anchorage is on the other side of a small island. That island blocks the view of the port and prevents tenders from sailing in a straight line. The officer on the bridge cannot see where the tenders are and the tenders have to sail around the island (and also around a plethora of lobster pots) to get to the shore and to get back to the ship. Thus they only way we can follow the tenders is with the AIS transponders they all have, so we can see them moving over the radar screen. But an AIS transponder always has a certain delay or lag time and that is something we do not like.

Down town tender dock is just behind the little cruise ship.

But we dropped the hook on the south anchorage and stayed there from 0700 to 1500 hrs. during what became a glorious day.  Sunny, not too warm and just a gentle breeze. Outside we had windforce five but the anchorage was really sheltered today.  We had another cruise ship in port, the Independence but she is so small that she could dock right in down town. There are a few of these little cruiseships around and they are small enough to travel up and down the canal and fairways of the USA visiting small ports along the route. But they are also seaworthy enough to stick their bow out into open waters if it is nice weather.

I was on the foc’sle on arrival and departure and had my school classes in between. I like to be at standby’s, as the captain and the staff captain can never get there themselves as they are required on the bridge. Plus it is normally the junior officers who are forward and that gives me the chance to hand over a few tricks of the trade.   Today the topic was mud. We can get highly excited about that, as mud affects the safe anchoring. There is solid mud, soft mud, mixed mud (with shells) and the anchor reacts to it in a different way. Bar Harbor has very thick grey mud with sometimes shells mixed into it.  This means that the anchor flukes do not always dig in very well and then with a bit of wind the ship can cause the anchor to drag and the anchor chain to slide and slither over the sea bottom. If the mud is soft then it clings to the chain and when we go anchor up, we only see a grey thick pipe coming above water with the anchor chain somewhere inside it.

The battle against the mud. There are four 9 bar nozzles in the hawsepipe, a five bar jet of the fire hose and still we lose the battle sometimes.

We do not like all that mud to go into the chain locker and thus we have strong sprays of water in the hawse pipe (where the chain enters the ship) to clean it off. Four 90o degree angled & powerful 9 bar jets on the chain. But for Bar Harbor that is not enough, we need another two fire hoses to clean the rest off. That is a whole organization with winch handlers, sailors with fire hoses, proper regulation of the winch speed and taking advantage of the movement of the ship to use the water flow around the chain and anchor to help even more.

Thick grey mud strong enough to cling to the anchor chain after having been tormented by heavy water jets.

To coordinate this is a sort of balancing act and anticipating what will happen next by keeping in mind how the ship will maneuver. So this afternoon we had the regular 3rd officer forward plus two cadets all eager to learn how to deal with………… mud.

Tonight we will sail towards Halifax and about 8 pm. we will pass Cape Sable the South East point of Nova Scotia on which island Halifax is located. We are supposed to be docked by 09.00 hrs tomorrow morning and then have a full day in port.

Weather: more of the same. Behind us the rain is coming but at the moment we seem to be able to out run it for the whole of tomorrow.

20 May 2017 Boston, USA.

May 22, 2017 / / 1 Comment

My little operation came in action yesterday and I spent most of the day behind the computer preparing for two training courses the ship has asked me to give. Apart from hammering on the keyboard it also meant running around and talking to everybody as organizing something on a ship is as if you are trying to solve an equation with at least six unknown factors.  Everything hooks into the other and everything I do should be done in such a way that it does not affect the operation of the ship, not affect the work and rest hours of the crew and also does not interfere with other trainings or exercises which might have been planned by somebody else.  But we are now well organized and scheduled to add 20 more lifeboat certificates and 5 more tender operators to the pool of experienced people on board. At least if they have passed their exams just before I leave the ship on 10 June in Montreal.  And now I am patiently waiting for requests to have my proposed schedules changed again as something has come up here or there. That is life on board, it needs constant adjustment.

We docked by 08.00 in Boston at the Falcon Terminal. Ahead of us was the Veendam and that meant the complete S-class was in port as the Statendam and Ryndam are now sailing from Aussie Land for P&O Australia. Going into Boston has one peculiar thing, the airport. Or better said: the airplane approach path to the airport. The Falcon terminal is a side arm of the main channel leading into Boston and the ship has to make a 90o turn to enter this side arm. Right at the moment when the ship is in the flight path of airplanes descending towards Boston airport.  To avoid scary situations the pilot is normally in contact with the flight tower to check for gaps between approaching air planes so the ship can make the turn towards the dock without upsetting any pilots. Most of the time it works out fine and there is not an airplane to be seen.  But through the years we have had situations when a plane was right above us while we were turning.  If you look up from below to the underside of the plane it is hard to judge distances but at times it looked as if the wheels of the planes almost touched the strings lights between the mast and the funnel.  I wonder what the perspective of the pilot in the cockpit was and if he/she enjoyed flying over a smoking funnel.

During one of the coming calls here in Boston we will have another challenge, the Tall Ships will be in port. That will give two challenges for the ship: a. The roads from the Cruise Terminal to town and from there to the airport will be clogged so for the incoming guests it might take some extra time to reach the ship b; the harbor will be full of Sunday sailors and Six pack navigators all milling around and being in the way. The USCG and the Water Police always try their utmost to keep the route for the large ships clear but it is a challenge. Taking selfie’s with ships in the background is nowadays a very popular activity and a lot of these selfie takers forget that the ship behind them moves. I think that those who will be in charge of keeping order on the waves that day are already having headaches.  But we will see.

From Boston to Bar Harbor is not a long distance, it is just around the corner. And therefore we can arrive early and have the tender service going by 07.00 hrs. That is a time we really have to adhere to in order to get the full day tours off the ship on time. The distance between Bar Harbor and Halifax is a lot longer and if we do not leave Bar Harbor by 15.00 hrs. then it gets very tight to make Halifax on time. In Bar Harbor we will anchor as there is no cruise ship dock. The locals are having discussions about it; either to build a 2 ship finger pier, or to use the ferry pier on the North side of the town or doing something else. But not much has happened yet, while Bar Harbor is becoming more and more popular with cruise ships.  There are only two good anchorages so you cannot keep piling the numbers up.

The weather for tomorrow should be good again, more of the same as we had today. Sunny but still with a cool breeze, so the chance of reduced visibility remains small. And that is a good thing as running a tender service without seeing anything is not much fun.

 

18 May 2017; New York, USA.

May 20, 2017 / / 6 Comments

And thus real life began again. Yours truly arrived last night in the Big Apple and joined the ship today. This time I stayed in a hotel in Jamaica which is part of Queens and thus had an 80 minute taxi trip to make to get to the ship. On normal days that takes about 25 minutes but Queens has a bottle neck where all the roads are coming together to go over the bridge into Manhattan. And today it was a bottle with a very loooooooooong neck. Not that I minded this as I had never travelled the whole length of Queens Boulevard and as New York is a true melting port, there is always lots to see. Plus I can now remove one item from my bucket list and that was travelling over the Queensborough Bridge (Also known as Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge). My experience was thus far limited to the Brooklyn Bridge but my New York Bridge’s experience has now increased by 100%. Next to this bridge are cast iron pillars located for a cable car crossing but I did not see any cable cars so I have the impression that it is not operational.

New York Cruise Terminal just after departure. to the left the Crystal Symphony is just visible.

The good ship ms Maasdam was docked in port together with the Crystal Symphony. This ship was on a port call only stop but the Maasdam also had a partial embarkation today with guests coming on board for the Canadian Maritime cruise. They hopped on board in New York instead of having to travel to Boston. In the Boston we will have a change over again with guests finishing their Trans Canal cruise. The Maasdam is coming from the west coast where it also made a South Pacific cruise. Now it will start a series of cruises to Montreal from Boston and back.

Captain Bas van Dreumel, Master ms Maasdam.

The Master of the vessel is Capt. Bas van Dreumel who until recently was on the ms Nieuw Amsterdam. But he has the same take on the job as I have, you have to rotate ships to stay fresh and so he opted for the change of going from the one but newest ship to the oldest one (excluding the Prinsendam) and also a much smaller ship. But smaller ships have a charm of their own and the Maasdam is making some very nice cruise and varied cruises.

I will be on the Maasdam for three weeks, until June 10 and then transfer to the Noordam. (Subject to very much change as usual) During that period I will conduct a number of trainings, run a complete certification course of Lifeboat attendants and carry out some internal audit work for the Captain. In the coming days I will explain what a Lifeboat attendant course is but it involves messing around with boats big time, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for nice weather.

Today started well, the weather was almost too nice. 97oF with only later in the day a bit of S/E wind picking up. If that continues then I will be a happy camper, but my colleagues on the bridge will not.  Sunshine means very low clouds when in open sea and the whole area from New York to Boston to the St. Lawrence River is prone to a lot of fog if the weather is nice. The combination of warmer Gulf Stream water to the South, cold water to the North and warm air above land can create dense fog, very dense fog.  For the guests normally not much of a problem, unless you bought a cabin right under the whistle, as it normally are burns off in port…………. And then it comes back as soon as the ship returns to open water.

World Trade Centre Area. With to the left the Empire State building just visible.

Today we sailed at 17.00 hrs. from the New York cruise terminal. That departure time being important as it is slack water at this time. I always call that “theoretical” slack water, as the time of real slack water seldom is the same as the real moment. But you try to arrive and leave as much as possible on the slack tide when the current is zero or almost zero as otherwise it is a lot more difficult to avoid bumping into the piers located on both sides of the ship.  Today we sailed at slack tide but even then the ship had drifted considerably by the time it was in the middle of the Hudson River where it could swing to the south and head for open sea.

Tomorrow we have a sea day and the weather looks good and if it warms up quick enough, then we should have good visibility and see some wild life. There are normally lots of whales in this area.

Note: the blog still has some challenges so the coming posts will be without photos until this has been corrected.

02 May 2017; Back in Business.

May 2, 2017 / / 7 Comments

Over the past weekend the Holland America Blog was successfully revamped and transferred to a new server.  Apologies for the delay of what was supposed to be only a few days of disruption. But if a P.C can sometimes have challenges on a small scale, a web setup can have bigger ones on a more industrial scale I suppose.

I stopped blogging at the end of my Zuiderdam period and because of the transfer I could not do anything during my period on the Westerdam.  Most of that period consisted of a crossing from Ft. Lauderdale to Europe and then a number of Mediterranean ports before the cruise ended in Civittavecchia. I then went home and the Westerdam went into dry dock for a regular check up but also for a major revamp of the public rooms and the addition of some guest cabins on deck 10. As a result the ship is now similar to the Oosterdam which was the one but last of the Vista Class to go through the upgrade dry dock. The Westerdam is now the last one of the Vista Class that received the regular upgrades but also the best of the Koningsdam upgrades that were also rolled out earlier on the Oosterdam and Eurodam. This includes the Gallery Bar (ex Northern Lights Disco), the Billboard on Board (located on the starboard side by taking part of the Casino away) and a new feature, a small museum with Dutch Art sponsored by the Rijksmuseum from Amsterdam.    It is located opposite the Front Office on Main deck where once the Shorex office was. The shore excursion office has been moved to the Crows nest as part of the companies re-focussing on the combination of enjoyable cruising and cultural immersion at the same time.

The latest group of navigators to join Holland America Line

My activities on the crossing consisted of training a new group of Navigators who had joined Holland America in the previous weeks.  5 gentlemen (Dutch & Rumanian) and one Lady from Canada. The latter had sailed on the Canadian Coastal vessels and made about 20 cruises with her family on Holland America Line ships. Now she learned the other side of cruising and soon found out that there is a lot of hard work going on behind the glamour. By the time they made it to Civitavecchia , they were all well aware of what it takes to be a Holland America Line Officer  and can now walk onto their first ship with enough confidence to fit right into the bridge teams.

Thus I went home on April 13 as the presence of an extra captain during a dry dock only confuses the issue. I am now enjoying a month of vacation and then it is time for the ships sailing from Canada. I will update my schedule-tab as well but this is the plan for the near future………….. as usual subject to very much change.

18 May – 03 June ms Maasdam, Canadian Maritimes. Boston to Montreal and back.

03 June – 25 June ms Noordam, Vancouver – Seward – Vancouver.

27 June – 23 July ms Zaandam, Vancouver – Seward – Vancouver.

After that I will have another break in the schedule.

In the mean time I am keeping myself constructively occupied by supervising our phase 3 roof maintenance of the apartment building which I live in.

I will be back with the blog on the 18th of May.

28 March 2017; The blog is still in Dry dock.

March 28, 2017 / / 4 Comments

Dear Readers,

My apologies but from a “few days” of the blog being down, it has now gone to more than a week.

The Holland America Line Community Blog site/layout was supposed to  migrate to a new location. All was to be accomplished in a few days but it seems that there is a hiccup somewhere.  Because of this migration I was asked to refrain from making my daily posts. When it has been migrated, then life is supposed to continue as normal.

Cyberspace is beyond my understanding so I just have to wait until the computer gurus have seen the light, or whatever they have to see, to make the migration successful.

I have just transferred from the Zuiderdam to the Westerdam and the plan is to facilitate a school class here for six new navigators. The ship is scheduled to be in Fort Lauderdale on the 30th. of March and I am keeping my fingers crossed that the blog issues will have been resolved by then.

Best regards

Capt. Albert

Watching approx. 18,000 guests & Crew going ashore in Grand Cayman.

 

 

 

20 March 2017; Blog in dry dock.

March 20, 2017 / / 8 Comments

Dear Readers,

The computer gurus and experts who ensure that the Hal community blogs and related publications work and continue to work both night and day are putting the blog in dry dock for an upgrade.

During that period, I will not be able to post, my apologies, but same as a ship needs a new coat of paint once in a while so does the computer business needs to refresh its “electrons”.

I will be transferring to the Westerdam on March 24, so I expect that my next blog will be coming from that ship. You will get your “daily ping” again as soon as they allow me ” back on board”.

Best regards

Capt. Albert

The ms Westerdam.

The ms Westerdam.

 

19 March 2017; Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.

March 19, 2017 / / 2 Comments

The weather today is according to the weather forecast and thus everybody is happy. Very little wind to bother the ships arrival and nice and sunny during the day. At the terminal the temperature was even a few degrees lower than listed and that made for pleasant travel for the guests. Larger numbers always have to wait for the buses / coaches and it is never fun to sit in the roasting sun. Luckily Pier 26, the normal Holland America pier, is quite shaded on the East side. By the time disembarkation is in full swing the sun is still behind the terminal building and does not appear around the corner until well after 11 am. when disembarkation is over. For those coming the other way it is less of an issue and they can go directly into the cool terminal.

The ms Zuiderdam arrived a bit earlier than normal. If we are assigned at berth 21 or at 26 with nobody at 25/24 then the ship normally has the pilot at 06.15 hrs. Then it is docked by 06.45 and ready for business at 07.00hrs. Today the Celebrity Equinox was scheduled for berth 24/25 and thus the Zuiderdam was requested to arrive earlier. It saves sailing past the Equinox if she had come in first. There is enough room to do so but why make things difficult if there is an easy option. Captains like easy options as they are normally safer than difficult options; and so our pilot time brought forward to 05.30 hrs. And we arrived accordingly.

Today was also the changeover between Captain Bart Vaartjes and Captain Wouter van Hoogdalem.  I was asked once in the past if this was a highly complicated and top secret evolution with the doors closed and reams of papers to be signed. None of that at all. The (electronic) paper work is limited to an entry in the ship log denoting that the handover has taken place and that is about it. The only other thing is a handover report in a checklist format. (There would be something wrong if we did not have one) The checklist is a standard form which all captains use, to ensure all pertinent issues are discussed. Then there is normally an attachment with “other items” and those normally have more focus than the regular list as “other” also means out of the usual. And I almost forgot there are about 10 pass words or so to hand over which lock all sorts of electronic devices, to avoid any electrons from escaping.

No and we do not hand over keys anymore either. Even bridge access is by key code.

And no we do not hand over keys anymore either. Even bridge access is by key code.

When two captains are rotating with each other, then a hand over is specified as having to last 4 hours. When nothing untoward has happened or is in the offing then 4 hours is more than sufficient with time to spare for gossip and multiple cups of coffee. If a regular rotation is not the case than we have other regulations. New function, New (class) ship. 14 days. So if a staff captain has been promoted and goes to another class ship that he (*) has been sailing on, then there will be handover of 14 days. If it is a new function, same class, or same function, different class, then there is a one week hand over period. This is also the case for other ranks.

The Zuiderdam is now going on a 10 day cruise, down to the South Caribbean and the Panama Canal. The only difference from the past 11 day cruise is that we will not call at Cartagena but go directly from Willemstad to Panama.

Thus our next call will be Half Moon Cay tomorrow as scheduled and we should make it as the weather is favorable.  A new cold front is already forming, which draws the wind towards the north but at 15 knots it should not be a problem. Temperatures at noon time 75oC or 24oC. with a sunny day, just pleasant for a day at the beach.

(*) sorry to say but we still do not have a female captain. We were all keeping our fingers crossed as we had a female staff captain who was gaining sufficient seniority to approach promotion but she recently decided to go into pilotage in England.  Bummer; now we have to wait a number of years again as the next female officers are all 2nd officers so they have some time to go.

18 March 2017; At Sea.

March 18, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Well the weather did what was forecast and in the course of last night, the wind came down to something more acceptable. 20 knots or so and that is what we are used to in this area. By 08.45 we had past Cabo San Antonio and turned to a North Easterly course and entered the Straits of Florida. Now we are completely at the other side of the weather system and in the other counter flow, and that means we have the 30 knots of wind back. But no rain; the sun is nicely shining and all is well in the world as we expect the wind to die down again in the evening.

Where we are is never simple to describe as human kind with their penchant to give everything a name has also made it a bit of a confusion when it comes to naming the sea in these areas. So when we sailed away from Puerto Limon we were in the Caribbean Sea. But we before we entered the Straits of Florida we first sailed through the Yucatan Channel.  The same happens at the other side of Cuba. You are happily sailing out of the Windward Passage and into the Caribbean Sea but then you suddenly realize that somebody has decided to give that area another name: The Jamaican Channel.   My idea of a channel has always been a fairly narrow passage. A bit like a canal but then without locks. But these channels are not that narrow at all. There is something else wrong as well; scientists have officially decided that it cannot be a channel because it is not long enough. So there you go, but nobody is doing anything about having it changed. So a channel it remains although there are also factions who call it Yucatan Straits but that seems to be wrong as well, as it is not wide enough for that.

The Yucatan Channel named after the Yucatan, parked of Mexico. Somehow Cuba lost out here.

The Yucatan Channel named after the Yucatan peninsula, part of Mexico. Somehow Cuba lost out here in the naming process.

The Yucatan Channel or Yucatan Straits is 135 miles wide and has been recognized as the official connection between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It is the deepest at the Cuban side where the depth reaches down to 9000 feet which certainly helps with getting all the water through.

Although we only talk about the Gulf Stream pushing through there, there is also a Yucatan Current. Scientists have decided that another name was needed because not all the water from the Caribbean Sea flows directly into the Straits of Florida. Some of the water flows into the Gulf of Mexico and creates a circulation there with the water coming from the North American Plateau.  Some of this water curls around the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Campeche, the bay on the west side of the Yucatan Peninsula.

The Yucatan Current average flow. (Diagram courtesy Miami.edu)

The Yucatan Current average flow. (Diagram courtesy Miami.edu)

For sailors it is important to realize that there is a Yucatan Current which goes West, North and East. Simply because Hurricanes tend to follow currents as they feed off them. An extreme example was hurricane Gilbert who did not follow the regular path of going north but travelled over the northern tip of the Yucatan straight in the Gulf of Campeche.  Normally when captains plan for hurricane evasion, they think primarily: will it go left around Cuba or will it go right around Cuba. Travelling straight over Cuba is not nice for the Cubans but no problem for us as we cannot sail over land. Based on that we are looking for a plan to stay clear. But if you would be coming down from New Orleans then it could become more complicated as the approaching hurricane coming towards Cuba could, because of the Yucatan Current, go left, right or straight up.

This is one of the reasons captains have issues with going to New Orleans in the Hurricane season. Due to the 10 hr. trip down the river and then having to sail down the Gulf of Mexico it takes a lot of time to get away from the danger area. Tampa or Key West are much better as you can get within 12 hours to the other side of Florida.  At the moment Holland America is not sailing from New Orleans and thus we do not have to worry about such things.

Who is worrying is the captain. My colleague is going on vacation and wants to make his plane on time, so nothing should stand in his way to get docked on time. He will be relieved by Captain Wouter van Hoogdalem who is the alternating captain for the Zuiderdam and who will be on board for the next three months. Makes me feel old: I had both of them as junior officers on my ship when I was staff captain. But I can still teach them a few things and that makes it feel good again.

Weather for tomorrow: 29oC / 84 oF. mainly sunny and a gentle breeze of 10 knots. What a better way to end  a cruise.

17 March 2017; At Sea.

March 17, 2017 / / 1 Comment

Today we are having our first day at sea and are sailing on a North Westerly course heading towards the Yucatan Channel where the Caribbean Sea meets the Gulf of Mexico. It looks like that we were lucky with our call at Puerto Limon as the weather has turned for the worse. A strong cold front is moving over, bringing lots of rain, lots of wind and only an occasional moment of sunshine. And it is all moving in the direction of Costa Rica and thus the swell will start to increase again and will not make for a happy stay in the port for the ships arriving after us.

We really were in luck yesterday, because the moment we left the port, the heavens opened up over the City and the rain came down in large quantities. To maintain the rain forest, they will need that rain but our cruise guests do not exactly need it, and yesterday they were lucky. But today we have to face the weather and we are ploughing straight into it as well. The ship is making 20 knots, the wind velocity is 35 knots and on the exposed areas the combined relative wind reaches 50+ knots. So if you wanted to feel what a heavy storm feels like you would have to climb on the bow and do “a Titanic”. We do not want that so we keep the bow closed and on the higher decks we have wind screens.

The red arrows indicate the main flow around this weather front.

The red arrows indicate the main flow around this weather front.

It being winter means that cold front after cold front is coming over the area in a sort of washing machine pattern. Bad weather starts off at Cape Haterras where the cold air from the plains meets the warm air from the Gulf Stream. That gives a frontal system which moves to Europe or up to Iceland depending on how the Jet Stream flows.  When that wind flows away, it creates a vacuum and that is filled by air coming from North Mexico into the Gulf of Mexico. That creates a vacuum and that is filled by air following opposite, following the regular Trade Wind route.  On a sort of three day balance the directions move to and from which result in winter days of hot weather in Florida and days of cold weather.

Because things are quite forceful in the North Atlantic there is a strong weather front moving to the North East and thus also a strong counter flow under it. And we are right in the middle of it. The good thing is, we are moving, and our course is going right through it and thus we will emerge eventually at the other side of it. We expect that to happen when we come north of the Yucatan Peninsula which will be late tonight.

The Gulf of Mexivo. The blue red curve right under indicates the edge of the frontal system.

The Gulf of Mexivo. The blue red curve right under, laying over Grand Cayman  indicates the edge of the frontal system. The blue arrows are wind. The word Gale at the mid bottom is the Tehantepec wind which is blowing very strongly at the moment.

That should bring the wind down from 35 knots to about 20 knots. And then for Sunday, when we are in Fort Lauderdale it should come down to 10 knots.  In the meantime the seas which we are in are being pushed up by the winds and that makes the ship move a bit. Not rolling as the wind is nearly on the bow but more shuddering as the ship wants to pitch but does not know how to.  Not that it has any effect on the guests, according to reports received, the bingo was well attended.

Courtesy of both pictures, NOAA.  THANK YOU NOAA WHAT WOULD THE SEAFARING COMMUNITY AROUND NORTH AMERICA  DO WITHOUT YOUR WEBSITES ??

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