It takes two days to sail to our next port of call, Cabo San Lucas, and we have to sail at a fair clip as well. Just over 18 knots to make sure we get there on time. I think a lot of people do not realize how big Mexico really is. Maybe not that wide, but it is long. Especially in Europe the common knowledge is that Mexico is located under the USA; Mexico City has millions of inhabitants, it has lots of Mayan ruins all over the place and some very nice places to go on vacation. But not many people can put a real finger on the fact that it takes quite some time to get from the one end to another.

That gap in the Sierra Madre which is causing all those windy problems.

Last night we had our first Mexican adventure, the Tehuantepeccer wind.  When I checked the weather forecast yesterday afternoon it was unclear if it would happen as the angle in the Gulf of Mexico for the wind there was not completely right but in the late afternoon things shifted just a bit and the wind started to blow through the gap in the Rocky Mountains /Andes called the Sierra Madre range.  Then the question was how much were we going to get? The tehantepec wind can vary in strength from 40 to a 90+ knots, and the closer you are to the coast, the more wind you catch but also the less waves it can whip up.

An example weather chart, clearly showing the outflow of the wind. (Courtesy NOAA.org)

For a captain who wants to keep his ship straight up and do not let it wobble too much, it is worthwhile to try and find out how strong the wind is going to be.  Although you cannot predict with complete accuracy, you can have a fair shot at it. Normally you take the predicted wind for Salina Cruz and then add a knot for each mile you are out in the open, until about 50 miles away. Salina Cruz is a tanker port which sits under that wind gap in the mountains. As it is located below the gap it does not get all the wind. Most of it blows higher up directly into sea.  The Salina Cruz weather forecast gave 25 to 30 knots by evening, we were 20 miles away from the coast and thus we could expect 45 to 50 knots of wind. And that is what we got. The wind topping just 50 knots when we sailed through the middle part.  If well prepared (all tanks on the wind side full and lee side empty) an S class ship can compensate to about 50 knots. And thus we did not list. 20 miles of free wind is not enough to build up strong waves and thus we did not move that much either.  If the list becomes uncomfortable than we can do a bit of zig-zagging and keep the wind under an angle. An Angle in relation to the super structure so the list decreases again. But that costs time and speed and we were lucky last night that the Veendam ballasting capabilities were a full match for the wind.

The 2^nd very important thing was the one hour back last night. We are now on West coast time and ready for San Diego.  Time zones were invented to make sure everybody got a sunrise and sunset at a workable time. At least everybody, except those above & under the polar circles, they get all or nothing.  Because we go in jumps of one hour we never get it completely steady for each day and thus the sun can rise a lot earlier on board than would be expected. With two days at the sea, we had three nights to give this hour and the Captain decided that after all these hot and busy ports it would be nice for everybody to have a lie in so it was done last night.

There is this moment between dark and light which is the sun rise and sun set as the changes from light to dark, the twilight zone. At sea we have several twilight zones. More about that tomorrow.

Neptune has not yet decided to rock the boat, so the weather of today sunny with a slight haze and flat calm waters, with a low swell is set to continue to tomorrow. It was nearly wind still today and thus the ship could produce its own relative wind, giving a gentle breeze blowing over the deck.  A near perfect day for cruising.

The Pacific Ocean remained Pacified and docile today and thus we sailed into Puerto Chiapas without any problems. No rolling and hardly any yawing (ship behaving like a dog’s tail) on the waves who roll under our square stern and then try to lift it up. But because the ship is moving forward, the angle is constantly changing and then the stern starts a sort of cork screw swaying motion.  The quartermasters behind the wheel find it then nearly impossible to keep the course and then the only thing the captain can do is give rudder orders and “catch” the ship by anticipating the next movement. But nothing of those troubles today, it was very quiet at sea and docking was a routine affair.

Today it was my pleasure to create – controlled – havoc in the Hotel department. We had our General Emergency drill this morning —- all crew in action —- and my focus was on the Hotel staff. Two years ago the company restricted our safety setup by re-aligning everybody’s duties so it was much clearer to see who was doing what and who checked on whom. For that propose the organizational influence of the Hotel Staff was increased and the Captain and his bridge team stepped back and only kept overall control. From that moment on, the Hotel Director was organizing all the movements of the crew and guests, once the Master of the Vessel had given the order.

Two of the 10 Ladies and Gents of the Muster Control Support Team who keep track of 1400 guests and 650 crew.

The Hotel Director is now called Muster Control and the front desk Muster Control Support Team. They have to make sure that everybody on board makes it to their lifeboats and liferafts. For that they have a plethora of teams available to help with searching in case people get lost, do not want to report, do not want to participate, or had an accident. Those teams have to be trained and kept on their toes and that is where I come in to stir the pot a little bit.

So what we did today, I parked 5 cadets and 2 officers in the ship, two in cabins, two in public rooms, two in crew area’s and one in a handicapped toilet. Then I just watched to see if a: they would be found, b: what follow up the finding-team would provide and c. most important, would the person who was found end up at the correct lifeboat/life raft station and was this all properly tracked by the Muster Control Support Team.  The objective is to be able to report to the Captain: “everybody accounted for, and all ready to disembark the ship”.

This is the Crew Sweep Team made up of cooks and kitchen helpers. They check/sweep all the crew area’s to ensure nobody has been left behind.

By now my reputation is travelling ahead of me, so the teams were expecting something and were ready to roll. However the handicapped toilet was one they were not expecting. I had put a cadet in there and as soon as the alarm went, he pushed the emergency button which all our toilets have. These buttons are tested once a month and if you push it an alarm goes off in the Front Office. Company routine is then for a Front Desk attendant to grab VHF, grab the AED and go and investigate. This all went according to protocol and then she heard a person hyper ventilating and being very unhappy in general, inside. Next step obtain the Emergency master key from the Hotel Director and open the door. Based on the initial report of the Front desk attendant, Muster Control relayed the message to the Bridge (which we call Command & Control during emergencies) who alerted the medical team. By the time the door was opened, medical was present and “the patient” could be treated. It took less than 4 minutes to have the patient out and cared for. The cadet inside was quite happy as he had five Ladies fussing over him. He was taken by the stretcher team to one of the ships tenders as our medical staff are all assigned to a tender. Tenders will act as a sort of ambulance when all the lifeboats and life rafts are in the water, making it possible to get medical help very quickly to one of the other boats.

All missing peoples were found before the captain was giving the order abandon ship and thus Muster Control reached its objectives. Leaves one Philipinna Lady who is very upset with me as she thought that the person in the toilet was a real emergency as it looked as if he was almost collapsing ………… Well I cannot be blamed for having a cadet who turned out to be a very good actor.

The coming two days we are at sea, sailing along the Mexican coast. From the far south (Puerto Chiapas) to the Far North (Baja California) to reach Cabo San Lucas.  We are expecting sunny weather and our hope is that there is no Tehuantepeccer blowing tonight which might make the ship list.

It was a sweltering day in Corinto and it was a sweltering day today in Puerto Quetzal. Although here we had about 10 knots of wind and that made it a bit more bearable.  Better than yesterday when there was hardly anything at all. We were the only cruise ship in port and thus we occupied the cruise terminal. Much to the relief of the bulkcarrier captains no doubt, who are otherwise kicked out of the port when there are more “Fur coat” boats  coming in. For them time is money as well and thus they do not like to be delayed by sitting at the anchorage for the day. Even more galling must be that those cruise guests who get preference are happily waving at you when they get in, and then even more happily waving at you when they get out of the port again.  So today nobody had reason to be upset.  But then it was Sunday and the people who normally like to be upset, as it gives them something to do, were having the day off or at least having Sunday lunch.

When I tried to raise Port Control to get permission to lower my tender, there was deadly silence. No other ships movement was planned until 3 pm. so they were all having a nice Sunday lunch I suppose. Every ship’s captain knows how that works and in order to avoid somebody getting upset when they return from lunch, the purser normally has a list with requests prepared and then has it signed  (and stamped) by one of the officials coming on board to clear the ship. And once we have a stamp; we are in business.   Puerto Quetzal has even gone one better; they have their own list to make it easier for the cruise ships, so we do not even have to ask. Thus I already had pre permission to lower a boat as long as I strayed no more than 30 meters away from the ship. The local authorities do not want us to get lost in their port. But we normally call in as a courtesy to let them know what we are doing where and when.

And so today four new sailors were introduced into the secrets of operating a tender with two engines, two rudders, and how to use those to come alongside and sail away from the tender platform.  We only had ten knots of wind but an empty tender lays as an egg shell on the water and thus drifts, and that concept takes time to understand. So for the first few attempts I had some deeply concentrated sailors trying to bring the tender alongside and either missing or bumping into the platform.  But once they really believed my phrase “use the wind as your friend” it started to improve by leaps and bounds.  To be continued tomorrow. Then they have to do with only one engine.

Somewhere near the fire, but safe, there is a staging area where everybody meets. Here an engineer is checking if all the gear is properly in place before a team is being send in.

I still have to explain the “un-expected fire drill” of yesterday. It is company policy (and all shipping companies are the same) to stage on a regular basis an un-expected drill. Nobody has already been thinking about it, nobody is mentally prepared, and if it happens at a time when “nobody in their right mind” would do it, then maybe it could be for real. Then we get the adrenaline going and suddenly all the trained routines have to be executed under pressure as “it might be for real”.  It is always difficult to keep things quiet on a ship as it is one big village, and its inhabitants love to gossip, but with me around, the captain has the extra card up his sleeve as I can avoid anybody if needed. A second item we have to train is fires in port. Then 50% of the 4 fire teams might be ashore and then the On Scene Commander has to combine whatever he has available into at least two attack teams. So we combined those two things yesterday and at 14.15 I have everybody having a near heart attack by simulating a fire  in the electric power station of the winches.

8 Minutes from happily having an afternoon snooze to be fully alert and in “full combat gear” approaching the fire is not bad going.

What do we look for: response time, still following the correct procedures and no short cuts, correct announcements and staying on the ball once it becomes clear it is a drill. I was really impressed with the response time, 8 minutes from jumping out of bed, to be fully kitted out and sitting in position behind a hose and a CO2 extinguisher and ready to enter the compartment where the fire is. And behind that attack team all the backup & support teams are in place to make sure everything is done safely. Such a drill does not have to take long, it is about the response and the time needed to surround the fire and once surrounded, getting it out is not so difficult. Thus the whole evolution was over in 20 minutes. So I could give compliments to everybody although it did not mean they were very happy with me but then life is never perfect. The captain made an elaborate announcement afterwards about the why and the when and then also the guests understood the importance of it all. And my apologies for waking those up who had just settled down for a nice nap after all the excitement of Corinto port.

This evening we sail at 19.00 hrs. and then our next port of call is Puerto Chiapas. This can be a nasty place to get into to if there is a high ocean swell running, but at the moment the Pacific Ocean is really peaceful so we should have no issues what so- ever.  Weather for tomorrow; same as today. Chiapas is only 140 miles away from Quetzal and without a mountain ridge in the way, they share the same heatwave.

The docks of Corinto are located on the river and that river ends in the sea south of the town. So the port is nice and sheltered but you first have to get there. The town straddles a sort of peninsula with the sea on one side and the river on the other side. And that sea can be tricky sometimes, if there is a long ocean swell running. Then the main thrust of that swell is under water as the energy amplitude of the wave system continues under water and stays there as long as the water is deep. When the water gets shallower and shallower the wave is “lifted or pushed” up and up and forced to disperse all its energy at the water’s surface. That causes high and short waves and can make a ship roll as a pig in the mud. Except the pig will like it, the people on the ship don’t.  Corinto is approached through a channel with about a mile of very shallow water on each side and that can cause very nasty waves. Sometimes so nasty, that the call at Corinto has to be cancelled.

The Corinto pilot boat: the ms Taiwan. How (un) local can you get??

Yesterday I observed that there was little swell at Punta Arenas due to the calm weather in the North Pacific and today that weather continued and also here there was very little swell. So we were in business, the captain made his safety announcement urging everybody to sit down and in we went. The pilot has a new pilot boat since the last time I was here and this work boat is named Taiwan. Peculiar name for a Spanish speaking country. My hunch is that it must have been a gift from one of the container companies calling here.

The statue of the national poet Ruben Darrio. Why not name the local pilot boat after him ??

When coming in, the ship has to make a sharp turn around an island on which top there is a white lighthouse. Right behind it on a pedestal stands a statue of Ruben Dario. He is the founding father of Nicaragua and the national hero.  It is not often that a poet is considered the man to look up to but here in Corinto it is the case. His name is Ruben Dario and the main elementary school in Corinto is named after him.

I have to use a photo from last year as a big tanker was standing in front of the school. But it still looks the same. The Holland America paint is holding very well.

By 10 am. we were docked in front of a container ship and guests could stream ashore for what turned out to be a very warm day. No wind and no clouds. I followed the stream of guests as I was going to have a look at the school. It being Saturday is was closed of course but the head teacher lives next door so hopefully she was at home.  She was not and I had an awkward conversation with another lady who was very suspicious about me ringing the bell. (Or better said, hollering for attention as there was no bell) Sometimes it pays off to be world famous (at least in Corinto) as suddenly a bright smile appeared on her face as she recognized me from a photo in the sitting room.

This is the cover page of their Face Book page. The school is to the left, nicely in blue and white.

Being world famous in Corinto, means you are also rich and I was directed to the little shop around the corner, where I once bought the corrugated roof plates and was pointed to the dry-erasers again. So I bought them all; $ 52, — covered the whole inventory, and they will get to the head teacher  somehow. Dry erasers seem to be a big issue in Corinto schools. The school is now going in recess as high summer approaches. I could not get in as the keys where with somebody else in charge. But I learned a new thing from her, one of the Statendam crewmembers had put the whole paint thing on You tube at the time. The lady knew but I did not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcGJwTjgMTw

So the little effort by Team Statendam in 2012 still lingers on and is not forgotten by the locals. If we could do it again remains the question as it gets more and more difficult to do things without having to go through a lot of red tape. Not just here but everywhere. If I ever get back here, courtesy of my schedule not changing at the last minute, then I will try for dry erasers again.

Tonight we sail at 18.00 hrs. and then tomorrow we are in Puerto Quetzal.  Weather is going to be hot, sunny and humid again: 89oF / 32oC.  Not good for this poor man as I have to go down in the tender with my sailor class to teach them tender maneuvering. Today I had the whole ship running around because of an un-expected fire drill. More about that tomorrow.

This is a most peculiar place to visit as you have two options. In the good old days, we could only go to Puerto Caldera, which is the cargo port in the province of Punta Arenas. The provincial head town had a small pier as well but not suitable for our activities. So when we docked we had buses and taxis for those who wanted to go to Punta Arenas about 15 minutes down the road. Most guests go on tour in Costa Rica but for those who did not want to go on tour and for those who did not want to go to Punta Arenas there was a big flee market setup in the cargo sheds. Puerto Caldera dock is located behind a nice breakwater and protected from the sea swell for most of the calls and thus very much liked by captains. Happy Taxi drivers, happy vendors, happy captains as the ship lays stable against the dock.

The Veendam docked at Punta Arenas. The tour buses back down all the way from the beginning of the pier as there is no room to turn.

Then a new pier was built so we could dock with our nose straight into Punta Arenas downtown. That created for very happy shops and very unhappy taxi drivers. For the tours it did not matter, all the buses still parked outside the ship. For the captains it was less straight forward. Offering the best location for your guests is something you want to achieve but the new pier had some challenges.

The new pier sticking right into the open waters.

It was not sitting behind a breakwater so the swell ran in freely. This can make the ship bounce and surge along the pier if there is a long ocean swell running; and a moving ship creates problems with the gangway.  The other thing is the current. The pier is right in open waters and up to four knots of current can freely run under it. Four knots of current is not something you can control with your thrusters. Thus you have to synchronize your arrival and departure with the time that the current turns, slack tide. Which is not always at the same time and thus absolutely not in synch with the cruise brochure. Thus sometimes the Captain has to get the ship in much earlier (sail a lot faster than planned, burn a lot more fuel) or come in late and that affects the departure time as the tours still go with the duration.)

Today we were lucky. The turning of the tide was around 06.30 and for a 07.00 hrs. arrival it was just perfect. Departure was less of a problem as the current was going to push the ship away from the dock anyway. And it had been quiet in the Pacific and thus there was only a very low swell rolling in and the ship hardly moved. On top of that it was overcast and it hardly rained; all things came together today.

There are two strong tugboats on location to protect the pier in case the tide is misjudged. Looking over the bow you can see the pilot boat on the buoys observing the current.

What we do when we get there, and to make it alongside; the pilot parks his pilot boat on the nearest buoy and that provides him with information about the moment the current goes down to zero, a bit further out in open waters. The ship is in position about 300 feet from the dock where the current is already so slow it can be kept in position with the thrusters; and the moment the pilot boat gives a cry, the ship starts moving and then  it has a good window of opportunity before the current starts running again.

Punta Arenas. (Courtesy  from somewhere on the internet)

Punta Arenas itself is located on a sort of long and narrow peninsula running along the coast of the main land. Which is one of the reasons there is such a strong current, as the water finds its way around the peninsula to the North side.  In the last few years, no doubt because of all the cruise ship money coming in, the place has been considerably spruced up and a large part of “happy town” from the old days is gone and replaced with an open air theatre.  To my regret the little shop which sold postcards ………… old ones……….. was gone as well and replaced with a T shirt shop. I was a very happy camper a few years ago when I went by taxi to town and found this little place which sold antiques (sort of……………. Let’s say old stuff) but had a lot of old postcards from Panama and San Jose (Capital of Costa Rica). I have never seen an antique shop like that anywhere else in Middle America. But there it was and I made the owner very happy by ensuring a major donation went into his retirement fund. (Maybe that is why the shop is gone)

A postcard which made me very happy. The Nieuw Amsterdam of 1937 in the Panama Canal anytime before 1951.

Tomorrow we are in Corinto, Nicaragua. I hope to visit the school which we sponsored when I was Captain on the Statendam. Last time when I went for a look, they were closed for vacation but the school looked good from the outside. We had left some pails of paint behind and the parents had followed up by turning the school into a wondrous picture of Holland America white and blue.

Weather for tomorrow; As Corinto has less tropical forest than Panama and Costa Rica it is a lot drier. So tomorrow we are back to sunny skies and temperatures around 84oF / 209C. with hardly any wind. It is going to be challenging for some of our guests.

It remained slow going after we left the last locks and by the time we made it to open seas, it remained slow going. It is the time of the year that the Right Whales are in the area. I explained on 16^th or 27 October that we had to be very careful with the Right Whales and because they are spotted in the area of Panama Bay around this time of the year, a slow zone has been ordered. Important to do, and the right thing to do, but being already well delayed it made it even harder to get to Gulfo Dulce on time. I wrote yesterday that by 17.00 hrs. we were back on schedule; yes we were back on the Panama Canal schedule, not on our own planning and sailing schedule.

To make it easily to Gulfo Dulce we need to be at the Panama Canal Sea buoy at around 17.30 and then we have a little bit of leeway in our schedule to take care of the Right Whales. By the time we now made it past the right whales we were running about 3.5 hrs. late. And that meant no call at Golf Dulce. We normally made this an afternoon call and sail in the bay between 2 and 5 pm. Now we would have made it there by 5 pm and the sun was going to set at 18.14. An hour there does not make sense, thus the captain could only decide to forgo Golf Dulce.

For today it did not really matter as the rain was so abundant over the coastline that we most likely would not have seen anything at all. So we stayed at sea and sailed on to Puerto Caldera / Punta Arenas in Costa Rica.  The captain announced the news at 09.45 and then at 10.00 I started with my HAL lecture in the show lounge. So one captain had to bring some bad tidings and the next captain was able to bring some happy tidings and good stories about all the “Dam Ships” from past, present and future. Maybe I made up for missing Golf Dulce.

Our course line will now basically follow the Pacific Coast while we hop from port to port. In the coming days it will be busy for our guests, as day after day we will visit Costa Rica Punta Arenas , Nicaragua Corinto, Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala and then Puerto Chiapas in Mexico. Only then we will get two days at sea to recover before we come to our final port of Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of the Californian Peninsula.

Our first port, Punta Arenas in Costa Rica is located deep in a bay, the Golf de Nicoya. So it will take a considerable time to get there, while the ship has to sail through the local fishing fleet. Then Corinto is located on the banks of a river and also that takes extra time to get there. Only Puerto Quetzal has a short distance between the pilot station and the dock. But there we still arrive early to facilitate the shorex flights to Tikal by plan, and that plane takes off at sunrise, so we have to be docked before.

Early days are coming not only for the Captain and the Ships officers but also for the guests.  Who said cruising was relaxing???????????.  Thus today having a full quiet day at sea, might not have turned out that badly.  Looking at the rain from behind a ships window is a great way to relax and several locations of gentle snoring were prevalent on the outside decks and in the lounges. So guests were exactly doing that.

The day was Sept. 7 1939 and the ss Nieuw Amsterdam was on its way from NY. to Europe. The occasion is not known.

One thing I would like to share today are a few photos which were given to me by a Lady whose father in law worked on the ss Nieuw Amsterdam in 1939. Also in those days the crew knew how to enjoy themselves with a good fancy dress party. What is special this time, the lady still had the 1920’s bath costume including head dress in her possession and brought it on board to show it. She certainly found in me a very interested audience.

The most amazing thing after 77 years the costume was still in the family and in good quality. Although I think the costume is much older, most likely from the 1920’s. Which would make it nearly a 100 years old.

Tomorrow we are in Punta Arenas, at least for the moment this port is on the schedule according to the Captain. We have to arrive there by slack tide which this time is at the very convenient time of 06.30 in the morning.  Weather?:  maybe rain, maybe sunshine, it will all depend on which way the wind is blowing the clouds.

And thus we arrived at the breakwaters of Cristobal at 05.00 hrs. and then nothing happened. Same for the Zuiderdam; they had arrived even earlier and nothing happened for them either. For some reason the planned convoy scheduling had gone awry and the cruise ships kept being put back.

The ms Zuiderdam one lock ahead of us. She was going into Gatun lake and then back for a call at Cristobal/colon

Thus it was not until 07.30 before we got some action and could follow the Zuiderdam in. Both of us were going through the old locks as it was now clear that the Panama Canal Authority was going to keep the regular ships separate from the Post-Panama max ships; those who can only go through the new locks.  We were all thinking it was going to be a long day, but later on we managed to catch up a bit and by the time we came to the Miraflores locks we were back on the original – published –schedule. How long a transit takes, depends on the slowest ship in the convoy and today we were unlucky as we had some real slow boats (deep laden tankers) ahead of us. I did the transit once in just over 6 hours and faster has happened as well. But today we had a regular day, with a lot of starting and even more stopping.

The weather was wet, with a constant drizzle or stronger all during the day. Negative is that you get wet, but the positive things outweigh it; the rain is not very cold, you do not get too hot and you do not get a sunburn.

My interest went out to the new part of the canal and unfortunately you can only see a few things of it. Now all the construction is gone and everything is flat there is not much to see unless you go through those locks.

A Post Panamax Container ship going through the new lock at the Pacific side.

Because there are no trains “the so called Mules” used in the new locks, it all looks basically as a series of basins with water in it and in some of those basins a very big ship floating.

Split in the Canal to the left the Pedro Miguel Locks to the right the new Canal part continues

Now all construction materials and ships are gone, the separating dykes are gone and the water ways to the new locks are open, you can see very well how they have done it.  Once you have sailed past Cristobal you come to a Y fork in the road, with the left arm being wider than the right arm. Left is the way to the new locks.  Same thing happens again when you come to the Pedro Miguel locks where the Pacific locks are located and again a Y with now the left arm for the old route and the right arm for the new route.  From then on it looks a bit strange.  The new Pacific locks are near the last set of old locks, the Miraflores locks but the ships following the old system are already descending with one step at the Pedro Miguel. So we have a big dyke which keeps the right arm of the Panama Canal from draining into what is now the lower part of the Canal.

The big dyke which keeps the waters separate. Note the little tugboat in the photo. You can hardly see it, so big scale is everything.

You are used to those dykes in Holland where you can see a ship sailing by about 20 feet above a car in the road. But to see it in Panama which is basically flat apart from the Continental divide is a bit unusual. Luckily all the dredging for this area was done by the Dutch so I have full faith in the dyke being capable to hold the water, regardless the size ship that sails through it.

This is what it looks like on the Radar screen. the new part is as straight as an arrow. While the old part retains much more of he original features from 1914.

For the guests it was also a long day as many were up and about just after 5 am. Luckily we know that this happens and thus the Hotel Director had ensured that the Lido Restaurant was also open at 5 am. so the lack of Panama Canal to see could be compensated with food. Always a good alternative. For the same reason the Bars were very busy in the afternoon. What is better than to have Happy Hour in the Panama Canal?

This is Happy Hour in the Crowsnest.

While I am writing this we are about to leave the last locks of the Miraflores and then it will be another hour to open sea. From there onwards we follow the Coast of Panama until we come to Costa Rica. Tomorrow afternoon we will be sightseeing in Golfo Duce and then the next day visit Punta Arenas or Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica. These two ports are next to each other and are interchangeable, so we will see where we end up. The weather will not be much different if it rains in Panama it also rains in Costa Rica. Maybe the weather will run out of water for a few hours and we have good visibility.

17.00 hrs. the ms Veendam in the Miraflores Locks. (Photo courtesy of my Lord & Master Lesley who very patiently  followed the webcams and tracked our progress)

I was running around by 05.30 in the morning as I had supervision and support of the new junior officers on my schedule. So I had the enjoyment of seeing sunrise over Cartagena and the pilot boarding. Before twilight started there was a nice light show in the clouds of big electric discharges but with day light approaching that all disappeared. Also the rain disappeared and thus we had a nice dry day, but it was very sunny and very warm. The Zuiderdam was just ahead of us by about 15 minutes, giving just enough time for the linesmen in the port, to tie up first the one ship and then the other one. No other cruise ships in port today so it was a Holland America only show.

Sailing into Cartagena takes about an hour as the entrance to the Bay is in the South West and then you have to sail north to get to the cargo docks. For the docks where we are going, the old cargo docks, now all container, it would be so easy to cut through a canal in the west side and get us in and out in about 30 minutes. But it is the expensive part of town with all sorts of high rises (every year there seem to be more) being built and it would not help the rest of the port.  The whole of the east part of the bay, which is mostly known as the Boca Chica, is full of oil terminals, tanker docks and a lot of related industry. They all use the same entrance and they would continue to use the entrance we used this morning. So no preferential treatment for the cruise ships.

Fort on the northside as seen from the Forward mooring deck of the Veendam

Because of its natural and large sheltered harbor the area has always been a hot spot for countries that were convinced that they had to rule the world. As there were many countries who thought so, the one who was there first (or who had just kicked somebody else out) built defense structures to make sure they themselves were not going to get kicked out later. Until today those defense works are still there and the space for us to sail in, located between two forts, still has the same width as it had 500 years ago. Luckily they already thought big in those days and thus our current big ships still fit through the channel.

The light spots are the flame off towers of the Refineries  in Cartagena. To the left the Zuiderdam going ahead of us.

But it is one way traffic, so once the Zuiderdam had slipped through, we had to wait until a small cargo vessel came out and then we could go in. There is a leading light which can help you to stay in the middle of the channel but it is hardly visible due to “light” pollution by the refinery located behind the leading light beacons. They are burning off gasses which come free with the production of oil. When the oil price was still high, they caught the gas and it was sold for export. Now with the oil prices being fairly low, it does not seem to pay any more to do so and thus they burn it off. Using it for local heating is not an option either as Cartagena is already hot & warm enough by itself. But a leading light is not so much of a necessity here. As long as you are clever enough to stay between the buoys you are in good shape.

Veendam safely docked at Pier 3 in Cartagena.

Where we now dock used to be water. The old cargo docks were much deeper inland.  I still have docked there with the old Statendam in 1981 but then a few years later, the old cargo sheds were ripped down (and approx. 2 million or so rats were made homeless) and the dock foundations were filled over to provide space for container parks. New piers were then built further into the inner harbor and that is where we dock today. Once you could walk to “downtown”, well a sort of downtown, the sort of downtown sailors liked, so it was really THE downtown but now you need a tour bus or a shuttle to get in or out of the port. The “downtown” I am referring to is long gone as well as crew hardly has time to go ashore and with the increase in ships size, and same crew complement, the number of visiting crew had dwindled considerably. So now “downtown” is near the business district and we are stuck and can only look at containers. Or at the Zuiderdam being docked next to us.

The Zuiderdam departing. She came in first and she went out first.

As mentioned yesterday both ships had a short stay, as both ships have to be at the Cristobal breakwater entrance for the canal at 05.00 hrs. So we sailed out at 1 pm. and put the pedal to the metal once we were outside. We have to make the Panama Canal slot to fit in the convoy as the Canal does not wait for anybody.

Our schedule………………… subject to extremely much change:

05.00 Break water

06.00 Inside waiting for clearance.

08.00 Gatun locks

13.00 Miguel locks

17.00 Mira Flores locks

18.30 Pacific Ocean.

As you can see, no new locks, but maybe we will see the Zuiderdam using them.

We caught the tail end of the frontal system in the morning and it gave us the occasional shower on the deck until lunch time and then we were past it. Now we are slowly starting to come under the influence of the land mass of South America where much is covered by Jungle and that makes for a totally different situation. Hot and Humid with lots of electricity in the air and thus we can expect thunderstorms tomorrow. Hopefully it will happen before and after our arrival and departure in Cartagena but that is something we cannot plan for. We will only be a short while there, from 07.00 until 13.00 hrs. as we have a tight schedule afterwards to make it to the Panama Canal on time. We will meet up again with the Zuiderdam which will sail with us to the Panama Canal as she is doing the sail in – Gatun Lake – sail out routine and then goes to Colon/Cristobal for a late afternoon stay. We of course go straight through as we are on our way to San Diego.

This will be my first time going through with the new locks in operation and I harbor a small hope that we might do one of each, an old and a new one, but it is a very tiny bit of hope and a lot of wishful thinking. Thus far the Panama Canal Authority has not much been in favor of letting a cruise ship do both but “hoop doet leven” as we say in Dutch or “Hope keeps you alive”. Tomorrow during the day we will receive the transit schedule of what the Canal is planning to do with us ——— subject to extremely much change———— and then we will know more.

The planning for the Canal takes some doing and it already starts when the ship is built. As the Canal has different measurement criteria for a ship, the ship is measured at the end of its new building and then it gets a Panama Canal Tonnage Certificate. During its first ever transit; it is quite customary to get officials on board, who sail with the ship during the transit, to verify if that initial certificate is valid. They always seem to be very interested in pools and Engine sky lights as there the rules seem to vary greatly from the regular register tonnage certificate to what Panama wants. And then they return when needed.  I can understand this quite well, as cruise lines keep tinkering with their ships and here the Veendam is a good example. In 2006 we had the Club Hal added to the aft top deck, creating a lot of extra volume and then in 2008 extra cabins were added. At that time we lost a deep swimming pool but we gained a wider shallow pool and extra Jacuzzi’s. Enough changes to keep a tonnage verification officer in bonus for quite some time.  Last time I spoke to one of them (who came to check the new cabins on the aft deck of the Prinsendam) he was musing about how the new slides on the Mega Liners would fit into the equation. On the earlier ships slides had been open on the top. Now on the larger ships the higher up parts of them are enclosed, so you water-slide through a tunnel. But the big question of course was for him would an enclosed water slide bring in more money for the Panama Canal Authority. I never found out the answer but it was an intriguing thought.

This is the water slide from the Carnival Vista. Partly enclosed, partly open; What would Panama think?

For the normal routine of the ship and the transit, you have to start sending your ETA’s already 3 days before. This is something really meant for cargo ships as they are not as reliable in their scheduling as a cruise ship but the rules are the same for everybody. Then about 48 hrs. before we have to call them. This is an Oil Pollution Prevention exercise. By calling in, the Canal Authority knows that we have read the regulations and thus know what is expected of us by them in case something happens.

Getting into Cartagena takes more than an hour as we have to sail through the inside lake towards the very sheltered port of Cartagena. So tomorrow morning we will be at the pilot station of Boca Chica at 05.30 am and then sail in either before or after the Zuiderdam but that depends on what the pilots want for their docking sequence.

For the weather, it will be hot and humid and it will be everybody’s guess how much fireworks we will get out of the rain clouds.

You can see the yellow/red spots over Colombia and that means dense rain clouds. (Courtesy www.weatherchannel.com)

We are now on our way to Cartagena and with the speed we are making, we nicely “out marched” the rain. Although the clouds were in the area but that is not so bad as clouds keep the temperature down and that makes being on deck very pleasant. And you can still sun bathe, even when it is a bit cloudy as there are still rays coming through that will produce a tan.  Although quite a few guests shied away from the sun today as they got more than their fair amount yesterday.

For most of the evening we sailed between the Bahamian Islands towards the south and then during the night we crossed the end of the old Bahama Channel, to reach the Windward Passage, located between Cuba and Haiti.  We passed Cabo Maisi (the end point of Cuba) in the early morning and by the end of this afternoon we will be out of the Windward Passage and in the Caribbean Sea. This area is called the Jamaican Channel but we will not see Jamaica as we are too far to the East of it.

Our route for the two sea days.

By that time we will be coming under the full influence of the Trade Winds and that should give us about 20 knots from the East. So windy on our Port Side and nice and gentle on our starboard side.

An accident on the rise in our modern world. (Courtesy Creative Safety Supply)

Continuing with my safety story of the last two days, the last thing is to explain are near misses in safety. As I do not want to create a panic on the internet; in safety we qualify a near miss as something that could have result in an accident but it did not.  A bucket of paint started to slide but you caught it in time; somebody wants to stand on a box to change a lightbulb but somebody else saw it and got a step ladder. An electric socket had come loose but the danger was seen before somebody plugged a cable into it. etc. etc.

The challenge is to get everybody talking and provide examples of what they have seen or were involved in. We call these “learning events”. Something has happened, something did not go 100% right or something had the intrinsic potential to go wrong, but it was recognized and the situation was mitigated.  To make it work, it has to start at the Top, with the leaders, and thus it has become an established feature on our ships to have each officer come forward, starting with the captain, to explain what in his/her work situation could have gone better. As the ships are a small world onto themselves, the word soon spreads around the crew and then the rest will follow.

One way to get the crew interested is to run a safety poster competition with cash prizes.

The company is really encouraging everybody to do this and is asking each ship to provide every month 3 examples of near misses that they found, discussed, solved or learned a lesson from for the future. These are then shared fleet wide and slowly but steadily we see a reduction in the return of the same mistakes. One of the direct results is, that our accident free days are going up. We define anything that needs more than a plaster to be an accident, (that is about the only thing the crew doctor does not write a report about) and thus is it is not easy to stay on zero. But ships with 800 crew or more are now reaching 300+ days without anything happening at all. Safe work with a moving ship and so many cooks with knives and so many engineers in machinery environments it is not as easy as on the shore side and so we are really pleased with the results. But everybody is keeping focused; as our friend Murphy has a nephew on every ship and they simply hate good safety records and mistake free environments. So the safety training, the safe work planning, the safe work execution and the “learning experiences” continues and will do so in the future.

I am honored to play a little role in this all, apart from the inspecting, by training and teaching. Due to my unique position as Travelling Master I can compare the ships while I rotate around and can pick up and pass along good practices and little changes which can make a large difference in a chain of events.

So tomorrow we are at sea again, and looking at the weather chart we might lose the cloudiness later in the day but could get an isolated shower during the night or early morning.

With the frontal system passing over, we should run out of the clouds tomorrow.