It did not look very nice early this morning when the ship approached the dock. Blustery winds and squalls to the south of the island. Luckily at 7 am when the ship made its approach there was a “window of opportunity” as they call it and the ship could slip in. Then Weather Gods decided that Grand Turk had had enough rain and the squalls disappeared, leaving a sunny but windy day. As the beaches are on the West side of the island close to the specially built resort that goes with the dock, this area was in the lee of the island and that made it very nice. As the island is very low, the ship does not have the advantage of that little bit of lee so the blustery wind kept playing around the ship. The bridge was extra vigilant today with an officer posted on the bridge wing permanently to monitor the situation in case the lines would break. But the swell did not become worse as the wind angle was just right and we could happily make our call.

Today the whole ship was on the march as it was time for our monthly General Emergency Drill. Every week 25% of the crew goes through regular safety training and then at the end of that cycle the whole crew goes through the three step General Alarm sequence. We have to do this as Solas requires for each crewmember to participate in a Fire Drill once a month. This regulation has been made mainly with cargo ships in mind where the whole crew should be proficient in fighting fires. Cruise ships with their much larger crews have specialist groups to do so; the fire teams. Thus for us the stipulation does not make much sense. The chance that a front office lady will put on a fire suit and run into a fire with a charged hose is zero. Still the stipulation is there and thus we do the full 3 step alarm cycle once a month.

The majority of the crew might not actually fight a fire but they will go through the assembly routine of where they would have to report, If there was a fire.

With a ship the size of the Nieuw Amsterdam and with nearly 900 crew on board, that is quite a happening. First there is A. First Stage Emergency alarm. The specialist teams are alerted to deal with the emergency. Crew not involved are now on high alert, waiting for orders. If the emergency (fire or flooding) is more difficult to control, the B. Crew Alert Alarm will be sounded and now all crew will get involved. If not having a special function to execute they will report to a safe assembly location so they are out of the way of the fire / emergency.

If then the situation still is still not under control, the C. General Emergency Alarm would be sounded and all crew would march to their life raft stations. Before this would happen, the Guests would have been taken care of first of course.

During the first alarm the Guests do not do anything and 99% of all issues on board a ship can be controlled/dealt with in this way. The 1% which cannot be controlled might necessitate the sounding of the Crew Alert Alarm. Guests are now requested (nice word for being ordered) to go to their cabin and to get ready to go to the lifeboats if needed.

If the emergency is not solved under this standby alarm, then the Guests will be directed to go to their lifeboat stations as soon as the 7 short and 1 long blast on the whistle have sounded.

This three step alarm has been initiated to give everybody sufficient time to prepare and the more time there is,  the less chance there is for panic to occur.

Thus we went through the whole cycle this morning, with only a few crew excused for operational reasons. I had my officers shadow the various teams to pick up as many clues as possible for future use, because as soon as their work assignment comes in, they will be doing it.

What amazes me the most is for the kitchen to be able to still open the Lido Restaurant on time (11.30 hrs.) while the majority of the cooks were out of the loop and in the drill from 10.30 to 11.25 hrs. With fluffy rice and crispy sweet and sour at the Far East Counter. They know something I do not and they keep it very quiet in how they do it.

We sailed at 15.00 hrs. and after leaving stern first from the dock, sailed around the north side of the island. Tonight and tomorrow morning we will be at sea and then by noon time we should be entering San Juan Harbor.

Today we are sailing north of the Bahamas on our way to the Turks and Caicos Islands and it is a bit wobbly outside. Nice and sunny but the weather system which moved over us has quite a bit of wind in its tail, more than really was expected. It is not that bad, apart from the occasional movement of the ship you can hardly notice that there is a sort of gale blowing outside, mainly because you do not equate a gale with sunny weather. The ship is almost full to capacity, just a little bit less than last cruise when each bed and each sofa was filled up. But that was a real party cruise and now we are back to our regular clientele with a surprising number of younger families on board. I do not know if somewhere in the States the schools are on break but there must be something as I do not expect that all these children are home schooled.

My six new officers arrived yesterday and they all made it safely to the ship, including one from New Zealand who had been on the way for 30 hrs. The rest is from Holland and England and those are flights which are easier to deal with. All have sailed with Holland America before and thus I can to spend less time on the basics of how a cruise ship company operates and instead can dive directly in the deep end with safe working practices and my “use your brain” mantra. When you are a cadet, and it is the same for any cruise ship company, you observe and you are allowed to help out with regular maintenance, as long as the responsibility remains with a licensed officer. It simply has to do with insurance. Insurance companies want to see certificates with stamps and seals and of course a cadet does not have those. As a result there is very “little hands” on a cadet can do. Now they have a certificate and thus we can go for it.

Standing and observing is different than having to make decisions yourself. Making decisions yourself and the feeling of being held responsible in the end for the decisions that you made creates a totally different perspective. And with that we started today. Step one: know your ship, know where you are at all times and how to get to a location via the shortest route (if possible) but always the safest route.    So while we walked around, my constant question was, where are we now and how do you know that?

This is a diagram of a ferry with 5 main vertical fire zones. large cruise ships normally have 6, 7, or 8

There is a basic division of a ship which all crew members have to know. Horizontally there are the deck numbers: for the Nieuw Amsterdam the crew decks C, B, A and then the passenger decks 1 to 14. Then vertically there are the Main Fire Zones which split up the ship in 8 sections. As a guest you can recognize those when you see the thick Fire screen doors recessed in the walls, most of them are located around the staircases. So each crew member should know exactly where he or she is if an announcement is made: Evacuate Deck 4 Zone 3. Without having to announce or to give specific names or cabin numbers; the section is enough. In this case it is the middle part of the ship where passenger cabins are located and at once Cabin Stewards can start evacuating guests from that area.

We have one trick to make it easier for the new crew: read the numbers on the Fire screen doors. Each door is labelled xx,yy,zzz    xx = deck,  yy is the zone, zzz is the door number. This is in our case 04. 03. 257. = Deck 4, zone 3, door 257. Because the ships now look very similar when going from deck to deck, this fire screen door numbering is a big help to immediately get your bearings when ending up somewhere you were not expecting. The group caught on very quickly and that helps them when reporting in their exact location if they are out there on a mission but also with quickly recognizing where they are when trying to ascertain their proximity to a danger area.

This is the Noordam at Grand Turk. Look around the bow and you can see how small the dark blue water area is.

Tomorrow we will arrive around 07.00 hrs. and if all goes well we should be docked by 08.00 am. I hope that during the night the wind will abate a little bit as it is not much fun to dock with high winds there. The dock is fully exposed to winds as the land is very flat and the ship has no room to drift as the dredged out area around the dock is not very wide.

All the boys of the RSVP charter disembarked today and it took quite a while to accomplish this. With so many ships in port the CBP were hard stretched to cope with all those 1000’s of guests, but the few officers available coped admirably with what came rolling off the gangway. Embarkation could still start on time and thus all was well in the world. Even all our new guests made it to the ship as far as I know, at least those who were using a form of Holland America Line organized transport. We can keep track of those and thus we know if they are stuck somewhere and delayed. If operationally possible the Captain can then hold the ship while shore and port operations try to get them on board ASAP. If guests are travelling by their own arrangements it becomes much more difficult as we do not know what transport they are using, where they are staying or that they are even on the way. Some guests who run into delays contact our head office which in turn then contacts the ship and the terminal people but often we have so called “independents” missing and there is nothing we can do about it.

 We are now starting a 7 day East Caribbean Cruise with calls at Grand Turk, San Juan, St Thomas and Half Moon Cay. Then next cruise we call at St.Maarten instead of at St. Thomas. The Nieuw Amsterdam will remain on these sorts of cruises until it starts the Transcanal and sails to the West Coast for the Alaska season. The place of the N.A for the Europe Season will be taken over by Koningsdam.  This seems to be a sort of established pattern ever since the construction of the Vista Class started. The newest ship sails Europe in the summer and once it becomes the 2^nd newest ship it is assigned to Alaska. It will be interesting to see when the TBA –Dam comes out, if the Koningsdam will then go to Alaska as well. The only exception is the Eurodam which stays in Europe and that makes sense because of the name.

This brings me to the way the cruises are created/selected/ designed or better said decided upon. This is a whole extensive process which takes at least two years to complete. Because of this it is very difficult for HAL, or any company to quickly change a cruise. If political or health situations demand that certain countries are removed from the schedule, then cancelling is easy but redesigning the cruise is a pure headache.

What the guests suggest takes two to three years to work into the schedule for one of the ships. The biggest challenges are the port reservations. If you want to have a dock, especially in the smaller ports, then you have to be early and if there are more ships then the biggest one that fits, or the most senior ship on the run from last season will have preference.  So if you are in the seniority group then you try to keep that port in your cruise set-up for the next year or even the one after. Thus if we have to cancel somewhere, or pull out of the schedule for a prolonged time,  then the easiest alternative is to cruise to some larger ports where there will most likely be a dock available.

To give an example, if we would have to cancel Civitavecchia /Rome for a season then Livorno would always work as there is always ample dock space. Even if it would mean docking at a container dock.  If Livorno would not be in the proximity of Civitavecchia , then the nearest alternative would be Elba. That is an anchor port but with only two anchor spaces.  So if 5 ships had to omit Civitavecchia from the schedule who would get Elba??

The next important thing is the size of the ship:  Will it fit in? Therefore it is great to have a Prinsendam in the fleet, it fits nearly everywhere. Also it is one of the reasons Holland America does not want to go too big in their ships size as it severely limits the ports you can visit. Just compare the world cruise schedule for 2016 between the Queen Mary and our Amsterdam. Some ports are the same, some definitely not.

So tomorrow we are at sea and it will be interesting to watch the weather. A depression is coming over which will hit Florida tomorrow  and it is supposed to bring rain. For us it will be interesting to see what sort of weather it leaves behind while we sail for Grand Turk.

It is a wonderful sea day out here today, sunny but not too warm as the wind is now more from the N.E than from the S.E and thus brings cooler Atlantic air towards the Bahamas. Still it is around 80oF /27oC. but it only feels like it when in the full sunshine.  Thus our nearly 2100 charter people are having a grand final day. I wonder how long it will take to process all of them through Immigration tomorrow. Most of them are Americans so it might go fast. I will find out as I will have to go ashore again to be instrumental in helping to produce the “zero count”; meaning the ship is completely empty of everybody who is not considered a crew member.

The Nieuw Amsterdam is an evolution of the Vista Class and both the Signature and Vista Class differ from the other ships if you look at the outside. I do not mean looking at the superstructure or the number of lifeboats but at the lack of “blue covers” you see near the lifeboats on the S and R class. There, near each lifeboat station, is a blue cover which looks vaguely like a drum. Inside this blue cover is a rope ladder, called a Jacobs Ladder. It is used to offer those who are lowering lifeboats and life rafts a means of escape if they are not able to jump in the last boat or raft going down.

One of the S class ships. The blue covers are clearly visible just above where the blue hull ends.

However those ladders are cumbersome to handle, need a lot of maintenance (rope and sea air do not go well together) and they take up a lot of space. Either by taking deck space away, if they are stored on the Lifeboat Embarkation Deck, or on dedicated platforms if stored next to the lifeboat.  4 or 5 of those platforms would make enough room for a complete lifeboat if they were not there. Thus the shipping industry adopted a different solution. A descent device.

The crew member who launched the final  liferaft is descending.

Descending devices were not invented by the cruise industry. They originate from mountain climbing and were later adopted also in the building and construction industry. I believe there they are called a Friction or Rappel Device.  In principle these devices are very simple. It is a rope with at each end a loop for somebody to hang on to and a controlled brake in the middle. It is hung on a small arm extending from the lifeboat deck over the water and when in the loop a person can just step over the side and glide down to the water with a controlled speed. The loop at the other end of the rope comes up to the deck and the next person can than descend until everybody has safely escaped.

A shoreside version used for getting down from construction sites.

The requirement for having Jacobs’s ladders disappeared somewhere around the year 2000 and as a result all the Vista class were fitted with them. I mention the year 2000 as it depends on the year in which the keel has been laid to what legal requirements a ship has to comply with. So it is possible that one ship in a class of 4 similar vessels has different Solas requirements to comply with than another ship. Our Prinsendam with a keel laid in 1987 falls under Solas 1974 with a number of Amendments. Our Koningsdam is built under the latest Solas regulations, which, if applied to the Prinsendam would mean that the whole Prinsendam would have to be rebuilt.

Look for the sign on deck which indicates the approved location to use the device.

This does not mean that the Prinsendam is unsafe, far from it; it means that it uses other equipment to achieve the same result. Hence the Prinsendam has rope ladders and the Koningsdam will have Descent Devices.  Rope ladders do the same thing as a descent device but instead of gravity doing the work for you, you have to climb down.

Tomorrow we are in Fort Lauderdale and according to the Broward Country Traffic Board (which lists all the coming and going ships) we can expect the Carnival Conquest, Navigator of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Regal Princess, Eurodam, Celebrity silhouette and us. So it is going to be busy at the sea-buoy between 5 and 7 tomorrow morning.  It is also going to be busy in town and Ft. Lauderdale has issued a warning for severe delays. There is a car race going on, women beach ball champion ships, a marathon and a number of other things which might result in a severe clogging of several roads. Then with 15000 cruise guests leaving and a similar number going to the ships things might get interesting.  The Sheriff’s department of Broward County will not be bored. But at least they should have nice weather.

There is another – small- frontal system approaching which will bring rain on Monday over Florida and that means that tomorrow it will not be too warm. 70oF / 21oC, sunny and a moderate breeze.

Today is our first day at sea on our way home to Fort Lauderdale. As it is nice weather on the North Atlantic we taking the outside route sailing north of Puerto Rico and eventually the Bahamas. There is what we call an inside route and that is sailing north of Cuba and south of the Bahamas it is more sheltered as most of the route is protected by the Bahamian Islands, sandbanks and reefs which will blunt most of a North Atlantic storm.  But it is longer and thus it is preferable to go outside. Also for sightseeing there is no reason to choose the southerly route as there is nothing to see. Cuba is too far to the south and the Bahamas are so low that you have to be lucky to catch something even with a pair of binoculars. The sun is shining and we have the wind on the starboard quarter and that makes for a warm day on deck.

So today is a nice opportunity to blog about the ship as the Nieuw Amsterdam is as far as the inside is concerned a sort of bridge between what was the standard on the Vista Class  before and what will be the new standard on the Koningsdam. Moving away from an abundance of antiques and darker paneling to a lighter interior and more contemporary art.  There are still antiques to be found but less than before and there is an increase in more modern sculptures but it has been done in such a way that it blends in nicely with the interior and all in good harmony.

I am quite proud to state that I had a hand in two items which are on display. First of all about 15% of my HAL photo collection is on display in the hallways on all decks. I guess about 75% of all the photos of Holland America’s history on view come out of my collection. (Including the one I posted a few days ago and I did not even know that they had THAT one as well) It looks a bit strange to walk around and see the photos out of your album blown up to 3 by 2 feet on each wall and every 30 feet. Still I see a lot of guests looking at them with intent and interest so I am happy to have being able to make the photos available.

Around the sitting area there are several displays with memorabilia relating to the Nieuw Amsterdam II of 1937.

The second item has more of a story to it. It is the model which is now on display in the portside of the Crows nest, what they call the “captain’s corner”. The model of the ss Nieuw Amsterdam of 1937. This model has a long history. It is a “Dubbeldam” water line model and a whole series was made of all the passenger ships in the 1950’s when Holland America changed from a Black hull to a Grey one.  The exact number is unknown to me but they were made to stand in the window displays of the main company agents. It is called a waterline model as it supposed to look as if it is sailing and it can be lit from the inside. At night it must have drawn quite a bit of interest from people walking by in the days before television.

Apologies for the reflection in the glass. I have not mastered that one yet with a digital camera.

Some of these models remained with the company and on display in the main office. When the Nieuw Amsterdam (III) came out in 1983 it was donated to the Officers of the Nieuw Amsterdam by the then time President of the company Mr. Nico van der Vorm and placed in the Officers Bar.  And there it stood until the ship was sold in 2000. There were quite a few people who had great interest in pinching the model to take it home but as I was the one who was boxing up all the antiques, I boxed that one up as well with the idea to find a nice place for it on one of the other ships. In the end I kept the model with me each time I changed to a new command, as I could not find the perfect spot. On each ship it was on display in the Atrium.  Noordam, Maasdam and then the Veendam.  I must have been the only captain in history to have travelled around with a six foot ships model in a custom made sailor’s trunk.

When it was announced that the sister ship of the Eurodam would be the next Nieuw Amsterdam (IV) it made sense to offer the model for display on board that ship.  And so it happened, the model was sent to the shipyard and installed in the Crows Nest. I do not think I will be with the company anymore when this current Nieuw Amsterdam is retired but I hope there will be a bright spark then who will see the sense of transferring it again to the next Nieuw Amsterdam. Who knows.

Tomorrow we have our second day at sea and then we are in Ft. Lauderdale.  Human Resources in Rotterdam have completed the list of the six new navigators assigned to my class and if they are not getting lost, I will see them on Sunday.

To get to St. Thomas one has to sail past, or better said under, some of the islands located on the N.E crest of the Caribbean ring of islands. Not that many though only St. Maarten and the British Virgin Islands. That makes it possible to leave at 11 pm. in the evening from St.Barths and arrive in the morning at Charlotte Amalie. To give the guests sufficient sleeping time, the charterer had decreed an arrival time of 9 am. which is a really decent time to arrive. HAL ships normally arrive at 8 am. as many other ships do as otherwise it is not so easy to accommodate all the tours. But as this is more of a party cruise it has a slightly different focus.  At least the Deck department did not disagree as after a late night departure it is nice not to have to get up so early.

Crown Bay is located behind an island hence the one way in and the other way out

Although the arrival time might have been different, the dock was not. The Nieuw Amsterdam docked at the regular HAL pier at Crown Bay on the Westside.  As we were coming from the East we entered through East Gregory channel and that will mean that on departure we will sail out through the West channel. Nose in on arrival and a quick backing out (going astern in nautical language) and the ship is on its way again.

I went to the forward mooring deck this morning to take photos for the class for next week. We have now held classes on the R Class and the Vista Class but this is the first one on the Signature Class. Although all the mooring decks are similar nowadays, courtesy of having one building/shipyard, they keep tinkering with the lay-out in the small details. And the small details you have to know otherwise you can have big accidents.

Where the lines go, how and also why. The 3rd officer explaining the plan.

The mooring process is an evolution of several steps. The first one is the pre-arrival meeting on the Bridge. Here the Captain will advise where he wants to park the ship. Then the Staff Captain will advise how many ropes will be used and – preferably – where they will be going. The latter does not always work as sometimes the Linesmen have a mind of their own. Then follows a discussion about the how & when. All that knowledge is taken forward by the 3^rd officer and is passed on to and discussed with the Bo ‘sun and the sailors. If everybody understands what will happen, everybody can also help ensure that the evolution is executed as safely as possible.

The sailors guiding the rope on the storage drum. Before the line goes taut the sailors will step out of the way.

Putting ropes ashore is the easy part of the operation, to do it safely every time takes a bit more of doing. So apart from the meeting, safety shoes, helmets and gloves are compulsory.   Then there is the safe handling of the ropes, especially when the ropes are coming taut.  To keep the ship alongside the ropes have to be pulled as tightly as possible with the winch. When that happens it is the moment when the ropes comes under a lot of strain and that is the moment a rope could snap. So the word is to stand clear at all times. As that could be forgotten in the “heat of the battle” we have Snap Back Zones everywhere painted on the deck. These are yellow areas and indicate the danger zones where a rope might go when it snaps. Most of the time this will be on the edge of the hull opening where the ropes goes in or out, but if there is a weak section in the rope it can be away from the edge as well.

A job well done with all the ropes ashore and on the correct bollards.

Nowadays we have different ropes than in the old days. Most of our ships are equipped with Marlon Ropes which are stronger but also, if they snap, just break and do not curl over the deck as a Jack out of the Box. Still the Snap Back Zones are there for a reason and everybody keeps a close eye on not standing in the yellow zones when the ropes are moving.

My photos of this morning will go in a Power Point which will be discussed with the class before they are let loose on the mooring deck to do it themselves. Again preparation helps to prevent accidents because as the golden saying goes:  If you go out with 10 fingers, we would like you to come back with 10 fingers.

This was the last port of our cruise. We now have two days at sea and then we are back in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. As we are sailing with the (Trade) wind following us, we should have a smooth ride home.

With a windy Caribbean day on the schedule the Nieuw Amsterdam arrived at 11.30 at the anchorage of Gustavia. For a deep drafted cruise ship that anchorage is quite a distance out of town. First there is the shallow area then a deeper area but with rocky pinnacles and finally regular deeper water where a ship can safely anchor. It was not too busy today and thus the NA could come closer than otherwise is sometimes the case.  And how deeper in you can get the more sheltered the anchorage is.  St. Barths is a hot spot for the Jet set and there are always a few gin – palaces parked there while the owners are making money somewhere else or sitting in a villa on the island. Today it was fairly quiet and most of the outer anchorage was open and empty. I have seen otherwise.

It is a all that blue stuff – shallow water – which keeps ships far away from the small harbour of Gustavia.

Somewhere in the archives is a story about my call with the Prinsendam at St. Barths just after Christmas. Everybody who was somebody according to themselves was at the anchorage with their yacht. On top of that Ambramovich had parked his yacht the Eclipse right on the deep sea anchor spot where I was supposed to go. And as that yacht has about the same length as the little Prinsendam there was no way I could sit next to it. That meant I had to anchor much further out thus causing the wind and swell to hit the ship from both sides, curves both from the north end and the south end around the island. So I gave up and sailed on to Antigua.

Today this was not necessary the Nieuw Amsterdam could anchor safely although the Seadream II had pinched the best spot as they had arrived earlier and we could not do that with our schedule. Thus the guests have a bit of a wobbly ride to the island but in the evening it should get better as the dying off of the wind after sunset will cause the waves to subside a little bit.  Our last tender is at 10 pm. and then we hop around the corner to St. Thomas.  In the meantime the guests should have a great day. The sun is shining and the beaches on the island are very beautiful. We should have a lot of happy campers today.

The ships training room with a capacity of about 60 seats.

In the meantime it is time to reveal the secret of the “Bubble”. This elevated deck part on the bow was a very clever way of creating a space needed for three items which would otherwise take up valuable space inside the ship. Still they were needed and thus came the bubble.  Inside we have the training room which is an absolute necessity nowadays giving the amount of training crew need to take.

Part of the Officers Bar. Which also has a dance and game area.

The 2^nd item is the Officers Bar. In this location no noise can bother anybody so another win, win. The remainder of the bubble is given over to offices for the Safety department which has also greatly increased since the proliferation of the safety and audit requirements. All for the best but the paper trail causes far much more office work than ever before.  I think that the “Bubble” is going to be with the fleet forever.

The Safety department forms part of the Deck department and is headed by the First Officer who went from being the senior watch keeper to this function, then the next step is Staff Captain. He is assisted by a 3^rd officer who is assigned to safety duties outside his watch keeping duties.  The remainder of the department is made up of fire safety attendants, Lifesaving attendants, a locksmith and a number of security guards who help out with safety checks.  And for all of those you need a big office and gathering place.

Tomorrow we will be in St. Thomas with a weather forecast of regular Caribbean weather. A bit windy, partly cloudy and temperatures around 80oF or 27oC.

Today we are sailing in the North Atlantic on our way from Half Moon Cay to Gustavia where we should arrive tomorrow sometime before  12.00 hrs. Hence the late stay in the evening as I mentioned yesterday.  The route is taking us North of the remainder of the Bahamian Islands and then later also North of the Turks and Caicos which we will visit next week again. 

The weather was a real mixture today. We still had the tail of a weather system laying over us which brought dark skies and rain in the morning but in the early afternoon it became nice and sunny. Good thing as well as with this charter we have a real party crowd on board and an outside disco which is a major part of the whole happening. You cannot say that these guests spend their time in their cabin or tucked away with a good book in a quiet corner; it is go go go. Even the bingo had at least 200 people in attendance. Numbers I have not seen since the early 90’s. But then it is not a regular bingo but more a sort of comedy – bingo caller show and where most of the commentary is mostly NSFW. Still a grand time is being had by all and the bars are doing big business.

We are going straight against the swell generated by the trade winds and on occasion the Nieuw Amsterdam finds a bump in the road.  It is quite interesting to compare all the HAL ships with each other as they all behave slightly different, although they are all an evolution from the basic S class design.  The R class (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Volendam, and Zaandam) is a stretched version but reacts different to the weather as the S class as the ships are longer due to the extra staircase in the middle.

The Tamarind Rest. is the horizontal “visor” in front of the Funnels. The “bubble” is the elevated part on top of the bow.

Then the next step was the Vista Class (Noor, Ooster, Zuider & Westerdam) and here you can debate whether it is a completely new design or a drastic redesign of the R class. I opt for the latter as I find many similarities from the R class, not only in the front of the house but also in the back of the house. Shipyards always try to bring standard things in as it makes the design easier but is also more cost effective.  Then the Signature Class (Eurodam, Nieuw Amsterdam) are a clear evolution of the Vista. The most visible changes are the Restaurant in front of the Funnels (Tamarind Rest), the extra cabin deck above the bridge and the stepped fore deck near the bow. This last part is called “the bubble” on board and is a very clever way of creating more operational space in the ship and by making a better observation deck for a good scenic view.  Until now this was not soo important as the NA sailed in Europe and the Caribbean but this summer the ship will be going to Alaska and then it becomes an important focus point. None of the ships behave badly in bad weather but it each class “shakes” differently when it hits a wave and the impact travels through the ship. The Nieuw Amsterdam has a sort of delay in the “follow up” to a wave compared to the S class.

I spent my day learning the lay-out of the ship. Although the general flow is similar to the Vista Class, shipbuilders (probably urged by the company) have the tendency to put doors and lockers in places where another ship does not have them or have something else.  For a deck or engine officer on board the first and most important thing to do is to find your way around as soon as possible. If there would be an emergency, knowing exactly where to go and how to go there via the fastest and safest way, is knowledge which could save lives, or the ship, or the person itself. So I had better be ready before my class arrives.

The sitting corner of the Neptune lounge. A buffet with Canapes and nibbles is located at the far end.

Today I walked the guest part of the ship and tomorrow I will go into the dungeons and the Engine Room. Then I will also let you see what is inside “the bubble”. With all the guests out and about, I could go into the Neptune lounge to take a few photos. The Neptune lounge is the special/private lounge for the Guests who occupy the big suites.  It has its own concierge and there are free nibbles, snacks and coffee available all day long.  The only company I know of who has something similar is Cunard but there the (Grill) lounge is connected to the Queens Grill and Princess Grill Suites and dining rooms but it does not have all the nibbles and canapé’s which HAL offers. (Although my wife and I do like the Queens Grill for dining………)

The Neptune lounge is served by a dedicated team for the suite guests only. They are part of the Front office staff and rotate on a regular basis. This afternoon they had it easy as no guests showed up, but it remained service with a smile,  also for my blog readers as I promised them I would post the photo.

So tomorrow we will drop the hook at Gustavia roads at Saint Barthelemy with partly cloudy skies, a gentle breeze and temperatures of around 81oF or 27oC.

Apart from the charter change to Gustavia, the good ship Nieuw Amsterdam is following the same cruise as the Westerdam was doing last December so not many new ports to dream about and to bring excitement into our lives. Still a different ship means a different perspective and this time it is no different.  Yes we are at the same island and call there for the same duration of time, but although it is a tender port and thus we are supposed to anchor, we don’t.

This diagram is from a supply vessel as in the off shore industry DP is standard practise to stay in position near the oil rigs.

The Nieuw Amsterdam and the Eurodam belong to the Signature Class of ships are the first ships who are really D.P friendly. D.P means Dynamic Positioning. That means in a simple explanation that the ship can keep itself in position by having the computer operate the Azipods and the Bow thrusters in relation to the position that the captain has decided upon on arrival. Input from the GPS tells the computer where the ship is and if that position is different to what it originally had been set at then the computer gives an order to push the ship back to its original location. Even if you work it manually, each class of company ships is more advanced and the software more sensitive, thus now with the Nieuw Amsterdam, it works very well. Even the Navigator today who was acting as the D.P computer (doing it manually) could work with a very sensitive and accurate system and keep the ship nicely on the exact spot.

Today there was a good reason for it as the wind was coming from the wrong direction. Luckily the wind was not too strong and the visit today could take place. Normally and ideally the wind comes here from the North East or East and as Half Moon Cay is in the west, the bay is nice and smooth without any swell. However there is a depression moving over the Bahamas and South Florida bringing North Westerly winds. That wind blows the waves straight into the bay. It causes a wobbly road for the tenders and can also cause unpleasant beach conditions. Although the wind today was not that strong, about 13 knots at the max, or a small force 4, the tenders still needed a good leeside to ensure a safe transfer. Thus the Nieuw Amsterdam kept the anchor up and stayed in deep water with the bow to the North instead of to the East. With the wind fine on the port bow and the thrusters keeping the ship from drifting it created a good day for going ashore. Although a bit chilly as the NW wind did not bring tropical warmth to the island so to speak.

Me as junior officer on the Statendam back in 1981. The other person in the back is Kees Joore currently captain on one of the Stena Ferries out of Rotterdam. For all to see on deck 7  of the N.A.

I will spend this week on preparing the ship and myself for the school class coming on the 14^th. This time the course will last for 14 days as all the trainees are returning Holland America Line cadets and that means a lot less need for rehashing the basics again.  I will also be blogging a bit about HAL history and things related as on this ship a large part of my Holland America photo collection is on display and “my” Nieuw Amsterdam model has pride of place in the Crow’s nest. I found even a photo from myself on one of the decks. I did not even know that the interior designer had pinched (for copying only) that one as well.

Tomorrow will be a sea day and then we will visit the port of Gustavia on St.Bartholome. There we will stay until late in the evening. A late evening call is possible as the next port St. Thomas is just around the corner.

And thus today reality kicked in and I arrived on the Nieuw Amsterdam after having been on vacation since December last year. Officially I was not supposed to be here as the Maasdam was on the schedule but another “school class” popped up and then things can change. I could have conducted the Nautical Excellence Class on the Maasdam as well as there might have been cabins but another challenge loomed at the horizon and one which was hard to overcome. Brazilian Visa Requirements. Brazil has a reciprocal Visa system. I call it a tit for tat system. If a country requires Visa’s for a Brazilian then the Brazilian Government requires Visa’s for people from that Country. The USA and recently also Europe requires working Seamen coming into the country to have a Visa. Thus Brazil has instituted something similar to the C1/D1 of the USA. That would have required all six new officers to go to the Brazilian Embassy for an interview and then get the stamp. A lot of work for little use as HAL seldom has crew joining in Brazilian ports. Most cruises to Brazil start from the USA and we normally join and leave in the American home port.  To avoid the whole hassle we shifted the class to the Nieuw Amsterdam.   

And that is the reason why I am here. One week by myself and then on the 14^th of Feb. the class arrives for two weeks. I could not get them any earlier on board as this week’s cruise is a charter for RSVP and there is/was a waiting list with 600 who also wanted the go. So the ship is filled to capacity, no empty cabins.  Because it is a charter the ship is making a slightly different cruise than her normal 7 day Caribbean HAL season. We are now calling at Half Moon Cay, then Gustavia on St.Bartholome, followed by St. Thomas.  The great thing with a charter cruise is that the charterer quite often does something different than what the regular company schedule calls for. Sometimes there are overnights, sometimes new ports and sometimes a port is cancelled because you want more sea time. They pay, so they get what is possible and achievable within operational constraints. They crew does not mind at all as they all get the chance to see a new port or have some extra time ashore in the evening.

I am looking forward to Gustavia on St.Bartholome. This is a more obscure port in the Caribbean as it is hard to get there for the main stream cruise ships. There is a tender distance / time of nearly 20 minutes as larger ships have to anchor quite far out. Hence the place is mostly called at by the smaller cruise ships which have less draft. In a similar way as Marigot on the French side of St.Maarten.

The Nieuw Amsterdam is the newest ship in the fleet, it entered service in 2010 and is also the largest ship in the fleet until the arrival of the Koningsdam in April. The ship is under the command of Captain Edward van Zaane who has been her principal commander since 2010.

It was a busy Cruise ship day today in Port Everglades with two large RCI, two Large HAL, a large Celebrity and a large Princess ship in port. If there were smaller ones in port as well then they were well hidden behind the big boys, as I did not see them. When I came in this morning with the crew bus there was a meandering line of at least a 100 Taxi’s snaking towards piers 20 to 26. Nothing to be amazed about as a rough count indicates that today about 17,000 cruise guests left and joined the ships. Not counting the crew.  I wonder how many taxi company owners must have become millionaire’s since this Cruise ship boom started in Florida.

Tomorrow we are in Half Moon Cay for the day which is a regular call the ship normally makes.  Temperatures are expected to be in the high sixties. Around 20oC with partly cloudy skies and with a moderate breeze blowing.