After a rainy departure the ms Westerdam crossed the Straits of Florida and sailed through the Bahamas into the North Atlantic Ocean.  We are now fully in open waters, the sun is shining and is providing a beautiful day for all on board. The ship is full of happy family’s and the children are all over the place while the Club HAL attendants are trying to keep them occupied at various locations. We have a dedicated area for children behind the funnel on Deck 10 but during a cruise like this the Club HAL area, although quite large, is much too small. Thus the three conference rooms and the Disco have also been taken over. And listening to the amount of noise coming out when I walked by, it seemed that a good time was had by all.

Sometimes we can even be too successful. It is not unusual for children to be reluctant to go there during the first day, then starting to like it so by day 3 you cannot get them out anymore. I have seen small dramas been played out when the parents try to get “little Johnny” to come to the dining room for dinner and the little man is steadfastly refusing to do so. Being among peers, not being told off by parents, and having the choice to eat pizza instead of turkey, does not make for a difficult decision.  These are our future customers so then Holland America is not going to be skimpy on pizza.

Club HAL tween area.

The Club HAL program is an integrated part of our operation and each ship has a Club HAL location on the top aft deck.  All ships except the Prinsendam as that is completely designed for different cruises. But there is a Club HAL person on board if and when groups of children are expected and then a regular public room is used.

Club HAL teen area.

Because they work with children, the selection/vetting of Club HAL staff is very rigorous to ensure we get the best even if they are part timers. Normally there are two or three staff on board but the company norm is at least one for every 20 children and thus we have part timers as well. Quite often students who are studying to become teachers or for other jobs where one is working with children and they come out during the vacation periods. Then we have more children on board and these students have the same vacation time as well. They get a minimum of a free cruise out of it and the ports off while practicing the work which they have chosen to do for the future.   A win, win for everybody.

I expect that the other cruise ships on the 7 day run this week will be as full of families as we are. The Carnival ships might have even more children on board than normal and it will change the make-up of the crowds in the ports considerably. We will be together in Grand Turk with a Carnival ship and I have the vague suspicion that the beach next to the pier will be heaving.  I remember from my young days that we used to stake out sections of beach for the group/gang which you belonged to, we then dug a hole and used the out coming sand to build a wall and then protected it until our last breath from the assaults (normally with buckets of water) of “the others”. Maybe we will see a similar sandpit battle of HAL against Carnival.

In the meantime my 5 new officers have started class and today they went through the first of many of the indoctrination sessions they will have to absorb. This morning was with the rest of all the newly boarded crew and they got a parade of a whole group of persons who needed to speak some wise words.  In a nutshell:

Captain – welcome on board, work as a team and enjoy yourself

Medical Officer – wash your hands and stay healthy

Environmental Officer – Do not throw anything overboard and save the planet.

Security Officer – Behave yourself.

Safety/Training officer – Your first drill is Grand Turk Morning.

Human Resources Officer – Make sure you complete your paper work and turn it in on time.

This whole parade takes about 45 minutes and then there will be further trainings and explanations in the near future. Only my group will be stuck with this sort of stuff for the next three weeks. But better to digest it slowly than having to absorb it all at once when you start working, and it is an awful lot.

Weather for tomorrow in Grand Turk, real Caribbean weather: partly cloudy, temperatures around  85oF or 29oC and a gentle easterly breeze.

We were happily docked by 07.00 hrs. Ready for a regular turnover day, in other words, regular – controlled-mayhem.  Getting the guests ashore is not so difficult, they all have their disembarkation colors which relate to their luggage and they are being called off group by group. By 10 am. they were all gone and yours truly could saunter ashore to show his face to the CBP to ensure that he was still legally the same person from the cruise before and to help achieve the all-important “zero count”. Everybody really being off the ship………………… Once that is achieved, shore side can prepare for the wave going the other way.  And with it being a Thanksgiving cruise, it was a very excited wave with lots of little cruisers charging up the gangway.

ms Westerdam arriving in Ft.Lauderdale. Screenshot from the web cam in the port.

The company had also invited a group of 80 Sea Cadets to visit the ship and be shown around. These are teenagers who are sponsored by the US Navy, with the hope that they eventually will join the forces. It was strange to see that they were in combat fatigues and not as we in Europe are used to with white caps and tallywackers. But they were also excited; especially when it came to the Lido Lunch, each station was visited several times by most of them. First time I have seen somebody eating a pepperoni pizza with pork in and coconut on top. (The Italian and Far East food station are next to each other) I do not see these guys coming back as Holland America employees but seeing a ship might strengthen their resolve to seek a career on the water. And maybe later we see them coming back cruising with HAL when they all have family’s so I am all for it.

The Westerdam docked. In the back ground the Largest “apartment of the seas” the Allure of the Seas. (Web-shots taken by Lesley Schoonderbeek)

Thus most of the controlled mayhem is coming from the shore side. A whole wave of service personnel and sub-contractors descend on the ship to do all the necessary work to keep all the equipment going. Our engineers do a lot themselves but nobody is a real coffee machine expert and for those specialized jobs we have regular contracts with shore side companies. What we also do not have on board and thus he comes from the shore side is a piano tuner. Every week we hear the ping ping and poing poing rippling through the ship, when the tuner goes from lounge to lounge. The gentleman who is doing this I have seen coming on board at least for 10 years if not longer. Now thinking about it, I have never seen a Lady piano tuner. They must be out there, I suppose, but I have never seen one on the ships; and we get tuners on board all over the world. Once we had a Piano Tuner on board in one European port who had a baby with him in a stroller and the little chap slept through all the noise his father was making but thus far I have never seen a lady tuner.

My class of trainees showed up as scheduled, right at the moment I was stuck in immigration and helping the zero count. I hate that as I like to meet and greet them when coming on board, but the three week course has now started. I have a Lady Officer from Holland, a Lady Officer from England, one Gentleman officer from Holland, and two Gentlemen from Belgium (Dutch side). Four have been with the company before as cadets and one comes from a tanker company. It seems he has finally seen the light that there is more to look at than only oil and pipes.  Today we only had a short get-together as I do not believe in people in the class with jet lag  so tomorrow we will start in earnest.

During the day the weather turned for the worse and it started to rain and of course also during the Passenger Safety Briefing on deck. I prefer the guests to be on deck for a drill so they can actually see the boat, but with weather like this, it would be nicer to be happily inside in a public room. Autumn weather (although the rain is warm) does not look good in Florida.

For the coming days, we have to hope and think positive. There is a lot of rain around, but at the moment it looks like we will be calling at Grand Turk during the only sunny day they will have this whole cruise. So our positive thoughts must go to helping the weather forecast get better.

With more wind than expected the ms Westerdam dropped the hook at HMC. There was up to 25 knots of wind blowing from the South East. Not the best angle for a safe anchorage or a nice tender operation. But because the Westerdam has Azipods and thus can put a lot of power to push the ship against the wind, a good lee-side could be made on the portside and a safe shuttle service could be operated. It must have been a bit of a surprise for some of the guests, while happily sitting on a rock steady shore tender and then suddenly to be rolling considerably. That happened the moment the shore tender cleared the lee of the ship on the way to shore and it got caught in the waves rolling in from the South. Luckily the Tender skippers always make a careful announcement about everybody remaining seated while the tender is moving. If somebody was caught by surprise then it was not a surprise as a safety announcement was made.  The weather was nice and sunny and a good time could be had by all.

I was to continue my narration about safety in the kitchen.

Part II, if the fire is too big to handle by the crewmember / cook on location. If the crewmember comes to that conclusion then we go to containment and wait until the Fire Fighting Teams arrive to take over. This does not mean that a crewmember cannot do something. We have gadgets to protect the area and to extinguish a fire remotely.

As cooks never work alone, they can do several things at the same time. One can call the bridge and report. Another one can evacuate everybody to a safe distance and a 3^rd one can activate the fixed fire fighting equipment. All three things are trained, even the telephone call to the bridge. There is a protocol for calling as the bridge will ask questions. The better the crewmember is prepared, the quicker the call goes and the faster the bridge can respond. Thus when a crewmember calls, he/she has to give Name, Function, Location, Sort of emergency & what is happening and what Action has already been taken. This all together gives the officer on the bridge the time to form a mental picture about the situation which he/she can use to provide the proper information to the Emergency Response Teams that are being activated.

Activation buttons next to the emergency escape door. A push button for stopping all the equipment and a break glass button for ventilation stop.

Removing everybody to a safe area means that there is at least one Fire Screen Door between the area of the emergency/ fire and everybody without protective equipment. Guests and Crew alike. Preferably two Fire screen doors if we can manage it. As all our cooking areas are surrounded by steel bulkheads, the only week spot are open doors and serving hatches.  Closing the hatches and closing the access doors (Which are Fire Screen Doors) will ensure that the area affected will be completely surrounded by a wall of steel that will contain the fire for at least 60 minutes. Long enough for a Response Team to reach the area and do their job. It is a company requirement for a Response Team to be on location and ready to deploy into the affected area in 8 minutes from the moment the alarm sounded.

Then the cook in the area can activate the fixed fire fighting equipment. Cooking area’s on ships are so constructed that the activating equipment is located close to the Emergency Exit door which will be used when evacuating the area. So when everybody runs out, the only thing the last person out has to do is hit the buttons and then close the door.

Not a very exciting photo except for a mariner. High pressure water mist nozzles in the ceiling. This extinguishes every fire.

The buttons that are being pushed are: The emergency stop of all power supplies. The activation button of the HI-Fog. (This is a very fine water mist system which is sprayed under high pressure into the area and is very effective in extinguishing fires. Even big engine room fires.)  The shutdown of all ventilation. Then we have CO2 available in case there is a fire in an extraction hood above the cooking areas.  By the time the Firefighting teams arrive, most likely they do not have to do much anymore except checking if the fire is really out and ensuring there is no Reflash and then make the area safe for entry again.

This was the last port call of our cruise and nearly all guests are going home. As the Westerdam does the same cruise every week, we have very few back to back cruisers because there is nothing new to see.  The coming cruise is the Thanks Giving Cruise which is a real family cruise. We are getting extra Club HAL staff on board to look after the large number of children for the coming week.  I will have my own “children” to look after as my school class will be boarding tomorrow.

We will arrive early in Port everglades and as it is a normal call the whole circus of change over day will start at 07.00 hrs. in the morning. Weather forecast for tomorrow: Partly Cloudy skies 84oF / 29oC and a gentle breeze.

For those going home, it is going to be busy at the airport as apart from ourselves, we have the Oasis of the Seas in, the Seabourn Odyssey, The Independence of the Seas and also the Emerald Princess;  which together will be landing approx. 16,500 guests if they all sailed full.

The wind ensured that the rain stayed away and the guests had a sunny day at sea. We had following winds which made the relative wind on deck just pleasant with 12 knots. The ship is running at 18 knots which means that the true wind is at least 30+ knots. When I had a good look at the waves at lunch time it looked like it was blowing at least 35 knots and sometimes more. That is a nice gale. Those winds create waves and if they have been there for a while there is also swell and we have that swell three quarters on the stern. This is the most unpleasant angle to have swell at. You can get that nasty cork screw motion. But with our speed, we are “surfing” most of it away and we only have occasionally a little roll or indication that we are in open waters. The swell angle is just enough towards the beam for the stabilizers to still get a good grip on the waves. At least most of the time.

The route takes us exactly in the opposite direction as from the beginning of the cruise. Late last evening was sailed past San Juan and just before lunch time we came abeam of Grand Turk Island, but not close enough to see much. Then late this evening we will come in the vicinity of the Grand Bahama Bank and we will dive in between the islands to approach Half Moon Cay from the South as it is located on the West side of San Salvador Island.

Thus today is a full sea day and the ship provides all of the Holland America line cruise activities. On a seven day cruise we do not have much time to entertain the guests as most of the time they are ashore and today being the last sea day we have to make up for it. If a guest wants to follow and partake in the complete program today, then he/she might need another cruise to catch their breath again.

This is part of the staff of the Main Kitchen, which stretches on the Westerdam over two decks.

I relieved the Training Officer from a number of trainings today, which are all related to initial actions in case something happens. First Response Training it is called.  95% of all emergencies on board are solved by the quick and correct action of a crewmember. Be it extinguishing a small fire, or helping a choking guest with the Heimlich maneuver; whatever it is a small quick response prevents something from being a small challenge to becoming a big problem. The most dangerous area on board, apart from the Engine Room is the kitchen.  To have a fire you need Oxygen, Material/fuel and Heat. All three are present in abundance in any cooking area. And we have some very large cooking areas.

This is part of the main kitchen, the soup kitchen. To the left is one of the fat fryers we always worry about.

Because the equipment varies from ship to ship and the cooks also rotate through the various kitchen areas, it is important that we refresh their knowledge on a regular basis. All Cooks know what to do in an emergency at least the basic principles. Try to extinguish the fire if it is not too big; phone the bridge, evacuate the area and close as many doors as you can. But we have a lot of equipment available to counter a fire and to ensure that everything available is used properly, you need training.

The biggest danger is a Deep Fat Fryer. The hot oil is almost at a temperature were it can ignite itself and if that happens the flames flare up and can spread very quickly. Certainly if you have a moving ship.

The training goes as follows for such a fire:

Small fire basic instructions: use fire blanket, use CO2 extinguisher, use powder extinguisher, and do not use water. When the fire is out, call the bridge to report. What is a small fire?  Such a size that you are comfortable with to extinguish yourself. And then we simulate using the equipment to do it.

What is a big fire: you are not comfortable to do it yourself. What we do then I will explain tomorrow.

Thus tomorrow we arrive at Half Moon Cay and we will be the only ship. Which means there will be plenty of space for everybody.  The weather forecast (at least for the inhabited island next door) calls for partly cloudy skies with a gentle breeze and temperatures of 27oC or 81o F. It should be a beautiful day to end the cruise with.

Today we are in St. Thomas and although we always call it that, it is officially Charlotte Amalie, and the area we are docking in is Crown Bay.  When I first came to the island in the early 80’s it was still a submarine base for the US navy.  They left somewhere in the late 80’s and then it was decided to redevelop the area as a cruise terminal for the overflow of cruise ships. With the ships getting larger and the length of the pier at Havensight (West Indian Dock Company Pier) being limited, more and more ships had to anchor or were forced to have different calling schedules.  Carnival Corporation invested in the dock and allocated it primary for the use of Holland America and Princess. It is of course also used by other companies, including Carnival.

Crown Bay on full house day. The red roofs in front of the ships is the little shopping centre. In the far distance Havensight with three mega liners alongside.

Holland America is parking it ships here now permanently and the dock can take two large ships. Today we were by ourselves and the captain decided to dock nose in at the north side. (He was probably pushed by the Staff Captain as it was boat drill time today and the sb. boats had to go down. The portside boats get their chance in San Juan which is nearly always sb. side alongside)  Also coming in to dock has two options as Crown  Bay is laying behind Water Island and you can come in/leave via the West Gregory channel or the East Gregory channel.

Crown Bay in the shelter of the island.

Which one you pick depends on your arrival maneuver. If you are planning to dock stern in, it normally works best to come in from the West, overshoot the dock and then go astern alongside. If you are planning to go nose in, then the East approach works better as it is a straight shot in. When you leave it is just going astern, bring the bow over to port and open sea is right there.  Today we were alone at Crown Bay but Havensight was full with the Freedom of the Seas, the Norwegian Gem and the Norwegian Spirit. Altogether bringing 8000 eager shoppers ashore. So maybe it is not such a bad idea of being in Crown Bay, it is a lot quieter there. There are also shops and the open air island taxi’s run very frequently for those who feel the need to go to downtown.

While the guests were running ashore, 25% of the crew went on exercise. As blogged before, all crew has to be trained during a monthly cycle and this normally means they get one training and then a drill in this one month’s time period. During the training – drill the officers take the time to explain and exercise everything, either to teach the crewmember or to refresh. Then when the months cycle comes to an end there is the drill-drill where everything has to go smooth and fast without any help or explanation. Today was training time and then things are being taken very slowly as for most crewmembers messing around with lifeboats is not their daily job. Normally they are focused on passenger services, either front of the house or back of the house.

I am starting to gear up for my school class which will be joining this coming Fort Lauderdale. This week I am also doing some training for the regular crew and some audit work but the main reason for my being here on the Westerdam is the Nautical Excellence Class. To my amazement I found three of my previous students here on board. One from the December 2014 class on the Rotterdam and two from my last class on the October Rotterdam class. Makes sense I suppose as they are just in the cycle of being on the ships. Those of the March Noordam class joined their ships in April and May and are now on leave.

We sail from St. Thomas at 17.00 hrs. and will spend tomorrow at sea, retracing our steps back towards Florida. But we have one final stop to make and that is a call at Half Moon Cay, our private island. We were lucky with the weather today although mainly overcast, it remained dry in Crown Bay. What will come in the next 36 hours is a bit of a guess as the frontal system is still here but it has cleared the Bahamas area. So in principle we should have sun shine and if the weather develops as forecast the winds should die down to a gentle breeze. That is always nice if there are two ships in, as you anchor at HMC quite close to each other.

Due to the distance from Grand Turk we cannot arrive here much earlier than noon time in San Juan and that is what we did.  We arrived at the pilot station at 10.30am and were docked an hour later. Official arrival time is noon time but most captains try to be a little bit earlier to ensure that the clearance time needed by the authorities is not eating into the shore time of the guests. It worked out this time and just after 12 noon there was the dong-dong for all ashore that is going ashore.  Already in port was the Norwegian Gem and the Aida Vita.  The Navigator of the Seas came in around 2 pm. Not a bad day for those earning their money in tourism. Roughly just under 11,000 guests going ashore.

The Aida bike tour gathering. I wonder how the local drivers will cope with such a throng of bikes. Not a usual sight in San Juan.

The Aida Vita is docked next to us and we could see their bicycle shore excursion going off. All Aida ships have bikes on board, some of them have over 200 and it is wildly popular among the Germans.  They do biking tours in every port as far as I know, maybe with the exception of Russia. I find it fascinating to see this, especially as the whole thing is organized with German “Grundlichkeit” or thoroughness. They have an official “Fahrrad Meister” on board. This is a function you could translate into bicycle manager but it is much more as the German word “Meister” also encompasses the quality of being an expert. This function is responsible for the whole operation in regards to the bikes. Going off the ship, back on the ship and the tour in-between. I assume that there is also a dedicated bicycle repairman on board as with so many bikes it is not something an engineer can do just on the side.

When the ship docks, all these bikes have to be brought ashore and I have seen them doing 150 bikes in 10 minutes. As it was such a startling sight to see these bikes pouring out at such a high tempo from the ships break door, I walked over (this was in Bergen Norway about two years ago) and asked how this worked so well. The answer was, we train. So they had dedicated training to carry 150 bikes ashore in 10 minutes to ensure that the gangway was not unduly blocked and the tours could leave on time.  Just amazing.

The port has a narrow entrance but a large central basin which branches off to the various dock areas,

San Juan is a fairly easy port to enter, with just one challenge, the wind. The port is under the constant influence of the Trade Wind, which when enhanced by a weather front, can easily blow up to wind force 8. The problem is that wind is full on the ps. beam when entering the port and full on the sb. beam when docking.  When the wind is pushing you off track the course compensation you need to apply makes it sometimes look as if you are entering port under a totally wrong angle. The bow is aiming straight for the Fortress on the eastern shore and the middle of the ship is on track in the fairway. It makes life a bit more interesting but it can scare the guests who are watching the approach.

Today we had about 30 knots of easterly winds in open water, about 25 knots when we passed the Fortress at the entrance and then it came down to between 10 to 15 knots in the harbor. So not much of a problem for a powerful ship such as the Westerdam and we docked without much of issue at Pier 4 West.  San Juan has a number of dedicated docks for cruise ships.  Pier one is mainly used as an overflow and for the smaller ships, Pier two is currently not there, Pier three is for the mega liners and Pier four is for everything which fits in and that was us as well today.

The weather was clearing up and the sun came out. There was still a lot of rain in the air but it was mainly hanging over the Forest to the south. Tomorrow might be a different story as there is a band of rain clouds in the area and thus Ch. Amalie, St Thomas might offer a rainy shopping day.  That port is just around the corner and therefore we can leave tonight at 11 pm. Even then it only takes about 12 knots to get there for a normal arrival time. I hope it will be dry, at least in the port as rain, even warm rain, is not much fun and most of the crew has safety drill tomorrow and standing on deck in the rain is even less fun.

It was not a very nice morning when we approached the island. Overcast, windy and rainy.  The rain and the wind eased off later but the clouds stayed. The dock is located on the SW side of the body of the Grand Turk Island which puts it in the lee side of the island. Thus the island protects it from the ocean swell and it should help with reducing the wind as well and create a lee. Unfortunately the island is as flat as can be, so there is not much lee side to enjoy. For centuries the main source of income was harvesting salt from the sea by means of salt plains and you can only have salt plains if the surface is flat and preferably can be put under water when needed.  Luckily the wind was dead east and with the Pier only under a slight angle from the East it did not cause much of a problem for docking the Westerdam.

The Noordam was the first ship docking at the new pier in 2006. Note how small the dredged area is around the dock and how near the deep water is near the stern.

Although the ship has ample power to deal with adverse winds (read wind on the beam) there is not much room to drift when coming in as they did not dredge very widely around the dock. Barely two ships widths of room to come in and that gives only 32 meters extra to play wide and that is not that much.  So the captains concern is always where the ship is in perspective to this dock; how close are we to the closing line of the markers on the sb. side. And thus the officer parked on the wing at the not- docking side keeps a close eye on whether he still sees the beacons open, closing or closed (which means……… if you see them in line, you are on the edge)

They built the dock out as far as they could, as far as the shallow water reached. The end of the dock is almost at the edge of where the rim of the island falls away into the abyss which is 3000 feet down.  The last part of the dock is only a catwalk to each of the mooring bollards. This is not a problem for the linesmen and the ropes but it can be a problem for putting out the gangway. On the Vista Class ships the gangway is preferably at the amidships staircase as there is the largest handling area for the Scanners and for people to wait. The forward staircase is also possible but it is all a little bit tighter there for traffic control.

The central square of the Resort village. It is open for general public as well.

Going more forward to put the amidships gangway on the main part of the dock means the ship has to go as much forward as possible. For the draft this is possible but when they constructed the pier they did not put as many bollards on the pier as we as captains would have liked. Thus with the nose further in, the ropes are more vertical than what we prefer them to be. The longer the ropes, the lesser the angle with the vertical and the more weight they can carry before they will snap.  Not that they are likely to snap as they can carry /hold an awful lot of weight, but more length/less angle  is better. Thus the docking location for the ropes is also something which the captain has to take into consideration for the docking plan.  If you are expecting very windy weather during the day, then putting out the lines in the best possible way becomes extremely important.

Centre piece of the exhibition, a not completely life size model of the landing capsule. On an island where nothing happens this splash must have made a big impact, to generate such a set-up.

Today we had only 20 knots of wind blowing under a slight angle and thus the line configuration was not of critical importance hence we used the center gangway and staircase.  I walked ashore briefly to see what they had built here through the years and the dock /resort village is similar to other places in the Caribe. Big Duty Free, a nice beach, a nice pool, plenty of Water sports and several Diamond stores.  What they did have as well was a little exhibition about the Mercury Space program in the 1960’s. Close to Grand Turk was the area where John Glenn splashed down when he returned after being the first American in Space.    And they made a nice little open air exhibition out of it.

John Glenn is also world famous on Grand Turk Island.

We sailed at 3 pm. and will now spend the night and tomorrow morning at sea, before arriving at San Juan at 1 pm. for an afternoon and late evening stay. There are supposed to be at least two other cruise ships in port, the Norwegian Jem and the Navigator of the Seas. Weather will get better, at least for the day, with partly cloudy skies, temperatures of 86oF / 30oC and a regular Trade Wind breeze.

They have a whole series of posters with the information about the Mercury Space Program and it is very nicely done.

Most of the time there are more ways to get to a destination, especially if there are islands in the way. So also for the Great Bahama Banks.  They form a formidable barrier for everybody who has to go from Florida to the Caribbean.  Only a hover craft might be able to go directly, hovering over the water the banks and the reefs but anything which floats and sits in the water has to find a way through it or around it. For the cruise ships there are only two choices, either via the north sailing between Freeport and Nassau or completely around it via the Old Bahama Channel in the south.

It all really depends on a few logical reasons of which route the ship will take. Distance and Weather. The shorter the distance, the less fuel we need and there we go. Except if the weather is bad, then the Captain has to make a decision taking into consideration how bad the weather will be and how much it will affect the Guests; how much faster we have to cover the extra distance or how much later he is willing to arrive. To put it bluntly: is the final destination worthwhile dealing with a rocking ship for a while or not?

This is what the captain thought of yesterday before leaving port as well. In this case the decision was not as difficult as the weather out there was not that bad. The weather front brought rain but not much swell and the ship would move (give me a ship which does not move at all) but not considerably so.  Thus this left only the last question, distance.

The north – red route – is a little bit shorter than the south – blue route.

And then it depends on where you go.  For East Caribbean Cruising, the Bahamas are the top end of a triangle with the long point reaching San Juan. Thus from Ft. Lauderdale if you sail to the Northern islands of the East Caribbean going north of the Bahamas is the shorter distance.  We are going to Puerto Rico and St Thomas and we follow the shorter route. We just make a small deviation in order to call at Grand Turk Island.

We are not the only one. The Navigator of the Seas is heading for Labadee, RCI’s private resort on the North West side of Haiti and she is off our port bow, slowly gaining as she has a slightly longer distance to travel.  She will catch up with us again in San Juan, arriving roughly at the same time.

The Turks and Caicos Islands are at the end of the Grand Bahama Bank but somewhat on the side.

The Turks and Caicos Islands are part of the Bahama chain of islands but together with Great Inagua Island they are on the edge and does not really form an integral part of the Grand Bank system. When looking at the map there is a larger stretch of water which separates them from the other islands compared to the real Bahama Islands.  Maybe because of this it is that they are not part of the Bahamas but are a British Overseas Territory or a Dependency with a Governor appointed by the British Crown. But although it is nice to be British, you also have to live, so the USA dollar is the local currency.

For years we tried to call here but there was only a small dock and we had to operate a tender service.  That was fraught with issues and the swell often made it impossible and the ship sailed away in vain, with a lot of unhappy campers on board. The island did not have the money to invest in a larger tender dock with a suitable breakwater and thus the cruise business passed by. This status quo lasted until about 6 years ago when Carnival decided to put in a Pier and a small Resort. The island is at a perfect distance for a cruise ship call as it is exactly one day sailing away from Florida regardless of whether you take the North route or the South route.

Now there is a nice long Pier which can handle two large cruise ships and a resort has been constructed near the beginning of the cruise pier creating a nice stop for the guests who otherwise would never have visited Grand Turk Island.

Weather for tomorrow: Partly Cloudy with a chance of rain. Temperatures 84oF / 29oC.  If the frontal system gets a move on tonight we might still have a nice day tomorrow.

So I made the transfer to the Westerdam from the Zuiderdam leaving in Willemstad. There are several ways of getting back to Florida, either via Atlanta or to Miami by plane and then further by car. The office chose for the last option and thus I ended up in Miami and from there in a hotel in Weston. The company normally has us staying either in a hotel in Miami or in Fort Lauderdale, but today we had several large ships in port and they all had crew changes and thus the most obvious hotels were full and we ended up in an hotel in Weston.  I have now learned that Weston is about half way between Miami and Fort Lauderdale so this morning we travelled the remaining distance to Ft. Lauderdale.

The most amazing thing today was that I bumped into the same security officer whom I have known since 1981 and then he was already on the job for a few years. This year he is on the port security for 38 years and runs Pier 26 and that means he is always attached to Holland America.

As explained before, my main purpose here on board will be to train a class of 6 new navigators who will then fly out to their respective ships or might still enjoy a Christmas at home before the real life starts. It all depends on the scheduling of the Human Resources department.   They will come on board next Saturday giving me a week to prepare myself to brief the ship and do a few things for the ship as well.

The Westerdam is on a 7 day cruise cycle and thus we will be back in Fort Lauderdale every seven days.  Today we had a busy day, hence all the Hotels were full, as it was a Saturday. We had in port the Navigator of the Seas, the Oasis of the Seas, the Emerald Princess, the Carnival Conquest and our own Westerdam. Because the ships are from different companies and have different sizes, they all dock at their own docks, if and when possible. Princess is normally at Berth 04, Holland America at 26 and the Oasis at 18. When there are more ships in then it goes by size and what fits where. When I came here with the Prinsendam we were always at 04, which is a small berth and the Prinsendam just fitted in.  So two ships where sent to where they fitted. For the remainder of the season the Carnival Conquest will be at 19 and the Navigator of the Seas at berth 29. Berth 29 is the least attractive berth, at least for the captains as you have to back up such a long distance up the IntraCoastal Water Way.  That is one issue but if the ships at Pier 26 and 25/24 are delayed then you have to wait until they are gone as it is really tight to get around the ship at Pier 26, if you are a big boy. And the Navigator is a very big boy.

This cruise we will first have a day at sea, followed by Grand Turk Island, then San Juan (afternoon and evening), St Thomas ( full day), a day at sea again and then last but not least at Half Moon Cay. Back on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale and then sail the same day on the same schedule. The Westerdam is under the command of Captain Rens van Eerten who I have known since we sailed together in the 90’s on the previous Westerdam (II). He went ashore for a while to be a pilot in England, where the family lives, and then he came back to the company. When I sailed with the Prinsendam out of Tilbury I had him once on board as a pilot. It is still a small (Holland America) world.

Today the weather was very rainy and I hope that this weather will move away as this is a beachy – sunshine cruise and having rain clouds all the time would just not do. At the moment it does not look great so we all have to send out positive –vibes to get it changed.

We will sail today at 4 pm. and then go East to get to Grand Turk Island skirting the Bahama Banks on the north side in the Atlantic Ocean. The other option is to go south via the Old Bahama Channel north of Cuba but that is a longer route. So this time we will not have the chance to see Cuba in the rain. The weather is not supposed to move much in the next 24 hours, before it will start to dissipate on Monday.

The passing of hurricane Kate caused some destabilization in the Caribbean and that turned the wind slightly from an Eastern Trade wind to something coming out of the South East. It resulted in the peculiar situation of having a ship which on occasion bumped into the waves. A sort of occasional pitch without rhythm or sequence. Normal on this course (SE) the wind is on the beam and so are the waves and then the stabilizers take care of the movement.

Note the ropes of both ships going over the pier to large inland bollards

The next peculiar thing caused by the wind was that it was blowing from the “wrong side” on arrival. Normally the wind is straight over the island and the whole bollard setup which keeps the ships safely alongside with the mooring lines has been designed accordingly. Long lines with bollards set inland to keep the ship with their portside tightly alongside against an overland wind which can go up to 50 knots in rain squalls. But today the wind is just on the starboard bow and it pushes the ships against the dock instead of trying to blow them off.

Note the outline on the chart screen showing the overhang of the Jewel of the Seas.

We are not the only ship in port, there is also an Apartment of the Seas, the Jewel of the Seas to be correct, which is docked ahead of us. Both ships at the one long Pier and it just fits.  The Jewel would have been in an overhang if the Port authorities would not have installed a dolphin in front of the pier and thus the Jewel could hang over and still have good lines out against the wind.

The ship is staying here until 23.00 hrs. tonight as part of the company policy to offer one late evening call during a cruise longer than 7 days. We try it on seven days as well but it does not always work out that way. Oranjestad on Aruba is a good port to do this as there is something to do for the guests in the evening should they wish so, or stay away instead of having to hurry back at 16.30 hrs. Most shops stay open, restaurants there are a-plenty, and there is a big casino as well. Plus after sunset, when the temperature gets a bit more reasonable it is also just plain nice to walk along the boulevard.  For the crew and some of the experienced Dutch Guests there is the Pilgrims journey to the Paddock. The restaurant near the pier with the cow on the roof. Dutch fast food and cold beer to feel as if back in Holland for a few hours. There is (at least there was last year) a Dutch Pancake restaurant but that is a good 15 minute walk.

Aruba is a bit of a strange situation for us as Dutch people. It used to be Dutch as one of our Colonies in the area (A.B.C islands; Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) and then it went its own way with a Status Aparte. This means the island runs itself although it still has a Governor who re-presents the Kingdom of the Netherlands. A sort of Commonwealth as the British have. Some of the other islands have much closer ties to the Netherlands and are more financially intertwined. So although Aruba has its Dutch ties its focus is less on the motherland and more on North America where most of the Tourists are coming from.  Apart from oil, Tourism is the major factor in the islands economy and there are more tourists coming from North America than there are from Europe.

The Jewel of the Seas and the Zuiderdam at the Oranjestad Cruise terminal. (Courtesy Lesley Schoonderbeek who has spy camera’s everywhere to keep an eye on her hubby………….LoL)

We sail tonight towards Willemstad Curaçao  which is just around the corner, hence that we can sail so late.  I will be transferring tomorrow to the Westerdam and for that I have to fly back to Florida. So tomorrow there will be no blog as I believe not many readers will be interested in seeing a description of the waiting room in Willemstad Airport.  It should be a similar day as today so I will not have to put my winter coat to leave the ship.