Another nice day to savor. Today we observed a long running swell, which was a little higher than predicted and came in under the angle of about 45o on the sb. bow. If that happens then you get a little bit of pitching (bow up and down movement) and a little bit of rolling (sideways movement). For the rolling we have stabilizers but for the pitching nothing has been invented yet. The angle of the swell never remains exactly the same, so we had varying degrees of one or the other. But it was all minimal and I had to stand still and concentrate to feel it. (And in the meantime being overtaken in full speed by guests hurrying to breakfast). The forecast for the next 24 hrs. is also good again although it seems, based on the two day experience since leaving Funchal) that the swell is a little bit higher than then Storm wave forecast gives. But if you look at the wave chart there is not much to worry about.

North Atlantic waves today. Being an Irish fisherman would not be my favorite job today.

Today I was asked and not for the first time, the Nieuw Statendam has 8 meters under water and more than 35 meters above water, why do we not fall over? Easy to ask, not so easy to answer because when you look at the ship, she is indeed very high.

This is a shot from the Ships trial trips in August. As you can see perfect weather to test a ship out. (Photo courtesy Holland America / Fincantieri)

Going back to the old days, the old sailing ships with their high masts and all the wind force on the sails they did not fall over either. They had weight, either cargo or ballast deep in the hull that kept the ship upright. So in principle a cruise ship should not fall over either. Secondly there is the hull. It is watertight and it creates buoyancy and that keeps a ship floating. As long as there is more buoyancy, which pushes the ship up, than there is gravity which pushes the ship down, the ship will stay afloat. There is of course a moment when the two forces cancel each other out and it only needs a little push for gravity to win and there the ship goes.  It sinks.

You can try this with a tin can in the bath tub. No water inside and the can will bob on the water and it floats. Start pouring water inside, this is called ballasting, and the tin can will settle. The right amount of water and there will be a perfect balance between sitting in the water (not bobbing up and down anymore) and not falling over either. That is what the stability officer does on board, figuring out the most perfect balance.

This is the tank layout of the S class ships. Blue is what is normally under water and purple is the part of the ship that is watertight to keep water from coming in. With our ships that is where the blue hull goes to white. In the double bottom we have Potable water, ballast water and fuel to keep the ship nice and steady in the sea.

If you keep filling the tin can with water then eventually the tin can will sink. Gravity has won from buoyancy. It is not only gravity that has influence, wind can do it as well, pushing against the superstructure and helping the gravity.  Now cruise company’s (read the guests) want more and more balconies and they are not good for wind. With a flat wall it can already be bad but some of the wind is deflected up or down. With balconies the wind “bites” into those little boxes and is not deflected anymore. Very nasty.

Apart from wind, ice is also not good for stability. It adds weight and if the design of the ship = stability does not takes this into account then things can go horribly wrong.

Thus we need a solution if a ship still needs to have more decks to have more balconies. You can add weight, in the low part of the ship, but then the draft increases. Nowadays we want to keep the ships draft around 8 to 8.5 meters otherwise there will be a lot of cruise ports (such as in the Caribbean) which will become a real problem. The other solution is to go sideways; make the ship wider. Then the weight gets distributed over a larger area, that improves buoyancy and the ship does not have to sink in that far. We increase the buoyancy. And that is what is done nowadays. (Try it again in the bath tub by comparing an oblong tin can, versus a round tin can of the same volume. You will need less water to make the oblong tin can stable.

As a result the Pinnacle Class is wider than the Vista Class because the Koningsdam and the Nieuw Statendam are higher. As a result the Vista Class fits in the old Panama Locks and the Pinnacle Class does not. A lot of the new cruise ships do not fit in those locks anymore. In Amsterdam they are building a new lock, the biggest one in the world, to ensure that larger cruise ships can still visit the City.

Another shot of the Nieuw Statendam on her trials last August. (Photo Courtesy: Holland America / Fincantieri)

How wide you go with the ship is basically a company decision. The wider you go, the more spare stability you have and the more steady the ship is. But you still have to go into port and harbor entrances are not always that wide either, and it also increases the resistance through the water and that costs more fuel. So a compromise is always needed. The hull form of the Pinnacle Class ships is very steady and a delight for any stability officer as there is very little need to play around with ballast to keep an optimum situation. The Nieuw Statendam is basically stable at all times.

Until so far my lecture for today……………………………………..

Tomorrow is another day at sea, with very little change. Things are looking very good.

We made a good start of the crossing, there is hardly any wind and only a very low swell running of about 6 -8 feet in height, and that swell got slightly less during the day as well. We have partly cloudy skies with a mix of Cumulus and stratus clouds. They indicate that far away things are not exactly happy, but here all is well in the world. Madeira is at a latitude that is slightly higher than Fort Lauderdale and thus we are sailing on a course of 262o which is just 8 degrees less than due west.  As we have 8 sea days to play with the ship is sailing along at a sedate speed of 16 knots and that gives everybody a comfortable ride.  Cruising is often about seeing the world but lots of cruise guests also enjoy the sea days when the ship becomes a destination in itself. The Nieuw Statendam has a lot to offer so I do not think that people will be bored while on board. One of our old captains used to say: “Doing Nothing is also doing Something” and I saw a lot of our guests doing exactly that.

Nasty things on the North Atlantic. This Is the prediction for the next 24 hrs. plus. As long as we stay out of the light green, we will have a smooth crossing. (Courtesy: www.Stormsurf.com)

I am doing my best to help out so I gave a little lecture about the High Days of Trans-Atlantic Travel which in my opinion was between 1900 and 1960 when the airplane became dominant on the North Atlantic. (In 1958 as many people traveled by plane as by ship and by 1959 the plane had won the battle). Part of that Heyday was the push by governments to have their national predominant ships on the North Atlantic. The fastest, the most luxurious, often statements of what economic capability a country had. The way the ships were built, the lavishness of the interiors full with national art and the way they were run, was all about National Pride. Great Britain, France, Italy and Germany were the countries battling it out. The Blue Riband, denoting the fastest ship on the North Atlantic went from ship to ship and thus from country to country. Some company’s were proud to fly it (French Line) and some company’s (Cunard) officially ignored its existence but kept building fast ships nevertheless.

This is one of our big ships, the ss Rotterdam (IV) from 1908. This painting is now in the archives of the Rotterdam Maritime Museum. (Photo courtesy Schaart Photographers)

Holland America was never much involved with this. The Netherlands was a small country in Europe and it’s size as an Empire came from the Far East and the Caribbean, not from its location in Europe. Still we built big and luxurious ships but the ships had to pay for themselves as the Dutch Government was not throwing money away just for the fun of showing off. So while the Blue Riband might bring a lot of attention, it often needed a lot of money from the national government to keep these ships going as they burnt excessive amounts of coal and later fuel.

The exponential increase in power needed to make a ship go faster and faster.

Ships speed versus power needed is not a straight increase, but is a curve that gets steeper and steeper the fast you want to go. Our Nieuw Statendam does 16 knots on 2 engines, but would need all 4 engines to reach the 22.5 – 23 knots she is rated for, so two more engines of the same size to gain 6 more knots in speed. Hence the Old Ocean Liners needed 160,000 horsepower to get to the Blue Riband speed of 30 to 35 knots.

The final Blue Riband holder, the ss United States, was rumored to be able to go over 40 knots and her boilers could produce 240,000 Hp.  That gave a fuel bill of over an 1000 tons a day. That ship was 54000 tons in volume while your Nieuw Statendam is 99,000 tons and runs on a daily consumption in the region of 80 to 90 tons depending on the number of engines going.

The ss United States. The last true holder of the North Atlantic Speed record. She is still out there. Docked in Pennsylvania and maybe she will be used for something again in the future.

The only way to reduce the need for that power is to reduce the resistance in the water and hence the invention of  hydrofoils, catamarans and related ships. So since the United States, three of those boats have gone faster over the North Atlantic and claimed the blue Riband. But I do not agree with that as the quest for North Atlantic speed was in conjunction with carrying paying passengers and mail across the pond and not just for going for the record with a modified speed boat which would never commercially operate on that service.

This is currently the fastest commercial craft that sailed the North Atlantic. But is is not an ocean liner and she never was employed there as such.

But it is all relative. The ss United States could have done Funchal to Fort Lauderdale in just over 3 days, while we are going to take 8. But then we are not in a hurry as this is a cruise and not a Bus service to get to the next business meeting on time. As long we get their by the 19^th. it is all fine by me, as I have a flight home that day.

Weather: looks good, smooth seas and little winds.

Last night we went an hour back so we are now on English time but also on Portuguese time. Although Madeira is really just in another time zone, it is kept in the same time zone as the mother country. Hence the sun did not rise very early this morning when the ship arrived. But sailing into Funchal in the dark is very nice as well, as the houses of the town are clustered around the port and go all the way up the mountain. At night they might switch most of the lights off, but Madeirans also have breakfast and then the lights in the houses come on again. Plus we had the whole day to admire Funchal in daylight anyway.

A Google earth view of the port from a day with two cruise ships inside. One looks like a Princess ship (shopping trolley Class) and the other one a Celebrity ship. We were docked all the way in with our nose almost at the bus stop. (Blue square) The Ex Westerdam was across at the berth where it says CR7.

Funchal is a nice port and a sheltered port from most of the North Atlantic weather as the large mountain range shields it from what blows out there. Only when the storm comes too much to the South or South-South –West then the bad weather reaches into the port and ships cannot get in. In my whole career I think I had to cancel only once as there was too much swell running into the port, to stay safely alongside. Even when docked all the way in, there where we are now.  Funchal throws a very good New Year’s Eve Fireworks party and sometimes 7 or 8 cruise ships (mainly from England) then gather here for the event. And then it is keeping fingers crossed that there is no storm ranging which prohibits the fireworks to go off and/or the ships to remain drifting in position.

While I was figuring out how to stop a fire in the Main Galley by pushing shut down buttons in the right sequence. I saw something white coming by and was then delighted to see the Marella Dream in port. Why because she is my old ship the Westerdam (II) which we had in service from 1988 to 2004. Built as the Homeric for Home Lines, she came to Holland America in 1988 when HAL bought Home Lines out. That company had two ships, the Homeric and Atlantic. The Homeric was a beautiful ship so we kept it, the Atlantic was of less interest as it was not built that well and hence the company chartered it out and later sold it. The last thing I heard about her was that she lay half sunk in an Indian port.

I was 2nd Sr. Officer on the Westerdam (II) when we returned to her builder in Papenburg Germany for the stretch. You can easily see the added section as the windows — in the middle — are larger.

When we bought the Homeric we also found out that the ship has been intended to be bigger but as she had to fit in Front Street Hamilton, Bermuda, that did not happen. So Holland America grabbed the change to have her stretched as we were battling Carnival at that time and needed to be as cost effective as we could, and larger ships give economies of scale. While the Homeric with 42000 tons was already the biggest ship Holland America ever had; after the 100 feet stretch she went up to 52000 tons and remained the biggest ship in the fleet until the arrival of the S class. She was very well built and by use very well maintained, hence she is still out there. Holland America handed her over to Costa where she became the Costa Europa and then she ended up with Tui / Thomson as a package holiday ship for the English market, called the Thomson Dream. Here she was re-united with her former fleet mates the Noordam (III) and the Nieuw Amsterdam (III) who had also gone into Thomson charter. Last year I suddenly saw her in Greece as the Celestial Elysius but now she is back under the name Marella Dream as the Thomson Company rebranded itself under the Marella name.

A His & Hers ??? on Deck 3 aft ? Even doggies get the 5 star treatment with HAL.

While out on the deck, I also noticed the grass boxes for our Guide and Service dogs. I believe we have five on board for this crossing, including Tosca, the Dutch Blind Guide dog, who is well on her way to go over 400 days.  Normally the carpenter makes one big box, now we have two, so I am wondering if this is a HIS and HER box.  Would not be amazed as our crew does have a good sense of humor.

We sailed right on the dot of 17.00 hrs. and started our 8 day crossing to Fort Lauderdale. Of most interest is of course the “wobbly-ness” of the ocean. For the first 48 hrs.it looks as if we have good smooth seas with swell less than 10 feet. But the computer model forecasts another storm being generated at Cape Hatteras. That storm will not reach us but with the forecast track, we might just skirt the 14 feet swell boundary and that we could feel. But it will all depend on the angle of the waves to how the stabilizers can deal with it.

Yesterday in Malaga all the movers and shakers of our company left the ship, to return to Seattle and their daily chores, and the crew continued with their focus on making this a memorable maiden voyage or premiere cruise as marketing calls it. On board are 2019 guests and 1026 crew and that is about 40 crew over the regular Table of Personnel as there is still extra support on board to fine tune things and carry out last minute enhancements.  I think some of them are leaving tomorrow and the rest in Ft. Lauderdale which will include Yours Truly as nobody likes me around during Christmas as I cause drills to happen instead of Christmas songs.

Various ferry crossing while going through the Straits.

The bridge reported that things were very quiet in the Straits of Gibraltar last night with just the regular ferry traffic crossing the Straits. Ferries are normally easy to deal with. You know where they are going, you know they do not like to change course as that costs time, so if you yourself change course timely, even if it is not really you who has to, then you seldom have a problem. They are happy that they can keep their time table and yourself have made your own life a lot easier just by being a little bit proactive.

To keep those in check who have not learned this lesson yet, there are Vessel Traffic Separation Zones, our highways at seas which separate east and west bound traffic, and there is Tarifa traffic. This is a calling in and monitoring station which keeps an eye on all the traffic in the Straits and is located in the Spanish port of Tarifa. For the linguists among us, Tarifa gave us the word tariff, as it was a major tax collecting point in the entrance to the Mediterranean in the good old days.

The ships highways at sea. Inbound stays on the African side, outbound on the European side.

To “change course even when you do not have to” is also sort of the company’s safety philosophy and I hope also of the rest of the cruise industry. We carry humans on board and it is then all about minimizing risk. We do that with the ships itself and we also train our tender drivers this mantra and that is one of the reasons you see our tenders sometimes waiting for traffic while they really do not have to do that, as they have the right of way. But better safe than sorry. When our tender drivers are out there with their valuable loads of guests, the mantra goes:

Stop or turn away for: canoes, sailing boats, larger ships, tugboats, basically for anything of which you are not certain what they are going to do or who are much less maneuverable then you are. When you meet one of the tenders of your own ship, follow the Rules of the Road as you know that your colleague will do the same.

As you can see very nasty weather on the North Atlantic but we had to sail through a bit of that green stuff as we are on a south westerly course. The small wave field dissolved  late morning

Although I had predicted smooth seas, it did not turn out completely that way. They have a whopper of a storm in Western Europe at the moment: Schiphol / Amsterdam airport was closed for a while and the swell of that storm came a bit further south than the simulation of yesterday predicted. So instead of having 10 feet swell, what we normally do not notice, it just touched the 14 feet and that made the Nieuw Statendam move just a little. Not much but just enough to feel that she is a ship and not an apartment building. I do not think that it affected many guests, as at 07.00 hrs. this morning, when I went for breakfast the Lido was already in full swing.

When you make a North Atlantic crossing the captain can basically select out of three options: The straight line over the Globe, which is in reality a curved line as the World is round. This is called a Great Circle route and is the shortest as it follows the contours of the earth. Then you can follow the straight line in the chart, this is called a Rhumb line but it is a longer route. It is a number of miles longer as a flat chart can never give the same surface as a globe, due to the way the globe’s features are projected on this piece of paper. Because of the earth curvature it goes further south and it keeps you away further away from the bad weather of the North North Atlantic. Then the 3rd option is to follow the “flat water” route, the route advised by meteorologists. That route will take you much further to the South, sometimes very far to the south and is much longer. So the Captain has to decide what is best for the crossing. Smooth Seas where possible, low fuel consumption where possible, arrival on time for certain. But that is something for after Funchal.

We are now on a Rhumb line = straight line to Madeira and Funchal. Trying to do a Great Circle here would not bring any gains, as the distance it too short. So we head straight for Madeira. This island belongs with four other islands to Portugal but is located far to the south of the mother land; hence we can make this crossing with nice weather.

Weather for Funchal 67oF / 19oC, mainly Sunny and no wind, nor rain expected. Tomorrow we will look at the rest of the crossing.

Sailing into Malaga is one of the easier approaches in the Mediterranean. There is a wide entrance and you just follow the long break water in. The inner basin is wide as well as the port is sort of horse shoe shaped. The cruise terminals are on the starboard side, along the Eastern Breakwater. The cargo piers are mainly on the west side and the Marina and ferry docks at the top of the horse shoe close to the city itself. Although the city is not on top of the port as such. Some time ago I walked it once from this terminal and it was a good 20 minutes before I reached the first signs of civilization. (=Read Shops) I emphasize” from this terminal” as there are more and the last berth on the breakwater is another 10 minute walk from here.

The port of Malaga (Thank you Google Earth) the cruise ship in the photo is at the same dock we were at. And then the whole long breakwater pier is used for more cruise ships if needed.

We were at the best terminal and closest to the city. Whether that was because we are new or because we are the biggest one in port I do not know, but here we are. Behind us was the Mein Schiff 2, which is one of the older Celebrity ships from the 1990’s. TUI which is the owner is part of Royal Caribbean and so is Celebrity and they have also used the system of pushing their older tonnage to 3 star emerging markets.

That German emerging TUI market has exploded in the meantime and Tui / Mein Schiff is together with Aida a major player in the German market, is so successful that they have been building new ships. These are also called Mein Schiff and with the same numbering. That makes it a bit confusing as with one number going out another number is coming in.

On the other hand, Holland America is also quite good at it, with repeating the glorious names from the past.  If we forget the word “Nieuw” for the moment, then we are now talking about Statendam nbr 6.  (1898 Statendam, 1913 Statendam/Justicia, 1929 Statendam, 1957 Statendam, 1992 Statendam) Not much different than Mein Schiff 5, although I like a real name much better.

That Statendam name, is also a matter of deep discussion, as where is it coming from ?

An old Dutch chart with the indication where there is a Statendam – dam, drawn in the days that Dykes and Dams started to cluster all the islands into one country. This chart comes out of HALLO which is the magazine of the Association of Retired Holland America Line Employees. I do not think that it will come as a big surprise that we have a good number of them on board for the crossing. (Courtesy Mr. H Scheffer)

There is no city in the Netherlands with the name Statendam or a river with a name of “staten” or something similar. Also the HAL archives in Rotterdam are deadly silent. There is hardly anything in there about naming of ships at all, although the Board must have discussed these things.

Theory one: The Statendam was / is named after Staten Island in New York, to keep the balance between Dutch and American names. Theory two: the ship was named after The Hague, were we have the “Staten Generaal” which is the Dutch Parliament. Theory three:  named after a Dam which connected the islands of Goree and Overflakkee in the Netherlands, south of Rotterdam.  …………….. Sounds all very nice, but no proof…………………….

The Statendam IV leaving for an Alaska cruise in 1981. Note the waves in the funnel. This was my first ship when I joined Holland America back in 1981. Thus my career spans three Statendam’s, as I was captain of the Statendam V and am now Fleet Master on the Nieuw Statendam (VI ?) (Photo Courtesy Mr. DOT and I have no idea where I found this picture)

And now we have the “Nieuw” Statendam a name chosen to lay a link between our heritage = Statendam and to indicate that Holland America has chosen new directions in what it offers our guests; as is clearly visible in what we offer here on board the ship. Food options, entertainment options, Music Walk, etc. etc.  Also here there is a connection to a previous Statendam. When Holland America went full time cruising in the 70’s, the Statendam IV was the first one to be converted for cruising and the first one to carry the new house colors. The three waves especially chosen to show the world that: “Holland America was going to make waves in the Cruise Industry”. And that we did as also in the early 70’s the new ideas of the company had a major impact on the cruise industry.

Christmas trees on the Nieuw Statendam. It looks that they are setting up for the BB King rehearsal.

For those who are wondering if the Nieuw Statendam is also gearing up for Christmas, these are the Christmas trees in the BB King Jazz Blues Club. The doors to back stage are open giving a rare view to what goes on behind the scenes. Slowly but steadily there is more decoration coming but it takes time as it is a big ship and we only have two florists.

From Malaga we sail directly westwards to the Straits of Gibraltar and the Rock, which we hope to pass around 21.30 hrs. Then it is a straight course for a point south of Funchal. We had glorious weather today and that is set to continue.  A little bit cooler as we are in the open seas but I hope for high fifties / around 15oC in European speak and not much movement. The surf forecast gives nothing over 10 feet, so things are looking good for our first part of the North Atlantic crossing.

Ps. a thank you to the readers who wrote a reaction to the “big sailing boat” picture I published yesterday; now we know what it is. It is called “A”; and that raises the question, is using letters from the alphabet similar or different then using numbers to name a ship????

This Cartagena in Spain gave the name to Cartagena in Colombia during the days of the Spanish expansion into South America. Cartagena itself comes from Carthage, the once mighty City State across the sea which made the life of the Romans very difficult until they destroyed it. The great roman general, Scipio Africanus then renamed the place in Carthago Nova and eventually it became Cartagena. That is what I remember from my school days. More can be found no doubt on the internet.

We followed today in Scipio’s footsteps and sailed into Cartagena Bay at 06.30 hrs. This port is a favorite for many captains as it is so nice and sheltered. The break water keeps the swell out and the surrounding mountains are quite good at keeping the wind out. Both things they did today although there was not much wind out there to start with. We had a beautiful Spanish autumn day. We were also the only cruise ship in port and that made it even better.

Cartagena as per Google Earth. (Thank you) We are docked at the inner L shaped pier. And there is this large East /West Breakwater which keeps the swell out.

Cartagena is not only a cruise port, it has a large marina located inside the Cruise pier, and there is also a large naval presence and a shipyard which specializes in expensive yachts. There was one under construction right in front of our bow and I suppose it had to resemble a sailing ship but the hull was clearly constructed for a lot of luxury. Not my taste but if you have money to throw away at such things then why not, it supports the economy of Cartagena. I always consider owning a boat as if being married to two women; and the boat is often the more expensive one. I cannot afford to maintain two wives let alone deal with two mother-in-law’s, so I rent a boat if I feel the need.

I am not an expert in Sailing and motor yachts but I doubt if you can buy this one for under $ 50 mln.

There is also an outer harbor, sheltered by a large breakwater and this is the oil and cargo port which is even larger than the inner port where we are docked. But this port is a very good port to be in and if Holland America would ever consider this a port for an overnight stay then you would not hear me complaining.

Cartagena is totally different to Malaga where we will be tomorrow. Malaga has a very deep harbor but is also much more exposed to the elements. To protect the harbor they built a very long breakwater which doubles up as the cruise terminal. We are scheduled to dock all the way inside at the cruise terminal close to the city unless the Harbor master changes his mind.

To get to Malaga we have to sail for a night along the Spanish coast, and we have to stay a considerable distance away from that coast. Much more than what is needed to get from A to B, via the shortest distance. A number of years ago there were a few near tanker & other ship collisions in this area, mainly caused by ships who tried to cut the corner as much as they could to save fuel. Spain was not in the mood to have their beautiful beaches polluted by this corner cutting so they moved the shipping routes completely offshore. There where there is ample room to stay clear of each other and if something would happen the authorities would have sufficient time to take action. To make sure that everybody follows this compulsory route, there is a VTS monitoring station that makes a lot of noise if you do not behave.

Please note the blue dotted lines on the chart. That is the route we also have to follow, it is basically the regular route to Gibraltar. The Spanish Coast Guard is watching from a Radar Station close to San Jose at the cape and we are only allowed to  leave the route once well clear of the corner.

Long time ago in 2001 I was here with the old Noordam and we listened to a Chinese tanker being advised in Spanish that they were following the wrong course. Well Spanish is not high on the list of languages for Chinese citizens to learn so nothing happened. But also Spain has boats with guns on it, and it did not take long before a Coast Guard vessel came speeding out and went alongside this Chinese tanker. We were too far away to see if they really boarded but the Chinese must have gotten the message as my navigator advised me that the plot of the ship on the Radar screen was changing and the tanker was making a 90o turn to the south. Closely followed by the Spanish Coast Guard.

We might not speak Spanish but we know the rules and thus we will be good boys (and girls as we also have a female navigator) and sail nicely along the dotted line until we reach Malaga early tomorrow morning.

Weather for tomorrow: Very sunny with 66oF /19oF, no wind and 2% chance of rain in the afternoon.

We slipped through the Strait of Bonifacio early this morning and are now enjoying a glorious sunny day at sea. And it is a smooth sea; with a gentle to moderate breeze from the North East. Things are well in the world………… at least in our world. We are sailing on a straight South West course from the top of Sardinia down to the South East point of Spain and once there we will then follow the coast until we come to Cartagena pilot station.

A pleasant surprise on my bed last evening after turn down service.

Last night was the “Dutch Sinterklaas” celebration in the Netherlands. Santa Claus is derived from this children’s feast which the low Dutch immigrants brought with them in the 17^th. and 18^th century to the USA. With all the inaugural happenings going there was not much time to focus a little bit more on this very Dutch happening but those in the know got a Dutch chocolate letter in the cabin in the shape of the first letter of the first name. This instead of the regular good night chocolate.

The ship will now settle down into it regular routine, step by step, but below decks there is still a lot of sorting out going on, mainly to get the spare parts to their correct location. When a ship is delivered it comes with a standard amount of spare parts. In the same way as a car has a spare tire. On top of that there are a lot of extra items ordered by the ships complement. Items needed to keep the ship operational. So everybody is still unpacking boxes and sorting out the right location so it can be found back when needed.

Then there are the large lists of “little things to do”. Small things; and mainly things that make the operation go more smoothly and in accordance with the company standards and practices. As an example: during stand by the sailors wear helmets. This is compulsory and these helmets should be ready for use at all times and thus not removed from the mooring deck. Helmets need hooks to be hung on. But the shipyard does not install those hooks as it is not part of the new build specification. Thus the Deck machinist will weld those hooks on the forward and aft mooring decks. Once there, the Bo ‘sun will paint them against the rust and another task will be completed. And all those small tasks run into the hundreds.

The Aft boiler room. We have two boilers one in the Forward an one in the Aft Engine spaces. Both boilers are vertical and go up three decks into the engine casing. The red part is the boiler front where the boiler is fired up. We use boilers to make steam. The man in the blue coverall is one of the engine ratings busy with cleaning up what the Yard did not clean up. At least did not clean up to HAL standards.

I spent part of my day preparing for tomorrow’s Fire drill. It is compulsory to conduct a full emergency drill every seven days and we alternate the fire part between Engine spaces and Accommodation spaces. Last week I put the crew area on A deck forward on fire and now it will be the Aft Boiler Room. The engine room is the most dangerous space on board in case of a fire. There is a lot of combustible material and fuel around (one burst fuel pipe and it gets critical) and the routines are much different than outside the engine room.

If there is a major fire in an Engine Space, and the High Fog (a sort of high pressure misting system) does not extinguish a fire straight away, then the Chief Engineer has only 10 minutes to make up his mind and to advise the Captain to release CO2. If that happens we lose power and that we like to prevent at all times. For that reason we also have two completely separate engine rooms; if one goes then we still have the other one, as each engine room has two main engines. Although we have high fog and CO2 suppression Fire teams with breathing apparatus still need to go in to assess where the cameras cannot see and remove casualties if present. Although the Aft boiler room is very spacious, fighting a fire here has its challenges. With fuel involved, the tactical approach is to drive the fire back so it can be completely covered with foam and thus smothered. But as the vertical boiler is round, there is the chance that the burning oil simply goes around the boiler and the flames appear at the other side again.

The Box -Tree in the Atrium. I doubt if the designer of the original sculpture would have thought about the fact that within a few days his/her beautiful and artistic creation would be covered under wrapped up boxes.

I had a question on the blog about if the Christmas decorations were going up? Well things are happening and our Atrium Deck 1 sculpture has disappeared under a pile of boxes to resemble a Box –Tree?? Yesterday a protective casing was built and these boxes were attached to that casing. In keeping with all the other – just different- art we now also have a -just different – Christmas tree.

Tomorrow we are in Cartagena, South Spain and it is a very nice port where the Romans had already figured out that there were worse places in the world. Weather: sunny with temperatures or 68oF / 20oC and a1% chance of showers.

This morning all the Shake-downers disembarked and the ship prepared for its revenue earning cruise. They hopefully had a nice cruise and the ship had a nice chance to test everything out, so we can give the coming guests the best possible service. We started to receive our first fare paying Holland America Line guests at 11.30 hrs. this morning; and we will start our first cruise.

We are following in the foot steps of the Grand Old Lady of Holland America. Here the Rotterdam V is leaving on her official trial trip/ hand over on 20 Aug. 1959. Photo was taking outbound while passing an inbound ferry. Same as we are doing in Civitavecchia, only the ferries here have Batman cartoons as hull color (see yesterday’s photo)

I have been thinking about “first” cruise. We have already done a shakedown cruise or preview cruise so is this really the real first cruise? I personally think it is as this is the first cruise where the ship is used for its intended purpose; e.g. providing fare paying guests with a great (Holland America Line) experience. Pre view cruises or Shake down cruises or travel agents overnights/nowhere cruises or official /hand over trial trips have all happened in the past and sometimes long time in the past. The new ship was taken out to sea for one or more days to be shown off to relations of the company and/or to those who would be instrumental in helping the ship pay for itself. Then the ship would start on her maiden voyage.

It saves a considerable number of miles by cutting through the islands, instead of sailing south of Sardinia.

And thus we are starting today on our maiden voyage. We will be travelling from Civitavecchia and sail through Strait Bonifacius (just after midnight). Bonifacius or Boniface is a fairly wide strait located between Corse (or Corsica) and Sardinia. It is quite scenic but on our route towards Cartagena we will pass through it during the night time.

There are only small villages on either side so there is not much to see once it is dark. For a ship it is a good time to go through there as the local ferries are asleep and also are the large numbers of sailing boats who enjoy the strong winds here but without too much of the swell as there is good shelter under the coast. Once out we continue sailing south of the Balearic Islands into the West Mediterranean towards Cartagena. From there to Malaga, Funchal and then onwards to Fort Lauderdale.

A bit reminiscent of the old Trans-Atlantic days when the maiden voyage would also be a voyage to the new world. We are not doing exactly what Holland America did in those days as we are sailing at a much lower latitude; to stay in the nice weather as we are a cruise ship and it is December.

In the old Trans-Atlantic days this route was called the “Lido route” named so as in summer and in winter it had nice weather to sit outside. While on the North – North Atlantic route the passengers were huddled in deck chairs with thick blankets, bracing the weather, and looking forward to the 11 am. soup on deck. In those days the Lido route was monopolized by the Italian company’s sailing from Genoa and Naples. Famous names as the Conte de Savoia, the Rex and later on ships such as the Michelangelo and Raffaello made the route very popular and provided good weather until (in winter time) they were coming closer to New York.

Our first cruise / maiden voyage to the New World.

We will keep the sunshine option all the way as we are going to Florida. Hopefully we will stay in the good weather all the way as well. And the very long term forecast looks very good. I just did a 190 hrs. swell simulation on the internet (http://www.stormsurfing.com/cgi/display.cgi?a=natla_height) and it looks like we are going to skirt the high swells. I look most of the time at swell as that makes the ship move. A strong wind by itself is not much of an issue for a ship. It might make the ship lean but against that we can ballast and keep it straight up. Also swell only comes from bad weather so if you see the high wave & swell patterns you also know where the storm is; although the storm normally stays further north while the swell ripples down over a large area of the Atlantic Ocean. A ship such as the Nieuw Statendam only starts to move a bit when the swell goes well over 10 feet and it looks like……… if the weather patterns remain the same………….. that we might just touch the 12 feet. That is very good for December and thus I think we are going to have a very good crossing based on what I see now.

So here we are, about to sail on our newest Holland America Ship the ms Nieuw Statendam and ready for an adventure of a life time. 14 glorious days to look forward to with a ship that visits a number of beautiful ports but which is also a destination in itself.

Weather for tomorrow: Sunny with temperatures of around 15oC / 59oF. There is a disturbance building in the Golf of Lions south of Marseilles but we stay south of Ibiza and also we should out run it before it even becomes an issue.

We left Messina just before 20.00 hrs. and sailed out of the harbor with the city lit up as a Christmas tree against the mountain range to the West. From here it was northwards through Messina Strait and passing the Volcano Stromboli on our portside at 23.00 hrs. I did not see it as I was in the Main Stage to see the full performance of “Humanity” by The Dance Company, who had given a little taster show during the Hand Over Ceremonies on November 29.  Now it was the full 50 minute show and it was impressive, very impressive. The LED wall of the Main Stage is even larger than on the Koningsdam and it was used to its full potential.  So the audience was mesmerized for the whole performance and thanked the performers (And in this case also the designers of Light, Sound and Choreography) with a standing ovation.  If HAL can deliver a bit more of this, and I think they will, then the competition has to go back to the drawing Board to try to beat this.

Dancer in front of an ever moving background that wraps 270o around the World Stage.

Last night we had all the music venues in use. The Lincoln Art Center Orchestra, playing in the early evening, and then being relieved by The BB King Blues Band. Full House there. Further forward the “Dueling Pianos” of Billboard on Board who were alternating with the Rolling Stone Rock Room musicians; so there was no let down in the flow of entertainment all night. The Bar Tenders and waiters / waitresses were extremely happy with the sales as the last venue only closed at 04.00 in the morning. So thus far the Music Walk has been a resounding success.

Full House at the Rolling Stone Rock Room (starboard side). Once these musicians go on a break, the musicians in the Billboard on Board (portside) take over so there is continuous entertainment.

In real life things continued as well as we were very “nasty” by getting the late night / early morning revelers out of bed again by 10.15 hrs. for another Guest Boat drill. Well they are all on a free shakedown cruise, so if we need their help we will use them.  Focus of this morning was to check on the assembling of everybody in the Muster Area’s and the proper mustering by using the Electronic devices, we call PDA’s. Using them omits the need of the cumbersome reading out of paper lists with all the dangers of miss-pronouncing guest’s names or them not reacting because they do not understand any English at all or think that they are in a different cabin. A bar code scan takes all those problems away. But the system depends on computers and software so we better do some in depth testing to get it right. And that is what we did this morning.

More sedate but not less interesting, also a full house at the Notes. Tasting whiskies with the expert advice of the Bar Tender about what the difference is between single malt, double malt, blended and anything else what Scotland has invented in this area.

The distance from Messina to Civitavecchia is only a night+ travel and thus we arrived here in the early afternoon. The early arrival gives those who have early flights tomorrow morning a chance to disembark and take an airport hotel for the night and the rest can enjoy an afternoon or evening ashore. Civitavecchia is not known for its vibrating night life but it has a nice boulevard with restaurants and one very good pizzeria.

The Tirrenia Ferry with a Batman, Wonder Woman theme. Not exactly my idea of proper ship decoration.

There was only one other cruise ship in port so we docked at the biggest terminal on the inside of the breakwater; the only one with a Jet Way for Guest Traffic. The port is very busy with cruise traffic in the summer but it dies down in the winter and then all the temporary Marques are taken down. Leaving one forlorn Cruise Terminal in the middle of the port but it works for us. The ferry port continues to be busy all year around and the company “Tirrenia” is convinced that painting Marvel Comic figures on the outside of their ships will increase business. A bit puzzling to me, because when you travel on a ferry you see the inside except maybe the funnel. But maybe that is it. Having a selfie with a funnel with the Batman trade mark will do it.

We are staying here over night and then our first official cruise starts. Very little change in the weather from today, so tomorrow it will be sunny and nice temperatures to enjoy.

I love Dubrovnik but Messina is so much easier for the guests as we dock right in front of the down town area. The port is the main ferry & access port to East Sicily from the Italian Main Land and thus there is heavy ferry traffic all day and all night long. Some of that traffic goes to docks south of Messina, some to the North and some into the port itself. The port is a natural curved harbor with an opening at the North side, sheltering all the docks from any waves and swell caused by the wind in the Messina strait. It also reduces the current here to a very faint .01 of a knot or so, while in the middle of Messina Strait it can run up to 5 knots. We will have that this evening when we sail to the North.

Although there is not much tide in the whole Mediterranean (about 10 centimeters), there is a local phenomenon here. The small tides in the Med are semi diurnal, which means two high and two low waters in 24 hrs. But for a number of complicated reasons, they do not happen at the same time at the North and the South Side of the Island. They are almost in phase opposition.  So with little tide there is still a lot of current as it is high water on one side and low water at the other side. Tonight at 18.37 hrs. it is low tide, which means it is high tide at the other side and thus full current. By the time we leave, 20.00 hrs. there will still be a lot of current left.

Due to the current, the ferries do not sail in a straight line but drift across which makes it sometimes quite complicated to figure out what a ferry is exactly doing. Same goes for the other ships coming through. Their course might be 270o over the ground but they might be steering 260 or 255 or 250 to counter act sideways push of the current. But as this changes the angle of the ship when looking at it, it might look as if the ship is heading straight for your own ship but is set clearly free by the pushing current.

The Strait of Messina from above. (Thank you Google earth) The port is sticking out as a crooked hook into the Strait. The buildings on “the hook” are mainly shipyards, a Navy compound and ferry docks.

Thus when you move out of the current of the Messina Strait towards Messina Harbor you first battle the full current and then it gets less and less and thus the course you steer comes closer and closer again to the real course if and when there would have been no current. Luckily the current in the harbor is nearly zero and thus the Nieuw Statendam could sail straight in and swing around off the dock and come alongside, portside too, with the nose pointing to the outside. The captain had opted for swinging on arrival to make it easier and faster to sail on departure. The weather forecast was giving quite a bit of wind from the North West and then for Messina the question is “what is north west”? If is close to the North, then the wind will push into Messina harbor but if it is close to the West, nothing is coming in as the mountain range to the West shelters the port.

After an extensive crew fire drill this morning, we had a full boat drill for all starboard side boats. There was no wind, nice in the shelter and all boats went down into the water for some exercising. Being just fresh from the shipyard means, that the crew needs some extra training to raise their comfort zone with handling the lifeboats. Lifeboats are meant to sail full with people and when they are empty they lay on the water as an empty walnut shell.  To get the shell back in the blocks and back home again, the asst. commander / driver has to use the wind as his/her friend to drift back into position. And that takes a little bit of training and refreshing the driving skills.

Tonight we sail at 20.00 hrs. and then tomorrow afternoon we will arrive in Civitavecchia. Some guests with early flights will leave the ship after arrival; the rest will enjoy a final night on board and then disembark the next morning. That will be our first turn over for the ship and by lunch the first guests ever will board the ship to sail with us for the Trans-Atlantic to Florida.

We still have one more surprise for our “Shake down” guests on board. We are going to test the Guest Boat Drill one more time tomorrow to see if we have all down to routine now.