Puerta Chiapas can be a problematic port due to the swell that can run straight into the entrance. A swell from the West, North West or South West can cause such a surge in the entrance that a ship cannot safely enter. The swell rolls in and bounces back from the Eastern Sea wall and then sometimes bounces back from the Western sea wall as well. The fact that the entrance is barely 35 to 40 feet deep exacerbates the problem even more as the swell energy cannot be absorbed by deeper levels of water. If the swell is high and a ship would go in, it would be exposed to a rolling motion as if you are being rocked in a cradle on steroids. Continue reading
Category: Shipboard Info (page 7 of 7)
The wind fell away during the night and then the seas quickly abated and thus today we had a normal sea day. That made for a busy day in the shops as quite a few of our guests had to catch up on souvenirs and logo wear for at home. In the Canal the shops had a stand on the Lido deck with Panama Canal logo wear and trinkets and some of it was also on display in the shops today. Looking at the activity today, ……………..it was good to have a backup day………………….. The 900 people of the Canal tour had to catch up sometime.
I am currently involved in a whole series of refresher courses for the crew. They get training and refresher courses from their Team Leaders but a new face (or in my case a very old face) in front of the group helps to re-focus. Plus if there is anything going on that the crew is worried about, or finds that it needs attention then I normally get to hear about it during these trainings as they all know that I have direct lines going everywhere. The Zuiderdam is a happy crew, and so is the crew on the other HAL ships. And the company works hard to keep it like that. Plus the door of the Captain and the ships staff is always open. But ships crews are sailors. And sailors gossip, moan and groan and complain. And moan and groan they do. And they like to moan and groan to me, as I stand with one foot in the ship and with one foot in corporate. Continue reading
We had good hope that the swell would have started to die down but it was in vain as the wind decided to breeze up. We are already on the windiest side of the Caribbean Sea as the wind has miles and miles of sea to increase strength, but then with a frontal system in the area, it can breeze up even more. And it sure did. By mid-morning we had a force 6 to 7 blowing (A seven is near gale force) and that whipped up the sea and the seas whipped up the ship and thus the ships movement continued. It is not just regular rolling (the stabilizers are dealing with that) and not regular pitching as the waves are not directly on the bow or stern but this is a jerky movement. Ship is still and then it goes for a jolt. It does a light pitch (a sort of small up and down) and then another jolt. It does not really make you sea-sick, although the ship was quiet today, but it makes you sort of tired after a few hours. The constant focus of keeping yourself upright and on a straight path takes its toll. And thus napping was this afternoon a very favorite past time. Continue reading
As described yesterday, we applied the “blow away maneuver” and the wind did not disappoint us. Within no time we were far enough away from the dock to swing around and to head to the North West. Our route in this situation is a bit peculiar as we go from Aruba to the East, to visit Curacao and then from Curacao to the West, passing by Aruba again. It would make more sense to call at Curacao first and then sail to Aruba, as from Aruba we go further west to Panama. It would save about 200 miles in fuel. Or about 70 fuel tons * $ 420 = $ 29,400 which none of us likes to spend. Continue reading
Today we had our first sea day with beautiful weather and it looks like it will remain so. The frontal system of yesterday dissipated and the next one coming will only bring thunderstorms on Monday and we will be in Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday. And that should be a warm day as normally between systems the wind dies down. The route we are taking runs roughly along the east coast of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico before we reach Cuba and the Straits of Florida. I use the word roughly as it is not a straight course. Continue reading
And for those who paid attention you could feel (and see) us sailing through the various wind systems. After departing Half Moon Cay the ship had a bumpy ride as the North Atlantic waves found their way between the islands. Once clear and entering the end of Old Bahama channel this became even more pronounced. I could feel it very well as I have a bow cabin this cruise. Nice view forward but also the weather on my door step.
Then early morning we entered the Windward Passage and a serene peace came over the ship as the island of Hispaniola now protected us from wind and swell. It takes about 12 hours to sail the whole stretch of sea which is protected by the Haitian mountains and around lunch time it was almost calm of wind. The last part of the Windward Passage near the Jamaican Channel is very shallow and as the sea had only its waves and no white caps you could see the white sandy bottom about 45 feet below us. In the distance were various fishing craft as the fish likes to be at the edge of shallow and deep water due to the cold water welling up from the dee[, bringing all sorts of nutrients.
Cape Tiburon in the far distance. Most southwesterly point of Haiti on the island of Hispaniola.
That lasted to just after 2 pm. and then we cleared the island and portside came full into the “view” of the Caribbean Trade Wind. It came as quite a shock to all the guests sitting, relaxing or being “not there” in the deck chairs when the wind suddenly blew around Cape Tiburon, the southwest point of Haiti.
My travels through the ship took me today back in the Engine Room. We have two trainers on board who make a regular circle around the fleet giving basic trainings and do catch up work and thus can I concentrate myself on my ships review. Looking for the trees in the forest because when you work too long in the same environment you do not see the Forest for the trees anymore. (Or something like that)
The Engine room on the Vista Class runs the whole length of the ship on D deck and gets slowly smaller in size on the higher decks. On C, B & A deck it is down to about 40% and then there is only the uptake to the funnel left which takes up about 10% of the ships space per deck. The 5 engines of the ship (and a Gas turbine generator = which is not used anymore as it is too expensive with the current fuel prices) are divided over two separate engines rooms. 3 engines in the aft part and 2 engines (with the gas turbine) in the forward part. The idea is, if we would have a fire in one part, the other one would be able to take over and run un-affected.
For the rest the engines spaces are divided for dedicated purposes, all separated, section by section by watertight doors. Most of the engine room is under water and thus compartmentalization is required to ensure that when water would come in, it would stay in one location and not endanger the ship. We can have two of the largest engine compartments full of water and the ship will still stay afloat.
The main engine rooms. To the aft left and right are the Purifier rooms for cleaning the fuel oil and forward in a separate space the evaporators for making potable water.
The Layout from stern to bow:
- Aft compressor Room with the cooling installation for all the Provision Rooms
- Auxiliary room. Here the Engine crew have some of their workshops
- Aft main engine room. Runs all the way to deck 13
- Forward engine room. Runs all the way to deck 13
- Evaporator Room, here we make fresh water from sea water using excess engine heat
- AC Room, where we have four big compressors to cool the whole ship down.
- Potable Water Room
- Treatment Room
- Pump Room
- Forward Sewage Room. (the aft one is combined with the aft compressor room)
More about tis tomorrow.
For the remainder of the day and night we will sail through the Caribbean Sea until we come to the Pilot station of Oranjestad Aruba. That should be around noon time or shortly after. We do not know exactly as we are hot berthing with the Coral Princess. And if she has a load of eager shoppers ashore then the Coral might not sail on time. And then we have to wait as Aruba has no anchoring option near downtown. The other part of the dock is taken up by the Celebrity Eclipse who was on an overnight stay.
Weather expected, almost overcast with a windy day and temperatures of 28oC / 82oF.
The frontal system turned out to be quite strong and while sailing towards San Juan we had a very strong breeze blowing from the North West. Exactly in the same direction as the ship which was travelling along at 19 knots, while the wind was making 21 knots. Giving us a nice light air on the ship of three knots. As a result it was extremely pleasant on deck and the guests were out in force. With the north westerly wind my prediction also came out that it would be dry and although there were lots of clouds in the area it remained sunny. Still a north westerly wind is not bad if you go ashore in San Juan. Most of the streets are shielded from the Trade Wind which nearly always blows and which can make it very hot and humid in the old town. The north westerly wind blows a bit more through the streets making it a bit more airy. An excellent day to walk on top of the old fort, Morro Castle, which guards the entrance to the port.
San Juan always had a deep water and sheltered bay which curved in a sort of Boomerang shape around an Island upon which the Spanish built a Fortress, Morro Castle which we can still see today. On board I found a temporary drawing / water color of how it looked in the original days.
The bay of Porto Rico. The ships now dock at the first indentation at the lower side of the island and nearly all the other water areas have been dammed in. The Original of this water color is kept in the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam.
As all Holland America Line ships have, also the ms Eurodam has a large art collection on board, some of it antique, some of it modern (Lido area) and some of it nice reproductions. The middle staircase could have had the name Rembrandt Staircase as there are reproductions of paintings of him on every deck. Unfortunately Holland America is not that rich yet that we can afford to have a real one hanging in the ship. The aft staircase has mainly reproductions of water color paintings and drawings by Johannes Vingboons. I had never heard about this person before but a quick search on the internet gave, that he was quite prominent in the Dutch Golden age and made charts and drawings of the Dutch colonies and strong holds around the world. Also areas which we did not own or occupied were saved for posterity. Thus he also painted the port of Port Rico as it must have been like in the 17th. Century. I say “must have” been as we know that some artists were quite creative in making things a bit bigger, a bit nicer and quite a bit more impressive. Vingboons was known to try to be as accurate as possible and this made him well known, quite famous and also quite rich around 1660. Thus his water colors give a good impression of how the harbor / bay of Puerto Rico looked like before humans started to “improve” the area and enclosed and rebuilt the surrounding area until the bay now has a current triangular form with docks and an airport on all sides.
And how the port now looks as seen on the electronic chart on the Radar. The whole greyish/brown area on the right is reclaimed land and now the local airport.
Cruise ships have been calling at San Juan on a regular basis since the 1920’s and then we do not count those who made a voyage for pleasure on one of the regular passenger ships sailing to the island. Those early ships docked at the down town side and that has never changed. Only the docks are now longer and have been rebuilt several times so they can now handle the largest cruise ships. Today we were in port with the Freedom of the Seas of RCI and the Norwegian Gem of NCL which was docked at three East on the port side of us. Holland America ships have nearly always a berth at Pier 4 and the very big boys are nearly always docked at pier 3. Smaller ships go often to berth 1 although it can handle a 1000 foot ship as well. (Berth 2 is nothing more than a small ferry terminal)
Tonight we will sail at 23.00 hrs. and then cover the 90 mile distance to Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas. At the moment we are scheduled to dock at berth 1 at Havensight that is all the way in the corner. This means that we will go in first and the other cruise ships will dock then one after the other behind us.
Weather for tomorrow: That will be interesting. The wind is supposed to veer from the North West to the East North East tomorrow and thus back to normal. Depending on when that exactly happens will affect the weather tomorrow. A late change in the wind and it will remain dry an early change and we might get a shower. Still it will be warm, 28oc . 82 oF.
Today we had a bit of luck and we were a bit unlucky. We had luck with the weather. This morning while at sea, it was gloomy, windy and rainy. Not exactly the weather that you want when going on a cruise and when going to Key West. But the closer we came to the pilot station the more it improved. The frontal system which caused the cold weather yesterday in Tampa just moved on along in time and the sunshine followed nicely. So by the time we docked the sun was shining and it kept doing so for the remainder of the day. By lunch time we were dealing with a balmy 76oF or 24oC and hardly any wind.
Our unlucky part was that we had to dock at the Navy dock although there were no other cruise ships in port. Both Mallory dock and B pier were empty. And that had to do with this sunset business here in Key West. Docking at Mallory and B pier is allowed as long as you do not block the sunset. If you do you need a permit and you only get so many a year and only if the Navy pier is already occupied. We already have been blocking the sunset at B pier for two calls and then the natives get restless. Last cruise the Eurodam was at the Navy dock and thus we lucked in. This time we are alone and thus the captain had to follow the rules and dock at the Navy Pier.
This is the outer mole and also the route the shuttle train has to take to get to the gate.
This makes it a little bit more complicated for the guests. What we call the Navy pier is really a complete little port which was once in daily use by the Navy. The United States Coast Guard still has a presence here and they have an old Coast Guard Cutter laid up in the inner basin. We docked at the outer mole which protects the inner basin from the swell of the open sea. To get out of the dock area you have to go all the way around the basin. That is quite a walk, even more if you attempt to do this by Rollator.
Shuttle buses, shuttle trains and trolleys; whatever was needed was at the gangway today.
To solve this issue they run little sightseeing trains between the ship and the dock entrance around the basin. Then from the dock entrance it is about 10 minutes to be completely back in the center of the town. Not such a bad walk as you pass quite a few mansions from the 1920’s and related structures. All standing along a road you might not have ventured on if you had been at the other dock. Did the captain have any other options? Not really. Our sailing time is 18.00 with all on board at 17.30 hrs. Sunset is at 17.39 hrs. This meant that the ship would have had to leave at 17.00 hrs. at the latest to ensure that with swinging around, it would have been out of the line of sight by the sunset. That would have meant an all on board time of 16.30 hrs. Given the fact that during the last 2 calls we did not sail on time due to (very happy) stragglers returning late we might not have been clear before the magic moment of sunset. So we would have had to set our departure time even earlier or have left with –straggling -guests still standing on the dock side.
Arriving earlier is also not an option as the time schedule between Tampa and Key West is really tight and we cannot leave any earlier from Tampa as guests are boarding late and we are loading supplies etc. Doing the cruise the other way around (Key West as a last port of call) is not an option either, as we would then have full United Stated Customs and Border Protection which would reduce our time in port as well. The ship would have to be cleared first with everybody presenting themselves to the Inspecting Officers. So the Navy Pier was the only option and thus we docked there and can now stay until our official departure time. If we make that time remains to be seen as it can be expected to have “happy stragglers” again.
This cruise we do the West Carib loop again. Approx. 330 guests are doing a back to back and will thus have done both loops by December 16.
Yesterday we also had a change of Command. Captain Robert Jan Kan went on leave and will return 3 months from now. (See the Captains schedules on under Current Captains. You can also find his biography there) the alternating captain for this ship is Captain Michiel Willems who will now be on board for the next three months. Under his command the good ship Oosterdam will leave Key West this evening and then sail into the Caribbean Sea heading for Mahogany Bay in Honduras. We are expecting a sunny day tomorrow but after that it is a bit uncertain again.
Captain Albert
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