The weather gods looked favorable upon us today and we made Half Moon Cay. The frontal system had gone past the island sufficiently to not be a big issue. It was still very windy but from a steady North Easterly direction. That meant that I could drop the anchor and keep the nose into the…   read more of “30 October 2008,…”

Things did not turn out the way we had hoped for. When I was called by the bridge at 6 am., I was advised that the wind had been increasing during the night and that the rim of the frontal system was approaching. Thus it would be questionable if we could dock at Grand Turk…   read more of “29 October 2008,…”

Very early this morning we made land fall under the coast of Puerto Rico and by 8 am. we were passing through the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico, to the East, and the Island of Hispaniola to the West. Right in the middle of this passage is the island/islet of Mona which gives its name…   read more of “28 October 2008, At…”

We are on the way from Barbados to the Grand Turk and Caicos islands and this is one of the distances that fall right out of the regular schedule. This means if we go full speed, we arrive in the middle of the night and if we go slow speed it is costing us two…   read more of “27 October 2008, At…”

After two relaxing days at sea it was time to hit the next port. Bridgetown Barbados. It being a Sunday meant that we were the only ship in port. Barbados is an island that tries to keep tradition going as much as possible and that has some impact on the cruise operation. Most shops close…   read more of “26 October 2008,…”

After all the hectic times that came with sailing up and down the Amazon, we had a nice and quiet day at sea. The sun was shining and the ship was making good speed, being pushed towards our next destination Barbados by the Guyana current. It seems that everybody used today to tie up loose…   read more of “25 October 2008, a…”

We did indeed pick up some following current and make good progress towards the bar. By 11.30pm last evening I could slow the ship down as we were coming near. As explained before, we have to reduce speed here otherwise the ship might hit the sea bottom due to the extra draft caused by squat….   read more of “24 October 2008,…”

We made good speed during the night, however as we had to slow down a few times for shallow patches, fishermen and other ships; we did not go as fast as I hoped we would. Still good progress was made and by mid morning we were at least two hours ahead of schedule. We passed…   read more of “23 October 2008,…”