Captain Jonathan Mercer Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012: A long night. We left Buenos Aires on schedule, in windy weather. Friso took her out of the confined harbour, quite a complicated maneuver. The wind was picking up when we left and it continued to increase as we transited the buoyed channel. With the wind and having… read more of “Around the World…”
Jan. 24, 2012 – Buenos Aires, Argentina Karen arrived yesterday, so we attended one of tours in the evening, ‘Dinner and Tango.’ The last one I saw was 10 years ago and wow, has it improved, very professional, good choreography and excellent dancers.
Captain Jonathan Mercer Jan. 23-24, 2012, Buenos Aires, Argentina As expected, the phone rang at 2 a.m. and up to the bridge. The river is well-bouyed, however it is relatively shallow, so ‘speed’ was a factor, (remember my earlier post about ‘squat’? Well, here it affects us too). The channel has an over-abundance of isolated… read more of “Around the World…”
Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 15* 00’S 37* 10’W Speed 18.4 knots, Course 202*T I always go to the Bridge first thing in the morning, talk to the watch keeping officers and discuss any events of the night, Diesel configuration and any forthcoming navigational items that may be pertinent for the day. After reading the morning… read more of “Around the World…”
Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012. Bridgetown, Barbados beckoned us this morning. We had the luxury of being the only cruise ship in port on a lovely, sunny day. Docked at 0745 and cleared for guests at 0800, they were off to enjoy the day. The last time I made a call here was during a cruise… read more of “Around the World…”
Monday, Jan. 9, 2012 We arrived in Roseau, Dominica, on time, embarking the local pilot just after 11 a.m and docked by 12 o’clock. The Noordam is on the main berth, so we were assigned the ‘commercial’ dock, a little further out from town, however a reasonable place to be. It’s warming up (considerably), 85F… read more of “Around the World…”
Captain Jonathan Mercer Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012: We had a later than scheduled departure from Fort Lauderdale, several factors attributed to this; we had fuel to take and due to the cooler weather and the number of ships in port, the pressure in the port’s fuel lines was lower than normal; we had an enormous… read more of “Around the World…”
Dear blog readers, The above header is not a ‘typo’, I have transferred to this beautiful ship for a contract. I received a phone call whilst on the “Nieuw Amsterdam”, my senior corporate officers asking if I would like to command the Grand Voyage, a world cruise on the “Amsterdam”. I was both flattered and… read more of “Around the World…”
