I have breakfast in the main dining room this morning. I am seated at a large table with five other British Columbians from Sidney, Richmond, Nanoose Bay, and Vernon. Obviously this cruise appeals to Canadians, especially those of us from the west coast, since it departs and returns to Vancouver.
Speaker: Ginny Stibolt
My friends and I are very pleased with presenter Ginny Stibolt, a botanist, naturalist and dedicated gardener. She gives wonderful talks about the natural world around us almost every day we are at sea on this cruise. This morning’s presentation is: Oceans: The Real “Lungs” of the World. – “We can thank the oceans’ plants for the oxygen in our atmosphere”.
This afternoon, there is a presentation “Make the Most of Your Visit to Hilo and Honolulu” by the onboard EXC Guide Eve. I’ve visited Hawai’i so many times, I could probably give this presentation, however I attend anyway so I can pick up any updated information about our first two ports-of-call in Hawai’i.
Joe sipping some Prossecco in the main dining room on Gala Night
It is Gala Night this evening aboard ship, which means most people are dressed in their best. My friends and I go to the main dining room at 5:30PM, and although there is a long line to get in, we are given a window table on the top level normally reserved for fixed seating guests. I order escargots, arugula salad, and beef tenderloin steak with prawns (see photo in the banner image above). We have a bottle of Proscecco sparkling wine, which goes nicely with pretty well everything we order, including my steak and prawns.
After dinner, we go to the main showroom to join the captain in a toast to a successful voyage, and then stay for the Off The Charts – Billboard Hits Rewind show, which is excellent…performed by the ship’s entertainers. This show is quite a big step up from the ship-board shows I’ve seen on other Holland America ships. I don’t know if HAL is upgrading all their shows, or this is unique to their larger ships like the Eurodam.
My friends and I take the BC Ferries Connector bus service from Victoria direct to the Vancouver Cruise Ship Terminal. This is a great service, since once your checked (and tagged) bags are on the bus, they will be delivered right to your cabin on the ship! Since there are quite a few tour groups jamming the public areas, we go to the Seawest Lounge aboard the BC Ferry Coastal Celebration. A modest fee is charged in this area, but it is nice and quiet, getting us away from the crowds, and snacks and beverages are included.
It is a cool and cloudy morning as we cross the Strait of Georgia to Tsawwassen Terminal. The bus goes directly to the cruise ship terminal at Vancouver Harbour and takes us right to the entrance, where we pre-clear US Customs and Immigration, go through ship’s security, and finally check-in to receive our cabin key cards. Boarding the ship after that is simply a matter of walking the gangways until we are aboard the Eurodam and have ship-board security scan our cabin key cards for the first time. Within 10-15 minutes after entering my cabin, my checked bag arrives at the door, so I’m all set for the upcoming trip!
Wendy and Joe on Deck 5 Forward as Eurodam departs Vancouver
I meet up with my friends in their cabin this afternoon while the ship is still docked. My friends found the bars aboard ship have a dozen beer on sale today, so we sit on their verandah watching the loading activity before our departure. I decide to find some lunch in the Lido, bringing a nice vegetarian sandwich back to their cabin to eat and have a beer with it!
Later, we go out onto Deck 5 forward to watch Eurodam leave the dock and depart Vancouver harbour under Lions Gate bridge. I try out my GoPro Hero5 Black camera by taking a video time lapse all the way until we clear the bridge and sail past English Bay into the beautiful sunset. I’m also shooting with my Canon 6D dSLR since it is so beautiful as we leave port.
When we go for dinner in the main dining room by 7:30PM, there is quite a line of people waiting, however we are seated within about 10 minutes or so and have a lovely dinner as the ship sails down Georgia Strait and the Salish Sea. I return to my room and work on my computer since I still have LTE and later 3G connection with my Canadian cellular service as we sail past Victoria to drop off the pilot and continue out the Strait of Juan de Fuca and into the open Pacific Ocean. The signal from the 3G lasts a surprisingly long time past Sooke! I guess it’s because I’m on the side of the ship facing the Canadian shoreline.
2016 Solar Eclipse Cruise map in SE Asia aboard the Volendam
In March 2015, I booked a Holland America cruise in southeast Asia, which takes me to the southeast Asian countries of: Singapore, Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Volendam leaves Singapore on February 16, 2016 on the 30-DAY ASIAN ADVENTURE & INDONESIAN SOLAR ECLIPSE COLLECTOR cruise, sailing north to Malaysia, Burma/Myanmar and Thailand before returning 15 days later to Singapore. We spend two nights in Singapore, and then depart again on the Solar Eclipse portion of the cruise, which sails south to a variety of ports in Indonesia. We observe the solar eclipse on March 9th in the Makasar Strait, between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi. Weather permitting, our ship will be positioned on the eclipse centreline, which will give us 2 minutes and 45.5 seconds of totality. The cruise terminates in Singapore with an overnight at the dock on March 16 & 17.
My booking is actually two back-to-back cruises, both departing from Singapore. I am paying the Single Supplement (150% of one fare) for a cabin on the Main Deck. As I write this in November 2015, Holland America indicates some classes of cabins on this cruise are Sold Out.
The Sun in eclipse totality – 3rd contact & diamond ring
Sky and Telescope are running their solar eclipse tour aboard the same ship, however I did not book with them since I wanted a 30 day cruise, and their arrangements are for either 9 days or 15 days. I board the Volendam two weeks earlier in Singapore than the S&T tour’s departure date and visit three more SE Asian countries, which appeals to me. The downside to booking directly with Holland America instead of through S&T is that I won’t be able to attend their enrichment presentations while aboard the ship. To be honest, I don’t much care about this, since there are only two or three of their presentations I would want to attend. I don’t really need any coaching on the technical aspects of observing a solar eclipse while aboard a ship, since I have experience from the 2012 Solar Eclipse Cruise aboard the Paul Gauguin in the Coral Sea.
In May 2015 I booked my flights from Vancouver to Singapore through Cathay Pacific airline. This is optimum timing from the departure date to get the best fare possible. If I booked this fare today (some six months later), the airfare would cost many hundreds of dollars more, since it is closer to the departure date.
March 14, 2014 – Friday – Cruising from French Polynesia to San Diego aboard Statendam – Day 5 Sea Day
I check on my flights home on the United Airlines website and find they are on schedule. I always check in at the counter when I arrive at the airport, since I have to check my big bag and get seat assignments. It is too complicated and time-consuming to check in online while aboard ship, although many passengers no doubt do this.
I attend two talks put on by the ship’s officers today. Both are informative, and there are lots of questions from the audience.
10AM – Virtual Engine Room Tour with Chief Engineer Silbert Whyte, the Chief Engineer talks about the engines, power, and other infrastructure systems in the ship.
2PM Virtual Bridge Tour with Statendam’s Navigational and Safety Officer (also the First Officer) talks about the bridge, navigation and other bridge functions.
We have our last formal night this evening, and it is also the Black and White Ball later this evening, so the Rotterdam dining room is decorated once again. The tenor and the soprano from the ship’s troupe sing classic songs this evening in the Showroom, and an orchestra is assembled from the various musicians aboard the ship to back them up. It was well done – I enjoyed it.
March 13, 2014 – Thursday – Cruising from French Polynesia to San Diego aboard Statendam – Day 4 Sea Day
As expected, the last few days of this cruise are becoming a bit tedious. I don’t really participate in many of the activities that are listed in the newsletter each day. I attend about half the shows in the Showroom, which are generally well done, and sometimes exceptional. I attend all the enrichment lectures, and really appreciate the astronomy speaker Jonathan Nalley. I’m glad I have my MacBook Air notebook computer with me, since I spend about an hour each day working on my travel journal, and extracting material every few days to post on my JoeTourist blog.
Taking photographs is probably my main diversion on this trip. The subsequent task of filling in the metadata (title, keywords & location) for each photo takes considerable time and effort, but at least it keeps me busy while we are at sea, and it makes the job of updating my main JoeTourist.ca website much easier after I return home. I purchase another 100 minutes of Internet time this morning for $55, which will give me lots of online time until our arrival in San Diego. There is a bonus 20 minutes offered for this deal for today only. I decide this is better value than purchasing the ship’s DVD videos of the trip at $80 for the set of four. Last cruise I purchased the DVDs, and they just sit on the shelf at home after I watched them once.
9:30AM – To Pluto and Beyond – Jonathan Nally “details three space missions currently underway-one that’s heading for a landing on a comet (Rosetta), another that will investigate the giant planet Jupiter (Juno), and one that will give us our first close-up pictures of the dwarf planet Pluto and other icy worlds beyond (New Horizons). All three spacecraft have been zooming through space for years now, and excitement is mounting as they begin to close in on their destinations.” I enjoy this lecture very much, despite knowing a fair bit about all three missions previously.
Entrance to the Rotterdam dining room with Indonesian & Fillipino decorations
There is a great deal of hacking and coughing on the ship right now. I’m hoping to not catch a cold before I board my flight home, otherwise flying will be a painful experience. I give my two Indonesian cabin stewards their tips this morning, since they have worked so well to keep my cabin neat and tidy. Dinner in the Rotterdam dining room this evening has a Filipino and Indonesian theme. The waiters are in costume, the room is decorated, and the menu has both ethnic foods featured, making things very festive.
After dinner, I decide to skip the show and do laundry one more time, since I want to wear clean blue jeans on my flight home. The washer only takes 25 cents before starting, so that saves me from the usual $2 charge – bonus!
March 12, 2014 – Wednesday – Cruising from French Polynesia to San Diego aboard Statendam – Day 3 Sea Day
I have breakfast this morning in the Rotterdam dining room, but keep it light. I have the Mariners Brunch to attend at 11AM, where virtually everyone aboard is recognized for our loyalty to Holland America with a gift of a Delft ceramic tile. The Captain and Hotel Manager are on hand to greet everyone, and the Cruise Director emcees the proceedings. We have a lunch menu to choose from, but we are out of there by noon.
I go to Jonathan Nalley’s presentation on Mars and the missions sent there. I spend a few minutes online this afternoon in order to finish what I was doing yesterday when the connection to the Internet broke. I had to ask for a credit, since I couldn’t log back on to log off properly yesterday. This morning the connection wasn’t solid, so I waited until this afternoon to complete my posting to Facebook, and download email.
Marcus Terrell and the Serenades
After dinner in the Rotterdam dining room this evening, I go to see the show Marcus Terrell & The Serenades, which is a Motown trio with some soul mixed in. I enjoyed their show a few nights ago, and this one is even better. They mix it up by adding in some pop/opera with “The Promise”, and pretty well nail it. They get a standing ovation and give the appreciative audience an encore. A concert reel video from 2015.
March 11, 2014 – Tuesday – Cruising from French Polynesia to San Diego aboard Statendam – Day 2 Sea Day
I have breakfast this morning with the dialysis doctor and his wife. He has a few dialysis patients aboard, one of which became unstable and had to be taken ashore in Nuku Hiva and onward to the hospital in Papeete.
Polywogs kneeling before King Neptune
There are some rain showers while we have breakfast and during the day, however the Sun comes out for the King Neptune Ceremony held this morning on the stern deck at the Ocean View Pool. Several pollywogs are duly initiated by the shellbacks. Despite having photos from similar ceremonies on two previous Holland America cruises, I take a few more photos, since this is always a fun event.
The wind is strong at 35kts from the NE again today, so with us steering a course of 028, we are taking the wind just off the bow. They close the decks, but passengers continue to sit on the lounge chairs and walk the decks – they put up with some sea spray and being blown around a bit. The ship is maintaining a speed of 18 knots as we head north to San Diego.
March 10, 2014 – Monday – Cruising from French Polynesia to San Diego aboard Statendam – Day 1 Sea Day
I wake up about 4AM and look out the window to see Venus drilling through the clouds, and then go back to sleep. This is our first full sea day of six enroute to San Diego and the end of the cruise. I have a full day planned, with enrichment talks and other activities. I received my Mariner Society Brunch invitation for the 12th, which I plan to attend, mainly so I can see the captain. I have yet to spot him on this long voyage!
11:30AM – Discover SkyDrive Connect to SkyDrive.com – Digital Workshop – “Explore different ways to access, manage, and share your files on SkyDrive.” I use SkyDrive (now called OneDrive) and learned a few tips by attending this tech workshop.
3PM – Hubble”s Greatest Hits – Showroom at Sea – Jonathan Nally – “It’s the most famous telescope in the world … or more accurately, in space! Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has produced many of the most amazing images of the cosmos ever taken. Jonathan Nally takes you on a colorful journey through more than 20 years of Hubble’s most incredible discoveries and awe-inspiring images.” This presentation is mostly astronomical eye candy, but it is an enjoyable way to pass an hour.
Ship’s position – March 10, 2014
I am the only person swimming in the Ocean View Pool just before noon. The water in the pool is sloshing around a great deal as the ship is buffeted by strong winds. By this afternoon, we are being hit with 35kt winds as we proceed on our NE course across the Equator. There are whitecaps out on the water as I negotiate the windy Promenade Deck for my usual walk I take each day.
It is formal night this evening, so I get into my dark jacket, pants and tie before going to the Rotterdam dining room for dinner. I have a seafood dinner, starting with cold Lobster with mayonnaise, then Manhattan clam chowder, and Alaska King Crab and drawn butter for an entrée. The lobster and crab were very good, but the chowder was not inspiring. I had a chocolate espresso soufflé with warm raspberry sauce for dessert, which was excellent!
Jonathan Nalley leads a stargazing session from the Sea View Pool stern deck again tonight, and points out the Southern Cross to the crowd of about 50 people. I enjoy looking at M42 the Orion Nebula and Jupiter and its moons. My observing log
November 14, 2012 – Wednesday – Total Solar Eclipse of the Sun – observed from aboard the Paul Gauguin cruise ship sailing about 200km south of New Caledonia in the Coral Sea
Map of 2012 Solar Eclipse track in the South Pacific
I am up at 5:30AM, beating my alarm by a few minutes. Skipping breakfast, I gather my eclipse gear and setup on the Pool Deck. I mount my Kestrel 4500 portable weather station on a nearby towel deposit box, and also mount my little Fuji point-and-shoot camera on the same box to take some HD video during Totality (and a minute before and after).
My observing log entry for the eclipse:
Date/Time – local ship’s time Start: Nov 14, 2012 6:49AM Finish: Nov 14, 2012 8:12AM
Location: On the totality track 200km south of New Caledonia in the Coral sea, South Pacific. Position: 26° 40′ 0″ S 166° 46′ 54″ E
Observers: 320 passengers (plus crew) on board the Paul Gauguin cruise ship
I observe a total solar eclipse from the pool deck of the cruise ship Paul Gauguin, as part of a TravelQuest tour group. Rick Fienberg and Bill Kramer, in cooperation with Captain Ante-Toni Mirkovic decide to turn the ship 180° just before 1st Contact in order to avoid a large cloud which is starting to obscure the view of the Sun. This proves to be a good move, since we are now slowly sailing away from the clouds in the area, and yet continue to stay within the maximum totality centreline track.
1st Contact 6:57:20AM Alt=26º
2nd Contact 8:01:20AM Alt=40º
Totality lasts 3 minutes, 1 second
3rd Contact 8:04:21AM Alt=40º
4th Contact 9:16:47AM Alt=57º
The Sun in eclipse totality – 3rd contact & diamond ring
A few minutes before 2nd Contact, my portable weather station records the expected sharp drop in temperature (see graph below), and the light levels are greatly reduced. About 10 minutes before 2nd Contact, Venus is visible to the left of the Sun, and then as darkening continues, Saturn also appears equidistant between Venus and the Sun.
A dramatic darkening occurs during totality (2nd Contact to 3rd Contact). During totality, I visually observe spectacular coronal streamers. Although I do not find that Bailey’s Beads are easily observed during this eclipse, I observe a red glow around parts of the perimeter of the Sun and some solar prominences are visible.
There is lots of hooting and hollering as the (second) spectacular diamond ring appears at 3rd Contact. I capture these human reactions to experiencing a total solar eclipse using a point-and-shoot camera in HD video mode.
I stop observing and photographing the eclipse shortly after 3rd Contact, although I continue to take temperature readings to the end.
Everyone has a smile on his or her face after the event is over, and there are lots of stories told afterward at lunch and dinner. Despite it only being 9:30 in the morning, Corona beer and cocktails are served to celebrate our success. I have a celebratory cappuccino, and finally have my breakfast mid-morning at La Palette.
2012 Total Solar Eclipse – Bill Kramer’s Eclipse Chasers website, including his personal report and links to other reports
Air temperature during the 2012 Total Solar Eclipse while aboard the Paul Gauguin in the Coral Sea
I take temperature measurements from my position on the Pool Deck before, during and after totality. My readings are measured with a Kestrel 4500 personal weather station, which is mounted about one metre above the ship’s deck.
The temperature drop is 3.5ºC, which is much lower than expected. Obviously the mild climate near the ocean’s surface results in less daytime heating, and therefore less temperature range is covered for this eclipse at this location.
I dedicate the temperature measurements I took during this eclipse to the memory of Jim Low, a long time member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto Centre. If Jim had survived, I’m sure he would have traveled with his fellow Toronto Centre members to Australia, and would have recorded the temperature drop, as he did when I traveled with this group to observe the Total Solar Eclipse (my first) from the Libyan Sahara Desert in 2006.
The ship’s clocks were set back an hour last night, so I wake up around 5AM. I have to fill in some time before I can get a cappuccino and a French pastry at La Palette at 6:30AM. I am battling a nasty cold I obviously picked up while aboard the flight down to Fiji…airliners!
TravelQuest and Wilderness Travel have fully chartered the ship, and they have arranged a wonderful array of enrichment speakers, which start their presentations today. When we are at sea, there are four presentations scheduled for each day. What a change from the Incan Empires cruise on the Rotterdam last year, where there was a dearth of enrichment speakers!
9:30AM Speaker: How to Experience and Enjoy the Eclipse – Rick Fienberg gives an engaging talk about the basics of total solar eclipse watching, covering off the best ways to experience the eclipse, a bit of advice about photography and visual observing, safety tips, the sequence of events, and some practical advice on how to enjoy this special experience.
11AM Speaker: Seabirds of the South Pacific, Living on the wide, wide sea – Dr. Roger Lederer describes a wide variety of seabirds who inhabit the islands we are traveling to, and also mentions other notable seabirds who inhabit other parts of the Pacific Ocean.
2:30PM Speaker: Coral Reefs – Ethan Daniels‘ presentation shows us how coral reefs formed eons ago, what wildlife make their home in the reefs, and where the great reefs of the world are located. Ethan works part-time for Wilderness Adventures, and spends the rest of his time researching the biology of reefs and the wildlife in Indonesia and other areas where the world’s greatest reefs are located.
4PM Speaker: Anatomy of the Sun, from Core to Corona – Holly Gilbert works for Ames/NASA in Solar Physics as a solar prominence specialist. Despite confessing to not feeling well because of the ship’s motion, Holly delivers a great talk with lots of information about the various layers and processes going on with the Sun.
Inside my cabin #427 aboard the Paul Gauguin
I meet my cabin stewardess Diojani this afternoon; who is a very nice young woman who keeps my stateroom immaculate throughout the voyage. I find out from the bridge (through the Front Desk) that Magnetic North is 349º True in this area of the world, so I calculate the magnetic declination to be 11º East in order to setup my Kestrel weather station’s wind direction. I go for dinner to L’Etoile, the main dining room again, and meet another interesting group of people. I turn in early, since I’m still not quite comfortable with all the time zone changes lately.
November 12, 2012 – Monday – Second day at sea – enroute from Fiji to Ile des Pins, New Caledonia
As I mentioned previously, TravelQuest and Wilderness Travel have an excellent choice of enrichment speakers aboard, so here is today’s line-up, along with some of my comments:
9:30AM Speaker: Capturing the Eclipse in Images & Video – Bill Kramer (Eclipse Chasers) gives advice I mostly agree with, but then he says to not set cameras over ISO 400, which I disagree with. My thought is that we are on a moving platform, so capturing sharp, in focus images without any apparent image motion is important. I think that means using higher than normal ISO. Lower ISO will give a richer image, but we can’t afford that while on board a ship.
11AM Speaker: The Navigators – Human Settlement of Oceania – Mark Eddowes is an anthropologist from New Zealand who is based in French Polynesia, and gives a very interesting talk, although it takes almost twice as long as scheduled. He describes how the Lapita people migrated from SE Asia to the western Pacific Islands, which I knew nothing about previously.
2:30PM Speaker: The Sun-Earth Connection – Holly Gilbert is a solar specialist from NASA who talks about the solar wind, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and solar prominences, and how these various phenomena affect the Earth.
4PM Speaker: Highlights of the Southern Night Sky – Rick Feinberg highlights all the same objects to be found in the southern night sky which I would have talked about. He starts off his talk describing how our location on the Earth affects what we observe in the night sky, and goes from there.
I am thrilled with the quality of the presentations given today, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming presentations during the rest of the cruise. I have an hour long nap before dinner, since this “cold” I thought I was suffering from is actually a throat infection, which is making me quite miserable and tired.
