The Daily for Sunday Aug 30, 2020

[lazey1]

I am not much of a beach person as, fair skin and severe sunburn forbids sunbathing. Love the menu suggestions including the toasted marshmallows.

Giving thanks that we had just over .5" of rain last night with more possible the next couple of days. Desert rain is always hit or miss but I believe that last night covered most all of the greater Phoenix area. The humidity in the air makes it easier  for this COPD sufferer to breathe and easier for this chronic dry eye sufferer to see.

I liked the Veendam but the Masdaam was my 2nd favorite ship, just below the Noordam III which was the first ship I ever cruised on. Crying crocodile tears for both these wonderful ships.

[cat shepard]

31 minutes ago, Andi Land said:

Thank you Rich for The Daily and Roy for the Care and Celebrations list! 
 

I am not much of a beach goer when it comes to warm weather and sitting out and getting sun. I love to explore the tide pools in Oregon. Here are a few pictures from Ecola State Park on the Oregon Coast. 
 

Hope everyone has a great day. I’ll toast to Veendam and Maasdam tonight to say goodbye. We never sailed the Maasdam but we loved the Veendam. 
 

Good night all! 

 

 

Great pictures!

[StLouisCruisers]

We just toasted the Maasdam and Veendam.  It's a great idea to have something to toast each evening.  Thanks for the idea!

[Copper10-8]

 

 

Maasdam's Nautical/Deck Department team pic taken on Maasie's bow. The captain is Henk Draper (white shirt looking down on one of his sailors, 3rd row, far left). You're looking at Indonesians, Brits, Cloggies (Dutch) and one Yank. The pic was taken when the ship was at Roatan, Islas de la Bahia, Honduras 

 

 

Some of Maasie's sailors (blue uniforms), Quartermasters (white uniforms) and the Asst. Bo'sun in khakis

 

 

A Holland America tradition; the Christmas Eve concert by the three choirs on stage in the main show lounge

 

 

 

CD Linda

 

 

 

When you're at sea far away from home on Christmas Day, you get a big kiss from your baby

[Copper10-8]

 

 

Maasdam was the last of the four "S"-class ships that had a set of working interior escalators. It was a bit of a novelty at sea, an escalator that could be used by embarking passengers on Main deck to reach their cabins on Lower Promenade deck. They were unique to the "S"-class however were deemed surplus and removed during various dry-docks and replaced by interior cabins.

 

 

This is Maasdam's B-Deck, also known as "I-95" because it basically runs all the way from bow to stern. On both sides, you'll find (some officer) crew cabins, the Crew Mess Room + galley, the OB (Officers Bar), the PO (Petty Officers) Mess, Crew Office, HR Manager, Print Shop, Engineering offices and various technical workshops. Like all other decks, B-Deck is divided into fire zones which can be secured by fire screen doors

 

 

 

 

 

What an interior (no window/no port hole/no balcony) crew cabin on B-Deck looks like. This was B088, mine when I was being trained by Terry, my mentor, for the first ten days of my first contract. When he went home, like the Jeffersons, I moved up 😉 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

 

Maasdam's bridge while the ship was at Crown Bay, St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands. The bridge crew's attention was elsewhere. Why? You'll see at a moment

 

 

Maasdam's navigators checking out the Crown Bay arrival of RCI's Oasis of the Seas, a brand new behemoth of the seas, at that time

 

 

On HAL's private island, Hal Moon Cay in the Bahamas, the ship's security officer (SECO) is first off the island tender and hussles his way to the island's "control tower," located behind the big private retreat cabana adjacent the entrance channel. The SECO's primary responsibility on Half Moon Cay is to provide traffic control for the many boats that use the channel in order to go in and come out of the marina. Inside the "traffic control tower" with views of both the entrance to the channel on one side and the marina on the other, the SECO is in constant radio contact with the island's boat captains which, with their local dialects, can be an interesting experience, as well as with the ship tenders bringing and taking pax from/to the ship and island. The various boat/tender captains check in by radio with the SECO and request permission to enter/exit the man-made marina. The channel is not wide enough for two boats to pass each other so the SECO has to be on his toes to see "the big picture" and not allow two boats in at the same time. It gets to be more interesting when their is a second cruise

ship calling 😉

 

 

The second main responsibility of the SECO is to prevent HMC guests from beating eaten by island alligators. This is Chris, at the time, a Dutch officer cadet, who has just relieved me for my lunch break. Chris obviously has not yet grasped the "preventing alligator attacks" concept (see the scene behind him) but he did spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express, and he did bring a bottle of aqua as well as his Pringles with him to the tower 😉     

 

 

[Copper10-8]

As stated previously, when my 10-day OJT was over, my super duper mentor Chelsea Football Club fan went home to the United Kingdom, and Maasdam became mine as far as security responsibility, I moved up to a new and larger cabin, one with a nice porthole to see the world move by

 

 

 

 

 

[rafinmd]

12 hours ago, cat shepard said:

@rafinmd

 

Roy, would you add the people dealing with the aftermath of Laura & Marco to the care list, please.  The pictures are horrific. Add this to the virus and I am not even sure what to say. 

 

Thank you.

What really bothered me this morning is I heard the majority of the deaths were carbon monoxide poisoning from emergency generators.  Bless the power crews working to restore power.

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Copper, when there are 2 ships at HMC do they share the control tower or do they relieve each other?

 

Roy

[Copper10-8]

4 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

Copper, when there are 2 ships at HMC do they share the control tower or do they relieve each other?

 

Roy

 

They will split the time in the control tower, Roy; one SECO and staff will do the arrival until noon, and the other noon until departure. Also, the tower looks much nicer nowadays. A few years back during the off-season, the HMC workers/staff took down the old wooden tower and replaced it with a concrete one with more shade from the blazing sun 🙂 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Copper10-8

[cat shepard]

3 hours ago, Sharon in AZ said:

Thank you for the daily Rich and thank you for the care list and celebration list Roy.

 

Happy Sunday to all!  I've been looking through my photos on my iPhone for beach photos and can't find any cruise related.  So I found this photo from an excursion that was fun but hell to get to, DH and I call it the Ferry from Hell, the site is Rio Secreto in Playa del Carmen, we were on the Niew Amsterdam Jan 2015.  We did go to Half Moon Cay on this cruise but I must not have taken any pictures.

 

 

I love this pic! You both look so happy!

[cat shepard]

15 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

What really bothered me this morning is I heard the majority of the deaths were carbon monoxide poisoning from emergency generators.  Bless the power crews working to restore power.

 

Roy

 

It is puzzling, when there are so many warnings about the danger of using a generator not adequately ventilated.  But then I have never experienced a storm like Laura.

[Dismomx5]

Happy Sunday! I didn't get to the beach but had happy memories of Half Moon Cay and other island beaches through the year. Not a toasted marshmallow fan, but usually have one a year. Speaking of years, I think 2020 has recorded at least 10 times the number of disappointing days as actual days. It's a long one, isn't it
 

We've had another beautiful day here. It's been a quiet one with only one "tragedy" for the household. DD lost her phone. It IS in this house, but we've scoured and it can't be found. And of course it is dead, so phoning the number doesn't work. I guess we'll be heading to the mall tomorrow to replace it. (We'll likely stumble across it once a new one is in hand.)

 

I went to the market today and bought local raspberries, strawberries, plums, Coronation grapes, apples, peaches, potatoes, cucumbers, corn and some baked goods. I love this time of year for fresh food!

 

Thanks again to everyone who adds to the post. So many happy moments. Cheers!

Edited August 31, 2020 by Dismomx5

[dfish]

Good evening, everyone.  Tonight's sunset is the sun going down over Grand Traverse Bay.  This was just a few minutes ago. 

I will toast to the Maasdam and the Veendam.  I sailed Maasdam the first time I did the Historic Coasts itinerary.  We thought she was a beautiful ship and we were quite happy that Hurricane Danny did not chase us up the coast.

I sailed Veendam to Antarctica and for the second Historic Coasts cruise.  I have many happy memories of both ships.

[cat shepard]

36 minutes ago, Dismomx5 said: It's been a quiet one with only one "tragedy" for the household. DD lost her phone. It IS in this house, but we've scoured and it can't be found. And of course it is dead, so phoning the number doesn't work. I guess we'll be heading to the mall tomorrow to replace it. (We'll likely stumble across it once a new one is in hand.)

 

I am fairly certain this is one of Murphy’s laws.

[cat shepard]

36 minutes ago, dfish said:

Good evening, everyone.  Tonight's sunset is the sun going down over Grand Traverse Bay.  This was just a few minutes ago. 

I will toast to the Maasdam and the Veendam.  I sailed Maasdam the first time I did the Historic Coasts itinerary.  We thought she was a beautiful ship and we were quite happy that Hurricane Danny did not chase us up the coast.

I sailed Veendam to Antarctica and for the second Historic Coasts cruise.  I have many happy memories of both ships.

Wow! Just lovely!

[erewhon]

Rich,

Thanks for the daily.  

Lovely photos, thank you everyone.

As of today face masks/coverings  are compulsory on public transport, (buses, trains ferries) throughout the country.

Aucklanders are advised to wear mask/covering when they leave home.

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by erewhon

[cruzn single]

Again, thanks for the most wonderful place to spend time.  It is with sadness that I toast the Maasdam. We sailed her in “inaugural Year.”  And loved that ship, as well as Statendam and Ryndam.  Now, I wonder if I will get to sail on my beloved HAL ships again?

 

Our fires are slowly being contained, which I am learning, is not out!  Won’t be out till late October or November.  At least today was a blue sky day!

 

Have a great evening everyone.

[rafinmd]

I only sailed the Maasdam once but my 23 days on her were more than any other S-class ship.  Here she is anchored in Ilhabela:

 

 

She was the first HAL ship I ever saw in person.  On my first Crystal Symphony voyage (1996) we had just docked in Lisbon at the terminal near the bridge when the Maasdam sailed past us.

 

Roy