Holland America Blog
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Holland America Blog Has Just Posted the Following:
By 9 am the agent was waiting to take me to the Statendam from the hotel. Not much more than 3 blocks from the ship but as it was raining, it was handy as it kept me and my luggage dry. The weather was its regular Alaska self, a steady drizzle interspersed with bigger rain drops with real soaking capability. Luckily Juneau has invested in a large open sided tent on the dock where everybody gathering for a tour can wait and not get totally drenched. As with all Holland America Line ships a lot of crew stays on the same ship for years. Especially if there are three or more in the same function so they can rotate through. On most ships I have now visited about 40% of the crew know me but here back on my old ship it jumped up to about 70% and that gave a nice homecoming feeling. Master of the ms Statendam is Captain Sybe de Boer who I have also known for a very long time as he was my Chief Officer back in 2001 on the good old Noordam (III). Talking about the old Noordam (III) while waiting in the lobby at the hotel I came across a model of the Noordam. A builder’s model made by Chantiers de Atlantique were she was built in 1983/84. I knew that model and always wondered what happened to it. Now I wonder how did end up in the Baranof?* No good asking the staff as none of those around had been here longer than one or two seasons.* If Holland America ever decides to have its own little museum, then it would be nice addition. As is known, the Statendam and her sister the Ryndam are leaving the HAL fleet in September as they are being transferred to P&O Australia, which is an up and coming company catering to the Australians. It started it with P&O, when they bought Sitmar cruises and they ended up with the Fairstar and the Fairwind that were sailing there. The Fairstar left but the Fairwind = renamed […]
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By 9 am the agent was waiting to take me to the Statendam from the hotel. Not much more than 3 blocks from the ship but as it was raining, it was handy as it kept me and my luggage dry. The weather was its regular Alaska self, a steady drizzle interspersed with bigger rain drops with real soaking capability. Luckily Juneau has invested in a large open sided tent on the dock where everybody gathering for a tour can wait and not get totally drenched. As with all Holland America Line ships a lot of crew stays on the same ship for years. Especially if there are three or more in the same function so they can rotate through. On most ships I have now visited about 40% of the crew know me but here back on my old ship it jumped up to about 70% and that gave a nice homecoming feeling. Master of the ms Statendam is Captain Sybe de Boer who I have also known for a very long time as he was my Chief Officer back in 2001 on the good old Noordam (III). Talking about the old Noordam (III) while waiting in the lobby at the hotel I came across a model of the Noordam. A builder’s model made by Chantiers de Atlantique were she was built in 1983/84. I knew that model and always wondered what happened to it. Now I wonder how did end up in the Baranof?* No good asking the staff as none of those around had been here longer than one or two seasons.* If Holland America ever decides to have its own little museum, then it would be nice addition. As is known, the Statendam and her sister the Ryndam are leaving the HAL fleet in September as they are being transferred to P&O Australia, which is an up and coming company catering to the Australians. It started it with P&O, when they bought Sitmar cruises and they ended up with the Fairstar and the Fairwind that were sailing there. The Fairstar left but the Fairwind = renamed […]
Click here to view the article.
