At Sea 2-18-2003

By Bob Van Leer
(At Sea, Feb. 18, 2003) - We are in our second day at sea on our trip from Lima, Peru, to Easter Island. The island is one of the most remote places on earth, situated over 2000 miles from the South American mainland to its east and 1100 miles from Pitcairn Island to the west.

Our ship is the Holland America line Amsterdam, a new ship delivered Sept. 28, 2000. It is Italian-built and has an overall length of 780 feet and a cruising speed of 21 knots. It is diesel propelled and can generate 66,500 horsepower. The mileage is not high, the ship gets 55 feet per gallon of fuel. The ship has a capacity of 1500 guest passengers.
  This trip is billed as a world tour of four months but does not actually go around the world. It started in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and ends in Los Angeles, California. Betty and I are joining it for one month of the voyage from Valparaiso, Chile, up the west coast of South America and then across the Pacific to Sydney, Australia. Holland America is not doing well on this tour. When we left Valparaiso I checked and was told there were 452 passengers aboard. One of the two dining rooms is closed. The balcony of the theater is closed and there are other areas of the ship closed off as not needed now. The crew has been reduced from 633 at full staffing to 477 which is more than enough to give us all extra attention.
  Most of the passengers aboard are from the U. S. The directory lists 55 from Canada, 21 from Holland and the rest scattered around the globe. About 200 of the crew are from Indonesia, another 200 from the Philippines and the balance from Holland, the U. S. and Canada. There is a segregation among the crew. Indonesians do most of the propulsion, personal service and deck work and Filipinos do all the bar service. Most of the officers are Dutch, starting with Capt. Edward G. Van Zaane. There does appear to be some mixing of nationalities now, more so than the first time we sailed on Holland America several years ago.
  This is not a cruise for swinging singles. I'd guess the median age of the passengers as in the 60s and I have seen only one child aboard. The one fixed event of the day is the evening meal in two sittings, at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. We are seated at a table of eight with three other couples. Two are from Colorado: a retired physician and wife, and a retired Conoco Oil engineer; and the third from Michigan, a retired optometrist and wife.
  There are a lot of widows among the passengers and for their entertainment there are eight social hosts aboard. These are middle-aged men whose main function seems to be dancing with the widows.
  Days at sea are not dull. You can be as busy or leisurely as you desire. There are scheduled activities from 7:30 a.m. (walk-a-mile) to midnight (jam session). Twice a day there are informative lectures. This mornings was, "Easter Island: Microcosm of an Island in Space" and this afternoon an Iranian, Professor Firooz Zadeh, speaks on "From Teheran to Twin Lakes". In South America there are hardly any English language newspapers. The ship provides each day a letter-size fax edition of the New York Times. With this and CNN International on television we keep up, but after leaving the mainland we lost CNN and are entirely dependent on the handful of stories in the Times edition.
  Food is one thing cruise ships are famous for, and it is available all day long starting with continental breakfast at 7:00 a.m. through breakfast, lunch, dinner and finishing with late night snacks at midnight. Between then and 7:00 a.m. room service is available. There are eight bars on the ship. There is live entertainment every evening from show-type dance reviews to musical groups, magic and comedians. A movie theater shows a feature four times a day. There are all kinds of crafts and, when at sea, the always-popular bingo. But if you don't want to be involved, you can stake out a deck chair and read.
   About once a week the staff finds something to celebrate such as Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day. The public areas of the ship are elaborately decorated, a process that takes hours. After being up for just a few hours, when the passengers retire the decorations swiftly come down. (At Sea, Feb. 19, 2003) - The highlight of today was an invitation-only dinner at the "Captain's Table". Hotel Manager Henk J. Mensink invited 24 of us to a dinner in a private room where we were given the full VIP treatment.
  Exactly why we were included I haven't been able to find out, but it was a memorable dinner. Each course was preceded by the ringing of a Chinese gong after which a steward announced the name of the course and how it was prepared.
  The main course was filet mignon, which was placed in front of each diner covered by a silver bell-shaped cover. At a signal, all the covers were removed by waiters at the same instant.
  Prior to the dinner, members of the ship's orchestra played for the diners' pleasure. The dinner was concluded with presentation of souvenir ceramic reproduction of actual Amsterdam Dutch houses imprinted with their addresses.
  Tomorrow our three-day sea interlude concludes as we anchor off Easter Island and board tenders to go to land for a tour of the stone moai (pronounced moe-eye), the outstanding feature of the island.