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Oceans and Seas » Caribbean » Gulf of Gonâve
August 24th 2011
Published: August 24th 2011
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Well I have absolutely no idea where the time is going. It’s surprising that it’s been over a month since my last post. I was going to say that not much has happened, but that’s far from the truth. Lots of things have happened, just not a lot of it in trips ashore. In no particular order; here goes:

One of the Eastern Caribbean cruises our planned voyage didn’t go over too well. This was because we didn’t do an eastern Caribbean cruise. Tropical Storm Emily caused us to reroute to the other side of the Caribbean. This meant 2 big things for me; Getting to go to a new port, and doing some hardcore navigation planning. Nobody had made any hard decisions until a few hours before departure, so the navigation officer made the route in the chart computer and then we had to put it onto paper as well. Normally not a big issue, but this was a 900 mile journey that had large portions within 25 miles of land. This meant that there were nearly 25 charts to put the voyage onto. (Chart = a map for you land lubbers). Our regular eastern run is Nassau-Seaday-St Thomas-St
Oasis and FreedomOasis and FreedomOasis and Freedom

From the bridge wing
Maarten-Seaday-Seaday, Instead we did Nassau-Seaday-Seaday-Costa Maya-Cozumel. Costa Maya used to be a common port for the Oasis, but it was dropped in favour of Falmouth, Jamaica. Because we had 2 seadays to complete the big leg of the voyage, we had a very slow speed to make (11 knots). But when I woke up on the 2nd seaday I found us doing 23 knots. Turns out there was a medical emergency onboard and we were headed to land asap. This meant drifting next to cozumel for a while so the tender could come by and pick up the people who were leaving and then we carried on our way. This change of route also meant that we were in port with the Freedom of the Seas in Cozumel. Freedom is the same sized ship as I was on last year, and seeing the world largest and second largest cruise ships together on the same pier is astounding. Not to mention a friend from school works on the Freedom, so seeing a familiar face was nice!

Last week I managed to work sitting around in the sports bar with one of the officers and watched the Germany vs Brazil football
Oasis and FreedomOasis and FreedomOasis and Freedom

Basically sky scrapers from down on the pier
game. What an exhilarating match! There was only 5 of us there, the other people being Brazilian tourists.

While in Nassau one day I got a phone call to meet someone at the gangway to give them a tour of the ship. It turned out to be the captain of the Norwegian Sky, they were docked next to us and he couldn’t help himself but ask our captain permission to come aboard. It was interesting so see the ship through someone else’s eyes. I wish someone had taken my photo the first time I stepped into central park because this guy was astonished (for good reason).

Other than that, life here has been rather boring. I Haven’t been on any extravagant voyages ashore lately. I had planned on going scuba diving last Cozumel but ended up having to spend 4 hours in our rescue boat. We had our annual passenger ship safety inspection from DNV, and among other things they had to inspect the hull. Because of company policy and the fact there is a strong current in Cozumel we had to stand by in the boat while the diver was in the water. It was a super
Making CrepesMaking CrepesMaking Crepes

I forgot to mention that I'm a chef now.
sunny day so myself and an officer were only in shorts and lifejackets to take advantage of the weather. I wore sunscreen and faired pretty well, I wish I could say the same of our officer who is now sporting the nickname Red.

This cruise we are carefully monitoring what started off as a tropical storm, but is now Hurricane Irene. It is currently blowing 110 knots and kicking up 32 foot waves. So we’re doing a backwards cruise and hoping for the best. All should go well.

I only have a little more than 3 months left, and there’s a few things to look forward to in the near future. Relatives coming onboard, a good friend coming onboard as an officer, and seeing my parents in Cozumel! That aside, if anyone is willing to send out some real mail(address below) or an email (gbeier@gmail.com)I’d greatly appreciate it.

Oasis of the Seas
Garrett Beier
Officer Apprentice
2935 W Corporate Lakes Blvd
Weston FL 33331
USA






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Haiti

I doubt anybody reading this has seen a plate like this before.


24th August 2011

enjoy the view
Garrett, Looks/sounds like you are having a great time. Thanks for letting me read what and where you have been. Sounds amazing! How much more training until you are the captain? Enjoy your last 3 months!

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