It’s On My List

February 15, 2025

Today we were scheduled to visit Antofagasta, Chile. However, at 8:00AM Captain van Eertan announced that around 11:00PM last night he made the decision to skip the port due to an issue with docking. The Harbor Master asked the Volendam to dock with our starboard (right) side against the pier, but the exit on that side is on deck 2, which is too high for a safe disembarkation. The port did not have a gangway ramp for us to use. The captain assured the Harbor Master that he could back the ship in to put our port side along the dock, but that is not allowed in this port. They are used to large cargo ships that do not have the same maneuverability as a cruise ship. In fact, we were the only cruise ship scheduled to visit Antofagasta this month.

I didn’t have anything specific planned for this port, so I’m not too bothered. The captain has arranged for us to arrive at our next port, San Antonio, tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon instead of Monday morning as originally scheduled. I’m not sure if I will leave the ship for the afternoon/evening, as I have a full day tour booked for Monday, but I’ll see how things look when we get there.

The staff quickly put together a new schedule of events for our unexpected sea day. I attended a presentation from Cruise Director Daniel called “A Made Up Thing Called Time” in which he talked about the history of timekeeping and how we eventually came to having agreed-upon time zones and an international date line. It may not sound very exciting, but he is a great presenter and kept it interesting.

I also attended a presentation from Dr. Chris Brown, a guest lecturer with a Masters in astronomy. This one was “The Sun and the Northern Lights: What’s Going on?” Again, a potentially dry topic that was presented in an engaging and easy to understand manner. In 2025 we are in a maximum solar activity cycle (these occur every 11 years) so we are hoping to see some Southern Lights in Antarctica.

Today is day 22 of the cruise, which brought me to 30 days of cruise credits with Holland America (I had 8 credits from The ’80s Cruise on the HAL Eurodam back in 2016). So along with the updated daily schedule, my official 2-star mariner pin was delivered. I’ll reach 3 stars (75 cruise credits) by the end of this voyage, but the good perks like free laundry don’t kick in 4 stars, which is 200 credits.

I have a verry busy schedule this evening! There’s lightening trivia at 7:00; it’s not about lightening, just fast with 30 seconds to answer each question. I’ve found a great group of folks to play trivia with. We haven’t won yet, but we have fun! I then want to see the excellent string trio play in the main theater. They usually play in a small venue, but this is their night to shine on the big stage. I will then need to rush off to the second session of a play reading that I am participating in. We are reading Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband”. We aren’t staging it, just sitting in a circle reading our parts. It’s fun and something different to do. I expect we’ll do more plays later in the cruise. I need to talk Cruise Director Daniel into adding some sketch comedy into the schedule…

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and I had dinner with a group of new friends. It was a formal night, and the dining room was decked out for the holiday. All the ladies received a rose and there was a special Valentine dessert.

This is the first post I’ve done in real time! The extra sea day helped me get caught up. Please forgive any typos, as I need to head off to dinner and all my exciting evening events.