March 02: Fourth Day of a Three-Day Passage to French Polynesia

Looking out our window, this is the first thing we saw this morning.
Happy Birthday, Elizabeth! 

Today began by getting up at 2:50 AM. It was literally a case of if I snoozed, I loosed. (Who knew that "loosed" is the past tense and past participle of the verb "loose?" I didn't, but let's move on.)

Edgartown is one of the Massachusetts islands south of Cape Cod. Edgartown Harbor is an extremely popular boating destination during the summer. Usually, you need a mooring reservation. Usually becomes absolutely for the 4th of July and for Labor Day Weekend.

Mooring reservations open at 8:00 AM Eastern Standard Time on Monday, March 02. Every year, within minutes, moorings for the 4th of July are gone. Soon thereafter,  so are the ones for Labor Day Weekend.

Pam and I have other plans for the 4th of July, but we did want the option of joining friends there on Labor Day Weekend, so there I was, up and online by 3:00 ship's time. 

Since I was up, did I stay up? What an amusing question. I was back in bed before my computer finished shutting down, a process that takes about 8 seconds.

Did I get the reservation for six months from now? Yup.

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This is our final sea day before reaching Raiatea. When we get there, we will be going ashore in tenders. With nothing of particular note to report on this sea day, let me tell you a little about tendering on Nieuw Amsterdam.

Looking down at this tender, it is docked at a platform on the side of the ship. The platform folds out from the hull. The crew attaches fenders, lines, etc., and presto, change-o, it has gone from being part of the hull to a dock for tenders.

There are two platforms on each side of the ship. Only one side of the ship is used on a given day. It is the lee side; the side protected by the ship as much as possible from the wind and the waves.

The forward platform has an external staircase rigged to it. The other platform is accessed via an internal staircase.

To avoid a stampede of passengers to the tender access deck, on a higher deck, tickets are issued to passengers not going on tours. The passenger must wait until their ticket color is called before proceeding to the security checkpoint on a lower deck.

Passengers on ship tours gather in the auditorium. When their tour is called, they proceed to the checkpoint, their tour sticker serving as the tender ticket. 

Every time a passenger or crew member embarks or disembarks the ship, they must go through the security checkpoint. This maintains a real-time record of who is on and off the ship. 

Until recently, you were required to scan the barcode on your room key. The security person would look at the picture of your face taken the day you boarded the ship. If the picture on the monitor matched your visage, you were free to proceed.

On this cruise, as you approach the security checkpoint, your face is scanned. You only need to show your room key if the scan does not verify your identity.

After security records a passenger disembarking, the passenger is directed to the internal or external staircase to a platform and a waiting tender.

Even with the ship providing a breakwall, the tender can bounce around a bit. Multiple crew members help passengers make the transition between the platform and the boat.

Once aboard, you find a seat. Tenders are not built for comfort, since their primary function is to serve as a lifeboat. There are a lot of seats, and often there are a lot of people in those seats. The result is a mass of people packed tightly together in a poorly ventilated, bouncing boat that jerks violently when the tender tugs hard against its mooring lines. 

For some reason, I don't like tendering. 

Once the tender is underway, the jerking on the mooring lines stops, and the ventilation is usually better.

In my experience, most tender rides are 10-15 minutes once the boat gets underway. And some ports provide big boats to take people to and from the ship. This is the case in several Caribbean ports. It is not the case for any of the ports on this cruise.

To get aboard the ship, when you arrive at the pier, you show your room key. You get in a queue and inch forward until you are in the tender. Sometimes this is a quick process, sometimes less so. You ride to the ship. You go through the security checkpoint. You are back in your home away from home.

Once everyone is back aboard, the tender platform appendages are removed, and the platforms folded back into place, again becoming part of the ship's hull.

Click here to see a hyperlapse (i.e., sped up) video on a tender being recovered aboard Nieuw Amsterdam after shuttling passengers and crew to and from shore.