I officially retired from TRW Space Systems Division in January of 2000. Just prior to that date, my wife and I decided to take a cruise through the Panama Canal while the Canal was still flying the flag of the United States. It was scheduled to be turned over to Panama on December 31, 1999. We booked a passage in November 1999 on the Celebrity Lines' Galaxy, a beautiful ship of some 2,000 passengers, where we booked a cabin with a large balcony and with butler service as well. We envisioned that this would our only cruise throughout the rest of our lives. But little did we know what God had in mind for us. What happened on that cruise set the course for our lives for the next eight years.
As we approached the Panama Canal, I found that we had no lecturer on board to explain the operation of the Canal to the large passenger base, so I volunteered and gave the lecture to the 2,000 people on that ship. I had no notes, no photos, nothing that would help in giving a lecture that was to be at least an hour long. But what a success that lecture proved to be. That started me on an unexpected invitation to become a Guest Lecturer on cruise ships, first on Radisson Seven Seas, then Holland America, and finally Seabourn Cruise Lines.
We were forced to call a halt to our travel in May 2007 after spending almost 800 days aboard ships of these four different cruise lines and meeting more than 10,000 people during those years. I had the privilege of conducting church services on many of the ships we were on. But it all came to an end after seven years. I had become too sick to keep up the schedule of travel we had been keeping.** We had done well and the Holland America folks for whom we were working at the time, were very sorry to see us have to quit but they understood. We did not have to pay for any of the trips nor our air travel to and from their ports. It was quite an experience and one that few people get a chance to take.
** It took more than a year and a half to finally identify the source of my illness. A final desperate decision to do exploratory surgery turned up a massive (size of a large softball) sized abscess that had been growing in my abdomen and had attached itself to my lower intestine and to my bladder, and was slowly poisoning my entire body. My docs couldn't figure out how I survived. God knew, and He brought about a huge change in my life!
So this little section of my web site is a little bit on those years that we enjoyed so much before we had to quit.
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| The food may have been great, the views great, the people enjoyable, but nothing beat this time I could spend on our veranda enjoying the sound of the ocean passing under the ship, the breeze on my face, and a time to rest and relax. |
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The Mighty Power of the Oceans
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| Rounding Cape Horn at the tip of South America on Holland America's Amsterdam. We hit a moster storm right at the spot that is called "the graveyard for ships", a terrible location that has caused hundreds of ships to go down in this fierce ocean between S. America and Antarctica. This is an area known to oceanographers for its winds, waves, currents that meet and fight with each other, and moster Rogue Waves. |
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In this photo taken by Cheryl while she was trapped outside on the top deck of the Amsterdam, the ship was pitching and rolling almost out of control. This photo shows about a 30 degree roll to the left, getting very close to the max roll it can take before rolling over. Rogue Waves were part of what we encountered. The Captain did not expect such seas when we started into Cape Horn. We were on our way from Buenos Aires via the Falkland Islands to Lima, Peru and then on to Seattle, Washington. We encountered 90+ MPH winds and waves of 20-30 feet in height. We were lucky to get out of this storm with only most of the dishes in the galley broken, and most of the bottle goods and other goodies for sale in the shops strewn all over the decks. What a thrilling ride this was!!
Even though we had a great respect for the ocean before beginning our cruising days, the many days we were at sea during these past eight years has instilled a new and deep repect for the ocean, its power and ability to destroy man. We were subjected to the most feared of phenomenon on the ocean, the Rogue Wave.
On a cruise from Los Angeles to Hilo, Hawaii, a Rogue Wave struck the ship we were on, blowing out a huge plate glass window in the main dining room. On another occasion, another Rogue Wave destroyed all the balconies on the lower passenger deck, sweeping away the partitions, deck chairs and tables. Fortunately no one was out on the balconies at the time or they would have also been swept into the ocean.
This storm we encountered off the tip of South America in the dreaded zone where hundreds of ships had been destroyed was totally unexpected. The waves were so huge that they broke over the bow of the ship engulfing the entire bridge with "green water". Mariners call this to "submarine", or going under water. The passengers thought it was great. The crew was alarmed. The Captain was doing all he could to keep the ship headed into the wind. When he ran into trouble was when he decided to turn the ship and try to get behing an island. That's when we almost lost the fight with the waves and winds.
I didn't really get concerned about the phenomenon of rouge waves until some time after we had encountered them in the oceans of Antarctica. The following is an article released by the European Space Agency pertaining to rouge waves that I found in doing some research. They are a growing worry for those who ply our oceans.
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Giant waves are real and are unpredictable dangers |
By the European Space Agency
Once dismissed as a nautical myth, freakish ocean waves that rise as tall as a 10-floor apartment block have been accepted as a leading cause of large ship sinkings. Results from the European Space Agency’s ERS satellites helped establish the widespread existence of these rogue waves and are now being used to study their origins.
Severe weather has sunk more than 200 supertankers and container ships exceeding 200 meters (650 feet) in length during the last two decades. Rogue waves are believed to be the major cause in many such cases.
Mariners who survived similar encounters have had remarkable stories to tell. In February 1995 the cruiser liner Queen Elizabeth II met a 29-meter (94-foot) high rogue wave during a hurricane in the North Atlantic that Captain Ronald Warwick described as "a great wall of water. It looked as if we were going into the White Cliffs of Dover."
And within the week between February and March 2001 two hardened tourist cruisers — the Bremen and the Caledonian Star — had their bridge windows smashed by 30-meter (98-foot) rogue waves in the South Atlantic. The Bremen was left drifting without navigation or propulsion for two hours.
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| The Holland America Amsterdam underway in the Falkland Islands. We had the privilege of making two cruises on this great ship, this one from Rio de Janiero around the tip of South America, then up the whole Western seacoast of South, then Central and North America all the way to Seattle, Washington, a trip of 38 days. |
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Just this week, (March 3, 2010) a Greek cruise ship with almost 1,500 passengers plus 400 crew members aboard was hit by three separate Rogue waves that were over 30 feet high. Considerable damage was done to the ship, and two passengers lost their lives to flying glass that had been blown out of large windows. Cabins and one large dining room were flooded and passengers panicked. Many passengers were injured from falls and flying debris. This was the story broadcast throughout the world news agencies.
BARCELONA, Spain - "Monstrous waves that smashed into a Mediterranean cruise ship flooded cabins, broke windows in a restaurant and sent terrified travelers screaming for doctors, passengers said Thursday. The walls of water hit the Cypriot-owned Louis Majesty, which was carrying 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members off the coast of northeastern Spain. A lot of water came in. Many cabins were flooded. It was three waves, one after the other. The damage was done by the second and the third waves. We are talking about waves that exceeded 10 meters in height. This was unforeseen and unpredicted because the weather was not really that bad,"
As oceanographers and physicists examine the phenomenon of what causes giant waves in the oceans, it becomes of more concern to safety experts that look at modern cruise ships coming off the ways that tower over the ocean, reaching heights of more than 80 feet off the water. Their concern is for the effect of a giant rogue wave striking one of these giants with an 80 - 100 foot high wall of water. It would not take much to overturn such a giant ship.
Our experience alone shows that the energy of the waves can do a lot of damage. Plate glass windows blown out, hatches torn open and water getting into the inside of the ship is what has caused some of the largest disasters at sea already. On the Amsterdam, we had green water, which is the inside of the wave, crashing over the bridge. Ice covered all the windows. If anyone had been out on the decks, they would have been swept overboard.
Ocean scientists now say that these giant waves are capable of forming almost anywhere in the ocean. It is only a matter of time until a major disaster takes place in the cruising industry with these huge waves. We have already personally experienced at least four of them.
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| Celebrity Galaxy |
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| Galaxy at Sea |
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This ship was our first taste of cruising the seas. On the way to Panama, Dick discovered that there was no lecturer on board to tell the 1,800 passengers about the Canal, so he went to the Cruise Director and offered his services even though he had no slides or any other lecture aids to help him with the presentation. He was given a bar stool to sit on on the stage and talked for more than an hour. The passengers loved it, and that was the beginning of his travel with Cheryl giving lectures on cruise ships. Dick's friend, Jack Revard from Arizona, and a travel agent for Cruise One Travel, found out what Dick had done and contacted Radisson Seven Seas Cruise Lines with whom he had a connection, and that was the real beginning of cruising for the Holts. Radisson signed them on for five years of cruising on their beautiful fleet
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| Testing cruise on the Seven Seas Mariner that started our years of enjoying life on the ships |
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| Radisson's Seven Seas Mariner, this photo taken by Cheryl from a helicopter during our stay in the Panama Canal. |
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After Jack Revard called his friend at Radisson about my being able to present lectures on board their ships, Radisson called me and asked if I was interested. When I said yes, they gave me this challenge: pay your own way on one trip through the Panama Canal where we will schedule you as the speaker on the Canal. If all goes well on both sides, then we will sign you on.
Cheryl and I talked this over and decided that such an opportunity would not come along again, so we accepted the offer. The ship was the Mariner, out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles with many stops in between.
My lectures (3 of them) were well received by the guests and the Cruise Director, so now we had an opportunity to start working for one of the top cruise lines in the world. Radisson is a class unto its own, with the best of the best. Every ship has suites with balconies. No inside cabins. And the rest of the ship goes along with this kind of thing as well.
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| We've passed the test and now on a later cruise, we stop on the Panama Canal to let the passengers get off the ship and see the sights in Panama |
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| Seven Seas Mariner anchored off Gatun Yacht Club in Gatun Lake, Panama Canal. In the distance across the lake is the Gatun Dam or Spillway that holds all the water of the Chagres River for operation of the Panama Canal. Cheryl took this photo as she was cruising around the Atlantic end of the Canal in a helicopter. We were usually assigned the rearmost cabin on the lowest deck of the passenger cabins (4th row of balconies down from the top) on this the starboard side. We had our own balcony as did every cabin on the Seven Seas cruise ships. |
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| This I took from the shore of Cheryl's helicopter coming around the Mariner in Gatun Lake. You can just see the heli to the left of the ship down low to the water. |
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| Seven Seas Navigator |
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We did quite a few trips on the Navigator, a beautiful ship. The problem was that it had been converted from an ice breaker/spy ship of the Russian Navy to a cruise ship, and it handled very rough. It had a very flat bottom. In rough seas, you got slammed pretty good. If you had a cabin at the rear end (aft to some people) you were constantly being slapped down against the water every time the ship took a large wave. But most of the time it was a pleasure to serve on board this ship.
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| Radisson Diamond, our favorite ship |
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| This is the Radisson Diamond, a most unusual ship and a one-of-a-kind in the cruising world |
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Seven Seas Cruises bought this unusual ship with the hopes that it would be used by groups that wanted to just cruise the Caribbean, hold conferences on board, and not be worried about the speed at which it was moving. The hull which looks like a catamaran is not a catamaran. It is called a SWATH hull, standing for Small Waterline and Twin Hull. Below the water line in each of its "struts" into the ocean is a submarine-like hull that holds the engines, one in each hull, all the fuel, water and many other of the necessary components that support the ship operations. These hulls are down at a depth of about 20' below the water's surface, putting them down into the "fetch" or the area in the ocean's movement that has very little turbulence.
So the small waterline contacts the rough water, but way below that waterline are two large submarine structures the length of the ship. They give the ship a tremendous amount of stability even in very rough water. Quite a ship, and it quickly became our favorite. It was always smooth sailing on the Diamond. Hardly ever did we experience rough seas even though the seas may have been very disturbed. We covered almost every port in the Caribbean on the Diamond and even got to go through the Panama Canal at least a dozen times on this ship. We were very lucky to have had the opportunity to experience this ship.
We spent many, many weeks on this ship, sometimes doing 6 - 8 weeks at a time in the Caribbean, picking up a new load of passengers every seven days. It was our most enjoyable time on this ship out of the years we spent doing this.
The ship has now been sold and is in Hong Kong serving as a floating casino in Hong Kong harbor. What a shame. But it was too slow to compete with today's needs for people who want to go fast and see a lot of things.
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| The Seven Seas Voyager in Sydney Harbor, Australia |
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| One of the most fantastic trips we made was on this ship, the Voyager (on which we did more than one cruise), a brand new ship of the Radisson Seven Seas Cruises where we went from Florida, through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles to Hilo, Hawaii then through the islands of the South Pacific including Tahiti until we reached our destination in Australia. Cheryl and Dick then took a month long vacation in Australia, flew back to Los Angeles, met the Voyager again and went back through the Panama Canal to Florida. Quite a cruise!!! |
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This long cruise on the Voyager was our last cruise on Radisson Seven Seas. The President of Seven Seas made a decision to have all of his entertainment, which included the Guest Lecture Program, be taken over by an entertainment company in Fort Lauderdale which was owned by a good friend of his. This company set up a policy to charge Guest Lecturers like myself $100 a day to be on the ship, pay for all our travel expenses, air and land, and schedule our own travel to meet the ships. No way was I going to do this. I could not see working on the ship and then having to pay to be on it. And the travel expenses could be great considering where you sometimes had to travel to get to the ship or get home.
So we made a decision that it was no longer in our interest to remain with Seven Seas Cruises. This wasn't a hard decision to make....we didn't have the money to be able to do this anyway.
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| Our last trip as a Guest Lecturer, the Radisson Voyager at sea. We were asked to be aboard for the Voyager's first transit through the Panama Canal, then stayed on her to Los Angeles, then through Hawaii and the islands of the South Pacific, including Tahiti. Then on to Sydney, Australia where we left her, spent a month exploring that great continent. Then we flew back to Los Angeles and met the Voyager on its return trip to Florida, back through the Panama Canal again. What a trip, and WHAT A SHIP!!! |
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| New employer after five years |
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Within a week I received a call from Holland America Cruise Line asking me to consider working for them, with Holland America having all the same contract provisions as we had had with Seven Seas from its beginning. We agreed, and that started our wonderful association with a much larger cruise line with a greater choice of destinations and ships.
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| Cruising the Amazon River on the Holland America Veendam |
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| The Holland America ship Veendam which twice took us from Los Angeles via the Panama Canal into the heart of the South American continent on the Amazon River to Manaus and then back out to Florida |
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| The Veendam stopped at two native villages along the Amazon and we were able to walk right into their tiny villages and see how they lived. Of course the children flocked to greet the new visitors because they don't see many people there in their isolation. We had been told that the kids needed school supplies more than anything, so we took with us boxes of pencils and lots of notebooks and paper to give them. |
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| This is the teacher in the little school on the Amazon. She has about 40 youngsters in her class and teaches all subjects. They loved all the things we brought them for their supplies are non-existant. |
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| The Seabourn Legend |
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Dick was asked to do two cruises on this fantastic small ship, top-of-the-line, the Legend. They left from Tampa, Florida and cruised to most of the ports along the East coast of Central America and many of the islands as well, then through the Panama Canal, spending two days anchored on the Pacific side while the passengers took sightseeing trips all through Panama. What a great time for Dick and Cheryl to visit with their friends and family in Panama as well. Then from Panama it was up the West coast of Central America all the way to Nicaragua, then back with stops at all the ports on that side and finally back into the Panama Canal. This ship only carrys 200 "well heeled" passengers. Cozy.
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| Our last cruise, May 2007 on the Holland America Noordam |
We ended our cruising years with a cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles on Holland America's Noordam, a brand new ship. On board for our last cruise were more than 80 former classmates from high school and college, teachers and friends from Wheaton College and from Ventura, California where we live. It even included the Sheriff of Ventura County and his whole family and also the family of his Chief Deputy, all fine Christians. They had signed on knowing that I was going to be the Guest Lecturer on board. What great fun seeing people that I had not been around for more than 50 years. This also was the Noordam's first passage through the Panama Canal, and I was honored to be asked to give the transit narration to all the passengers from the bridge of the ship over the public address system. I started my description of the transit from outside the breakwater in Cristobal harbor and kept talking for almost 10 hours to our exit from the Canal in Balboa on the Pacific Ocean. What a thrilling day with all our friends on board.
My lecture before entering the Panama Canal was to a capacity crowd in the theater, with almost 1,600 passengers in attendance. We couldn't get any more into the huge theater. I talked for well over one hour. It was so crowded that the stairs onto the stage were full of people sitting on the steps.
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| The Holland America Noordam, our last cruise aboard a brand new ship, again, on a memorable voyage with friends from high school, college and where we live. |
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