Entering the Amazon River (MAR 06)

If you think entering the Amazon at high speed aboard a large ship is a good idea, you don’t know squat. 

This afternoon, VEENDAM slowed to 8.5 knots in preparation for crossing the sandbar at the mouth of the Amazon River.  This slower speed was to reduce the ship’s squat. 

“Squat” is the settling in the stern when a large ship increases its speed.  VEENDAM’s squat can be as much as 4 feet.  Area charts indicate VEENDAM has only 11 feet of bottom clearance over the sandbar at high tide, so going at a slower speed to eliminate squat is good seamanship as there could be uncharted shallower spots.

Passing over the 24-miles wide sandbar, we could not see bottom.  We could plainly see that the water color had changed from blue-green to a light brown. 

The sandbar is the dumping ground for the sediment transported by the Amazon.  It is approximately 50 miles offshore because it takes that long for the ocean to draw off the river’s energy that holds the sediment in suspension.

We entered the actual mouth of the river after dark, so we will not have our first sighting of the shoreline until tomorrow morning.