It seems that the nice weather is here with us to stay. Again the sun brightly shone all day long and with a flowing wind, a wind matching the ships speed, it was a very pleasant day at sea and certainly very pleasant to be on the outside decks. The first part of our route is following the busiest part of the shipping lanes here in the Mid Baltic and thus there were many ships to be seen. The route went from Warnemunde directly North North East and by 5 am we passed the island of Bornholm on our starboard side. That was followed by the Island of Gotland on our portside in the early afternoon. By that time the traffic started to get less; as here you have lost by now all the traffic going to Sweden and West Finland. As soon as you are past Gotland more and more ships were moving away from the main lane and by late evening we only had the traffic left for the East Baltic countries such as Estonia and Russia itself.

Bornholm is lying more or less in the centre of the Baltic Sea and thus was for centuries a very strategic location. There is an Old Dutch saying with the phrase “laying behind Bornholm”, which meant staying out of fights or heated discussions. This line came out of nautical lore, when the many Dutch ships that piled the Baltic would seek refuge behind the East side of Bornholm against he fierce Westerly storms that can blow in the Baltic area. The saying is not used that much anymore as nautical lore is slowly fading out of the Dutch conscience but for me it is still a reminder, that when we anchor at places in the Baltic, to check first the expected weather/wind for Kiel in the South West to see if there is any nasty stuff coming from that direction. In the 18th and 19th century the Dutch had an enormous trade to the Baltic, mainly from ports in the North of the Netherlands. To such an extent, that the first foreign office of Lloyds of London was opened in Veendam, Groningen, The Netherlands. This to inspect the ships trading from that area before a ship could be covered by insurance. Nowadays there are still many ships, built for Dutch companies that get their classification from Lloyds Register, including the Holland America Line ships. There are also other country’s who have classification society’s such as the Italians, with Rina, the Germans with Germanischer Lloyd and the Americans with the American Bureau of Shipping, just to name a few.

This Baltic cruise always forms a challenge for us to fit all Holland America stuff into the program for the cruise. The cruise is very port intensive and we are supposed to do all the HAL standard things as well. That results in the fact that everything gets condensed into the three sea days that we have. First Sea day, welcome on board, 2nd Sea day (today) all the regular things, 3rd Sea day, farewell parties.

So today, the 2nd sea day, I had a special luncheon for the suite cabins and the collector voyagers, (Indonesian Rijstafel), Renewal of the wedding vows with two couples; followed by formal night dinner, all on top of the regular day routine. This was a very bad day for my waist line. Still it is one of the reasons that HAL is so popular and thus we willingly participate in sampling the culinary delights of the Executive Chef.

Tomorrow we are in Tallinn and the weather looks really good. Sunny but not too warm; so a good day for sightseeing. I am expected at the pilot station at 0600. An hour early than planned but there is port congestion and so the pilot asked me to arrive earlier. The Prinsendam is docking in the old port and that means that we have to be inside by 0700 hrs as by that time the ferries start to leave and they have preference. In the old port as well is the Silver Whisper and at the cruise pier, the Disney Magic and the Jewel of the Seas.