The Prinsendam in April 2014. (Courtesy an unknown but very good photographer)
After a few rather unusual days I boarded the ms Prinsendam yesterday in Barcelona. It had been the plan to go home for 4 days when leaving the Noordam on the 30th. of March. However just before walking off the gangway I was asked by my colleague to stay on board, so he could go home to attend to a medical emergency in his family. Emergency’s always override personal plans so I suddenly found myself at the helm of the ms Noordam while the head office was phoning around to find a replacement. Luckily this turned out not to be so difficult and in the first port of call Philipsburg St. Maarten, three days later, I could hand over and leave from there. As a result I spent two nights and one day at home before flying out to the Prinsendam. Just home long enough to do the laundry and the ironing and with a disappointed wife (normally referred as Senior Management) who had hoped to have had my undivided attention for a few more days. Luckily she is an old salt as well and understands that helping out a colleague in an emergency overrides everything. In the mean time I have heard that the emergency was not fatal so we can all be happy about that.
Now I start a 3 week period on the Prinsendam with trainings, reviews and other sorts of mayhem that accompanies me when I pop up somewhere. Senior Management is joining me for 10 days between Heraklion and Istanbul and hopefully I will be able to post some reports about the tours in the various ports. Although Lesley has been at sea for a very long time, there are still places she has not been to or did not see properly.
The Prinsendam is on a 55 day Grand Voyage, and has just finished the crossing and is now commencing the “port hopping” part of the voyage. Barcelona is a change – over port for those who only booked a segment and thus the ship stays here on the 5th. and the 6th. It enabled me to go straight from the airport to the ship avoiding a stay in a hotel room somewhere. Tomorrow we are a day at sea and then we will visit Mgarr on Gozo which is the smaller island West of Malta. The day after we will be in Malta itself with a visit to Valetta. Then another sea day, before arriving in Heraklion as the Dutch say or Iraklion which seems to be the more Greek spelling. From there it is to Israel and then to Turkey.
Israel is going to be interesting as we will be there during the Greek Orthodox Easter. The West has just finished this but the Orthodox Church is using another Calender which means it is Easter in Jerusalem twice. It might be rather busy and chaotic when the ship tours get there.
At the moment we are blessed with extremely good (sunny, cool and nearly wind still) weather in the area around Barcelona and that means that we should have a nice and quiet crossing to Malta. Although a lot of people do not realize it, the Med is a big sea and it can be very boisterous. Plus swell can build up over shallow waters and build up to very high waves. 30 feet and higher are observed on a regular basis during the winter season.
I spent the day today walking around the ship saying hello to a lot of officers and crew I sailed with in the past and re familiarize myself with the Prinsendam again. I was captain here from 2008 to 2012 so I know the ship inside out, but you forget things and also the company keeps tinkering with the ship. In 2010 they built extra cabins, in 2013 they added a covered Lido deck and also inside they have been making small changes to make sure that the Prinsendam could follow modern trends as best as possible.
For a small and older ship not everything can be achieved but then that this not always necessary either. The ship is the “Elegant Explorer” and that can be achieved without having a rock climbing wall, 10 restaurants or a Jacuzzi around every corner. (Although we do have a few of those ……….. on board)
Tomorrow real life will start again and I will be trying to find out how many new crew there are on board and how much they are familiar with all the company rules, regulations and operational procedures.
April 6, 2015 at 4:36 pm
Welcome back aboard Captain. I bet you enjoy being back on the Prinsendam. I clearly remember your blogs as her Captain, going up and down the Amazon river, the effort of trying to cross the sandbank at the mouth of the river. Especially when your carpenters had to build a temporary tender dock early in the morning at a remote up-river stop out of wooden pallets left over from the major renovation to the ship.
Oh well, I wasn’t there but I love the blogs. Enjoy the visit with “Senior Management”
Ruud
April 6, 2015 at 8:54 pm
Welcome “home” on Prinsendam ! I could imagine that even though the “old Lady” has been “improved” over the past few years, and some familiar and trusted faces are missing, she might still feel quite familiar as you come aboard. I hope you are in a comfortable suite, with enough closet space for Senior Management’s needs. :-)).
Thank you again for your wonderful daily writings: they are interesting and a daily encouragement to survive this d…… cancer, and maybe one day be able to return to the sea.
April 7, 2015 at 7:56 pm
She’s still as beautiful as ever; i.e., the “Sleek and Elegant Explorer” AND Lesley, of course. That was a swift and loving solution to pay for her fare to come on board instead of staying at home and trying to remember the apparition that did some ironing and laundry (?)
That was longer than I thought, your four years on board the Prinsendam. I wonder if you are happy not to have to stand on the open bridge wing this time around?