I was raving about the weather yesterday but Lisbon decided to go one better and the sailing up the river was fantastic. We had a heavy swell running over the bar at the entrance of the river which made the ship pitch considerably for a short while but that was the only thing to mar a prefect arrival. There was a long ocean swell running from the N.E generated by some nasty and windy weather on the North Atlantic but in Lisbon it was wind still and sunny. Thus we happily trundled up the river while the sun rose over the city. While the sun rose we were treated to an un-expected spectacle, a green flash during sun rise. We see the green flash quite often during sunset in open waters, but this was the first time that we had one while entering port and over land and in the morning.

The green flash, normally seen the moment the sun sets under the horizon, is a green oval or vertical green spike. It is caused by (quoting Wikipedia):
A refraction of light (as in a prism) in the atmosphere: light moves more slowly in the lower, denser air than in the thinner air above, so sunlight rays follow paths that curve slightly, in the same direction as the curvature of the Earth. Higher frequency light (green/blue) curves more than lower frequency light (red/orange), so green/blue rays from the upper limb of the setting sun remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the earth. It is not a daily occurrence so it is a treat when we observe one at all times but to see one over land is very special.

While we approached the dock we passed the Costa Luminosa which was on her maiden voyage having left her home port five days ago. In size it is similar to our Vista Class of 92000 tons but carries more guests. She had an overnight stay, similar as we had on our previous cruise when coming from the USA. We proceeded just a little bit further up river to the Rochas dock. The ebb tide was just starting to run, so we docked port side keeping the nose into the current while coming alongside. With the current running just over a knot, the river was doing the work for me. I only had to keep the starboard engine a little bit ahead to stem the ship from drifting down the river and then the river pushed the ship towards the dock. When almost there; a kick with the bow thruster kept the bow off, which in turn angled the stern in and there we were, square alongside.

The good news was, it was a beautiful and sunny day, with no wind. The bad news was that it was a public holiday and all the shops were closed. So for eager shoppers this was not a good day. However most of our guests are into exploring and thus there was very little murmuring going on. As soon as we docked we had the bunker barge coming alongside to top up the fuel oil, as we had sailed from Piraeus last week without completely filling up (see my blog of 2nd of June) As it was a holiday it cost an additional $ 1500 of overtime for the barge attendants, so I hope that our corporate buyer can get some money back from our Greek friends.

We sailed at 1700 hrs. still in glorious sunshine. Now the river was flooding (e.g. the sea flood being stronger than the river current and thus reaching up river all the way past the docks) and that meant the moment I let go the lines, the current moved between the dock and the ship. So again the river did the work for me. Now with one engine a little astern and controlling the angle to the dock with the bow thruster we drifted way from the pier. As soon as we were clear of the docks we swung around towards the open sea. As I was not in too much of a hurry, we sailed down river and towards the pilot station at Belem Tower with a speed of 10 knots so that our guests could have a good look at the sights and listen to our Travel guide with his narration. After the pilot was off, it was up to me to sail the next 10 miles to open sea.

There was still a nasty swell running over the bar and the Prinsendam pitched considerably when we reached the end of the river Tejo. It remained a wobbly evening while we sailed North with a strong wind blowing and a long wave field coming from the Mid Atlantic. Although as expected the wind started to abate in the late evening and by tomorrow it should be completely wind still