12 March 2010; Manaus, Brazil, day one.

We approached nice and timely the port of Manaus. At 08.30 we came past the “parting of the waters” as they call it, where the waters of the Amazon River meets the waters of the Rio Negra. Normally the two waters, muddy brown and ink black, remain separate for a long time due to the difference in the compounds in the water. This time the borderline was much more blurred as the current from the Amazon was so much stronger that it pushed right through the outflow of the Rio Negra. We followed the Royal Princess who, as scheduled by the port, would dock ahead of us at the Torres floating dock. To the amazement of all of us on the bridge she suddenly stopped still in the water about a 1000 feet from the dock. Before we could inquire the pilot received a phone call with the order for us to do the same. So I stopped the Prinsendam a 1000 feet away from the Royal Princess and drifted. It turned out that at 10 pm last night the Harbour master had issued a port order that no ships were allowed to dock at the city docks. All involved only found out about that this morning when the pilots and the agent offices opened and the order was found sitting in the fax machine.

The docks are owned by the City of Manaus and the Harbour Master (who is Federal e.g navy) controls the harbour and the water of Manaus. Thus there are two different parties, with different responsibilities, involved with the docking of the ships. They did not agree and the ships were caught in between. We were ordered to wait, where we were, for further instructions while City and the Harbour Master went into a meeting. As it was nice weather, with no wind and little current, it was safe enough to stay as close as we were and so the two ships were floating side by side awaiting the outcome of the discussions. In the mean time I kept the guests advised as best as I could with what little information I had available. In the end I got Frank Buckingham our all knowing travel guru up to the bridge, to point out the various points of interest (Opera house, Customs building, Kaiser Brewery etc etc) while we continued to wait.

By 1230, the first step in the solving of the issue was achieved. The Royal Princess (they have a 3 night stay with a full guest change over on the 2nd day) was directed to dock at the other pier, it being the smaller ship. The Prinsendam being the bigger ship was directed to go to anchor and to tender into the port. This kept the pier that was being argued over empty, while the situation was being reviewed.

So the Prinsendam was ordered to go to anchor at 12.24 and by 13.00 hrs. we had a full tender operation running. Three hours later than our official arrival time but at least I could get my guests ashore and still run nearly all the tours. During the late afternoon and early evening the City went to the Federal court in Manaus and had the Harbour Masters order overruled; allowing us to come alongside the dock in the mid evening. Tomorrow morning the Royal Princess will have to shift from the other pier and dock behind us, as that dock will be occupied by the Artemis for two days.

This was what all the fuss was about. The Torres dock; one of the two floating city docks in Manaus and used by the cruise ships in the season and the cargo ships out of season.

So another unusual day to record in the diary of this cruise. Why this all happened is a different story, a story of local politics; we were just caught in between and suffered from it.

The good news was that it was a beautiful day and night and we were lucky with not having any rain again. There were some threatening clouds in the distance but the rain never came over the ship. Tomorrow will be our second day in Manaus and hopefully it will be a quiet one. I will have time to recharge my batteries before we go down river again with the all night long standby.