Today we called at Dubrovnik although we are docking a far distance away from the city itself. This area is called Gruz and it is where most of the cruise ships go to. Here were originally only ferry docks but the pier has been extended and can now take three medium sized cruise ships. (If there is no ferry) There is also room for a small one on the river embankment. Then in front of this dock are three anchorages. Plus there is space at an anchorage just outside downtown. In the not so distant past, there were sometimes three cruise ships at anchor there and sometimes they were not very small. Now the downtown anchorage has been dedicated to small cruise ships only such as our Seabourn ships. Anything larger has to go the Gruz docks or to the anchorages in front of it.

This is what is all about. The old town of Dubrovnik also called Stare Luka. the anchorage is to the left and the dock of Gruz about 20 minutes to the right. The ancient walled city is quite compact and thus has a limited capacity of visitors it can handle

Anchoring at downtown is nice but there is not much space, if you are a larger ship, and the anchorage is not sheltered at all times. So there have been fun and games in the past. Holland America has always followed the (safety) lead of the captains and had their ships docked at Gruz. That means that we have a shuttle service running today which departs and arrives every 30 minutes. Which works out well as a lot of our guests are on tour. To go into downtown Dubrovnik is wonderful (it is a UNESCO heritage site) but the surrounding area has so much to offer that many guests opt for tours that combine both things. Today there were only two cruise ships in; us and the MSC Poesia and that only brought about 4000 guests ashore. There were days in the past that there were seven or eight ships in port. Three alongside, three at anchor and one or two at the downtown anchorage. As mentioned in a previous blog, Dubrovnik is really suffering under its own popularity with the influx of ships, shore (by car) and air tourists (Those that come in on package holidays)

The Town leaders are trying to regulate all this traffic a little bit and thus far their emphasis has been on regulating the number of visitors by spreading the volume out and to try for the same numbers every day. If I look at the cruise schedule for this year; it looks as if they are succeeding as most days there are only two ships in and never more than three.

I pulled this photo from the internet as it shows the curving hills which cause the funnel effect. Three ships at the dock. Forward is a Holland America Line S class, 2nd one I can not recognize and the 3rd one is a Cunard Vista Class size. On the river berth the little cruise liner Dalmacija. (Thanks the unknown photographer who posted this)

Docking at Gruz has one big challenge: The River. Right in front of the dock, there is the river Rijeka Dubrovačka. Although officially it is called a Ria. A water way carved through high mountains on either side. A sort of Canyon. It ends up in the sea here at Gruz. Because of its high sides, it can act as a real funnel and it does that on a regular basis. If a high pressure system is building up over Bulgaria and it is lying under the right angle towards Croatia then a strong wind will develop and once it reaches the Ria it gets compressed between the walls on either side. Then it really increases in velocity and strength. Most of the time the pilot receives advance warning and can tell the captain to wait near the anchorage or go at anchor and run a tender service.

This morning we swung the ship around while in the river /Ria mouth and then went astern to the dock. If the wind would have come down, we could simply have kept the nose in the drift, so there would be no drift, and waited until it all had “blown over”.

I had the experience twice. Once the pilot did receive advance warning and gave me the option; wait or anchor. I decided to wait for 2 hrs. as the Bora normally does not last long, then docked and simply stayed two hours longer to make up for the lost time. (If you have the luxury of that option in your cruise schedule) The 2nd time, the pilot did not know and there was also no general advance warning out. I think it was not expected that Bulgaria would “pressurize” itself that day. Thus I happily came in with the ship, wind still, and the moment we sailed past the west bank of the river, we saw the wind coming down. It looked like a sort of sand storm moving over the dessert only in this case it was water vapor pushed up by the wind. Then the only option is, to react quickly and the turn the bow into the river; meet the Bora head on and wait until the wind dies down again. And that is what I did. Apart from a number of caps and straw hats lost there were no issues. If you do not react quickly then the 50 or 60 knot impact full on the beam, pushes the ship very quickly to the other side, a side where is no sand but rocks. Very nasty.

But today all was fine, although the total lack of wind made for a very warm day. We will sail around 18.00 hrs. or as soon as all the guests are back and then tomorrow we are in Sarande, Albania. Here we have to anchor as there is no cruise dock. But same as in Nafplion last cruise, we will tender straight into town.

Weather tomorrow: Sunny all day 90oF / 32oC and no wind. Another very warm day. Luckily I will be sitting in the tender with the door open so I will create my own breeze while examining my 2nd group of Tender operators.