When hearing the name, it almost sounds as if we are home again. Walvis is Dutch for Whale and thus we are in the bay of the whales. Not that they are there, it is more that in the old days it was a port of assembly and refuge for the whaling ships.  In the area there were large concentrations of Southern Right Whales. Nowadays it is an industrial port that is very much alive and created at the south end of the dock area. About 85,000 people live here and although the whales are gone, fishing is a very important part of the local economy. Although most of the coast was once colonized by the Germans around the turn of the 19th/20th century, Walvis Bay was first in the hands of the British and later on controlled by South Africa until in 1990 when South West Africa became independent then Namibia and Walvis Bay became part of that country in 1994. Now the town is expanding with more tourism, plans for a new container terminal and also rumors that the Chinese want to establish a naval base here.

The port is sheltered to the south and thus we had to sail in a curve around a peninsula, called Pelican Point which creates this Bay of the Whales. The port is located in the far side of a shallow bay and the ship had to sail through a dredged channel to get to a turning basin in front of the docks. That whole process takes about an hour and then it depends on how fast the linesmen are in securing the ship.  The pilot came on board at 08.30 and then the ship sailed into the bay, swung around at the dock and was docked Starboard side alongside before 10 am. Also the authorities were alert and by 10.10 we got the ding-dong from the cruise director announcing that the ship had been cleared and all could go ashore.  As the port is quite extensive in size it is about two kilometers to down town and the ship had organized a shuttle service for those who were not on tour or did not want to make their own arrangements.

Looking over the port into the town we saw a similar sight as yesterday, lots of yellow sand and white buildings. Except here we now have trees sticking out from between the houses and thus the town is not completely arid. We are slowly moving to the north so the climate should become more temperate but we did not notice it today. It was dry and very chilly something I had not expected from this area with so much desert around.

We are staying overnight here, as with so many ports along the coast being excluded for various reasons, we at least can offer the guests a few things here. Night life is not that exuberant but the shop people on board had already discovered a nice bar and restaurant. Sometimes I think that they have a sort of secret database where all the ships shoppies add their combined knowledge to, because wherever we go, they know of a good place to party.   They were not completely happy today as they first had to attend training given by yours truly. Apart from the trainee class I am also helping out the regular deck officers with training. Some of those trainings the officers have never given themselves, so they attend to learn, and if I take away some of the others then it will reduce their workload.

Our school class is progressing well, with 13 eager persons soaking up all the information being thrown at them. This afternoon they were off and were given the chance to go ashore to see Walvis Bay.  It might be a very long time before they will return to this port, as Holland America only calls here during world cruises and an occasional around Africa cruise. Tomorrow we will find out what they thought about the place.