From Dover to Copenhagen it is almost 700 miles as we have to take the long route. There is short cut through the Kieler Kanal, (see also one of my other pages, A Gentlemen’s cruise to the openeing of the Kieler Kanal) but there is a bridge over this canal and the Veendam is too high for it. There are plans to raise this bridge, so maybe in a few years from now, we can go through it as well. Which would be nice as it is a very scenic sailing. Most of guests are packing,as they will be leaving tomorrow at the end of the cruise. 188 are staying on they have booked a back-to-back cruise and they will leave 10 days later.

My final day was filled with clearing away the paperwork and writing my end of term report and hand-over. The ship is sailing off the coast of Denmark and in this area there is not much traffic so I do not have to be on the bridge. I just walk in and out occasionally, to keep an eye on things. I will be on the bridge for most of the night during our approach to Copenhagen. Denmark is made up of a peninsula that is stuck to the top of Germany. Most of it is called Jutland and there are a number of islands as well. Copenhagen is located on the East side of this Peninsula and thus we sail around the top and then come down on the east side. That east side is called the Sont. It is a very shallow area and most of the time there is considerable traffic. Thus I will be present on the bridge.

Tomorrow I will go on vacation for three months until 9 September. Since two years the company has a policy that each ship has two captains who alternate. It is better for the continuity on board. The crew only has to deal with two different sorts of management instead of somebody totally different every few months. Because we alternate, we are doing three months on, three months off. This is really a necessity because of the long working days. You can not do four months of Alaska or four months of Europe if you have days between 10 to 14 hours each day. Holland America asks a lot of its captains and that makes for long days. Thus 3 on 3 off, to keep us smiling and to keep us sane.

A few people have asked me, how long does it take me to write my daily blog and do I have time for it. It takes me about 20 minutes to write one A4 page. Then I have my breakfast. When finished, I check for spelling mistakes and then it takes 5 minutes to upload. So about 30 minutes in total, in the period after docking the ship and before my ships round starts.

This will be my last blog for awhile. But check again between 14th of and the 21st of August. Then I will be sailing with my wife on her ship. Normally my wife sails with me, but in the summer time when I do boring things, such as 12 Alaska cruises in a row, she sails on the Ocean Majesty. She started doing that a few years ago and although the past period with the Veendam was not exactly boring, she promised her boss to be there, and thus she left the ship in Venice to join the Ocean Majesty.

The Ocean Majesty is a small Greek ship and is chartered by an English company called Page and Moy. They cater for the retired middle class of England with cruises in the Med, the Baltic and they go up to Greenland and Iceland as well. Lesley works on board this year as the Future Cruise Consultant. She advises guests about the cruises of the Ocean Majesty for the next year. They have a spouse policy, so there I go.

I love being a captain on the bridge, but being a captain sitting in the bar, has definitely its appeal as well. Also it gives me the chance to do each and every tour they offer and see a bit of the ports and the countries that I normally visit with the ship but never get to enjoy.

So I will report my captains observations from the bar about what there is to be seen in Iceland and Greenland and what the special cocktail of the day is.

Also I will try to add a few more articles Of days gone by to the website. Ralph Grizzle the editor of The Avid Cruiser, places them on the last page end of each quarterly issue but that is the short version. The long version is posted on my blog. I have close to 1500 books in my library about ocean liners and cruises. Among them there are a quite a few obscure travel books, reports and other published items from the early days of sea travel, that merit some attention.

Thank you for reading my blog everyday. I will be back on the Veendam on September 9, sailing from New York to the Canadian Maritimes. Please join me then.

I knew this was going to be a long day for me and I was not disappointed. Approach started at 3 am in the morning. The whole Strait of Dover has been divided into North to South Shipping lanes to keep the traffic separate. It is together with the Strait of Malacca the busiest water way in the world and hundreds of ships are passing through each day. There is Dover and Gris Nez traffic control who regulate it all and the lanes are suposed to do the rest. When you go north, as we were doing coming from Le Havre, you sail on the French side, keeping the Right hand side of the English Channel (This is another name for Dover Strait). If you sail south you hug the English side.

This means that if you have to go to Dover, then you will have to cross somewhere. The Rules of the Road dictate that you will do this, under a straight angle, so all the ships can see what you are doing. However as there a lot of ships around it can be quite a puzzle. Thus I wanted to be on the bridge, when the time was there. This morning we were quite lucky as there was a nice gap in the south bound traffic. By sailing close behind a big bulk carrier, we managed to pass ahead of two big container ships, just by speeding up for 10 minutes. That is the nice thing of having a fast passenger ship. Unless you are running full out already, you can always give a kick ahead and get out of a hairy situation. That “kick ahead” made us a little bit early and as the pilot was in an eager mood, he was early as well and we entered the port 15 minutes ahead of the planned time.

Dover has two narrows openings that lead into a wider basin. As it was spring tide, the currents running in front of the harbor openings were up to three knots. To compensate for this current you approach the entrance not in a straight line but steer against the current, heading directly for the breakwater wall. By keeping an eye on the way the current is setting, you adjust the ships heading, and bring the bow into the entrance. As soon as the bow is inside the opening, you start loosing the current so you then have to watch the stern of the ship; otherwise it gets set to towards the sea wall. It is a bit unnerving if you have never seen it done before, so it was a good learning experience for the juniors.

For the pilot it was a piece of cake as the Veendam is one of the most maneuverable ships in the world. Inside the basin there is not much room either. The West side is shallow and just of the South side there is a wreck in a position where it is most convenient to turn the ship for docking. It has been there for years, but as the cruise ships are getting bigger, there are now finally plans to have it removed. Dover has a nice terminal, a bit on the small side for the mega liners, but perfect size for the Veendam. We fitted with 30 feet to spare in the main berth.

As I sail with quite a few British Officers on board, it was a busy day on board with lots of family and friends. At the same time Holland America is focusing on the British Market so we had a lot of British travel agents on board for the day as well. Most of guests where on tours to ancient sides in the area, Leeds Castle, Canterbury or Dover Castle itself. The latter having a long and distinguished history from the 11th century. It played a vital role in the Battle of Britain in the Second World War and all these facilities, called Hell fire corner, are open for visitors.

Dover is nominated by white cliffs that tower high above the port and as the sun was shining directly on the cliffs the scenery was very beautiful. On a good day you can see France from here and vice versa, so for the Germans in WWII it must have been very frustrating to see England so close and not being able to get there.

By 4 pm. we sailed as the schedule to Copenhagen is very tight. Departure is a simple affair. Line the bow up towards the opening, give full ahead, and sail out as fast as possible so that the current can not catch the ship. We had to cross the traffic lanes again, as we were going further north, and then most of the evening we were busy with dodging other ships coming from Calais, Dunkerque, Antwerp and Rotterdam. If you want a good area to learn navigating the hard way, try sailing the English Channel. Luckily it was a weekday, so we had only a few sailing boats to contend with. By 10 pm. I really was ready for bed.

Passenger ships have been calling at Le Havre since the start of Trans Atlantic Travel. It was the home port of the French Line and every major liner has called there. Since the demise of the regular liner service, cruise ships call here using Le Havre as a gateway to Paris. It is a very busy port with a continuous flow of traffic going in and out. That traffic is regulated by Le Havre port control. Port control operates in a similar way as traffic control does at an airport. It assigns the pilot times, berths in the harbor, sequence of arrival and departure etc. etc. Occasionally it settles disputes between ships captain’s who all want to do something at the same time, as nowadays we are all in a hurry and time is money. As a cruise ship, we seldom have scheduling problems as, with the exception of local ferries; we normally have preference over cargo traffic.

Approaching Le Havre is very straight forward. The approach channel or fairway is covered by two very strong lights, called leading lights, and as long as you keep these two lights in line, you are in the middle of the channel. It was a breezy morning and as I wanted to park the ship portside alongside the pier, that is nose to open sea, it meant swinging around in the harbor and then backing to the dock. The harbor is not that wide for a comfortable swing and with about 20 knots blowing full on the beam, it was a tight maneuver.

There is a large tidal difference in the port, 8 to 10 feet is a normal range and for that we needed a shore gangway, as the Veendam has no crane capacity to carry its own long gangway. The agent was excited about the long shore gangway as it was a brand new one. With ever larger cruise ships visiting the port, having their break doors high up in the ship, the normal gangways were becoming too short. So the port had invested in a new one. It was indeed a very nice one and although it was of the step up kind, the steps where sufficiently close together to make wheelchair use possible.

In the afternoon we were regaled by a French choir, singing Russian Folksongs. I never got to the bottom of that combination but it was very pleasing to listen to. Although about 800 guests were on tour, there were still sufficient of them around to create an audience. The cruise terminal is a converted cargo shed but it was done up very nicely with a little bar, tourist stands and a lady selling maritime paintings. These maritime paintings were not of the ships as such but artists impressions. And although they were very professionally executed some of them where a bit too culturally advanced, to be fully understood by me. If I see a painting of a ship, then it has to be a painting of a ship, regardless whether it is a harbor scene or the ship itself. So give me the paintings of Spurling, Shoesmith or Stephen Card any day. All the tours from Paris were back on time, and we sailed on schedule at 19.30 hrs., for our run up the English channel to Dover, England.

The weather system did what the experts had predicted; it remained offshore, West of Cape Finisterre. We were crossing the Gulf of Biscay on a North Easterly course and so steering away from it. By midnight the wind and the swell started to die down and the guests could enjoy a peaceful night. A wind force four remained, pushing us in the back and that gave an extra knot of speed, which pleased the chief engineer as it helped with the fuel consumption.

The cruise is slowly coming to an end with only two ports to go and today we had our Mariners party, the party for all our repeat guests. On a complement of 1250 guests there were 802 who had done two or more cruises. The top scorer this time having 1157 days clocked up. I have made cruises where we had everybody on board as a repeat guest and I have done cruises (Alaska) where there were as few as 250. Most of the time the figure hovers around 75 – 80%. Holland America has a recognition system for loyal guests. Not only can you get better deals if you have traveled before, with early booking options and extra discounts, but we also have a medal system.

We have pins for 25 and 50 days, a copper medal for 100, a silver for 300, gold for 500 and platinum for 700 days. 700 days is the top level and we have guests who go way over. There are one or two ladies who do all the long cruises with HAL, and they are somewhere near 4500 days. That is a lot of sailing days. To put that in perspective:
I have been at sea now since 1979 and clocked up about 6100 days, with having on average 4 months leave a year. 4500 days is nearly 12.5 years full time at sea. It helps when you do world cruises, each one is over a 100 days, but you still have to do a lot besides that to get to that level. It makes sense that the holders of these numbers, get a bouquet of flowers from the President of the company, each time they sail.

Most of the route along the French coast is regulated by Traffic separation schemes. Highways at sea, which keep the South bound traffic apart from the North bound traffic. Most commercial traffic, except the fishing boats, adheres to it. I had taking a two hours watch today, as the chief officer wanted to have lunch with all the navigators as a part of his teambuilding effort. I like to stand a watch once in a while, as it keeps the routine going of dealing with the regular watch issues. It was great fun to listen to the VHF and to hear all the conversation going on between the various ships, voices with different accents, different styles of talking and varying levels of English proficiency. Far away on the port bow, a tanker was not behaving according the rules and was getting into a muddle with two bulk carriers and another tanker. When they started talking to each other, getting more agitated while the conversation progressed, it turned out that they were all from Indian decent and their sing-song English filled the airwaves. VHF remark of the day of one ship to the other:
Captain, captain, if your grand mother would see what you are doing, she would call you a very very naughty boy…………………

Tomorrow we are in Le Havre, gateway to Paris.

Vigo is located in the North Western part of Spain, just south of Cape Finisterre which marks the border with the Gulf of Biscay. We were just going to make the schedule for Vigo when I was called at 4.30 by the navigator on duty that there were Tuna fishers in the way. Their method of fishing is to set long surface nets and then sit nearby waiting for the fish to come in. Most of them will attach little strobe lights to buoys, to mark the end of the nets. If they are attached, those battery operated lights work fine in the beginning of the night but by early morning the batteries start to weaken and then the fun starts.

In the pitch dark of the night you can not see the buoys or the nets and the fishing boat skipper suddenly realizing that the ship might run over his net, speeds up and start crossing the bow. By doing this he hopes that the ship will change course and will miss the net. The problem is you do not know were the net starts as the fishing boat is not always lying at the end of his net. He might be in the middle or have drifted away and not even being close. Also the crew tends to take a nap between the setting and retrieving of the net leaving the youngest deckhand to monitor the traffic and the boat. When a ship is coming close he calls the skipper, who jumps in the wheelhouse and starts racing towards his net.

So we also had them tonight. The navigator on duty is of course completely capable of dealing with the situation, otherwise he would not be on duty, but as the actions of the fishing boat might be totally erratic, it is better to have the captain on the bridge, even if it was only as a witness and to concur with the actions taken. Based on the behavior of the boats we took a quantified decision of where the nets had to be and the best option was to steer for open sea. That we did, but it cost us quite a bit of time and thus we arrived late in Vigo. Talking to these fishing boats does not work, due to language barriers, and also because they only monitor a private working channel for among themselves. So we sailed around them and lost some time. Also in port was the Sea Princess, docked ahead of us and as the part of the pier assigned to us was just long enough, I had about 100 feet clearance, to park the ship where it had to go. Thus I had to come in very slowly to fit the ship in between the stern of the Sea Princess and the pier of the fishing port just behind us.

The weather forecast for the crossing of the Gulf of Biscay had been very good. Until right at departure, when the wind suddenly picked up from 10 knots to 40 knots within 30 minutes. By the time we had departed the bay of Vigo there was a good gale blowing. It turned out that a frontal system south of Ireland had come further south than forecasted and had started to intensify right off the coast of Spain. Luckily it produced southerly winds, so the Veendam was running with it, reducing the relative wind on the deck. But as it brought the swell with it from the North Atlantic, the ship started to move somewhat. According to the latest weather chart we will stay out of the worst part and then the system is supposed to go to the Irish Sea and, hopefully, we can avoid the most of it.

Upon leaving Gibraltar we had to deal with a new navigational challenge. Whale waters. Around this time of the year, there is a (voluntary) slow speed system in place in the most narrow part of the Strait of Gibraltar. Over the years the sightings of whales have increased and collisions are now occurring. The participation in the system is voluntary and as Holland America cares about these things we went through at slow speed. Although it looked like it, that we were the only one doing so. Fast ferry’s, containerships, navy boats all came blasting by at full speed, while we chugged along with 13 knots.

There are more whales in the area than in the past. It seems that the whale hunting moratorium, in place since a few decades, is starting to pay off. More and more whales have been sighted in the Mediterranean itself and also in the bay of Gibraltar. In April we saw a number of them when we sailed from Cadiz to Barcelona, near Ibiza. They are difficult to see, as they do not play around as the Humpbacks do in Alaska. No breeching, no tail wagging and no big tail coming up before they go down. So we have extra quartermasters on the look-out to try to spot the exhaust plumes. If we think that they are coming too close, we change course to other way, and if we can not discern any moving pattern, we slow down until the whale has decided to go somewhere.

This time we did not see anything, just a whole fleet of fishing boats racing across our bow from Africa to Spain. The unnerving thing iwith those boats is the way they perceive safe distances. While we like at least 3000 feet in open waters, they are quite happy with a 100. When we steer away to create a bit more room, they sometimes have the unpleasant habit of steering closer so they can wave at the guests.

Arrival Lisbon was another early morning. It takes approx. 45 minutes from the sea buoy to the pilot station at Belem tower. So if you want to be docked by 7 am., you start the approach at 5 am. When you get to the sea buoy you have to slow down, as you go over the bar. Normally there is about 8 meter clearance under the keel, but if there is a combination of low tide and a big ocean swell, it can be considerably less. When the ship goes at full speed, a phenomena called squat occurs and that can increase the draft by 2 meters or more. Count it all together and you are coming close to touching the bank. By slowing down you reduce the squat and thus increase the under keel clearance. Coming in we measured 7 meters under the keel, and going up (with the tide going up the river) we had 10 meters.

Once clear of the bar, we cranked the ship up to full speed as was a very tight run to get to Vigo on time.

Thus we arrived bright and early at the Gibraltar pilot station. The weather was quite miserable with rain squalls all over the place. The pilot was nicely on time and from the pilot station it was only two miles to the dock. By 6 am, the ship was safely docked and the gangway out, awaiting the local authorities. We were also awaiting our bunker barge who had promised to there at 6 am. but was nowhere to be seen. Then the pilot pointed out a barge still alongside another ship. That was our barge, still working at the other ship

We got the agent on the phone to inquire. At the same time the pilot had some issues with a cargo ship behind us. At 6 am. there was only one pilot on duty, thus he spaced the ships 30 minutes apart. This cargo ship however had, or feigned to have, problems with understanding the instructions of the pilot. He was told to proceed, slowly, very slowly to the pilot station. 5 minutes later he reported that he was already there.

Pilot: Captain, I told you to go slow, very slow, am I still on the other ship.
Captain: yes, I am at the pilot station, pilot ladder ready, where are you ?.
Pilot: Captain you have to wait, I am still on the other ship.
Captain: yes I am here at the pilot station, I am doing 2 knots.
Pilot: Captain, stop the engines and float, I will be there shortly.
Captain: yes I have my engines going, where are you, I am going to the dock.
Pilot: no you are not going to the dock. I want you to drop anchor with one length out and hold position.
Captain: yes, I proceed slowly on my way.
Pilot: Wait I am on the way to you ………………….
…………at this time the pilot left the Veendam and the conversation stopped.

Our bunker barge made it to the ship by 08.30. so all our efforts, including me getting up extra early, where for nothing. When the barge came alongside, the chief engineer asked him why he was so late. He was then told in no uncertain terms, that if the Veendam had been docked by 6 am., the bunker barge would have been there………………..so it was all our fault. However we managed to load our fuel on time. Also by 9 am. The weather cleared and it became a beautiful sunny day. Sail away here is very interesting to the guests, as part from the Rock looming over the ship, there are all the ships at anchor, which we pass by very closely. If you have never seen a super tanker before in your life, then these ships close by are an amazing sight. Gibraltar is used by a lot of ships for loading fuel. One very large tanker is at anchor in the middle of the bay and the bunker barges collect the fuel from this tanker and bring it to their clients anchored in the bay. When leaving from the passenger terminal you have to sail past all these ships and that provides a very interesting spectacle.

After hopping from one port to the other for the last four days, we had another sea day. The guests could catch their breath and relax a little bit from all the sightseeing. Although we did keep them busy today as well, if they wanted to of course. This being a longer cruise means that we have a number of extra activities on board. Exploration Speakers, Celebrity Chefs and even I chipped in with a Holland America Line History lecture. To top the evening off, we had a Black and White Officers ball.

The black and white ball is a dance happening that we normally do on cruises of 14 days and longer. It gives the guests a chance to mingle with officers they normally do not see and it is a good excuse to throw a party. The setup is very straight forward. After an announcement by the Cruise director I come down the stairs with my wife, or in this case a cruise staff lady, followed by all the officers, staff and concessionaires. We march onto the stage to the tune of anchors away and everybody lines up behind me. From the dance floor it is very impressive to see this line up of officers all dressed in Black and white. From there we come down to the dance floor at the start of the first tune. We have some special dances, these are called the envelope dances. A few of the officers have a numbered envelope in their pocket. When the number is called, the guest who happens to be dancing with the officer gets a price…………..after answering the questions of who this officer is and where he/she comes from. Some guests can really get into it and already start questioning an officer before the dance starts, in case there happens to be an envelope there. The captain never has one, that would be to obvious. But he has a photographer hovering nearby. That is also an incentive for the Ladies. It always looks good to have a photo with the captain in the photo album from the cruise. So I seldom get a break during the whole period that the band plays bu the photographer does good business.

The dancing normally finishes an hour later, when the band goes on break, but as most people then have gotten into the groove sufficiently, the party continues most of the time in the crows nest until the wee hours. I never saw those “wee” hours. For me it was time to go to bed after 45 minutes, as standby for arrival Gibraltar the next morning was at 04.30 I was going for an early arrival because we had to bunker 1100 tons of fuel and the bunker barge was going to be there by 6 am.

Today we docked at the Palocruceros terminal. This terminal is brand new and one of the four along the cruise ship dock at Barcelona. Apart from being brand new it is also owned by Carnival Corporation and was especially built for Costa who uses Barcelona as one of their change over ports. Thus from now on, we will dock at this terminal unless there are more corporation ships in port and one of them has turn over day. My favourite place for docking is at the World Trade centre, as it is located right on the edge of downtown, in the inner harbor. Those three docks are now most of the time used by smaller ships.

For this inner harbour they made a new port entrance and therefore you do not have to sail through the draw bridge anymore. Before this entrance was ready, every ship destined for the world Trade centre dock or going to dry dock had to go through this bridge. The bridge connects the artificial island behind the breakwater, where the passenger terminals are located, with the mainland. Clearance is about 140 feet and with ships with a width of 105 feet or more, that gave not much room to play with, especially on a windy day. Thus a new entrance was created and the bridge now seldom opens.

The terminal itself is very big and airy. When you walk in there it give you the feeling of a place with a pleasant temperature just by overall impression. Very handy for the summer time when it can be very warm here. Nice seating area’s, three shops and a little bar, plenty check in terminals, all meant to make embarkation a pleasant affair. Outside there is ample parking space for the buses. I thought that the whole place was designed very well. Embarkation is by means of a skywalk, as used at the airports.

Barcelona is busy with a big port extension program which includes extending the breakwater by nearly a mile. That means that the sailing in takes a bit longer but also that you can keep the speed up while sailing in. The pilot is most of the time quite happy to let the captain do the job, “captain you know your ship best, I will tell you when to stop when you are there” so it is a fun port to go to, if only for the fact that I can play with the ship to my hearts content.

We had over 700 guests on tour today, as Barcelona’s offers something for everybody, and for those who do not want to walk, the panoramic tour is of great interest as the town has so many interesting things to look at. Biggest draw is of course the church still being built. Designed by Gaudi and not supposed to be finished for the next 20 years. It is one of those things that you have to have seen, if only once in your lifetime.

It is only a short hop from St Tropez to Marseilles and we went for an early arrival as the full day tours were leaving shortly after 7 am. Apart from the regular city tours, there are also tours going deep into the Provence and that takes a bit of travelling by bus. Marseilles has been working very hard to accommodate the increase in cruise ship calls and therefore we had a beautiful and spacious berth to dock at. In the past I have docking at old cargo berths, where the sheds where almost falling apart but this dock was really beautiful.

As it was our first call, the local tourist centre had laid on a little show with a group of dancing ladies and men on old instruments playing folkloristic music. A few little shops had been set up to sell local products and knick-knacks and the tour buses could park right across from the gangway. All very convinient. The only issue with Marseilles is the long distance from the terminal to the town centre. That is the case for all the ships. The old port has been revamped as a Marina,and the nearest deep-sea berths are now exclusively in use for the ferries. All other traffic is docking quite a ways away. The port lays on shuttle buses for a nominal charge and they ran constantly during our call, so there was no delay for those not on tour to get into Marseilles.

I had hoped to go ashore here, there is a great nautical bookstore in the old port and a small but beautiful maritime museum but as it had been a short night between St. Tropez and Marseilles I needed my sleep. Hopefully next time. The port keeps up an old tradition of offering a memento, commemorating the first call of the vessel. By 11 am, I had the harbourmaster, immigration and the tourist bureau on board for a plaque exchange. Those plaques are hung on the bulkheads in the forward passenger staircase for all to see. The more new ports a ship does, the larger the collection. Especially ships on long and exotic cruises, such as our Prinsendam, accumulate quite a collection. The ship gives in return the ships crest and framed photos with dedication.

We were in port with the Disney Magic and the Thomson Celebration, which is the old Noordam. It was funny to see that ship now from the other side. I was part of the new building team of the ship in 1983 and she was my first regular command, also sailing in Europe. She is still owned by Holland America and now on a 10 year bare boat charter to Louis Cruise Lines, who in turn have chartered her out to Thomson. Bare boat means; renting out only the ship and the charterer takes care of the full operational side, including the crew. Thomson is an English package holiday company. They fly their guests to their own ships using their own planes, and offer pre and post packages all in house. My wife and I did the first shake down cruise of the ship as I wanted to see what they had done with my Noordam and it was a very pleasant product. Simple but enjoyable.

A beautiful invention they came up with over there was the roving beer pump. A beer pump on a trolley with a little philipino waitress behind it, roving around the deck and everywhere she saw a few men standing together, she stopped and sold a pint. As the British do like their beer it was a roaring trade. I must admit, that I was one of her most enthusiastic customers. When I work, I do not drink at all, sticking to Perrier water but I do enjoy a glass when off duty. A roving beer pump was an invention not to be missed. Instead of going to the Bar, the bar came to you. I thought it was a great idea.