So by 1 am in the morning, I was on the bridge in order to arrive an hour later at 1 am. at the NE Spit Pilot station for the Thames. The 1 and 1 worked out this way as we also had to give a time change of one hour back to get in synch with English time. The nice thing was that it was a beautiful night with nearly wind still weather when we sailed towards the pilot station. That pilot boarding area is located just above Ramsgate (where the pilot base is) and just under the fairway leading up the Thames estuary. While heading that way we listened out on the VHF and enjoyed all the conversations in various languages between the ships in the Dover Strait. There is always somebody who muddles things up for somebody else and it is quite funny to listen to a Russian telling a Greek what he thinks about the others seafaring capabilities. Also Traffic Control has the occasional issues to get a message across of what a certain ship has to do and when. Not always is the result that they want to achieve and quite often the party on the receiving end does something totally un-expected. That is why I never sail through this area with the watertight doors open………you never know what might happen next. Continue reading

From Vlissingen it was exactly 40 miles from pilot station to pilot station. Even for four hours that was a very slow speed run. However it gave me three hours of sleep before the Belgium pilot came onboard. So within 24 hours we came to the same pilot station twice, as Zeebrugge and Vlissingen are approached from the same side. Zeebrugge is the gateway port to Brugge (Bruges) and Gent (Ghent) and the place is not that spectacular. There are a few good fish restaurants but it has not the attraction of Brugge as a complete medieval city. Also the port is fairly new. The older part of the port is behind a lock, so there is no tidal influence and is now used mainly by car carriers and pleasure craft. What they did next was fill in the land between the old port and the sea barrier. From there they extended even further outward with a big container terminal. As a result Zeebrugge is the fastest growing port in Europe and specializes in Ro-Ro activities with the container business a good second. The cruise business, although appreciated, is not that big on the agenda although they do try to get as many cruise ships in as possible. Antwerp and Rotterdam are big competitors and in the future they might have to cope with Vlissingen as well. Continue reading

As indicated yesterday, this was a maiden call for the ms Prinsendam and also she was the first Holland America Line cruise ship ever visit to the port. It was not the first HAL visit ever, as that was done by the Edam of 1921 which was built here at the “De Schelde” ship yard in 1921. Thus after an 88 year hiatus we were back again. For the port itself it was a very important occasion as well, as Vlissingen (or Flushing in the English language) wants to become a cruise port and compete with Amsterdam, Rotterdam; and Antwerp and Zeebrugge across the border to the South. It has a number of factors really in its favor but it is a cargo port so it will need a cruise terminal to be really in league with the other ports. That gives a situation of catch 22. No cruise terminal, no cruise ships, but if you do not get cruise ships, there will be no money invested in a cruise terminal. Hence the decision of Holland America to help break the deadlock and send the “elegant Explorer” to help things moving forward. Hence our sudden appearance in this South West corner of the Netherlands. Continue reading

Last evening I had an interesting evening in relation to my Hal history hobby. I had the privilege to meet the great grandson of the 2nd captain of the company Capt. E. Deddes who was the first master of the ss Maas (2nd ship of the company) and of the P.C Caland, both ships that stood at the basis of the success of the Holland America Line. It turned out that his aunt had written a biography about this captain and I will get a chance in September to get a copy of that book. That all ties in with a little project that I am working on during my leave periods and that is to compile a listing of all the HAL captains that have ever served with the company. Eventually the listing with photos and biography’s will appear on this blog. 2nd event of the evening was dinner with the chairman of ss Rotterdam preservation society (Stichting Behoud Stoomschip Rotterdam) Mr. Klaas Krijnen and his better half. He and his society have been the coordinating force behind the conception of the project and the final arrival of the ship in Rotterdam. Something to have a lot of respect for as it was not an easy journey. Now the society is focusing on restoring more and more original details to the ship and creating ideas for the use of non utilized spaces onboard. In 2007 I was able to help out a little bit by transporting the top of the ships mast from Ketchikan, Alaska to Europe. The mast is now standing near the entrance to the ship. Continue reading

Le Havre is located in a recessed arc of the French Normandy coast. To get here from the Channel Islands, the ship sails past Cherbourg and then straight east towards the pilot station. That pilot station is about 8 miles away from the port entrance itself as in front of the port lays an extended sand bank. Thus there is the need for a long fairway that leads into the port. The area is prone to continues silting. Sand deposited by the currents in the Dover channel (or in this case let us use the French version: Pas de Calais), and as the current runs out of momentum due to the arched coast, the silt has a chance to settle down. Thus dredging takes place 24 hours a day 365 days a year, in the fairway and in the port itself. Due to the long approach channel to the port the ship had to arrive fairly early to ensure a timely docking. Early this morning was 06.00 and with the pilot onboard it took 45 minutes to get to the port itself. Swinging around in the turning basin and backing towards the dock another 40 minutes, the old port is compact with some locks and some ferry berths. Around the old port, they have built a new and much larger port which stretches for miles past the town itself. However we were docking in the old port, just outside the locks of the inner harbour. Continue reading

When I arrived on the bridge at 5 am. for the approach, things did not look too bad. The swell and the wind were under an angle, South West to West and that gave high hopes for a good day. Also the pilot boat made favourable noises and thus we happily proceeded in the direction of the pilot station. By 6 am the pilot was onboard and he was more concerned about a big yacht having pinched the best anchorage than about issues with safe tendering. Indeed the yacht was in the wrong position but somebody from port control had approved its location and when called, the owner or one of his crew informed us that they were not planning to sail until after breakfast. The yacht had a length of about 300 feet, so I could not really anchor on top of it as it had a certain swinging radius. Thus I was forced to drop anchor nearly a mile away from the port entrance and started lowering the tenders. However I made arrangements with the pilot to shift anchor as soon as “breakfast” would be finished. Continue reading

From Bilbao to the west point of France, in Normandy it is a North Westerly course and that meant that we had the swell ¾ on the bow and the wind on the beam. So no chance of surfing to keep the ship quiet; we had to face what was coming. However with the slow speed built into the cruise schedule, it was possible to keep the inconvenience to a minimum. At least compared to what it could have been. For a novice to the Bay of Biscay it looked quite rough, for those who had been in this area during times of bad weather it was not bad at all. Thus we saw a split among the guests, when they finally emerged from their cabins. Most slept in to recover from three days of intense sightseeing and the fact that the ship moved about a bit was also a good excuse to delay getting up. Then those who had been here before were quite happy to regale the other guests with horror stories about 40 feet waves, heavy pitching and rolling ships and all that goes with it. All the better for the Prinsendam who could really shine with her performance in how she was riding the waves. Continue reading

To get to Bilbao we had to go back East again, from where we came yesterday, the direction of Bordeaux. Only this time we hugged the coast line of Basque country at about 10 miles off shore, instead of being fully in the open. We had following winds and following seas and with the Prinsendam on full sea speed we had a nice and quiet ride. In the area where Bilbao is located, the coast dents in a little bit, so by early morning we had to change to a southeasterly course. Now the wind started to fall away and the swells subsided to about 12 feet. Hence we could slow down a little bit, while still keeping the ship steady and we did not have to enter the port too early. In the end we started the approach about an hour early and were docked at 09.15 instead of 10 am. Continue reading

We started out very wobbly, due to high waves on shallow water but during the night when we entered very deep water, the swell became less pronounced and the ride became normal. That was good, as entering A Coruna, the same thing would happen again, although it is more a problem when going out, than when going in when you have following waves. Going in, you ride with the waves as a sort of surfboard, instead of bouncing against it when outbound. There in the South part of the Bay of Biscay everything is relative and where in other parts of the world 15 feet is considered an issue, here it is “no problem”. Also the swell was from the right direction, so once in the bay, it was nice and calm to embark the pilot. This time we were docking at the Muelle de Trasatlanticos and that is the best berth as it is protected from the reflected swell in the bay. When a North westerly swell runs into the bay of A Coruna and it is high enough; then it bounces off the rocks in the South East corner of the bay and doubles back into the port. Today the waves were not high enough to do so and also more from the WNW than from the NNW. Continue reading