The tide dictated that this was going to be a midnight affair and so we prepared accordingly. Going up the river during the night is quite nice. The first part up to the Thames barrier is boring with passing only the car factories at Dagenham and the occasional power plant but after the Thames barrier it becomes very scenic. The London skyline produces so much light that there is not much difference in sailing on the river during the day or during the night. Most London pilots said that they even prefer the night as there is less distraction, most of the time less traffic and somehow the place looks nicer. As we are docking on the buoys in Greenwich, the voyage up river is timed to arrive there during the period of slack water. It take about 30 minutes for the current to go from Ebb to Flood and vice versa and that is normally enough time to get the mooring ropes on the buoys. Continue reading

The weather remained very unpleasant for the remainder of the night. Strong winds and high seas but the Prinsendam was riding the waves very nicely and we had a really comfortable ride. Some guests even started to wonder if it really was that bad. I was almost tempted to change course for a few minutes…………and turn the nose into the waves…………… Of course I did not do that but it would have solved the argument quickly. The Hotel department flipped the whole daily program over and so what should have been done today (the scheduled sea day) was done yesterday and what was to be done yesterday (the Leith port day) was taking place today during the new port day of Tilbury. That takes a bit of doing as the components that the cruise director has to work with; entertainers, are not so highly structured as the regular departments on board where things happen with a click of the finger. Entertainers, when not working, are sometimes quite hard to find, things have to be discussed, (dramatic) opinions expressed and then finally the CD gets his show on the road. I work with yes and no’s, the Cruise Directors with a lot of if’s and why’s, and yes but’s. With creativity comes emotion and we have a lot of creativity on board……… Thus our C.D Thom had a nerve wracking day yesterday to get it all together and hold it together as it was all last minute scheduling. Continue reading

The wind force 9 winds, gusting 10, came over later than expected. They came whistling off the coast after 21.30 hrs. which was just fine by me. We sailed close to the coast already but each minute that the wind came later, the closer we came to the coast and the more in the shelter the ship would be. Because the winds had just started and did not blow over an exposed sea surface where we were, there was no swell building up and thus we were not affected at all. Apart from the whistling sound, most guests did not even notice that there was bad weather outside. Everybody was in dinner or in the show. Nobody ventured outside as the weather has been cold, windy and rainy and it had cooled down even more during the evening. A wind chill factor force 9 certainly helps with cooling down. The late arrival of the strong winds had me worrying about something totally different. How about for getting into the locks? The weather forecast from the pilots was clearly based on an earlier passing of these strong winds and the subsequent lessening of them after the centre has passed. I was getting an unpleasant feeling over me. Continue reading

This town is located just north of Aberdeen and is mainly in use by fishermen and the supply boats for the North Sea oil rigs. It has a rather large harbour for its size with two big breakwaters that provide good shelter for ships in bad weather. We were scheduled here for a full day stay. Nice tours can be made to the interior of Scotland. The town is cute except today. The inclement weather that started to come over Stornoway in the late morning and the afternoon had spread all over the North of Scotland during the night. More bad weather was on the way from the North Atlantic but it was not certain when that would arrive. By the time I went to bed, it was still looking good for a dry morning in Peterhead with rain expected in the afternoon. However the system moved along nicely and the rain started around 4 am in the morning while at the same time Aberdeen Radio issued its first gale warning. However for the time being the wind was from the NE, making a docking possible and if the wind would later change, the only thing that could happen would be that the Prinsendam would be pinned against the dock. Continue reading

Based on three good forecasts for very good weather we approached the port of Stornoway. Indeed it was wind still and the sun rose in a clear sky. Stornoway has a very sheltered harbor from most wind directions as it is shaped like a boomerang. (Not a Scottish instrument though) Small and bigger cruise ships the size of the Prinsendam do not fit in and so they are directed to an anchorage outside. However that is almost 2 miles tender distance to the dock. Although it is too small to swing around in, on the anchor it was possible to drift inside as there was no wind. Thus I moved inside and lowered the tenders. It would mean that I would have to maneuver all day, staying on the engines but I now could reduce the tender distance to roughly half, so I found it worth while to do so. My guests were entitled to a extra treat after all the past days of inclement weather. Continue reading

Based on a good weather forecast and positive assurances from the Harbour master we arrived with high hopes in our hearts at the pilot station of the River Foyle. Upon approaching the wind looked to be blowing from the right direction (South West to West) and while coming closer and closer it got less and less. I thought: “we are in business”. All our weather troubles are over and we will have a great day in Greencastle. From here the guests could travel up to Londonderry and the surrounding areas. Also when the pilot came onboard, he reported that there was hardly any wind when he left port. So up the river we went to the anchorage outside Greencastle. The closer we came, the more it started to blow and by the time we arrived at the anchorage there was a good wind force four blowing over the river. More from the South than from the South West. As the wind was blowing against the upcoming Tide, there was a nasty chop in place on the river as well. Continue reading

The last time I was in Liverpool was in 1979 when I was a cadet. The only thing that I remember from that call was that we docked in a container dock in the dark in the early evening. One of the engineers took all four of us (cadets) to a disco where I saw English girls dancing with each other and dancing around their own hand bags. All the boys were huddled around the bar drinking pints. That dancing around the hand bag came from the fact that there was no place to leave a hand bag safe when going for a dance. They were dancing together because the boys only wanted to drink. We as Dutch could not understand that at all but when we tried to ask these girls for a dance, and there were 100’s of them in this gigantic disco, they all refused as they were out on the town together. At least that is what I understood when asking. It was very difficult to understand them, partly because of the disco noise and partly because of their liverpudlian accents, but I never forgot the disco scene from that night. All these pretty girls dancing together around their hand bags and all the men just boozing it up. My wife (who is British) later explained that it was not that unusual in England in those days. Continue reading

Although Dublin is much frequented in the summer by cruise ships, it does not have a dedicated cruise terminal. Where we docked was a regular cargo pier that had been made “cruise” friendly for buses and taxi’s. The area can take two cruise ships, one on either side of a large semi triangular dock. Today there were two cruise ships in port. Apart from us there was also the Crystal Symphony. She was going the opposite way to us, at least that was her schedule. After Dublin the ship was scheduled to call at East Dunmore, where we came from and then go on to Guernsey. The call at East Dunmore had already been cancelled and so the Symphony stayed overnight in Dublin. I was not amazed because after we left the weather had deteriorated over there considerably. We just had a lucky window in between a series of bad days. The crew of the Symphony were also talking about the cancellation of the call at Guernsey. Thus we were not the only one having multiple port and weather issues. That just reminded me; the day we were supposed to call at Guernsey, a Silver Sea cruise ship cancelled the call at Dartmouth next to Torbay. They were suffering from the same weather that we were supposed to have had during our call at Guernsey. Continue reading

Although there was traffic going up and down the river, no ship was waiting at anchor and thus I could park the Prinsendam where I wanted it. Right opposite the harbor entrance as close as possible under the shore. That close as, was still about 5 cables, as the area near the harbour entrance is quite shallow. The swell was slowly getting less and less on the way to the anchorage so my spirits lifted and I thought we were in for an easy day. However Dublin radio spoiled that happiness by announcing that they had found another pressure system which would cause the winds to stay West and later shift to the South West. It seems that somewhere in Ireland there is a top secret and hidden factory that churns out changeable and local weather that is not in the regular forecasts but just suddenly pops up when least expected. But we were there and things looked good in East Dunmore bay. Hardly any wind and the hull of the Prinsendam could easily protect the tenders from that influence while alongside. You never know if “expected” weather is going to happen or not, if it is not backed up by a weather chart . That is a sort of gamble you have take, as what was forecasted was actually coming, or that it was strictly local in occurrence. That is, local in the Irish Sea and therefore not necessarily also the case in Dunmore Bay Continue reading

The rain clouds disappeared in the late afternoon and after sunset Cobh looked really idyllic. Crystal clear skies (caused by the strong and cold wind blowing) and a pale moon that shone on the houses along the quay. We had a fabulous view from the bridge over those houses and the bay. It remained the same all during the night and I had high hopes that it would remain dry for the day. The Irish weather forecast more or less indicated that as well. However it seemed that one shower a day does not count as rain in Ireland and although we had dry periods, we still had some liquid sunshine coming down upon us. I checked the gangway log and quite a few of our guests indeed took the chance to go ashore last night to enjoy Irish night life. The Cruise Director had obtained information about what there was to do in Cobh, including the addresses of all the pubs where live music would be played. Two or three of them were no more than a 5 minute walk away from the ship and so why would you let a great opportunity like this slip through your hands ???? Continue reading