It was amazing; after stormy weather all day yesterday, the wind died down completely in the early morning. Not a ripple on the waves. Thus we arrived with wind still weather at the pilot station. A bit strange for this to happen, such a change; but I was not going to complain. It meant that I could dock without tugboats and keep everything under my own control. There was still a high swell running along the Irish coast but the ship could easily provide shelter, a good lee, for the pilot boat. With the pilot onboard we sailed into Cobh with really beautiful weather. No wind and when the sun rose above the land it caught the town of Cobh (pronounced Cove) in golden sun light. Cobh has one cruise terminal and it is a bit of a peculiar one. As the water along the old dock is shallow they use two big steel pontoons to moor the ship against. The ships gangway is landed onto that pontoon and then a very long and big gangway leads from the pontoon onto the dock. A setup that you seldom see but it works very well. Continue reading

In the course of the early morning, the wind really started to blow. Mostly from the South while blowing strongly with various strengths. Short heavy waves were coming in from the South South West at the same time. We measured a peak wind of force 9 around 8 AM., and saw the highest waves around 10 AM., when a few rollers came by that were topping 20 feet. Most of the time it was wind force 7 to 8. With all the extra time available due to the fact that Guernsey was out of the question, I could sail with slow speed. Now the Prinsendam rode with its bow up and down the waves instead of banging into it all the time. (E.G. being lifted up and then slamming back on top of the waves) Although we still slowly pitched in a regular motion, it was only occasionally that we “hit” a wave and even then only very gently. Continue reading

The port of Torbay does not have a dock that is big enough to accommodate the Prinsendam and thus for us it is an anchorage port. It is located in a very sheltered position (from any but the South East and North Easterly winds) in the curve of a bay. As the winds in South England are predominantly North Atlantic Winds from the South West the anchorage area is excellent for use at most times. Many ships seek refuge in the bay if there is another North Atlantic tempest blowing. Apart from that, just outside the bay, still within shelter of the land, large ships can safely be in lay-up. We saw quite a few tankers at this anchorage while we approached the bay. Continue reading

After two nights of good rest, I love these overnights as I can really catch up on my sleep; we started preparing the Prinsendam for departure and for our next cruise. This cruise is called Gaelic Legends and will take 14 days. It goes all the way around The United Kingdom, sailing clockwise and will also call at Irish ports. Torquay (Torbay), St. Peter Port Guernsey, Cork, Foynes, Dunmore East (for Waterford), Dublin, Liverpool, Green Castle (Limerick), Stornoway, Peterhead, Leith (for Edinburgh) Greenwich (London) A very port intensive cruise that shows the best of the Gaelic culture. The weather around England and Ireland is always very much under the influence of what comes across from the North Atlantic so we will have to keep an eye on that. Ex hurricane Bill has just left the North American shores and is moving this way. The initial track is indicating that he is moving directly towards Iceland and would thus avoid Ireland altogether. However he is pushing two other depressions ahead of him and they might come closer. Continue reading

It is not often that cruise ships do overnights as regular cruises are based on the fine balance between port time, sea time and an optimum cruise schedule. However with our cruise ending in Greenwich there had to be overnights as Greenwich is tide related. You can only get in on the one day, do the change over on the next day and sail out on the third day, unless the tides run in synch with normal arrival and departure times. That is not always the case of course. Although we now docked at Tilbury our cruise schedule remained the same, only I had now the option to offer even more shore time than when docked in Greenwich. Not so far to go up river and not so far to go down river and no tidal restrictions. Thus more time on the first day and more time on the last day. It turned out good for the guests and good for the crew. The ship was barely alongside and the first guests already streamed into the waiting shuttle buses that took them to the train station and 30 minutes later they were in London. A great time was had by all. Continue reading

In beautiful sunshine and with a very gentle breeze blowing we arrived at the Thames Estuary Pilot station at 08.00 for our 4 hour journey up river. Tilbury is located about half the distance up the river of what it would take to get to Greenwich and thus we could arrive just after 12 pm, near the dock instead of 16.30 for Greenwich. As it was my intention to swing on arrival and dock nose out the expected gangway time out would be just before 1 pm. We were going to arrive with the flood tide and that meant that by the time we started our docking procedures at Tilbury I would have to contend with about 3 -4 knots of current in the river and about 2 knots when giving the ropes ashore. So I was planning to take it easy as I had not been to Tilbury since 1988. At that time I was 2nd officer standing aft and not really involved with the maneuver itself. When in unknown territory it is better to go slowly slowly until you understand exactly what the river is doing to your ship. The river does not have the same depth everywhere and as a result there are eddies and back currents that can push the ship all over the place if you are not careful. So I was going to take my time and had built this time into the schedule. Continue reading

The North Sea is one of the busiest shipping areas in the world. Dover Strait to the South, together with Malacca Strait near Singapore are two of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Bottle necks connecting major industrial area’s with the larger open oceans. To avoid collisions, near misses and or other havoc the North Sea has assigned shipping lanes for traffic to follow. A sort of highway on the open sea. These highways ensure that ships can follow the most economic and safe route and at the same time not stray into the areas with the oil platforms and the wind mill farms. The first oil platforms appeared in the North Sea in the 1960’s and the windmills are an increasing occurrence since the 1980’s. There are still several wind parks under construction at the moment and more are planned with the general reluctance of embracing nuclear energy both in the Netherlands and in Great Britain. Continue reading

The nice thing about Oslo is, that it is located all the way at the end of the Oslofjord and that means that while it can be very nasty weather in the Skagerak/North Sea, it is still very nice and wind free inside. That is what also the weather forecast given for today. Increasing inclement weather outside but nice and sunny in the port. To get the pilot onboard I had to bring the Prinsendam bodily onto the wind and waves and even then it was a wobbly affair for the pilot boat. However the pilot made it onboard safely and without getting wet. It turned out that it was the same pilot as during our previous visit. What was more special was that he had selected the Prinsendam for his final voyage before his retirement. There were two other cruise ships coming in and obviously those did not qualify as being “a nice ship”. His words, not mine. The Prinsendam IS a nice ship and I am glad we qualified also in his eyes. Continue reading

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen pretty old girl of a town, as the song goes. And so it was. When we started to approach the city from the South around 5 am in the morning, the wind was gone and the sun was shining. This was going to be the best day of the cruise, since Warnemunde in the beginning. The bridge was full with happy faces when we sailed into Copenhagen and we saw the sun brightly shining over the city. Although the navigators are not as closely connected to delivering a good product to the guests as the Hotel department; none of them likes the idea that the guests will have a bad day ashore. Not today, it was great. On top of that we were the only cruise ship in the port and that gave me the whole length of the Lange Linje to park the Prinsendam. The Lange Linje is the pier that runs for nearly a mile along the edge of the down town area. It is about 5 to 10 minutes to walk to the Royal Palace, depending on how fast you walk. This used to be the main pier of the city in the old days. Now more docks and quays are located to the North, including two new passenger terminals for ships that have change over day in Copenhagen. But for regular calls the Lange Linje is still the best. Continue reading

The island of Gotland is not that far away from Stockholm so we could make the passage on slow speed. Staying in Stockholm longer because of that slow speed is not an option as the transit to open sea through the Archipelago has to be done during day light and that means you have to be out in open waters near sunset. So once we were outside we traveled at the sedate speed of 10 knots towards our destination Visby for a 0700 to 1400 call. We were allocated the anchorage just outside the breakwater. There is one dock inside where we could fit in, just, but that was given to the Silver Shadow. This ship had a shorter call staying only until noon time. With nice weather being at the anchorage is not much of a problem. The tender ride is not that long and the tender dock is directly opposite the charming down town centre of Visby. However the weather was not looking that good. Continue reading