One of the things I like about an overnight stay is that you see a city slowly coming alive in the morning. With traffic bustling through the port that you normally do not see, because their work is in the early morning, and slowly that whole machinery that makes a metropolis tick comes to life. The beautiful weather of yesterday continued through the day, with very little wind, and that meant that a lot of small pleasure craft where out and about during the day. It is August so many people in Holland have vacation and with water all around, whole family’s potter around in all sorts of boats. Some of these boats beggar belief. One, that they stay afloat and Two that people are daring to sail around with them. The port of Amsterdam is not tidal so there is no current and it is also quite sheltered which means that the wind can not whip up the waves to great heights. That results in some floating constructions to defy the laws of stability in top heaviness. However when they come to have a look at the Prinsendam, they have to come out of the shelter of the canals and onto the IJ; the large fairway along which we are docked. Here is a lot of commercial traffic coming by. Including large inland barges which draw a considerable wake and these self assembled “sea castles” rock, list surge and wallow in the wake of these barges and quite often nearly tip over. Not something for a professional sailor to look at too long. Continue reading

Due to a long departure from amsterdam and an even longer and exciting day in the Kieler Kanal no blog today but two tomorrow.

Best regards

Capt. Albert

After our windy departure from Rosyth we were flushed to open sea with the strong ebb current. We had just over three knots going with us but in a few days it will be full moon and springtide and then that current might reach six knots. The pilot onboard was not very happy with that, as it made transits down river very tricky. The ships are then difficult to slow down and a ship is being pushed all over the place when going around bends. From the Firth of Forth to Amsterdam you have to cross the North Sea on a South Easterly heading which is basically diagonally. As most traffic in the North Sea is North South or South North and follows the coast line, we did not have to deal with very much traffic until we came closer to the Dutch coast. During the night and morning we sailed through extended areas with oil and gas platforms and once we neared the Dutch coast we came across several Wind Parks. The latter all being part of a drive to diversify energy sources. My Dutch officers tell me “green electricity” is still dearer than normal electricity but with the number of Windmills still being planned that is supposed to change. Continue reading

There are several ways for a cruise guest to reach Edinburgh. You can call at Leith as we did a few weeks ago and we will do in a fortnight again. You can drop anchor at South Queens ferry and tender ashore or you can dock at Rosyth. This is just past the Forth bridge and therefore the port is limited to those ships that can pass under this bridge. The Prinsendam is in principle too tall as well but we can fold our mast and by reducing our height by 7 meters, we do fit under it. Thus last evening after departing Kirkwall, the bo’sun lowered the top of the mast in preparation for today. From the pilot station to being fully docked is about 2.5 hours travel up the Firth of Forth and to be on time we arrived at the pilot station around 04.30 in the morning. Continue reading

Coming from the North West you have to sail between the islands that make up the Orkneys in order to reach Kirkwall. We sailed down keeping the island of Westray on our port side and the isle of Shapinsay to starboard. The body of water that we travelled through was called, most appropriately the Westry Firth. When we sail through these sort of areas I prefer to be on the bridge in case something unusual happens. It does most of the time. The currents can run strongly here and it only needs one Sunday sailor to be in the way for things to get complicated. A bit of moral support from the captain then makes the life of the navigator a lot easier. Further to the South is the Pentland Firth where the currents can run up to 7 or 8 knots or even more. When we went through there last time, on our way to Scrabster, we went through at the end of the Flood tide and we still had five knots with us. That was the END of the flood tide. Continue reading

The narrow passage for the approach to Torshavn from the West is between the islands Stremoy and Sandoy. Torshavn is located on Stremoy and this island you keep on your portside when coming through. The passage itself is deep and easy to go through, the problem lies with the currents that are setting around the islands. You have to be very alert as the set occurs very quickly and without notice. So it was also this morning. We were nicely sailing over our track line and suddenly the ship was pushed off-course by about 15 degrees. That is a lot and in a narrow passage you have to counteract this set at once to ensure that you stay on your track line. So we did and we moved under this 15 degree angle through the passage. In the middle of the passage the current started to follow the general direction of the passage and the officer of the watch could return to steering the regular course. There is a lot of current between the islands of the Faeroes and tomorrow when we are in the Orkneys there will be even more. Continue reading

Due to the fact that Reykjavik is located at the South West side of the island and the Faroe Islands more to the East, we had to sail around the southern part of Iceland. As it is not exactly a small island it took us quite a while. It was only by noon time today that we finally left the island behind and started the crossing. Although we are away from the area of the midnight sun, it is still not completely dark during the night and thus we could see the mountain ridges of South East Iceland all night long and well into the morning. Continue reading

The capital of Iceland is located in the South West corner of Iceland and not in a fjord as most Icelandic places more to the north are. As a matter of fact it is quite open to the elements when there is a South Westerly wind blowing. I was expecting the wind to be more from the North and that would make it wind still on arrival. For cruise ships Reykjavik has three options. Small cruise ships can dock in the inner harbour on the top of the town, large cruise ships can dock at the commercial dock and every size can anchor in the bay North of the main town area. We were scheduled to dock at the commercial port, which since from 5 or 6 years has a very beautiful dock. For a moment I contemplated dropping anchor as it was wind still in the bay and it would make it very easy for the guests to get to downtown using the ships tenders but as there was wind expected in the afternoon, I decided to continue to the dock. With a Southwesterly chop, the tender ride would have been uncomfortable. Continue reading

Due to connectivity problems with my PC earlier in the day, I will upload two days tomorrow.

Best regards

Capt. Albert

Well the weather gods were with us, as far as the wind was concerned. By the time we started our sightseeing, the fog had been blown away and then the wind started to die down. Good for sightseeing and good for docking later on. Isafjordur is located in a deep bay with several inlets. It looks a bit like a cats paw when seen on the chart. This area is called the Isafjardjup fjord and we made a slow sail by through this fjord. The whole area is of volcanic origin and the mountain ridges all have slopes where debris has accumulated. Rocks that have come loose because of the extreme temperature differences between summer and winter that can occur. Also water that froze in the cracks during the winter months and then expands caused large and small pieces of rock to breakaway from the solid part. I found it looking a bit like Idaho, as long as you forgot about the Greenery. Continue reading