Captain Albert: 07 May 2009, Punta Delgada, Azores, Portugal

Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

As the weather forecast had predicted, it was an overcast day with rain showers in the distance, but it remained dry where the ship was and that was in port today. After 6 very good days at sea. The Great circle that we had been travelling on came to an end just under the West point of the island Sao Migual (St Michael) on which Punta Delgada is located. A Great Circle line with a bit of a hic-up in it due to our deviation towards to Bermuda. Just West and South of the Azores is a bank, called the Alice Bank. This is basically an Azores island, a mountain top like the other islands, but one which did not make it to the surface. According to the chart there are a few shallow spots there, so we had to make certain that our course went just under it. From there it was one straight line to the pilot station.

The Azores are, although in the Eastern part of the North Atlantic, still 740 miles way from the European (Portuguese) mainland. After their discovery in 1427 they have been part of Portugal. Due to its strategic location, as a sort of gate keeper for Europe, it has always played an important part in connecting the Western and the Eastern hemisphere. For the cruise ships it is very often a stop during the bi annual migration of the ships from the Caribbean Sea to Europe. Although since the European cruise market has started to develop rapidly, more and more ships are calling here all year around.

In the past, read before the 1990’s, the Azores where mostly called at by sailing yachts on the way across the Atlantic and cargo ships. Several tugboat companies had tugboats stationed here for call out, if ships would get into problems on the North Atlantic. Very famous is Café Sport in Horta; that for years was the home base of the tugboats of Smit International, the world famous Dutch salvage company. This café became such a Dutch stronghold that even the Portuguese owner spoke Dutch (and was an avid fan of Feijenoord the soccer club of Rotterdam). Punta Delgada had in those days less of a connection with sailing, as it was located further to the South.

However that has changed now and apart from the fact that a big cruise terminal has been built, also a large marina was constructed next to it. As I mentioned yesterday, we were all puzzled about why we could not dock at the cruise terminal as there was no other cruise ship scheduled. Well today all was revealed. The terminal had been taking over as the Pits for an international car race taking place next week. Where normally the tour buses would stop, there were now a large number of containers and trailers parked, belonging to the various teams. A Ro-Ro carrier (Roll on, roll off ship for transporting cars and Lorries) was at anchor outside the port and this ship had delivered all the material and would also pick it up again.

Thus we were relegated to the cargo pier and we docked at the tip of the pier, just inside the breakwater. The port had laid on several shuttle buses to get our guests to town, as walking on the dock was quite dangerous as the unloading of cargo continued while we were in port. Just in front of us was a bulk carrier unloading clinkers for the cement industry and that created quite a bit of dust. Luckily the wind was away from us; otherwise we would have had it all over the ship.

The pilot came on board 1 minute before the arranged time and by 10.30 we were happily docked at the cargo pier and cleared by the local authorities; 30 minutes before our official arrival time. Normally this is a formality as the paperwork is forwarded days before by email. However today it took a little bit longer as the Health Authorities wanted to make sure that the Prinsendam was not transporting any bugs and certainly no Swine-flu.

This was a short stop and just after 1700 hrs. we were on our way again. Outside the port was a German container ship impatiently waiting for us to get out, so it could take our place and start landing its boxes. Our presence during the day delayed their docking but at least the crew would now get an over night out of it and thus some chance of R&R in the port. The weather for tomorrow is supposed to be the same as it was yesterday. It is a good thing that we are sailing on a southerly route because there is some very windy weather blowing in the area of the British Isles.

To access Captain Albert’s historical writings on Holland America Line as well as photos and additional information about Prinsendam and his sailing schedule, click here.