Lipari is an Island that forms part of a string of volcanic islands of which  Stromboli is laying the furthermost East. It is located about 15 miles to the North of Sicily and is a famous hideaway place for the Italian Jet set or those who think that they are part of it. As a result Real Estate is on the pricey side. The island itself does not have an active volcano anymore but just to the south it is the island Volcano and that one was smoking all day long. From the top but also from exhausts in the side. Also Stromboli had a plume on it when we passed by. So enough volcanic action even if your own island is dormant. By the morning it became apparent that I could not make up the lost time from yesterday and the fact that we ran into early morning fog did not help either. It was to be expected that fog would form as it has been wind still for the last two days here in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea. With the sea water temperature not that far off from the air temperature and both chilly at times, the temperature difference was just enough to create sea-smoke during dawn. It did not last long; by 9 am it was all gone but in the fog were fishermen and then you have to be really careful as their behavior is not dictated by the rules of the road or common sense, but by where their nets and the fish are.  Still I had already extended the time in Lipari by one hour, so even when arriving late, it still means the same amount of time spend in port. Continue reading

The sea was completely smooth and with no wind at all we approached the pilot station. We had been asked to be there early as the pilot wanted the traffic to be spaced out. That made it possible to have only one pilot on duty, for reasons explained yesterday. I always try to be early anyway to give shore excursion sufficient time to set up their buses and so it was not difficult to comply with the request. Still there was a ferry coming in on a different time then expected and we had to wait 15 minutes before it was our turn. Most of the berths were occupied and that indicates that things must be going fairly well with the economy here. The harbour master had requested for docking portside alongside as it would make it easier for the supplies trucks to park on the dock. And so we did. 30 minutes after the pilot was onboard, we had swung around and docked at the outer breakwater pier, which is being reconstructed into a major cruise ship terminal. Continue reading

 As the port of La Spezia is a major gateway port for industrial exports and imports, it is a busy port. So busy, that the cruise ships are a not such an important part of the operation. All the docks are given over to the cargo ships and the cruise ships have to anchor. That is in a way a blessing in disguise as with this setup we can ender directly into the downtown area instead of having to bus everybody out of the port area and around the bay. That would take at least 20 to 25 minutes and thus a 10 minute tender ride is a much more preferable option. It is not happening very often that when we visit a major port that instead of docking, the ship goes to anchor and is happy with it. La Spezia is as far as this is concerned an anomaly among the cruise ports. It is only under very bad weather circumstances, when anchoring is not safe, that a cruise ship will be docked somewhere in the commercial port. To use the words of our pilot “Doing that does not make the harbour master very happy”. (Please pronounce with Italian accent…..) Continue reading

 Today we had a restful day at sea and apart from all onboard taking that rest, the wind did the same and the sea was as flat as a mirror with only occasionally a little ripple. The cold wind of yesterday had left the skies crystal clear and that made it possible to see the mountain tops of Corse at almost 40 miles away. That is quite unusual as the Med. with its warm temperatures tends to be quite hazy and the proximity of Africa adding quite often sandy dust to the air. There was none of that today. It was not very warm but beautiful weather nonetheless. According to the weather chart, it is supposed to remain like that at least for two days more and that would mean a wind free day in La Spezia. That will be most welcome, as we have to anchor there and the anchorage is not that wide. So I keeping my fingers crossed and hope that the weather guru’s have looked into the right crystal ball.

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The head winds did not ease off until the early morning and I lost a previous 15 minutes, which made me just miss the time window allowed for coming in early. Thus we had to wait until 08.00 hrs for the ferry Sorolla to enter the port and we could then follow. There is only one pilot on duty in Mahon and he had to get off the ferry first and then come over to us. That would have made it even later, but as he kept moving the “pilot boarding ground” further and further into the Fjord, I could come closer and closer and thus reduce the waiting time. By the time he stepped onboard, I was half way in. Not unusual, as with inclement weather this is the normal boarding area anyway.  Arriving late is never pleasant but as I had inkling about this as mentioned yesterday, the ship was well prepared and the tours would not be affected. I found it myself a blessing in disguise, as sailing into Mahon is extremely scenic especially with a morning arrival so you sail in with the sun in the back laying a beautiful golden glow over all the white houses dotted along the cliffs of the fjord. Our normal arrival would have been in the dark and the guests would have missed this spectacle.

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For me Cartagena is one of the most unspoilt–touristy cities- on the coast of Spain.  That is of course a contradiction in terms but I mean by that, that not everything is geared towards tourism and T-shirt shops. That has as a result  some of our guests complain about the lack of easy-tourism infrastructure and  some are just very happy that it is still not the case. I belong to the latter group and therefore always enjoy calling at this ancient city. I came here with the Noordam in 2001 to make the Company maiden call and since then the company ships have been calling here on occasion through the years. Cartagena has been working hard to create more facilities for main stream tourism and the major benefit that I am reaping from it is, that I now have a very nice pier to call at.  They are still working on it and it is getting longer and longer. There are some tentative plans for a cruise terminal as Cartagena would not be a bad change over port either but it seems that the funding needed is still being allocated to other projects. Taking into account the current state of Spain’s economy that is not so difficult to understand. Continue reading

We are on one of those stretches again that are too long for a one night crossing and too short for a full two days. Thus we got one sea day in the schedule and sailed with an average speed of 13 knots from Casablanca to Cartagena, where we will be tomorrow.  It gave the opportunity for some sightseeing as we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar during daylight. When we left from Casablanca I went a bit further off the coast than the optimum course line required but if the optimum course line runs over multiple shoals of fishermen, then that course line is not so optimum any more. By staying about 30 miles offshore and away from the 200 meter line of water depth we avoided all those fishermen. Some other ships that did for the shortest route had to contend with long fishing nets and their owners and that can give rise to some stressful situations. So we heard the exclamations of the fishermen quite loudly over the VHF: “captain, captain, think about my children…..” etc. etc.  So I thought about “his children” and stayed away as far as possible.  As a result the officers only had to deal with a few strays that were chasing fish off the beaten path but they were easily dealt with. Continue reading

The economy must be booming in Casablanca and surrounding area as I had never seen the anchorage area so full of waiting ships. They were not in lay up; they were all indeed waiting for a docking space and their shippers to have the cargo available. Thus the air was full of voices of the most exotic accents, all trying to convey their needs and queries to Port Control and the Pilot station. Some voices clearly affected by too many cigarettes and then some voices trying to grapple with the unusual consonants of the English language and then trying to speak it with their own language syntax. Especially Koreans, Chinese and Indians are very creative in producing conversational English that is wonderful to hear but at the same time mind boggling to understand. Still port control spoke excellent English and dealt with all the questioning, pleading, moaning, groaning and lack of understanding in a very patient way. Every captain thinks his ship is the most important floating object in the world and acts accordingly when approaching a port. To their utter dismay, cruise ships normally get preference, as they are under time constraints for the tours. Continue reading

From pilot station to pilot station we had to cover the magic distance of exactly 222 miles with an average speed of just over 17 knots. I kept the speed a little bit up to be able to go slow the last two hours, as the Moroccan coast is notorious for fishing boats that sometimes venture up to 20 miles off shore. Some of them are tunny fishers with long running nets and they tend to try to move in front of the bow as they know that we cannot see their nets during the night. That moving in front of a ships bow is quite a dangerous activity and they should not do it, but the fact that they do so does not exempt “that ship with the bow” from any blame if it runs them over. Going slow gives more time to change course, or even stop if needed. Still you do not want to arrive to late in the port and thus I arranged it in such a way that we built up a little plus in speed during the night while we were in open water and could then approach slowly to Agadir pilot station.  We were scheduled for the pilot at 06.00 hrs. with the plan to be docked by 06.30 so the ship would be cleared by 07.00 hrs. The port has a very simple entry with a 90o turn into the port entrance and then less then a mile to the dock. With all of that in mind we returned to the African continent. Continue reading

It is only a short hop from Tenerife to the more Eastern island of Lanzarote, where we were going to visit the port of Arrecife. The island of Lanzarote is even more barren than Tenerife and at day rise; we only saw brown barren mountains all around us. The deep sea cargo port is mainly made up of two long piers leading north to South in the direction of the prevailing winds. Not very exciting but very functional. To the South West is the old port but with depths of only 5 meters it is too shallow for us and basically only used by fishermen and pleasure boats. The cruise ships are all directed to the deep sea cargo port and dock at the inside of the Eastern sea wall. That is a pier of 834 meters long, so multiple ships can visit at the same day. With cruising being so popular it meant that we were not alone. The Corinthian II popped up again and following us from Santa Cruz was the MSC Fantasia. The harbour master had found a creative solution this time for the docking, with the Corinthian in the forward corner, followed by the Prinsendam, followed by the MSC Fantasia. Thus: small, bigger, BIG.  We docked first and were happily alongside by 07.30 followed by the other two. So by 08.30 nearly the whole pier was occupied. Later on the Island Escape arrived as well but she docked at the container terminal. Continue reading