Last night we did our next “zig” back across the Irish Sea towards Belfast in Northern Island. Located at the North Eastern tip of the island it is the part of Ireland that stayed with the United Kingdom. For years there were the “troubles” which had as one of the side effects that no cruise ships were calling there. Since peace has returned to the area, the cruise ships have returned as well and Belfast is now a regular port on the cruise agenda of the Prinsendam. Together with Dublin we visit the port every year once. Although the high pressure system over the UK is slowly moving away, it still had enough power to ensure that we had a very quiet, if rainy day. Wind still on arrival and wind still on departure. Sunshine on arrival followed by overcast and then rain in the afternoon. Also we docked at another pier than usual. Although Belfast does not have a dedicated cruise terminal, yet, we normally dock at a re developed cargo pier called Stormont pier. However as this pier had already been occupied by containerships on a regular schedule, we were relocated to the other side of the harbour. Continue reading

I had a few reservations about Holyhead, located in the county of Anglesey North Wales. It is basically known in England as a ferry port and industrial area. Thus not the most obvious port of call for a cruise ship. Plus the fact that we had to dock at an Aluminum Ore loading pier, did not improve my feelings one bit. However the dock looked safe to me and thus we arrived at the pilot station just before 7 am. The sun was shining brightly with a gentle breeze playing around the ship. It was going to be a gorgeous day. Just after 8 am we had the shore gangway in and our guests started to stream ashore. The tours were very well booked which is not surprising as the North Welsh country side is very beautiful. For those not on tour the town had laid on shuttle buses which was a very much needed item as it took a bus nearly 20 minutes just to get out of the port area and into the town. Continue reading

This was the first crossing of the Irish Sea, as there are some more to follow. During the coming days we basically zig-zag from one side to the other several times. I have never seen the Irish Sea so gentle as today. Just a slight ripple indicated that it was not an enclosed pond but an open water area connected to the North Atlantic Ocean. These circumstances normally call for fog but as the temperatures are fairy low, visibility was excellent. Thus we could see the green undulating landscape of South Ireland moving by on the port side while sailing up the East coast to our next port of call Dublin. The capital of Ireland is located about halfway up the Island and that means we cannot make it during an overnight sailing (as we could do with Cobh or Cork) but we need just a little bit more time and thus we were scheduled for a noon time arrival. To compensate for this we stayed until midnight. Continue reading

As approved by the local authorities I aimed for the pilot station at 06.45, which was going to be the earliest time that there was enough water in the port to enter. The pilot came out early, stepped onboard before 06.30 and then started a serious of complicated calculations which resulted in the announcement that we could not approach the dock until 07.30. Not good news for a captain who likes to be on time; but not much that I could do about it as the port depths do vary from the chart. Thus I could not say whether my calculations which coincided with 06.45 were correct. So I made a 360o turn to kill some time and then slowly steamed into the port area. The main issue was that there would not be enough water near the dock where I was supposed to swing around in order to dock starboard side alongside. So I said: why not dock portside alongside and swing on departure. That really stirred things up as it turned out that they had prepared a shore gangway for the ship which could not be moved. Last call we had to use our own gangway, as the shore side contraption was not fit for the ship but now they had converted a very good dry dock gangway. They just had forgotten to tell me about it in advance. Continue reading

As this is the Celtic kingdom cruise, we also visit France as in the grey mists of time, there seems to have been Celts milling around there as well. Hence the area around Brest being called Brittany and we still have Great Britain of course; all related to each other in some way or the other. Brest is located inside a large and deep natural fjord and thus a perfect area for a big port. It is also one of the major navy ports of France. There is a regular navy port area and a separate submarine base. In the far end of the fjord there is the commercial port and a very large commercial ship repair yard. In the 1970’s when everybody experimented with enormous oil tankers a number of the worlds largest were built in France. Names as Batillus and Pierre Guimot (not so sure of the correct spelling) have found their place in tanker history. For those ships a special dry – dock was dug in this repair yard and this was the place where we were scheduled to dock. Brest does not have a dedicated cruise terminal yet. The wise men on the City council of Brest only want to consider funding if there are more than 50 cruise calls a year and thus far they manage about 13. Continue reading

This was the first port of our cruise and it started in the best way possible. Glorious sunshine; just a gentle breeze at the anchorage and we were the only cruise ship in port. That meant I could drop the hook as close as possible to the port entrance; about 5 cables away (3000 feet). Closer is not possible as there is regular ferry traffic going in and out of the port to the various islands and also to the UK mainland. Port Control gets very upset if you block the way. The port itself is too small for a cruise ship to dock, even the small ones such as Seabourn cannot dock here, unless they take the ferry dock but that only works for half day calls, if allowed. Thus all the cruise ships anchor outside and as Guernsey is a popular island to call at; there can be more than one ship at anchor. Yesterday there were three, including two 2500 guests ones and then the tender landing is getting very crowded. Also the tender distances increase as not every ship can be close to the port. Thus being alone is really the best and we were. Continue reading

So we departed Tilbury at the civilized time of 8 am in the morning. As we were docked with the nose up the river we had to swing around off the berth before going down the river. With a wind force four blowing from the West and the current coming from the same direction (ebbing), I had a tugboat hooked up to the stern to act as a pivoting point while we swung around on the current. That maneuver is a bit eerie to see because while we are making the swing we are also set bodily down the river by the current. By the time we were finished and lined up, we were also about a mile downstream from the dock. From there onwards the ebb current pushed us towards open waters, four hours down the river. We passed the familiar sights, the construction of the new container terminal, Southend on Sea and finally the wide estuary of the Thames. Here we had to slow down to reduce the ships squat because we were going through the Princess channel which is very shallow, especially during ebb tide. We knew that we would have enough water under the keel, as the shallowest patch of sea bottom was exactly 7 meters under water and that is a measurement at chart datum. This is normally the lowest of the low waters and 7 meters is our draft so we only needed a little bit more to stay afloat. So I watched the echo sounder to see what the score would be this time and the meter stopped at 1.6 meters under the keel, just over 5 feet. Nothing to worry about as long as we sailed over it with a speed of no more than 10 knots. Continue reading

We are still on the multiple day stays here in Tilbury, courtesy of the fact that the original schedule was for Greenwich. As so far up the Thames the draft of the ship becomes a problem so the arrival and departure has to be done on high water and the change over day in between. For reasons extensively explained in the blogs of last year, the ship moved to Tilbury, but is still on the same schedule. That will change next year. We will still go to Tilbury but it will only be for a one day call for disembarkation and embarkation. Understandable as a revamped schedule will make it possible to either visit a port further away or stay longer somewhere. For the crew it is a pity as an overnight always gives some more time to go ashore. Still we are there for the guests and if we can optimize a cruise then we will do it. Continue reading

It was very breezy when we arrived at the North East Spit pilot station just north of Ramsgate in Kent. This is where the pilot boat is docked and where the pilots board the boat for a15 minute journey to get to the Pilotage area. This morning they had a very bumpy ride as the wind was from the North East and it pushed the waves straight into the Thames estuary. Visibility was not that great due to overcoming showers but our radars are good and the fairway is laid out with big buoys that reflect nicely on the screens. Yesterday I wrote about the guard ships around the oil platforms; these are not the only guard vessels out there. At the moment they are laying a telephone/data (fiber optic) cable between England and the Netherlands and that is quite a process. First there is a ship that plows a trench for the cable, then the cable is laid and lastly there is a ship that fills up that trench again. The cable goes about 30 feet under the sand, so it is quite a trench that it is being made. Eventually the track of this cable will be marked on the charts as a no anchor area but until that time the cable has to be protected. For this purpose there are guard ships slowly steaming up and down the track of the cable. The funny thing of it all is that the guard ships are chartered fishing boats and the biggest challenge they are guarding against are other fishing boats. Continue reading

Late last night when we disembarked the pilot and sailed out of Oslofjorden we had our first surprise, being that the weather was not as bad as expected. It was only forecast to get better, today, during the day. In the morning the wind was indeed as forecast with a Northerly wind force 5. At the same time gale force winds up to Beaufort 9 were forecast for the Dover area. So I thought, this is going to be interesting. Then to our utter amazement, the wind died down completely and the sun came out. Some remnants of the swell remained but it was eerie, so nice it was during our last afternoon at sea. I could not believe it as it went against all the weather patterns on the forecasting charts. The low and high pressure area’s around England just collapsed, filled in, petered out and disappeared. That meant that a high pressure system near Iceland could take over and in the evening it started to blow again but from the North and that meant the wind in the back and no more worries. Tomorrow it will be windy on arrival, at least at the pilot station but Tilbury is nice and sheltered compared to the coastal towns of Dover and Harwich. Still the weather is very unsettled and thus I have ordered a tugboat for docking. Continue reading