Once again the weather surprised us. In the planning were overcast skies with a little bit of rain but instead we had sunny skies and temperatures that reached the high sixties. Not that we were complaining, it ensured a perfect day during our first stop in Iceland. We had a whole parade of cruise ships or ships that could be construed as such coming in. There was us, followed by the Albatros, two small expedition ships the Akademik Shokalskiy and the Polar Stern and much later on the private yacht Octopus of Paul Allen, The latter being big enough to be a small cruise ship albeit catering for one person. By design or by good luck, I do not know but we had pride of place by docking in front of the visitors centre. We docked early, even earlier than anticipated, as the pilot boat came eagerly racing out to board us. So by 7 am we were docked for an official arrival of 0800 hrs. The first person ashore was the ships plumber as Iceland’s water is one of the best quality natural water that there is, and the quicker the hose was attached, the more we would be able to load. In the end we loaded over 1100 tons, which could sustain us for 3 full days if needed. However we will also load in the coming ports, so that the ships evaporators will only be needed when we start to approach Spitsbergen. Continue reading

Today we crossed that part of the North Atlantic located under Iceland. Although the ship was pitching while going against the North Atlantic swell, the weather forecast for the rest was supposed to have been reasonably decent. Light winds and overcast skies. To my utter amazement I saw during the day the wind freshening up to North East 7 on occasion which is near gale. As it was from the North East it was a following wind and that meant that it did nor really affect the ship. However it made me go back to all my weather sites on the internet to figure out where all this wind was coming from. If it would continue into tomorrow morning than it might affect our call at Reykjavik as going into port with wind force 7 is not a bright idea. However the North Atlantic weather forecast did not show much of the wind that I was seeing outside. So it had to be very local and that meant that it would disappear during the night as only a larger system can sustain this sort of wind for a prolonged period. Continue reading

This was a maiden call for the Prinsendam and subsequently for Holland America. The normal call is at Torshavn but that was out of the question today. It was a national holiday and that is celebrated with a sailing regatta and other water fun. So the whole port was reserved for them. Hence the “Albatros” and the “Mein Schiff”, calling at Torshavn, had to anchor and ferry their guests ashore. Runavik is located ”one fjord north” of Torshavn, in a fairly sheltered bay. It has a small dock and that meant we were sticking out about 50 meters on each side but it has good fendering so you can really pull the ship tightly alongside. Strong bollards are located on the mainland and they keep the ship very well in position. All reasons for me to be happy. The only confusing bit was how to find the pilot. Pilotage is not compulsory in Runavik but if you have never been there, it is better to have one for the first time to find out about the local way of doing things. Also in the age of the cell phone, the pilot can talk to all the locals on the dock assigned to pull the mooring ropes ashore and that reduces delays. As pilotage is therefore a bit of a voluntary affair, we found several different locations in our nautical paperwork of where the pilot boarding area was supposedly located. . When we called the pilot on the VHF, he gave yet another location. It turned out that it depends a bit how early the pilot boat makes its way out to the ship. Where the meeting point of the day is, is where the pilot station is located. Near the entrance of the bay was only one (fishing) boat floating around so that should then be the pilot and it was. With that issue out of the way, we happily progressed to the dock. Continue reading

I was on the bridge by 05.00 to be present while going through the Pentland Firth. This passage is located between the Scottish Mainland and the Orkneys, with Scapa Flow just being to the North of it. As it is a fairly narrow passage, the flood and ebb is really pushed through it at great velocity. There is a note in the chart saying that in one particular island passage the current can reach a momentum of up to 16 knots. That means that if your ships speed is 16 knots, which is not unusual for tankers going through, then the ship is basically standing still until the currents gets less. With the current against you, you loose speed and that might make you arrive late. That does not work for a cruise ship with tours leaving shortly after arrival and thus you have to plan for it. In our case the current was going to be with us anyway and that only helped with being early. The issue that made me be present on the bridge was that the current pushed the ship off the intended track even while it was a following current. You normally correct for this but then the ship is lined up in a different direction than it is moving over the ground in reality. The “aspect” of the ship is different in relation to the real movement over the ground as we call it. That means that when looking at a ship you might think, it is heading in a certain direction, so it will go clear of me. The angle shows the ship heading away, showing the right aspect but the current is setting that ship right into your direction. If you have two ships under different angles and under current influence and you could end up having a collision. Continue reading

With a 05.00 pilot time, I poked my nose through the bridge door at 4 am and saw that the weather looked very good. As the Firth of Forth basically runs West to East, it can be a big blow hole that funnels the wind up to a high Beaufort rate, which makes it a very unpleasant place. In the archives you can find a blog describing the cancellation of Leith due to wind force 11 in September 2009 and with those winds the Firth is not a good place to be. However today looked good and we happily progressed towards the pilot station. Edinburgh does not have a port itself but there are three options: Leith to the East where you dock, South Queensferry in the middle where you have to anchor and Rosyth to the West where you dock as well. We were destined for Rosyth, West of the bridges. Leith is closer to town but it is tide dependent, as you need high water to get over the bar in front of the locks. Rosyth is an all day port; the only hurdle is the clearance under the bridges when going there. It means that you can arrive and leave whenever the cruise schedule says it is best, instead of arriving at an awkward time and having to leave at an even more in-convenient time, dictated by the tides. Nothing of that today we went straight for the dock. Continue reading

Today we really started our voyage heading north; by following the East coast of England. We are not going that fast as explained yesterday, and with very calm weather in the North Sea it was perfect cruising. Not much sunshine but that was good, at least for me, as it keeps that hazy stuff away. We had good visibility and thus the oil and gas platforms were clearly visible as our route went straight through the area. The platforms are grouped in clusters and you have to stay away from those but there are open shipping lanes in between for ships to criss cross the North Sea. I assume that the oil company’s would like to put a few platforms there was well but the chance of collisions would become too great, as commercial traffic also needs to use the sea. When ships do come too close to platforms, there is normally a Guard ship on duty that comes racing out to tell the perpetrator to change course. That sometimes results in loud arguments over the VHF, as not all ships agree with that policy. Continue reading

Today was the first day of our new cruise and as we stayed in the same place as yesterday it gave a bit of an unusual feeling. Normally, as soon as everybody is onboard, we race out to open sea and head for our first port. Now we were already there, which made for a nice and much easier pace. Change over days are always extremely busy for the crew but now it was split out in three days; giving some room for R & R in between. The weather forecast had been indicating heavy showers during the early morning and although it rained quite a bit in the distance, Tilbury stayed dry and not much later the sun came through on top of that. So it turned into a beautiful day. As it was not that warm, we looked at very clear skies with very good visibility and that was great for our sightseeing effort during sail away. Although sailing down the Thames can hardly be called picturesque, there is of course a lot of history in and around the river, so there is enough to see and enjoy. Our travel guru Frank is from the London area, so it was a home game for him this time. Continue reading

With the Prinsendam parked in the right location, we had the perfect setup for a smooth disembarkation process, followed later by an embarkation process that worked the same, just the other way. The luggage went off via deck four, here on the Prinsendam it’s called Boogie Plaza and the guests went off on deck 5 out of the main staircase. The suitcase off loading continues normally all night, in dribs and drabs. In the past, Housekeeping would start at 1 am and then bring everything down in one go to the assembly area. That had as a result the corridors were blocked with luggage and that would of course be dangerous in the case there was an emergency during that time. Now since a number of years we do it differently and housekeeping is using roving teams who continuously go through the corridors and pick up the luggage. The first luggage already appears in the corridors in late afternoon, when guests have packed their first suitcases with non-essentials. The rest then follows later, just before going to bed. Here in Tilbury it has been arranged that the shore side starts moving suitcases into the terminal by 10 pm. and that means that there is no rush in lining up the suitcases for the guests to be collected later. Essential is of course that the suitcases are correctly labeled and that remains an issue at times. Continue reading

So by 1 am in the morning, I was on the bridge in order to arrive an hour later at 1 am. at the NE Spit Pilot station for the Thames. The 1 and 1 worked out this way as we also had to give a time change of one hour back to get in synch with English time. The nice thing was that it was a beautiful night with nearly wind still weather when we sailed towards the pilot station. That pilot boarding area is located just above Ramsgate (where the pilot base is) and just under the fairway leading up the Thames estuary. While heading that way we listened out on the VHF and enjoyed all the conversations in various languages between the ships in the Dover Strait. There is always somebody who muddles things up for somebody else and it is quite funny to listen to a Russian telling a Greek what he thinks about the others seafaring capabilities. Also Traffic Control has the occasional issues to get a message across of what a certain ship has to do and when. Not always is the result that they want to achieve and quite often the party on the receiving end does something totally un-expected. That is why I never sail through this area with the watertight doors open………you never know what might happen next. Continue reading