Today was the absolute highlight of the cruise. This cruise is called the “Top of the World” cruise and thus the idea is to go to the top of the world. At least as close as possible. By the time you come to the drift ice it is time to stop as we are not an ice breaker. In the last 14 days I had kept a close eye on the ice border North of Svalbard. In May they had a warm month in this area and that caused the ice rim to retreat. The worry was how far as I had only so many hours in the schedule to sail North and go looking for the ice without endangering the next port of call Ny-Alesund, which I knew was also going to be a highlight. You do not visit the middle of nowhere everyday, thus we had to go. The ice charts kept however indicating that the ice hovered between 150 and a 100 miles North of Spitsbergen, with the Fast ice about 200 miles away. That meant that I would be able to find it within the schedule as with full speed I would be able to cover 300 miles extra, as long as I would make enough time available to do so. Meaning we had to go to Magdalena Bay very early in the morning. Continue reading

When I reached the bridge at 0500 in the morning, I was met with very hazy weather which turned within 15 minutes into a dense wall of white fluff. For the approach to the port of Longyearbyen it does not crate much of a problem but in the scope of things to come, tomorrow’s sightseeing, I was not very happy with what I saw. However after an hour of frequent whistle blowing, which advised all the guests in the balcony cabins that the bridge was wide awake and working the fog dispersed and the Isfjorden opened up in front of us. This is a very wide and deep fjord and deserted in the early morning. Later in the day it will be a different story as it can be full of sailing boats, canoes, fast crafts and scenic contraptions that are moved around. But even scientists have to sleep on occasion and therefore things tend to be reasonably quiet at 5 am in the morning. We had very good visibility after clearing the fogbank and we could see the dock from miles away and it was nicely clear of boats. Continue reading

03 August 2010; At Sea.

This was our second day at sea and I was mind boggled by the weather. Smooth seas, with only a gentle breeze. Later on it went up to just wind force four which is still very good for this area. Reasonable to good visibility; all the reason to be very happy with the state of affairs as they are developing. The chance of fog is bothering me as all the coming sightseeing depends on it. So I am hoping for the best. I made my announcement today, laying out the plans for the coming days. After departure Longyearbyen we will go to Barentzburg, which is located in a small fjord to the south West of Longyearbyen. This side step is not in the brochure or in the HAL planning, but I have the time, so why not. It works out that I can do it between the two sittings and before the show starts, so no irate cruise director who sees his planning going up in smoke. Nor will it affect the bingo so I will live another day on that one. The next day we have the planned visit to Magdalena fjord, which looks a little bit like Glacier Bay although the landscape has different colors. Here I need good visibility and if it is foggy I might still be able to do the call in the afternoon. In between we will go north to find the North Pole ice. The Norwegian Ice charts are indicating that the ice is about 100 miles North of Spitsbergen and that I can reach easily within the current schedule. So I sent all the guests to bed with the request to say a little prayer. Continue reading

Today was the first of the two sea days that we have between Akureyri and Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen. This area of the North Atlantic is partly called the Greenland Sea towards the Greenland side and the Norwegian Sea towards the Norwegian side, and I have never been able to figure out exactly where the one ends and the other starts. The area is well sheltered from the North Atlantic weather that comes from the south by Iceland and as long as there is no wind from the North, the seas are smooth here. However there can be a lot of wind from the North and therefore we are very lucky with the weather. Nothing but a gentle breeze, temperatures in the mid 40’s (10 oC) and low hanging clouds. May it last for another few days. The only issue with low hanging clouds is that it obscured the top of the island of Jan Mayen, the Beerenberg Volcano. Continue reading

By 03.30 we started to enter the fjord. Rather early but I had set up the route from Isafjordur to Akureyri to run on average speed, to achieve optimum fuel consumption and that meant a speed of just over 12 knots. As the fjord is 26 miles deep it would take nearly three hours to get to the pilot station near the port itself. Still it is advisable here to go slow. There is the occasional fishing boat, and the occupants are not always awake plus there can be whales swimming about. As explained in one of my previous blogs, the company has protocols to avoid collisions with whales. One of those options is to change course to head the ship away from them. In a fjord that is not so easy with limited space to go, so slow speed or stopping has to do the trick. Thus the idea of charging into the fjord at full sea speed is not a good one. If then you suddenly have to put the breaks on there is a fair chance that you get a highly excited Chief engineer on the phone. The Whale experts have figured out that if the ships speed is around 10 knots the chance of hitting a whale is quite small. It seems to give them time to realize that there is a ship nearby and it also gives us time to quickly stop the ship. Continue reading

Today and tomorrow we will be visiting ports that are tucked away deep at the end of a fjord. That gives the meaning of “approach” a whole different dimension as the arrival of the port is preceded by some very scenic cruising towards the dock. For the early morning arrival, there are normally not that many guests out and about, except for a few diehards that I see every morning but on departure the outside decks will be full when we retrace our steps again to open sea. The weather forecast predicted a gloomy day but when we started to make our approach we could see the sun already trying to peep through so once again the prediction was wrong, whoever it was wrong to our benefit. The town of Isafjordur is located on a shelf of land that sticks out into the fjord. Behind it is a large and deep bay with several docks all dedicated to the fishing industry.
The entrance channel towards these docks is only 60 meters wide and thus there is great reluctance by the port authorities to let us go there. They have asked for a government grant to widen the channel and then larger ships can call at Isafjordur. Until that time the largest size ship is dictated by the length of the dock located at the entrance of the port, or by its willingness to go to anchor. Continue reading

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