The last time I was in Liverpool was in 1979 when I was a cadet. The only thing that I remember from that call was that we docked in a container dock in the dark in the early evening. One of the engineers took all four of us (cadets) to a disco where I saw English girls dancing with each other and dancing around their own hand bags. All the boys were huddled around the bar drinking pints. That dancing around the hand bag came from the fact that there was no place to leave a hand bag safe when going for a dance. They were dancing together because the boys only wanted to drink. We as Dutch could not understand that at all but when we tried to ask these girls for a dance, and there were 100’s of them in this gigantic disco, they all refused as they were out on the town together. At least that is what I understood when asking. It was very difficult to understand them, partly because of the disco noise and partly because of their liverpudlian accents, but I never forgot the disco scene from that night. All these pretty girls dancing together around their hand bags and all the men just boozing it up. My wife (who is British) later explained that it was not that unusual in England in those days. Continue reading

Although Dublin is much frequented in the summer by cruise ships, it does not have a dedicated cruise terminal. Where we docked was a regular cargo pier that had been made “cruise” friendly for buses and taxi’s. The area can take two cruise ships, one on either side of a large semi triangular dock. Today there were two cruise ships in port. Apart from us there was also the Crystal Symphony. She was going the opposite way to us, at least that was her schedule. After Dublin the ship was scheduled to call at East Dunmore, where we came from and then go on to Guernsey. The call at East Dunmore had already been cancelled and so the Symphony stayed overnight in Dublin. I was not amazed because after we left the weather had deteriorated over there considerably. We just had a lucky window in between a series of bad days. The crew of the Symphony were also talking about the cancellation of the call at Guernsey. Thus we were not the only one having multiple port and weather issues. That just reminded me; the day we were supposed to call at Guernsey, a Silver Sea cruise ship cancelled the call at Dartmouth next to Torbay. They were suffering from the same weather that we were supposed to have had during our call at Guernsey. Continue reading

Although there was traffic going up and down the river, no ship was waiting at anchor and thus I could park the Prinsendam where I wanted it. Right opposite the harbor entrance as close as possible under the shore. That close as, was still about 5 cables, as the area near the harbour entrance is quite shallow. The swell was slowly getting less and less on the way to the anchorage so my spirits lifted and I thought we were in for an easy day. However Dublin radio spoiled that happiness by announcing that they had found another pressure system which would cause the winds to stay West and later shift to the South West. It seems that somewhere in Ireland there is a top secret and hidden factory that churns out changeable and local weather that is not in the regular forecasts but just suddenly pops up when least expected. But we were there and things looked good in East Dunmore bay. Hardly any wind and the hull of the Prinsendam could easily protect the tenders from that influence while alongside. You never know if “expected” weather is going to happen or not, if it is not backed up by a weather chart . That is a sort of gamble you have take, as what was forecasted was actually coming, or that it was strictly local in occurrence. That is, local in the Irish Sea and therefore not necessarily also the case in Dunmore Bay Continue reading

The rain clouds disappeared in the late afternoon and after sunset Cobh looked really idyllic. Crystal clear skies (caused by the strong and cold wind blowing) and a pale moon that shone on the houses along the quay. We had a fabulous view from the bridge over those houses and the bay. It remained the same all during the night and I had high hopes that it would remain dry for the day. The Irish weather forecast more or less indicated that as well. However it seemed that one shower a day does not count as rain in Ireland and although we had dry periods, we still had some liquid sunshine coming down upon us. I checked the gangway log and quite a few of our guests indeed took the chance to go ashore last night to enjoy Irish night life. The Cruise Director had obtained information about what there was to do in Cobh, including the addresses of all the pubs where live music would be played. Two or three of them were no more than a 5 minute walk away from the ship and so why would you let a great opportunity like this slip through your hands ???? Continue reading

It was amazing; after stormy weather all day yesterday, the wind died down completely in the early morning. Not a ripple on the waves. Thus we arrived with wind still weather at the pilot station. A bit strange for this to happen, such a change; but I was not going to complain. It meant that I could dock without tugboats and keep everything under my own control. There was still a high swell running along the Irish coast but the ship could easily provide shelter, a good lee, for the pilot boat. With the pilot onboard we sailed into Cobh with really beautiful weather. No wind and when the sun rose above the land it caught the town of Cobh (pronounced Cove) in golden sun light. Cobh has one cruise terminal and it is a bit of a peculiar one. As the water along the old dock is shallow they use two big steel pontoons to moor the ship against. The ships gangway is landed onto that pontoon and then a very long and big gangway leads from the pontoon onto the dock. A setup that you seldom see but it works very well. Continue reading

In the course of the early morning, the wind really started to blow. Mostly from the South while blowing strongly with various strengths. Short heavy waves were coming in from the South South West at the same time. We measured a peak wind of force 9 around 8 AM., and saw the highest waves around 10 AM., when a few rollers came by that were topping 20 feet. Most of the time it was wind force 7 to 8. With all the extra time available due to the fact that Guernsey was out of the question, I could sail with slow speed. Now the Prinsendam rode with its bow up and down the waves instead of banging into it all the time. (E.G. being lifted up and then slamming back on top of the waves) Although we still slowly pitched in a regular motion, it was only occasionally that we “hit” a wave and even then only very gently. Continue reading

The port of Torbay does not have a dock that is big enough to accommodate the Prinsendam and thus for us it is an anchorage port. It is located in a very sheltered position (from any but the South East and North Easterly winds) in the curve of a bay. As the winds in South England are predominantly North Atlantic Winds from the South West the anchorage area is excellent for use at most times. Many ships seek refuge in the bay if there is another North Atlantic tempest blowing. Apart from that, just outside the bay, still within shelter of the land, large ships can safely be in lay-up. We saw quite a few tankers at this anchorage while we approached the bay. Continue reading

After two nights of good rest, I love these overnights as I can really catch up on my sleep; we started preparing the Prinsendam for departure and for our next cruise. This cruise is called Gaelic Legends and will take 14 days. It goes all the way around The United Kingdom, sailing clockwise and will also call at Irish ports. Torquay (Torbay), St. Peter Port Guernsey, Cork, Foynes, Dunmore East (for Waterford), Dublin, Liverpool, Green Castle (Limerick), Stornoway, Peterhead, Leith (for Edinburgh) Greenwich (London) A very port intensive cruise that shows the best of the Gaelic culture. The weather around England and Ireland is always very much under the influence of what comes across from the North Atlantic so we will have to keep an eye on that. Ex hurricane Bill has just left the North American shores and is moving this way. The initial track is indicating that he is moving directly towards Iceland and would thus avoid Ireland altogether. However he is pushing two other depressions ahead of him and they might come closer. Continue reading

It is not often that cruise ships do overnights as regular cruises are based on the fine balance between port time, sea time and an optimum cruise schedule. However with our cruise ending in Greenwich there had to be overnights as Greenwich is tide related. You can only get in on the one day, do the change over on the next day and sail out on the third day, unless the tides run in synch with normal arrival and departure times. That is not always the case of course. Although we now docked at Tilbury our cruise schedule remained the same, only I had now the option to offer even more shore time than when docked in Greenwich. Not so far to go up river and not so far to go down river and no tidal restrictions. Thus more time on the first day and more time on the last day. It turned out good for the guests and good for the crew. The ship was barely alongside and the first guests already streamed into the waiting shuttle buses that took them to the train station and 30 minutes later they were in London. A great time was had by all. Continue reading

In beautiful sunshine and with a very gentle breeze blowing we arrived at the Thames Estuary Pilot station at 08.00 for our 4 hour journey up river. Tilbury is located about half the distance up the river of what it would take to get to Greenwich and thus we could arrive just after 12 pm, near the dock instead of 16.30 for Greenwich. As it was my intention to swing on arrival and dock nose out the expected gangway time out would be just before 1 pm. We were going to arrive with the flood tide and that meant that by the time we started our docking procedures at Tilbury I would have to contend with about 3 -4 knots of current in the river and about 2 knots when giving the ropes ashore. So I was planning to take it easy as I had not been to Tilbury since 1988. At that time I was 2nd officer standing aft and not really involved with the maneuver itself. When in unknown territory it is better to go slowly slowly until you understand exactly what the river is doing to your ship. The river does not have the same depth everywhere and as a result there are eddies and back currents that can push the ship all over the place if you are not careful. So I was going to take my time and had built this time into the schedule. Continue reading