Today we visited the first Turkish port of our cruise. After Kusadasi; Istanbul, Trabzon and Sinop will follow. Kusadasi is the port of entry for the tours to Ephesus; known from the Biblical days of the apostle Paul. Apart from that main attraction, the area has several other things on offer, not the least the good shopping that is available in the town, with the emphasis on leather. A number of years ago they built two new finger piers here and since then the calls by cruise ships have more than quadrupled. There are days when all piers are full and occasionally a ship might even have to anchor. The town it takes its name from is a little island to the West of the port. Translated Kusadasi means Bird Island. Nowadays this island is connected by a causeway with the main land so that the castle on it is much easier to get to, so it is not really an island anymore. Since last year the promenade in front of the port even boosts a Dutch Restaurant, with real Dutch coffee so Kusadasi is really getting there. Continue reading

When I approach Santorini with the ship I always have to remind myself that, no we are not crazy and yes in this case it is normal to sail into a Volcano crater. It is big enough and there is plenty of water but still it is a bit strange to do so. However it is an impressive experience when you sail around the central volcano cone towards the East shore where the most important villages are located. There are two entrances to the area, one from the South West and one from the North West. As we were coming from the Lower West we used the SW entrance as it was the shorter route. Continue reading

It was busy during the night when sailed around the south point of the Peloponnesus. I counted 75 ships on the radar at one given time in a radius of 24 miles. They all behaved as they should but we had a little excitement when 3 miles ahead of us a little German coaster suddenly flipped on all his red lights. Five seconds later a very German accent came on the VHF announcing that he was not under command (e.g. could not control his ship) as there was air in the fuel lines to the main engine. Main engines do not like that very much so his engine had stopped operating. While they were solving that issue, the little coaster was drifting help less right in the middle of the shipping lane. Continue reading

With a flat calm sea and the sun rising over the horizon we arrived at 07.00 at the pilot station of Katakolon. Ahead of us was the MSC Musica which was scheduled to dock at the outer breakwater. This is a 90.000 ton ship and carries 2500 lower beds and over 3000 when full. That spoiled it a little bit, as Katakolon is a little bit too small to take such an invasion. However she was only going to stay to until 2 pm. and thus our guests had the town all to themselves during the afternoon. The good news was that we, being the smaller ship, could dock at the downtown pier and that meant less then a 1000 feet to walk to the town with it’s shops and tavernas. Katakolon is a very nice place to go to. Continue reading

On this cruise we will be sailing through the straits of Messina twice as the cruise is a loop cruise to and from Civitavecchia. As the stretch to Katakolon is not a very high speed run, I set the speed in such a way that we would be passing through the Straits around coffee time. That meant Stromboli at 8 am. so those who went for breakfast around that time could see the volcano cone on the port side. It was a bit hazy when we passed by with the smoke being absorbed by the clouds so we did not see any plume at all. Continue reading

Today we ended our 20 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Civitavecchia. The cruise was called “off to Rome” and to Rome we made it, at least to the port of Rome. We were blessed with yet another good day full of sun shine and little wind and as we were saying goodbye to about half of our guests, I approached the port early. Luggage had to be taken off and then there was the ride to the airport near Rome. Traffic in the Rome area can be horrendous and thus a timely departure from the ship is of the essence and then it helps if I dock the ship on the early side to give the Hotel department a good head start. Continue reading

Another beautiful day and another beautiful port. As Monte Carlo is facing east, it is always a pleasure to approach the port in the morning as the rising sun shines over the whole area. Apart from a few fishermen there was nothing in the way. The Sunday sailors and gin palaces were still happily tucked away in the harbour and so we could proceed unhindered to our anchorage. As we were banned to Fontveille, due to the preparations for the Grand Prix, I had to find another anchorage. Our regular anchorage is just to the North of the new pier. Right abeam is the Hotel under which the race cars run their race, but using that location now would result in a much too long a tender distance. When going further to the South, the water gets deeper and the only shallow place that is really nice for anchoring is prohibited. The Oceanographic museum has some sort of water inlet system at the bottom of the cliff and thus we cannot drop anchor there. Continue reading

The distance between Naples and Elba is just too long to have an early morning arrival and so we were scheduled to be there at 10 am. That is a decent time anyway. Time for a leisurely breakfast onboard, followed by a nice stroll into town. Having the best of both worlds. It was indeed a beautiful day and when we approached the island from the West, the sun beamed its rays over the green hills of Elba. We approached from the West as the entrance from the East side is a bit tight. Although there is enough water, it has several death angles (e.g. you cannot see around the corner) and if suddenly a fisherman comes in the way there would be nowhere to go but to put on the breaks very hard. Engineers do not like that very much so I prefer to go through wide open waters if the ship has a high average speed to maintain. Continue reading

It turned out to be a beautiful day in Naples. Almost no wind, sunny skies from arrival to departure and temperatures in the mid 70’s. Just the weather that a cruise should have. The Prinsendam arrived as scheduled at 7 am. at the pilot station and as the pilot was already waiting we could just continue directly to the berth. Sometimes the pilot likes to do some work but not today. Which meant that I just continued conning the ship into the harbour and after swinging around docked starboard side alongside the cruise terminal or Stazione Marittima as they call it here. Continue reading

There was less wind during the night than expected and so I was starting to wonder whether this whole bad weather thing was going to happen at all. It would not have been the first time that a weather front changed direction and throw the meteorologists completely off track. By 5 am. in the morning it even turned wind-still for a little while. However this was the “silence before the storm”. When we approached the Messina pilot station the wind gradually started to pick up and kept picking up. The pilot came on board while it was wind force four; when we made the turn into the Strait of Messina it was wind force six and by the time we were in the strait it was wind force 10. Continue reading