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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

Category: HAL History (page 5 of 6)

02 November 2019; Cartagena, Spain.

November 2, 2019 / / 5 Comments

02 November 2019; Cartagena, Spain.

Holland America used to come here in the 60’s and 70’s and then it suddenly stopped. With the fleet going down to four ships in the 1980’s focus was on the short cruises around North America and we abandoned Europe for a while. Even with the yearly world cruise of the ss Rotterdam, Cartagena was not in much of a focus while there is a lot of things to do in this area. The first call again was in 2001 with the Noordam (III) with yours truly at the helm and then HAL re-established Cartagena as a regular port of call. By now we had 8 ships more and thus Europe cruises were possible due to the extra capacity. And since then we have been calling here on a regular basis. It is a very popular port for the captains as well as the port is sheltered from every side except the port entrance but the docking basin is fully protected by a breakwater and thus an excellent port for a safe docking and also messing around with lifeboats. Continue reading

01 November 2019: At Sea.

November 1, 2019 / / 2 Comments

To get to our first port of call on the straightest route possible we have two obstacles in the way, called the islands of Corsica (Corse) and Sardinia. But as they are islands there is water in between and that water is wide enough to sail through. It is called Boniface Strait or the Strait of Bonifacio. The old romans called it Fretum Gallicum and this translates in something like the Wild Waters of the Gaul’s. In the word Fretum we can recognize our English word of fretting or worrying about something. And that is a good word for this area as it can be a very nasty place. Strait Bonifacio which connects the Tyrrhenian Sea from the Western Mediterranean Sea can throw anything at a sailor that he/she does not like. It can blow a (local) gale here, it is full of shallows and nasty rocks, the currents are un-predictable and there is an almost 90o turn to make when going through the Strait. Therefore there is a pilot service available for those ships who do not have the most sophisticated navigation equipment on board and for oil tankers it is compulsory to take a pilot.   Continue reading

17 October 2019; New York, USA.

October 17, 2019 / / 4 Comments

We had a bit of a bumpy night and a slightly moving ship. What “slightly” was depended on the view of the guests as some spoke of a heavy storm and some dismissed it as an occasional “bump”. I have been assigned a cabin above the Azipods this time and the only thing I had to do was to move the coat hangers in the closet as they rattled on occasion. That is not a regular ships noise and thus it will wake me up. We did have quite a bit of wind during the night with gusts to over 60 knots but as we were heading into the first arrival of the storm, the storm had not been able to generate very high waves and thus the ship did not provide the roller coaster ride, something some guests had been afraid of. Continue reading

09 October 2019: Quebec, Canada.

October 9, 2019 / / 29 Comments

And thus real life started again as I boarded the good ship Zuiderdam yesterday in Quebec. The Zuiderdam is too tall to go under the bridge just north of Quebec and thus cannot make it to Montreal and hence stays 2 days in Quebec. Earlier this year I was on the Zaandam and that ship does fit under but only with normal water levels. At Quebec the St. Lawrence River is still tidal and with high water spring and/or heavy rain fall or melting snow upstream, the water table can also be too high for the R class or even the S class. The Zaandam also had to do a turn over at Quebec in the beginning of this season before the river level dropped sufficiently and the ship could make it to Montreal. For the Zuiderdam there is no option at all and thus the ship stays in Quebec. Not that many people will be complaining as Quebec is one of our highest guest-rated ports. Thus I could board yesterday in Quebec and today the ship was still there as today is turn over day and the ship starts a new voyage. Voyage 693 to be exact. Continue reading

25 July 2019: Juneau, Alaska.

July 26, 2019 / / 6 Comments

Another day, another port and today that port was Juneau Alaska. Capital of the Alaskan State and also the shopping capital for the cruise ships. Although Skagway is trying very hard to beat them, they still do not succeed as Juneau has more/bigger ships in port and for a longer time. Although that was not the case today. The Franklin dock was vacant in the morning but was filled in the early afternoon by the Carnival Legend but then the Norwegian Jewel who was there in the morning left as soon as the Legend had lined up at her berth. As both ships are about the same size, the amount of shoppers in town remained about the same. Behind us was the Celebrity Eclipse and that made the Westerdam the smallest cruise ship in the port. The sort of thing that can you give you an inferiority complex but then we were the only “blue boat” in port and thus the whole world could see that we were different. Continue reading

16 July 2019, Ketchikan, Alaska.

July 17, 2019 / / 2 Comments

Today we are in Ketchikan and this is the Ketchikan I recognize. Drizzle, Rain and Swirling Clouds around the mountains high above the town.  The Westerdam arrived early as we had to drop off a container, and instead of going alongside the berth and getting a flatbed truck onto the dock with a big crane, the ship sailed to the Ketchikan Shipyard and went briefly alongside the fitting out pier and the shipyard crane hoisted the container ashore. And then the captain just sailed the ship astern (backwards) to our regular dock. By 05.30 we were all fast and all the hard workers went back to bed. Sailing a mile or so from the ship yard to the dock with wind and current can be a challenge but Azi-pods ships have so much power that it is not really a challenge. Azi-pod ships are often better in sailing astern than in sailing forward as pulling the ship is often easier than pushing it. Continue reading

15 July 2019:  Inside Passage British Columbia, Canada.

July 16, 2019 / / 3 Comments

When we left last night we were in quite a hurry as the tide window started around 22.30 hrs. From Lions Gate Bridge to Discovery Pass is 90 Nautical Miles and when passing the bridge at 17.00 hrs. to getting there then gives 5.5 hrs.  90 miles at 20 knots. Is 4.5 hrs. at full speed but the last part, when sailing into Discovery Pass leading up to Seymour Narrows, the speed has to come down to 16 knots and then 10 knots due to traffic and no wake sailing close to the coast. That costs another 30 minutes and you suddenly are looking at less than an hour for any un-expected happenings. And you have to prepare for that as there is a lot of barge traffic in the area and as it is high summer, fishermen both professional and amateurs. Thus while in the open waters of Georgia Strait the Captain let the Westerdam come up to sea speed to build up a little plus and so to ensure that we would be on time. Continue reading

24 June 2019; Tromso, Norway.

June 24, 2019 / / 8 Comments

Today we are in Tromso docking at the regular cruise terminal from which we can see the town next to us and also the outer part of the town opposite the river. That part has the famous Arctic Cathedral (Domkirk in the local language) and is claimed to be the most northern one in the world.

Tromso Cathedral all lit up for the festive season. (Photo courtesy https://www.ishavskatedralen.no/en/the-arctic-cathedral/)

It does dominate the landscape, something that a church normally does but in this case with its modern design even more. Tromso is split up into two parts and they have a modern bridge to connect the two sides. A high bridge so that coastal ships still can go under it. As a result it is not so easy to just walk from one side to the other side as the bridge span is long and drawn out. Hence to see the cathedral you need to take a taxi or go on a tour. Because of the inclement weather (four seasons in the hour, except snow) I decided to stay on board having seen the place in the ancient past. Sun, wind and rain changed the weather by the hour and that made it a challenging day to be a tourist. Continue reading

13 April 2019: Salalah, Oman.

April 13, 2019 / / 1 Comment

Today we had a later arrival as the ship is staying until late in the evening to facilitate a dancing under the Stars program. There is not much reason to arrive any earlier as Salalah is an industrial port so it takes quite a bit of effort to get away from that port and into civilization, either old or new. And for that we have the various tours. In this area there are only two options. Either tours to the city which include looking at the Sultan’s palace, visiting the Sook and driving through the more greener area of the place; Or go and visits Job’s Tomb. This is the Job from the Old Testament and who is important to both the Christian and the Muslim faith, hence his tomb has been preserved very well.  But today we had a lot of guests who happily stayed on board and lounged about on the balconies or around the pool. I cannot disagree with them; there is only so much sand you can handle during a cruise. No doubt after having been well rested today, they will be out in force this evening for this party under the stars. Continue reading

11 April 2019; Muscat, Oman.

April 11, 2019 / / 2 Comments

And thus we arrived in Muscat; the capital of Oman, with approx. 1.5 mln inhabitants. The port is called the Sultan Qaboos port and is not very large. Looking at the activity it is mainly used for ships bringing goods in and thus the cruise terminal doubles up as a container dock. Two piers are fully taken over by the Sultan’s private yacht and a secondary yacht which is used for his guests. Then to these two ships belongs a dedicated navy ship to keep the Sultan (full name Sultan Qaboos Said al Said) safe. The navy ship was nowhere in sight so I assume the sultan is not planning to go sailing in the very near future.

The Yacht of the Sultan. The “Al Said”. and it is not even the biggest one in the world.

The yacht, although it is more like a ship, is called Al Said after the family name and was built in 2006. It has a volume of nearly 16,000 tons which makes it 2/5 of the size of the Seabourn Ovation but that is only because is the less wide and less long, as it has almost the same height. I never entertained the idea of having my own boat or yacht as it is as if you are married to two women at the same time. Very expensive. With the yacht having the worst mother-in-law called “maintenance at sea”, but if I had the Sheiks bank account, I could settle for this. More than enough room to store all my books and memorabilia and with room left for a home cinema to please my Lord and Master. Continue reading

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