The bad weather came, only it came late. While all the weather guru’s and local specialists were warning that it would pass through in the late evening, it was not until 03.15 that the strong winds hit the ship. Accompanied by spectacular thunderstorms the wind gusted up to 50 knots around the ship. Unfortunately the rain stayed away from the ship as that would have really cleaned all the sand away. Sand that we have been collecting since Dakar. Our bo’sun cannot win the battle at the moment as the sand is very sticky and needs a real downpour to let go off the sides of the ship. The late arrival of the storm brought the realization that Split might not be an option today. It would take about 12 hours for the whole system to come through and that meant that docking in the port of Split would not be safely possible until mid afternoon at the earliest. Still, you never know, think positive; the local situation in Split might be different and thus I decided to go and have a look. I had no alternative options anyway, as the other nearby ports would take too long to get to and were also suffering from the same sort of weather. Still I always think that the bottle (Mineral water only) is always half full and not half empty. Continue reading

Not unlike other ports on this coast Kotor has two pilot stations. One on the outer border of the fjord and one tucked away inside incase the weather is bad. Other ports use bad weather pilot stations only for the more dangerous ships, such as tankers or in a combination of both. Or when there are narrows passages to navigate before a port can be reached. The pilot, who boarded today, was apart from a capable pilot also a good and proud ambassador for this area. So after the Master – Pilot conference, about how to go about it and how the ship worked, he offered all sorts of details and historic tit bits about what there was to see. There was ample time for that, as we cruised with 10 knots and less for the whole period. Everywhere there are boats and houses at the water line and the whole area is a no-wake zone. Thus the 20 mile journey was going to take two hours and as our arrival time was 0800 hrs that worked out exactly right.  The fjord is quite wide, except at one location where it is less than a 1000 feet and one has to stay exactly in the middle. The area is very rich in history which is not unusual as it has always been on the border of the Western and Eastern influence. Thus the area has been fought over by many countries and cultures. With mountain regions crisscrossing the whole area there is a strong national feeling by region and thing that became very clear when Yugoslavia fell apart in the 1990’s. Several new States emerged and Montenegro of which Kotor is a part was one of them. Continue reading

As mentioned yesterday, the South East side of Sicily is more Greek than Italian and thus it comes as no surprise that the sea to the East of Sicily and to the South of Calabria is called the Ionian Sea. That is where we spent the night, while heading on a North Easterly course to the South East point of Italy, the cape that carries the beautiful name of Capo di Santa Maria de Leuca. Here the Adriatic Sea starts. Our course bends around this Cape and if we had been closer you could have seen it in detail from the SE side, the East side and later from the NE side. However we stayed about 14 miles off shore as that brought us to a Northerly course line heading straight for Kotor in Montenegro. Also it kept us away from coastal traffic and that makes life a lot easier as well. Still the cape and the coastline could be clearly seen, even from 20 miles away, as it was a very clear day courtesy of very strong winds blowing down the Adriatic Sea into the lower Mediterranean. At day break we had about 40 knots head wind, resulting with our 10 knots speed into 50 knots of relative wind on the decks. It remained like that until the early evening when the wind suddenly dropped away to zero. Leaving a confused sea behind that flattened out during the night. Continue reading

 The South East part of Sicily is a bit of an anomaly as it is more Greek in its roots than Italian. Several of the port names have a distinct Greek flavor and many of the local cultural traditions also have their roots in a Greek past. With that curious thought on my mind we approached the pilot station for 07.00 in the morning. I had never been to Siracusa (English spelling Syracuse) and based on the high hopes that I might be able to go alongside, I did not want to grope around in the dark near an unknown dock. Hence a pilot boarding time scheduled for after sunrise. So plan A was to tender and we setup everything accordingly. However if the master pilot conference went to my liking and I felt comfortable with the information provided, I was willing to go for plan B and attempt to dock. From the nautical chart I could not really see what the situation was so I simply had to go in, push the ships nose towards the docking area and see if it was feasible. The pilot looked relieved after I mentioned that the ships draft was as he needed it to be, there was no wind and thus we decided to give it a go. Continue reading

Lipari is an Island that forms part of a string of volcanic islands of which  Stromboli is laying the furthermost East. It is located about 15 miles to the North of Sicily and is a famous hideaway place for the Italian Jet set or those who think that they are part of it. As a result Real Estate is on the pricey side. The island itself does not have an active volcano anymore but just to the south it is the island Volcano and that one was smoking all day long. From the top but also from exhausts in the side. Also Stromboli had a plume on it when we passed by. So enough volcanic action even if your own island is dormant. By the morning it became apparent that I could not make up the lost time from yesterday and the fact that we ran into early morning fog did not help either. It was to be expected that fog would form as it has been wind still for the last two days here in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea. With the sea water temperature not that far off from the air temperature and both chilly at times, the temperature difference was just enough to create sea-smoke during dawn. It did not last long; by 9 am it was all gone but in the fog were fishermen and then you have to be really careful as their behavior is not dictated by the rules of the road or common sense, but by where their nets and the fish are.  Still I had already extended the time in Lipari by one hour, so even when arriving late, it still means the same amount of time spend in port. Continue reading

The sea was completely smooth and with no wind at all we approached the pilot station. We had been asked to be there early as the pilot wanted the traffic to be spaced out. That made it possible to have only one pilot on duty, for reasons explained yesterday. I always try to be early anyway to give shore excursion sufficient time to set up their buses and so it was not difficult to comply with the request. Still there was a ferry coming in on a different time then expected and we had to wait 15 minutes before it was our turn. Most of the berths were occupied and that indicates that things must be going fairly well with the economy here. The harbour master had requested for docking portside alongside as it would make it easier for the supplies trucks to park on the dock. And so we did. 30 minutes after the pilot was onboard, we had swung around and docked at the outer breakwater pier, which is being reconstructed into a major cruise ship terminal. Continue reading

 As the port of La Spezia is a major gateway port for industrial exports and imports, it is a busy port. So busy, that the cruise ships are a not such an important part of the operation. All the docks are given over to the cargo ships and the cruise ships have to anchor. That is in a way a blessing in disguise as with this setup we can ender directly into the downtown area instead of having to bus everybody out of the port area and around the bay. That would take at least 20 to 25 minutes and thus a 10 minute tender ride is a much more preferable option. It is not happening very often that when we visit a major port that instead of docking, the ship goes to anchor and is happy with it. La Spezia is as far as this is concerned an anomaly among the cruise ports. It is only under very bad weather circumstances, when anchoring is not safe, that a cruise ship will be docked somewhere in the commercial port. To use the words of our pilot “Doing that does not make the harbour master very happy”. (Please pronounce with Italian accent…..) Continue reading

 Today we had a restful day at sea and apart from all onboard taking that rest, the wind did the same and the sea was as flat as a mirror with only occasionally a little ripple. The cold wind of yesterday had left the skies crystal clear and that made it possible to see the mountain tops of Corse at almost 40 miles away. That is quite unusual as the Med. with its warm temperatures tends to be quite hazy and the proximity of Africa adding quite often sandy dust to the air. There was none of that today. It was not very warm but beautiful weather nonetheless. According to the weather chart, it is supposed to remain like that at least for two days more and that would mean a wind free day in La Spezia. That will be most welcome, as we have to anchor there and the anchorage is not that wide. So I keeping my fingers crossed and hope that the weather guru’s have looked into the right crystal ball.

Continue reading

The head winds did not ease off until the early morning and I lost a previous 15 minutes, which made me just miss the time window allowed for coming in early. Thus we had to wait until 08.00 hrs for the ferry Sorolla to enter the port and we could then follow. There is only one pilot on duty in Mahon and he had to get off the ferry first and then come over to us. That would have made it even later, but as he kept moving the “pilot boarding ground” further and further into the Fjord, I could come closer and closer and thus reduce the waiting time. By the time he stepped onboard, I was half way in. Not unusual, as with inclement weather this is the normal boarding area anyway.  Arriving late is never pleasant but as I had inkling about this as mentioned yesterday, the ship was well prepared and the tours would not be affected. I found it myself a blessing in disguise, as sailing into Mahon is extremely scenic especially with a morning arrival so you sail in with the sun in the back laying a beautiful golden glow over all the white houses dotted along the cliffs of the fjord. Our normal arrival would have been in the dark and the guests would have missed this spectacle.

Continue reading

For me Cartagena is one of the most unspoilt–touristy cities- on the coast of Spain.  That is of course a contradiction in terms but I mean by that, that not everything is geared towards tourism and T-shirt shops. That has as a result  some of our guests complain about the lack of easy-tourism infrastructure and  some are just very happy that it is still not the case. I belong to the latter group and therefore always enjoy calling at this ancient city. I came here with the Noordam in 2001 to make the Company maiden call and since then the company ships have been calling here on occasion through the years. Cartagena has been working hard to create more facilities for main stream tourism and the major benefit that I am reaping from it is, that I now have a very nice pier to call at.  They are still working on it and it is getting longer and longer. There are some tentative plans for a cruise terminal as Cartagena would not be a bad change over port either but it seems that the funding needed is still being allocated to other projects. Taking into account the current state of Spain’s economy that is not so difficult to understand. Continue reading