As approved by the local authorities I aimed for the pilot station at 06.45, which was going to be the earliest time that there was enough water in the port to enter. The pilot came out early, stepped onboard before 06.30 and then started a serious of complicated calculations which resulted in the announcement that we could not approach the dock until 07.30. Not good news for a captain who likes to be on time; but not much that I could do about it as the port depths do vary from the chart. Thus I could not say whether my calculations which coincided with 06.45 were correct. So I made a 360o turn to kill some time and then slowly steamed into the port area. The main issue was that there would not be enough water near the dock where I was supposed to swing around in order to dock starboard side alongside. So I said: why not dock portside alongside and swing on departure. That really stirred things up as it turned out that they had prepared a shore gangway for the ship which could not be moved. Last call we had to use our own gangway, as the shore side contraption was not fit for the ship but now they had converted a very good dry dock gangway. They just had forgotten to tell me about it in advance. Continue reading

As this is the Celtic kingdom cruise, we also visit France as in the grey mists of time, there seems to have been Celts milling around there as well. Hence the area around Brest being called Brittany and we still have Great Britain of course; all related to each other in some way or the other. Brest is located inside a large and deep natural fjord and thus a perfect area for a big port. It is also one of the major navy ports of France. There is a regular navy port area and a separate submarine base. In the far end of the fjord there is the commercial port and a very large commercial ship repair yard. In the 1970’s when everybody experimented with enormous oil tankers a number of the worlds largest were built in France. Names as Batillus and Pierre Guimot (not so sure of the correct spelling) have found their place in tanker history. For those ships a special dry – dock was dug in this repair yard and this was the place where we were scheduled to dock. Brest does not have a dedicated cruise terminal yet. The wise men on the City council of Brest only want to consider funding if there are more than 50 cruise calls a year and thus far they manage about 13. Continue reading

This was the first port of our cruise and it started in the best way possible. Glorious sunshine; just a gentle breeze at the anchorage and we were the only cruise ship in port. That meant I could drop the hook as close as possible to the port entrance; about 5 cables away (3000 feet). Closer is not possible as there is regular ferry traffic going in and out of the port to the various islands and also to the UK mainland. Port Control gets very upset if you block the way. The port itself is too small for a cruise ship to dock, even the small ones such as Seabourn cannot dock here, unless they take the ferry dock but that only works for half day calls, if allowed. Thus all the cruise ships anchor outside and as Guernsey is a popular island to call at; there can be more than one ship at anchor. Yesterday there were three, including two 2500 guests ones and then the tender landing is getting very crowded. Also the tender distances increase as not every ship can be close to the port. Thus being alone is really the best and we were. Continue reading

So we departed Tilbury at the civilized time of 8 am in the morning. As we were docked with the nose up the river we had to swing around off the berth before going down the river. With a wind force four blowing from the West and the current coming from the same direction (ebbing), I had a tugboat hooked up to the stern to act as a pivoting point while we swung around on the current. That maneuver is a bit eerie to see because while we are making the swing we are also set bodily down the river by the current. By the time we were finished and lined up, we were also about a mile downstream from the dock. From there onwards the ebb current pushed us towards open waters, four hours down the river. We passed the familiar sights, the construction of the new container terminal, Southend on Sea and finally the wide estuary of the Thames. Here we had to slow down to reduce the ships squat because we were going through the Princess channel which is very shallow, especially during ebb tide. We knew that we would have enough water under the keel, as the shallowest patch of sea bottom was exactly 7 meters under water and that is a measurement at chart datum. This is normally the lowest of the low waters and 7 meters is our draft so we only needed a little bit more to stay afloat. So I watched the echo sounder to see what the score would be this time and the meter stopped at 1.6 meters under the keel, just over 5 feet. Nothing to worry about as long as we sailed over it with a speed of no more than 10 knots. Continue reading

We are still on the multiple day stays here in Tilbury, courtesy of the fact that the original schedule was for Greenwich. As so far up the Thames the draft of the ship becomes a problem so the arrival and departure has to be done on high water and the change over day in between. For reasons extensively explained in the blogs of last year, the ship moved to Tilbury, but is still on the same schedule. That will change next year. We will still go to Tilbury but it will only be for a one day call for disembarkation and embarkation. Understandable as a revamped schedule will make it possible to either visit a port further away or stay longer somewhere. For the crew it is a pity as an overnight always gives some more time to go ashore. Still we are there for the guests and if we can optimize a cruise then we will do it. Continue reading

It was very breezy when we arrived at the North East Spit pilot station just north of Ramsgate in Kent. This is where the pilot boat is docked and where the pilots board the boat for a15 minute journey to get to the Pilotage area. This morning they had a very bumpy ride as the wind was from the North East and it pushed the waves straight into the Thames estuary. Visibility was not that great due to overcoming showers but our radars are good and the fairway is laid out with big buoys that reflect nicely on the screens. Yesterday I wrote about the guard ships around the oil platforms; these are not the only guard vessels out there. At the moment they are laying a telephone/data (fiber optic) cable between England and the Netherlands and that is quite a process. First there is a ship that plows a trench for the cable, then the cable is laid and lastly there is a ship that fills up that trench again. The cable goes about 30 feet under the sand, so it is quite a trench that it is being made. Eventually the track of this cable will be marked on the charts as a no anchor area but until that time the cable has to be protected. For this purpose there are guard ships slowly steaming up and down the track of the cable. The funny thing of it all is that the guard ships are chartered fishing boats and the biggest challenge they are guarding against are other fishing boats. Continue reading

Late last night when we disembarked the pilot and sailed out of Oslofjorden we had our first surprise, being that the weather was not as bad as expected. It was only forecast to get better, today, during the day. In the morning the wind was indeed as forecast with a Northerly wind force 5. At the same time gale force winds up to Beaufort 9 were forecast for the Dover area. So I thought, this is going to be interesting. Then to our utter amazement, the wind died down completely and the sun came out. Some remnants of the swell remained but it was eerie, so nice it was during our last afternoon at sea. I could not believe it as it went against all the weather patterns on the forecasting charts. The low and high pressure area’s around England just collapsed, filled in, petered out and disappeared. That meant that a high pressure system near Iceland could take over and in the evening it started to blow again but from the North and that meant the wind in the back and no more worries. Tomorrow it will be windy on arrival, at least at the pilot station but Tilbury is nice and sheltered compared to the coastal towns of Dover and Harwich. Still the weather is very unsettled and thus I have ordered a tugboat for docking. Continue reading

It was quite nasty outside while we made our transit through the Skagerak. Luckily the swell was nearly on the stern. Same for the wind, wind force 9 was whistling over the water but it did not do the ship any harm. Instead it pushed it forward even a bit faster. Tonight will be a different story when we have to go against it. For the time being things were with us and the seas only made the ship move a bit, when we were fully in the open between 2 and 5 am. As soon as we came under the lee of the Norwegian coast everything was quiet again. By 7 am we had the pilot onboard and were on our merry way to Oslo. Due to the distance between Copenhagen and Oslo we cannot get there much earlier and thus we have a –scenic cruising- arrival in the morning at 11 am and a departure at 8 pm when it is getting dark already. The first 30 miles or so are in wide open waters and we race full speed through it. Then by 0930 we had to slow down as we went through the narrow part and needed to avoid wake damage to the little boats moored along the shore lines. Continue reading

By 5 am we were approaching the South entrance of Drogden channel on the East side of Copenhagen. This is the shortcut between the Sound or “Sund” to the North and the Baltic Sea to the South. Ships with a draft of less then 8 meters can transit this dredged channel; all other ships will have to make a 200 mile detour via the Great Belt to the West. The Prinsendam with its draft of 7.3 meters maximum has no problems of course and thus we take the short route. The wind had indeed picked up during the night as was predicted and we had about 35 to 40 knots blowing from the South West. As there was no open water available for the wind to build up high waves, the guests did not notice it too much apart from the fact that “it was windy”. Again we had an eager pilot, coming out early, but this time I think it was more because for small boats the water was rather rough with a 1 meter swell. With him onboard the question of the day was: can we get into Copenhagen with this wind? So the pilot got out his phone and called a control station somewhere that had access to a wind meter on top of one of the Windmills located in front of Copenhagen harbour entrance. That gave 15 to 20 knots from a direction of 220o and that meant we were in business. The windmill is about 100 meters high or so and is catching more wind than the lower Prinsendam. Also a direction of 220o meant that the wind was only 10o off the general direction of the narrow harbour entrance and thus the ship would not drift very much. Continue reading

By 3.30 am. we were heading for the pilot station of Warnemunde. The pilot was in an eager mood and instead of being there at 0400 as scheduled; he came racing out and was onboard 20 minutes early. We managed to get the Boatmen on standby, just in time. These are the sailors who open the shell doors and rig the pilot ladder. Once the pilot was onboard he came running to the bridge and started giving orders straight away. I do not like that at all, as I prefer the pilots first to get their night vision, give them a proper explanation of the ships characteristics, show them the radar and other instruments and then hand the con over formally. However in ports, where the majority of ships coming in are cargo ships, this is quite often normal pilot behavior but in cruise ship heavy ports the pilots are normally accustomed to these hand over procedures. However this pilot was in a hurry and I had to feed him the information that I deemed necessary for him to know in small bites, between him talking to the pilot boat, port control, the linesmen and another unknown entity on the other side of his mobile phone. Continue reading