Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

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.

We were not the only ship in port. Apart from the regular ferry traffic was an Apartment of the Seas (Voyager with 3100 guests on board) and the Grand Celebration with 900 guests. (This is the old Carnival Celebration which now sails for the Carnival subsidiary Ibero Cruceros of Spain. With a base capacity of 1500 beds, the ship was not very full). What also was not full was the container terminal and the new car receiving area next to our dock. It was distinctly empty, a sign that the recession is still in full swing. The port has recently extended the terminal area by filling up part of the North side of the harbour but it looks like that they will have to wait for an upswing in the economy before more cargo ships are coming in. However the container dock is shared with cruise ships and thus the investment is at least partly paying off.

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Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

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.

The Captain of the Azamara Journey was obviously suffering from the same problem and decided to anchor all the way to the south. So far that I thought he was going to run his tender service into the marina of Cap Agile. However the boats were also going into Fontveille making it a long distance for them. As it was nice weather and no wind expected, I had no problem with dropping the anchor in 80 meters of water (240 feet) and could thus keep the tender distance to the port to a minimum. Dropping the anchor is really the wrong phrase here; with such a water depth we lower the anchor on the windlass, shackle by shackle, all the way down. (A shackle is one link of the chain, which is about 30 centimeters) Because of the depth most of the chain is hanging vertically and thus you are never certain if the anchor has dug in when the ship is in position. You can simply not see how the chain is leading and where to.

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Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

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 on board, 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.

By 0850 we were at the pilot station and a very happy pilot came on board. We were his only job for the day and so he was bringing some money home that day. We were directed to the middle of the anchorage just in view of the harbour. There was a pier available but it was just too short for the Prinsendam to fit at. Next time when we come back it should be ok as they going to extend this pier during the coming winter. However as mentioned yesterday, the tender run into the port is very scenic and gives a nice overview of this most charming Italian town.

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Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

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.

Certainly impressive if you arrive from the city side.

This terminal was constructed in 1936 with the official reason that there was such an upswing in traffic from the port that a new dedicated passenger terminal was needed. What however played in the background was that Mussolini had started to push for a merger of several Italian passenger liner companies’ in what eventually would become the Italia Line and later Finmare. In the thoughts of the Fascists, this also meant that the terminals from which the passenger liners would depart had to be big and impressive. This resulted in an indeed very impressive terminal here in Naples that can deal with up to 10 smaller passenger vessels. Nowadays as the ships are bigger there is normally room for a maximum of four.

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