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Captain Albert: 16 May 2009, Messina, Sicily, Italy

May 17, 2009 / Captain Albert / 0 Comments

Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

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.

Wind force 10. That is heavy, heavy storm. The wind meter gave a peak wind of 52 knots. This was going to be very interesting I thought. The pilot, who had just announced that he was going to retire in six months after 25 years on the job and thought he had seen it all, was slowly getting nervous. I had already ordered a tugboat for arrival to off-set the drifting of the stern that would be caused by the then predicted wind on the funnel and now the pilot was calling this tugboat every 5 minutes for a wind update. Luckily you can approach Messina to about 1.5 miles from the harbour entrance and still turn safely away. We call this the abort point and as long as I am not past such a point I am never unduly concerned. As long as there is a plan B, I am always willing to try something.

The wind in the port was about 25 to 30 knots, but full on the beam when docking, and that can be done but it can be marginal for the Prinsendam. The main problem here was that the dock is 220 meters long and the Prinsendam is 204 meters long and thus there would not be much room to play with. However some luck a man must have in life and while we were approaching the port entrance; and I was watching the distance to the abort point very closely, my plan B, the wind started to subside to fewer than 20 knots in the harbour. We were in business. At the entrance to Messina harbour is a large statue of Christ the Savior located at the end of the break water and the pilot spoke a few thank you words of relief while we were passing.

Captain Albert: 15 May 2008, At Sea

May 16, 2009 / Captain Albert / 0 Comments

Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

Today we were in transit to Naxos. Not the Greek island Naxos but the little town of Naxos/Gardina which gives access to Taormina with the Volcano Etna. This port is not much more than a Marina hidden behind a small breakwater in a wide curved bay. The bay is basically a dent in the coast line and fully open to the Ionian Sea. It is located about 40 miles south of the Messina Straits. This is a port that has only recently appeared on the Holland America Calendar and was a new port for the Prinsendam. In order to get there we had a fast run from Ibiza across the middle part of the Mediterranean to the Strait of Messina. The course line took us about 12 miles south of the island Sardegna and by late evening it ran north of Sicily for the approach to the Strait of Messina.

However during the day alarming emails started to arrive from the Naxos agent about very inclement weather expected in the Ionian Sea. That is the part of the Mediterranean directly south and east of the lower part of Italy and also to the east of Sicily. South Easterly wind was expected wind force 8 and that meant that waves would be rolling directly over the anchorage area and into Naxos bay. So I called the pilot and he estimated that the waves would reach a height of approximately 8 feet and that is much too much for a tender service.

However there was a dock available in Messina so we had the option to deviate. As Messina is basically located at the other side of the mountain range, it would be possible to divert not only the ship but also the tour busses to Messina and in that way minimize the impact of the decision. So by 1700, I decided that we would go to Messina. As we were going to pass this port anyway while sailing through the Strait of Messina, we could keep the same route and courses and that made the life of the navigator a lot easier.
Also as we now had about 40 miles less distance to travel, I could slow the ship down and that would make for an easier ride when these winds would start to blow. Although most of the wind was expected in the Ionian Sea, a wind force six was expected north of Sicily which could whip up the waves opposite to our travelling direction. With the reduced speed, the Prinsendam could ride the waves very steadily and was hardly moving during the evening and night.

15 May 2008, At Sea.

May 16, 2009 / Captain Albert / 1 Comment

14 May, Ibiza, Balearic Islands Spain.

May 15, 2009 / Captain Albert / 1 Comment

During the night the wind died down completely and apart from a low running swell, the sea was smooth. However in the tail of the weather front that generated all this wind was a certain amount of moisture, also called rain, which decided to deposit itself on Ibiza as soon as the Prinsendam was safely docked. You really do not relate Ibiza with rain, more with a sun soaked baking in the sun island, but today was not such a day. Thus: The rain in Spain did not stay on the plain as in the musical My Fair Lady but it did come down on Ibiza. Continue reading

Captain Albert: 13 May 2009, Almeria, Spain

May 15, 2009 / Captain Albert / 0 Comments

Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

The sea was as flat as a mirror when we approached the harbour entrance and it became a clear and dry day. Although the harbour basin is quite big, the authorities had decided that we should be parked at the East dock and that gave not that much room to swing the ship into the berth. But as the East dock is also the Eastern breakwater it was at least close to the entrance of the harbour and that saved timed. On advice of the pilot we docked stern in, as there was the expectation of wind in the afternoon and if you are then docked nose out it is all a bit easier. The East dock was just a short walk away from the boulevard and large enough to have buses and taxi’s come to the gangway. There was even a little sightseeing train that offered an hour tour of the city for 5 euro’s, so not bad at all.

Today one of my daily chores was a little bit more unusual. Welcoming new crew onboard the ship. Each new cruise, a number of the crew go on vacation and are replaced by new crew. However there is a difference between new crew and new, new crew.

With new, new crew we are talking about all of those who are either brand new to sailing or brand new to Holland America. As the ships culture is considerably different to shore side life, the company makes an extra effort to have these new members of the Club Prinsendam feel themselves at home as quickly as possible. They get a little welcome present and when they board there is a “buddy” waiting who takes the new one around and makes sure he/she knows how to get a good start in their new life. To make this welcome to a new world a bit more festive, we throw a welcome on board luncheon for all of them. Here they meet their, also new, fellow crew members and also the ships staff. This is normally done once a month when we have a sufficient number to make it a nice occasion.

13 May 2009, Almeria, Spain.

May 14, 2009 / Captain Albert / 1 Comment

The sea was as flat as a mirror when we approached the harbour entrance and it beame a clear and dry day. Although the harbour basin is quite big, the authorities had decided that we should be parked at the East dock and that gave not that much room to swing the ship into the berth. But as the East dock is also the Eastern breakwater it was at least close to the entrance of the harbour and that saved timed. On advice of the pilot we docked stern in, as there was the expectation of wind in the afternoon and if you are then docked nose out it is all a bit easier. The East dock was just a short walk away from the boulevard and large enough to have buses and taxi’s come to the gangway. There was even a little sightseeing train that offered an hour tour of the city for 5 euro’s, so not bad at all. Continue reading

Captain Albert: 12 May 2009, Cadiz, Spain

May 14, 2009 / Captain Albert / 0 Comments

Captain Albert Schoonderbeek

During the night the wind got less and less and by the time we approached the pilot station it was calm. The swells were still running but as the port is inside a shallow bay, the swell is stopped by a long breakwater and inside it was as flat as a mirror. The weather forecast for the day was uncertain but in the end it was bright with sunshine all day. The approach to the harbour is very peculiar as the green buoys on the right hand side are located well inside the reefs and the reef buoys on the port side when going in, are over in the fairway. So if you would hug the green buoys when going in, what you normally do, then you would be aground almost at once. So when going in and when going out you have to favor the red side of the channel. That means that Port Control keeps an eagle eye on all the ships going through the channel as you do not want to create collisions with this peculiar setup.

Staying on the red side makes sense as the turn into the harbour basin is almost 90 degrees, so the wider the turn you can make, the easier it is. The piers are named after Spanish Royalty and so we had the Princessa Sophia pier and the Alfonso XIII to name but two. We were docking at the latter one and it is almost the closest berth to the town. Almost; as we had to leave some dock space for a local ferry that was arriving later in the day. The beginning of the pier is a container terminal but when there are more cruise ships scheduled for the day, they delay the cargo traffic to accommodate the cruise ships. We were however the only one and thus there was not much of an issue about where were going to dock and about taking a berth away from a cargo ship.

Apart from being a cruise and container port, Cadiz is also very important as a ferry port with daily departures to the Canary Islands. During the winter time it is mainly cargo traffic that is being ferried over but during the summer time the ferries are full every day with tourists. Especially Tenerife gets a lot of car traffic in the form of SUV’s and Campers from the Northern parts of Europe. At the moment the season has not started yet and so we only saw lorries with containers driving on (Roll-on) and driving off (Roll –off)

12 May 2009, Cadiz, Spain.

May 13, 2009 / Captain Albert / 1 Comment

11 May 2009, Portimao, Portugal (almost)

May 12, 2009 / Captain Albert / 4 Comments

Well the wind did not die off and the frontal system did not diffuse or move away. Instead the flow around Cabot San Vincent only got stronger and whipped up a nice South Westerly swell. What made things worse was that the wind shifted about 2 points more to the South and was thus running in line with the approach course to Portimao. Approaching with the swell in the stern is never pleasant because when you start slowing down the swells tend to overtake the ship and then it feels as if you get a kick in the……. every few minutes when a wave hits the underside of the stern. However it turned out that that was the least of my troubles. Continue reading

10 May 2009, Lisbon, Portugal.

May 11, 2009 / Captain Albert / 1 Comment

As mentioned yesterday we arrived with glorious sunshine but an hour later dark clouds started to gather on the horizon. That had not been planned at all in the forecast. However the weather does not always follow the predictions. The weather front that created the overcast weather before we arrived in Lisbon, stalled and tilted a little bit instead of moving north and deposited a rather large amount of rain over Lisbon in the course of the afternoon of the first day. Then it remained drizzly during our over overnight stay. Only today the weather started to improve with sunny periods. Continue reading