The weather turned out better than expected and under dry skies we picked up the pilot at 05.00 hrs. and docked just before 07.00 in Stavanger. Today it was a busy day in port with four cruise ships in. Our good selves, the Costa Favolosa, the Costa Mediterranea and The Viking Sky (*). Being the smallest ship meant we went to the smallest dock but in this port that does not matter that much. The downtown docks of Stavanger which are now mainly used for the cruise ships are surrounded by the town and that means that downtown is nearby at all sides. If we dock at the official cruise terminal, then we are opposite the Maritime Museum and while we now are docked here, we are across from the Pub so both docks have its advantages. Luckily downtown Stavanger with is large park behind it is fairly spacious so it could easily absorb the approx. 8000 guests going ashore (Not to mention the about 3000 crew members. (*)) Continue reading
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Today we are at sea after leaving the Netherlands two hours late. Reason, the lock door of the Main Lock in Ijmuiden did not want to open. Amsterdam can only be reached by deep sea ships via Ijmuiden and then sail via the North Sea Canal to the various cargo berths of Amsterdam Port or all the way to downtown where the Passenger Terminal is located. Which is a great location as there are not many big ports where you dock a 5 minute walk from the downtown area. Also for joining and leaving the ship it is great as Central (Train) Station is also only 5 minutes away. And if there are a lot of Dutch guests on board you can see long lines of “cloggies” roiling their suitcase down the street from the train to the ship.
They have now built the walls of the new locks and have lifted a complete dredger into the lock pool to clear out all the mud inside. (Photo Courtesy: Dutch Government)
But the locks are another matter. They are expanding the locks to be the biggest in the world and it seems that the old one is a bit upset about that and starts giving sensor problems. And without electronic sensors nothing can work nowadays. Not even a set of locks that are already over a 100 years old (The first one is from 1876) and must have worked a long long time without any electric wizardly. The Prinsendam was delayed 2 hours inbound two weeks ago and now again two hours while outbound. If it has to happen then outbound is better, as inbound it might affect the dis-embarkation & flights of the guests going home. Outbound there is most of the time sufficient leeway in the schedule to catch up again. And in this schedule on the way to Stavanger we have plenty of time. Continue reading
Today we witnessed something totally new for Holland America; Entertainment employing a nautical person to make a cruise successful. And to ensure that this milestone was indeed taking place, yours truly joined the ms Prinsendam (II) today in Amsterdam from where she commenced her final voyage. This is a 14 day North Cape cruise, calling only at Norwegian ports, and the final port is Amsterdam. Then she will sail to Germany for handover in dry-dock and a large refit. Eventually she will emerge as the Amera for Phoenix Reisen. To make the investment by entertainment worth their while I have offered to do 5 lectures and the Entertainment Manager is trying to squeeze it all in. For the rest there will be the social stuff. I always say, it is great to be the Captain on the bridge, but it is not so bad either to be a Captain in the bar. And as a Norway cruise is an extremely busy one for a cruise ship captain, I have no problems to volunteer to take over the time he cannot be in the ship to entertain. So I stopped over at home to change my work uniform for formal wear so I can be presentable in accordance with the company’s dress code. Continue reading
At 23.00 hrs. we boarded the St. Lawrence River pilots at Escomins and then sailed up the river for a 06.00 hrs. approach to the port. For that we pick up a docking pilot about 3 miles away from Quebec port itself. We use a local docking pilot as he can talk to the linesmen for the rope configuration etc. once we come alongside. Not an un-necessary service as the local linesmen here belong to the most argumentive linesmen we have during our cruises anywhere. So when the ships want something, they do not always agree and that makes the port pilot very useful. On departure we do not have one, as letting go the lines does normally not result in too many heated exchanges. I speak a certain amount of French but not Quebecois but this morning on arrival I heard a few choice words which I have to try to remember as they might be very handy for the future. They sounded quite impressive but maybe not to be used in refined company. Continue reading
The weather is not in sync with our cruise. Why did we need to have all this wind yesterday and today we have a nearly wind still day. Strong winds at sea do not bother us but it does in a port. It would have been so much better the other way around. And then tomorrow when we are in port again, the wind is supposed to pick up. Making our life difficult again. But luckily Quebec has tugboats and it has a plan B, which Charlotte town did not have. If the wind is too strong in Quebec you simply continue the journey or initiate the blow away maneuver and have the ship pushed back to mid river by wind and current. The St. Laurence River is wide enough to do so without getting worried. But tomorrow should be no problem; either the winds are favorable or we use tugs. Continue reading
What we were afraid of last evening happened; the wind was very strong when we approached the pilot station. Gusts to 50 knots were observed when the frontal system reached the island. The question is then always: How to deal with it. If you already know that it is a no-go the night before then you can try a deviation to another port, stay in the same port or just sail directly to the next scheduled port. The last option is the easiest as it has the least impact on the ships operations, but it has quite an impact on the guests as they now miss a port. So we only do that if we think that there is absolutely no other option available. But that is seldom the case and that was also not the case today. Continue reading
Under a sunny sky we sailed into the fjord at which end Sydney is located. There was a chilly wind blowing but from a nautical point of view that is a good thing as it keeps the fog away. So the guests could see the whole approach and I think that most guests did as we had an official arrival time of 10.00 hrs. That meant a pilot boarding time of 08.00, arriving at the turning basin at 09.00 hrs. and then going astern to the dock with first lines ashore by 09.20 and 09.45 all fast. Guests could see it all during breakfast. We prefer to swing on arrival as it is always better to be pointing with the nose to open sea, so if the weather becomes inclement (read wind increase) then we can just race away. With nose in, you have to go slowly astern to the turning basin and then swing around before you can race to safety / open waters. We do sometimes dock nose in, if we have been delayed and want to save some time or if the Bo ‘sun wants to paint the portside; but only if the weather (read no wind increase during the day) is nice. Today the Bo ‘sun did not feel the urge to paint the portside and thus the Captain swung on arrival and docked starboard side to. Ready to get out. Continue reading
And we were lucky with the weather; the cooler temperature caused by a cool wind just kept the air/sea temperature in balance and we did not have any white clouds descending on the water and thus on the ship. Life is full of these little surprises and we cherish them if we get them. The run from Bar Harbor to Halifax is quite tight as far as the average speed is quite high so instead of putting the pedal to the metal and hoping that we will arrive on time, we arrive at the official arrival time of 09.00 hrs. something that in the old days, low cost fuel days, would have been 08.00 hrs. But to keep the time in port the same we also depart an hour later and thus the amount of quality time in Halifax remained the same.
Arrival in sunny Halifax. The Norwegian Dawn is just docking as we are approaching the dock behind her. She was coming from somewhere else but was clearly struggling to get alongside by 08.00 hrs. Whatever the schedules both ships docked under a sunny sky with very little wind and that gave a beautiful day. There have not been very many of them yet in Halifax so all the tourist guides, bus drivers and security personnel had an extra spring in their step and an extra wide smile on their face. It seemed that even the arrival bag piper was making more noise than normally. Continue reading
The summer is starting to gear up and we have now had a few nice days in a row. With us in Bar Harbor today were the Independence and American Constitution of American Cruise Lines and the Celebrity Summit of Celebrity cruises. The first two can carry 100 guests each and the Summit approx. 2200 with some bunk beds filled so altogether with us there were 3700 cruise guests that could have gone ashore to make the shop keepers happy. Even on a Sunday a total 3700 is not that many when compared to St. Thomas, St. Maarten or Nassau but for a small place as Bar Harbor it makes for a very busy day. The port has one very small dock and that should have been occupied by the American Constitution and thus the other one was at anchor next to us. I said should have been as later on we saw that ship also at anchor. Continue reading
With glorious weather we ended our cruise today. Most guests were up and about early and could see a beautiful sailing in, into Boston Harbor. Those who did not were most likely fully focused on their last breakfast on board. This being up and about this early on the last day of the cruise is something we call “channel fever” inside Holland America. It goes back to the Trans-Atlantic days when the day before Rotterdam, while sailing into the English Channel, everybody was up and about early for last minute packing, making final arrangements or just being too nervous to sleep in. Whatever floats their boat, most of the guests were out and about very early. Continue reading
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