We woke up to a very sunny but very chilly Turkish morning. The wind was blowing from the North and as it is still winter in Russia, it caused a chilly day in Istanbul. But cold winds keep the air clear and thus we had the best scenery you could think of.  Although our location might not have been that great in relation to getting off the ship, it could not be beaten for the view. We literally had the best seats in the house.

For those who were going ashore, there was a small shuttle bus between the ship and the terminal and on the other side of immigration, there was another shuttle bus running everybody into town.  Behind us, one by one the cruise ships left and by the time we sailed only the MSC Opera was still there as she had a two night stay. Using the system of one day in port for the guests who were leaving, then a changeover day and then a day in port for the new guests.  We pulled out at 17.00 hrs. to sail north through the Bosporus. As tomorrow we are in Constanta, Romania from 0800 to 2100 hrs.

Sailing at 17.00 hrs. we could do the whole scenic part of the Bosporus during day light. It is fascinating as during a night passage as well but then you only see the fancy lights but no details.  During daylight there are almost too many details to keep track of it all.  Although most guests do not see and realize it, arriving and departing is an exciting adventure in Istanbul.  The current running through the Bosporus can be quite strong. 3 to 4 knots is usual but it can go up to 7 or 8 knots. Especially in areas where the Bosporus is shallow.  As the Salispizari cruise docks are located in the ebbing bend of the Bosporus (e.g. when the water from the Black Sea goes South it makes a wide turn to the West to get around the corner) the current dictates how a ship docks. Yesterday we were lucky that it was flooding and thus we could dock with the nose towards the city.

A little help from a friend does not do anybody any harm.

Today on departure it was ebbing and that meant that the current helped us coming off the dock as the water wedged itself in between the dock and the ship but then the ship had to force it around to face north. To play it safe we had a tugboat hanging on the stern to ensure that the ship would come around fast enough to avoid been pushed towards the City. As Holland America has no intentions of opening a Hotel there, the preference is to keep the ship in deep water. 

The Turkish National Yacht ms Savarona. Once bought as a gift to the founder of modern Turkey Kemal AtaTurk.

Then it takes about 2 hours to navigate the winding path of the Bosporus until we enter the Black Sea. With a strong ebb coming down, the ships going north keep close to the Asian side of the channel avoiding most of that current. We could not do that all the time as we had to overtake several cargo ships and that meant veering out into the vortex of the current.

The Sultan Mehmet Bridge with in front of it Romelian Castle.

The most spectacular parts are the two turns in the channel. First to the west while going under the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and shortly after a sharp turn to the East.

The Prinsendam turning to the West to get around the corner.

In both cases you cannot see the traffic which is coming the other way and because of that the tankers going up and down are not allowed to have any opposing traffic. A normal collision is not nice, an environmental disaster here would be even worse.

Turn to the right in the Electronic chart

There is also Traffic Control on the shore side which monitors every move of everything which floats. As not every ship is manned with professionals and occasionally very creative moments of navigation can be seen, the people at Traffic Control are kept busy all day long.

Turn to the right as seen from the bridge window.

 By 19.00 hrs. we were back in open waters and could say good bye to our Pilot. As the Bosporus is a very busy waterway and challenging with its currents, a pilot is compulsory. Together with this VTS (Vessel Traffic Control) the Bosporus can be navigated in a safe way.

Tomorrow we are in Constanta, Romania for a full day. We have a few Romanian crew members on board and they are very excited as it is not often that a HAL ship is calling here. With these sorts of visits the ship tries to work it in such a way that those crew members have the whole day off to go home, or get “home” on board. Subsequently I rescheduled some of my trainings and that always makes people happy.

And then we had a bit of excitement after departure. A small cargo vessel had caught fire and thus the Prinsendam went to the rescue. Luckily by the time we arrived the fire had been extinguished by the crew and thus the only function the ship had to perform was to coordinate a salvage tug with the local authorities.

Unknown Cargo Vessel that caught fire outside Kusadasi. (Photo Courtesy Captain Tim Roberts)

This was not so simple because when the fire started the cargo ship was in Greek Waters. So the Bridge called the Greek authorities using a Greek 2^nd officer who we have on board. While this conversation was going on the little ship drifted into Turkish Waters and the Greeks did not want to know anymore. Thus a casino employee was called to the bridge and then she could tell the Turkish locals that it was time for them to do something.  So after a 45 minute delay we were on our way again.

The ship had put on a special Holland America Line dinner by using a menu from the ss Rotterdam from the early sixties. In those days most of the entries were described in French and thus we had that tonight. It was quite interesting to hear the Indonesian Crew taking and repeating the orders in French. Most of them did not, so chicken soup remained chicken soup however hard I tried to get them say: Bouillon de petite Marmite.

Most of the Monuments are located in the area marked yellow on this chartlet.

The weather for today had looked a bit iffy to say the least but on arrival in the Dardanelles it was dry and the sun rose as scheduled, so the guests had a good look from 06.00 hrs. onwards. We in the Western world tend to think of the casualties sustained by the Allied Forces but the other side suffered as much, maybe even worse and for that side there are memorials as well.

One of the Turkish Monuments laid out against the hill side.

One of them we passed around 0700 hrs.  Luckily most sights are on the left bank when going north and thus the sun shone the right way.

By 08.30 the ship was in the Sea of Marmara heading full speed for Istanbul. We were unlucky in that way, that the wind and the rain started to come over and we kept that until arrival this afternoon at 16.00 hrs.  Due to the cargo ship, the wind and the adverse current, the plans of arriving earlier did not bear fruit. But we still arrived on time.

Still nobody had to be outside as yours truly took to the stage to bring 142 years of HAL history in 80 minutes. Everybody stayed but whether this was due to my eloquence or the fact that there was Holland America Cake to be served at the end of it the lecture, is very much open to debate.

Going  by the schedules on line and what transpired from shore side it looked like that we were the only cruise ship in and so it did not make sense that we were sent to a farther out located dock. Not that I minded as I remembered that this dock would put us with the nose looking right at the old city and nothing to hinder our view. And this was indeed the case. While coming in, there were already four cruise ships alongside and we went for the final dock, which is almost on top of the bridge leading into the old city.  Nice to have a drink in the crow’s nest while admiring the skyline of Istanbul. The only thing is, it is a bit of a distance away from the Cruise Terminal and the check in location.

As soon as we arrived disembarkation started for those who had flights booked for the coming night.  Then we are already expecting new guests to board in the course of the evening so it will be a busy evening for the Hotel Department.

My wife is leaving tomorrow and thus we have planned a little farewell dinner in the Canaletto Restaurant on board overlooking the Bosporus. Tomorrow the ship will spend a full day in Istanbul and the weather is supposed to clear going for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 60’s.

We arrived very nice and very early in Kusadasi, Turkey. Early because of the tours to Ephesus and nice because it was yet another glorious day of sunny but not too warm weather. The people on the tour to Ephesus were lucky as we were the only ship in as such and thus it was a lot less crowded than it could have been. When the cruise ship season is in full swing here, there can be 7 or 8 cruise ships in port with an estimated 16,000 guests ashore of which at least 3,000 go to Ephesus. Today only us and only about 150 culturally inclined souls made the trip.  

Next to us was another cruise ship belonging to Lois Cruise Lines and to my utter amazement it was the old Song of America. Now it is employed on 3 and 4 day cruises from Limassol and they do 2 ports a day. This means every stop is about 4 hours.  Cheap Cruises in the style of roll your own luggage on board and that is what we saw happening today. Kusadasi was a sort of embarkation port and we saw groups coming on board pulling their suitcases.  The ship was in by 0600 and was gone again by 13.00 hrs. and I believe they were going for Patmos with a 15.00 hrs. arrival.

Most of our guests have been to Kusadasi so their focus was on shopping. Kusadasi offers good prices for leather and jewelry as long as you know what the prices should be and you can haggle the prices down.

One of Kusadasi’s many shopping streets.

My roving reporter was going for a walk about and promised to shoot some scenic photos of Kusadasi.  Thus please have a look at her favorite leather shop calledB Dennys (with stores in Ireland, Russia, Romania, Tirol and Belgium) Lesley bought me a short black leather Jacket and herself a medium length cream leather coat.

Leather Galore.

With Bargaining skills honed by long years of experience she got at least 50% of the asking price for both so my Dutch mind was put at ease; we did not pay too much.

I did not mind spending money as having a birthday is a good excuse. Not my birthday but the company’s birthday. Today Holland America is 142 years young. It is being celebrated with a special dinner as was served a long time ago on the old ss Rotterdam and tomorrow with my History Lecture in the Showroom At Sea. The Hotel Director has promised everybody a piece of Birthday cake and thus we could have a very Full House. As the ship is not completely full we have at least the chance to get everybody in if they want to. There is a segment change over in Istanbul with more guests coming than leaving and then we will have a real full house, while the ship sails from Istanbul to Civitavecchia.

Our arrival tomorrow in Istanbul is between 2 and 4 pm. The captain is trying to get in a bit earlier to help with the ships clearance and give those who are leaving still a chance to see a little bit of Istanbul before they fly home. If that works will depend on how the voyage progresses between the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. Our official arrival time is 1600 hrs. so if we make it earlier than that it will be an appreciated bonus.

Tomorrow we have two scenic moments. First at sunrise we will sail through the Dardanelles at Cenekale. Then if the sun rises in a clear sky then its rays should give a stunning view of the Monuments on the West Bank.  Then we continue and by 1 pm. we hope to enter the south end of the Bosporus and have our scenic arrival by sailing past the Tokapi Palace and the Agia Sophia all located on the European side of Istanbul, which will be on the port side of the ship. The new part of Istanbul will be clearly visible on our starboard side. With the early afternoon sail in, the sun should be on our stern and thus both sides of Istanbul should not be in the glare of the sun.

Then the ship will stay overnight and sail at 17.00 hrs. on the 20^th. The weather forecast is a mixed bag with rain in the morning and partly cloudy skies later on.

We had a scheduled arrival today of 10 am and that also gave the not-so-early risers the chance to see the ship coming into port. Bodrum is located in a curve of the land at the end of a very wide inlet. I call it a curve as it is really too wide to be called a bay. In 2010 they constructed a pier long enough to take two 1000 ft. ships and that is where we docked. We were the only ship in, as the real cruise ship season has not yet started.

Prinsendam as seen from a cafe on the sea front near the Castle.

Also the Holiday Makers are not there yet. It is still too chilly to bake on the beach and for most Europeans it is still too early for a vacation.  Come back in 4 weeks’ time; and Bodrum will be buzzing. But today the guests had the whole area virtually to themselves.

When coming in, there is one building which dominates the area and draws all attention; Bodrum Castle or St. Peters Castle. A Roman Catholic name as it is a left over from the days of the Knights of St. John who had a base here since the Middle Ages. The current building was constructed from 1402 onwards and was modified several times to deal with threats by Muslim Forces and impact of gunpowder. The Castle was built as a strong hold to complement the Knight Templars hold on Kos, a Greek Island not too far away. Most of the material for the Castle came from the Mausoleum of Mausollos. With every expansion and strengthening of the building more material was “borrowed” until hardly anything remained of the Mausoleum. The Castle is in such a good condition as it never saw real warfare. It was handed over to the Ottoman Empire when the Knight Templars lost their stronghold on Kos.  Now it is a museum for underwater archeology and a very famous one as well, with a very nice layout. Mausollos was a Satrap in the Persian Empire and when he died his wife built a tomb for him so magnificent that we still use the word Mausoleum to indicate a magnificent or important place where people are put to rest.

Nice and quiet Bodrum.

Our roving reporter was not on tour today as Bodrum and tomorrow Kusidasi have been reserved for looking at the shops. Looking only, which resulted in buying today, yet another handbag. (Number 183 if my count is right, although Lesley claims it is only 41) Turkey is a great place for leather with great prices as well and that is something that has to be taken advantage of.

For the rest Bodrum is a very much a tourist area which came into vogue when the Europeans wanted something different than the SE & South coast of Spain. As a result the area is very popular for package holidays combining cheap flights, cheap hotels and lots of party options. But today it was still quiet and the guests could enjoy a peaceful quiet town. The dock is located about 20 minutes from the downtown area and the ship lay on shuttle buses to accomplish this. For those of course who were not on tour. Yesterday we left a group of guests behind who went on the overnight tour so they could visit Pamukkale and Cappadocia.

Pamukkale is known for its hot springs and the deposits generated by those springs are very colorful and beautiful to look at. The tours to Cappadocia focus on the area of the underground city. Multi levels of underground chambers were cut out of the rock and if I am not mistaken they are still finding more and more. Why the elaborate digs were done in the first place is still a partial mystery as the total size goes far beyond of what would make sense as temporary shelter from invaders and others.

My day was spent on training again and one of the groups was the Laundry Team. Since the introduction of the 3 alarm system, the laundry guys are responsible for clearing the decks of deck chairs and anything else that might be in the way, before the guests arrive on deck.  I love working with them, as they are eager, on the ball and very disciplined. When you make a cruise next time, have a look near the bow area of the Deck where you assemble for the Boat drill before departure. You will see the boys in blue waiting for further orders after they have completed the first clearance.

We sailed almost an hour late as we had to wait for the return of the overland tours. We will still be on time in Kusidasi as the distances here along the coast are not that big. The sunny weather and not too warm temperatures are set to continue so we should have another glorious day to enjoy.

At the moment the weather is holding and on a mirror flat sea the ms Prinsendam entered the port of Antalya. Looking at it the port with the eye of a sailor it comes over a bit strange in comparison with other ports. First of all it is pristine in its cleanliness. Not just the cruise terminal but also the cargo berths. I was used to that for Kusidasi but that is mostly a Cruise port only. Today we saw large bulk carriers docked here and it is still spotless, while they can be quite messy while loading or unloading. Turkish Harbormasters must be very fastidious.

A port overview from the Electronic Chart. The Prinsendam is on the angled dock to the mid left.

The port is sort of L to U shaped with a breakwater protecting the U. To the west there is a large marina, in the middle the cruise terminal and to the East regular cargo docks and this time they were mainly occupied with bulkcarriers. The port has a Free Zone which means visiting ships can purchase stores and provisions tax free.  Antalya always used to be a small town but has in the last decades it has grown to over a million people in the greater Municipal.

This makes Antalya a town of two faces. The old town with the port and then on the far side on the top of the hills a white city with apartment blocks where the majority of the locals live. The two seem to be fairly well separated as the old town area which is not exactly busy with locals. So the new world must remain more or less at the new world side.

Hadrians Gate survived for nearly 2000 years, the end parts still in good shape but the middle has been reconstructed.

However we called here basically to see all the old stuff. And there is a lot of it and some of it survived very well through the ages. Our roving reporter was today on the city tour which included a visit to the local museum and a walk through the old town.  Most prominent item in the old town is Hadrian’s Gate. Erected after 137 AD when he came to visit. He must have instigated quite a few buildings and other construction throughout the realm as on the opposite side of the Roman Empire, in Britannia, he had Hadrian’s Wall built to keep the Scottish out although in that period they were still called Celts. If things go the way the Scottish want it at the moment, Hadrian’s Wall might be resurrected again in the near future if Scotland would go independent.

Romans did all sorts of good and bad things but nobody can accuse them of not focusing on cultural things and through the ages a lot of it has been excavated.

Emperor Hadrian. In the days before newspapers and photos, I suppose the only way to show what the big boss looked like was to put up a statue in the most prominent towns of the Empire

The nicest finds have been brought together in the local museum and our friend Hadrian is there again as well.

An open air “Back Gammon” table.

What intrigued most of the visitors was the Roman Backgammon table (or a similar ancient game played in the same way) made out of a sort of concrete. (This was also a Roman invention). The town was very much appreciated by the guests and that normally means it will come back on the schedule.  For Antalya the challenge is that the port is not so big as far as maneuvering space is concerned.  An S class or R class is not an issue, a Vista might work but anything bigger will be a challenge. Thus I do not expect the real big boys to come in.

On departure the Prinsendam churned up a lot of silt while leaving from the dock and silt indicates clearly: deeper drafted ships will face a challenge. Most of the very large cruise ships do not have that deep a draft, they solved the challenge by going for a broader beam but they still draw about 5 or 6 feet more than the Prinsendam.

Tomorrow we will visit the 2^nd Turkish port on our cruise along the coast and that is Bodrum. We will arrive at 10 am in the morning and dock at the new pier which can take cruise ships of any size.  The Prinsendam with yours truly on board inaugurated that pier in 2010 when it was still under construction. Before that time we used to anchor and ran a tender service straight into town. Now we are way out of town but the company will run a shuttle bus service all day, so the result is the same. We will get everybody in an easy way to downtown.

Weather for tomorrow: Sunny, with a gentle breeze and noon time temperatures hovering around the 21oC or 71oF.

(All photos courtesy of Roving Reporter Lesley)

After a successful call at Israel we sailed away last night from Haifa heading towards Turkey. To reach our next port of call, Antalya, we are spending a day at sea and pass the South West side of Cyprus. As a matter of fact we could see Cyprus on our starboard side for most of the afternoon at a distance of about 12 nautical miles. If all goes well we will arrive at Antalya at 8 am tomorrow morning. Antalya is historic town located on the south coast of Turkey.   The area which is now Turkey was for most of its history a battleground between various empires and the results are still very visible today. This means that Museums and Ruins are an important part of most of the tours which our guests can take.

Nothing has really changed to the current day as the Middle East continues to rumble on with Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. I wonder if 2000 years from now mankind will gaze at artifacts left behind by our period of time in the same way as we are doing now. History is being written every day and the nice thing is with a cruise, we can sail from location to location to have a look at what was written in the past.

In the meantime life on board goes on and the guests are all recuperating from two intensive days in Israel. When I went for breakfast this morning at 06.30 I was the only one there for a while, a new experience as we have quite a few early risers on board. Normally the Gym is already active by 0600. But this morning it was me and two cooks in the Lido who greeted a beautiful sunny day at sea.

My task today was to create mayhem in the ship and then to give the ship’s crew the chance to get things under control again.  The law requires every ship to conduct a fire drill once a week on top of whatever training that might take place to retain the proficiency of the crew. With my rather unique position within Holland America I have the chance to get everybody running, from the Captain down to the Laundry, by throwing drills which are based on my own and others experiences — on what went wrong in the past and what improvement we made then —.

The biggest challenge is most of the time not the act of extinguishing the fire itself. We all get training for that. The biggest challenge is the need for a very fast reaction to an occurrence, to keep oversight, and to stick to protocols (which the company developed through the years) all the way to the end of an evolution. We have about 50 people going during a regular fire drill, all willing and eager, but if they all do their own thing than the end result might be the opposite of what they were trying to achieve.

By far the biggest challenge is an Engine Room fire. One of the reasons is: there is a lot of stuff down there that burns. Another reason: it burns a lot easier as the average temperature of the area is already higher. A fire needs heat to burn as well as a fuel source and oxygen and a higher temperature makes ignition easier. Then there is the imminent danger of the fire affecting the main and aux. engines and then the lights go out and nothing works anymore. The Emergency Generator will come on line but this engine only provides the most basic power needed to save everybody’s lives on board.

So today we exercised a “losing battle” scenario. Everything was failing step by step. We put the oil separator room on fire; it burnt through into the Main Switch Board and it burnt through into the Main Engine Room. Thus we had to simulate releasing CO2 to extinguish the fire in that big Main Engine Room space and that meant a total loss of all power; and not being able to regain power again for a prolonged period. Why do we do these sorts of drills? We try to fight the fire but while we want to save the ship we do not want to lose anybody. So at all times the focus is on safe procedures, the proper coordination of all the teams and the making of timely decisions to ensure that if we have to leave the ship, everybody can do so safely. The company can always buy a new ship; you cannot buy a new life.

In real life such an evolution would nearly take a day, during a drill we can compact it into an hour. After completion we held a debriefing which lasted almost as long as the actual drill. The whole drill was reviewed step by step with everybody getting the chance to explain what they did. Learning the lessons provided by the drill. Then we can apply them during the next drill to ensure that everybody reaches an even higher level of proficiency in a skill which we hope that we never have to use.

Would it really come that far in a real life situation? I doubt it as all these spaces have individual fixed firefighting protection systems which would normally drench out any starting fire before it would be become a challenge.

I was very happy today. All involved followed the scenario, everybody followed the protocols and the coordination was great; if the ship would burn out, everybody on board would have been kept safe. In a week from now we will have our next drill and then we are going to see what happens when individual teams face individual obstacles and how they will overcome them.

With calm seas and a rising sun in a cloudless sky the Prinsendam sailed into Haifa. Ahead of us was the Seabourn Sojourn who had left last night before us. The Thomson Spirit had a change of plan so instead of going with us to Haifa they stayed the night in Ashdod. I assume it was for the evening tours as going out in the evening by one’s self is quite a costly affair in Israel. Today our Roving Reporter had to pay close to 4 Euro’s for a ………….very small……………. Ice cream. I wonder how much a glass of beer costs.

Again Haifa is the focus for more tours and again the ship emptied out and all work on board could be done by a skeleton crew. So the Lido operated with only one side open, the dining room was closed for lunch and for the rest not much happened anywhere. The dock at Haifa is easier to negotiate than in Ashdod. There our guests had to take a shuttle bus to the nearest shopping mall and go from there. In Haifa you can just walk out of the gate (Read: cruise terminal under construction) and most of the town is walkable. Also the train station is right across from the terminal and it is 15 minutes by train to Tel Aviv. Plenty of easy to do options.

Baha’i Hanging Gardens. The bow of the Prinsendam can just be seen in the top right hand side.

For the avid walker you can do most of the sights by foot but you have to be agile as Haifa is constructed against a hill and it goes up quite steeply. Against that hill are the Baha’i Hanging Gardens are located which form a major attraction for the locals and for the tourists. Thus nearly every tour stops or passes by there for a good look and photo shoot.

All seats in a row and no trace of partitions. Going to the loo in Roman Days must have been a social affair.

Today the tour of our roving reporter went to Caesarea. Once the Capital when the area was under Roman control. This was around 0 AD or 0 BC. Most of it was constructed during the period of Herod the Great who dedicated the city to Caesar Augustus. Thus the area is littered with ruins and some of them have been rebuilt a little bit. This includes the theatre which is used for performances and Herod’s palace where the Royal Toilets are on prominent display.  For those who have little or not enough imagination the visitors center offers a multimedia presentation and a chance to do a Q & A with virtual figures from the past. So you could ask (push button) a standard question and a hologram figure will answer the question. Unfortunately Lesley could not ask how many people went to the Royal Toilet at the same time. There was no standard question covering that one.

Apart from the half day local tours in Ashdod, Caesarea and the day long tours to Jerusalem & Bethlehem there was also the option of overnight tours. Being in the same country and the two ports being very closely together gave the option to do a two day tour to Petra and to Masada.  Both are located in the far south of Israel (Petra is just over the border in Jordan) but the country is not so big that it causes difficulty to get there by Bus. Those tours left in the early morning yesterday and came back today late afternoon.

Tomorrow there is a sea day and then we start exploring Turkey. First port is Antalya followed by Bodrum, followed by Kusidasi, followed by Istanbul. In the latter port we stay two days as it is a partial change over port where some or our guests, who only booked a segment of the cruise, will leave or join. From there the ship will then start its last leg of this Grand Mediterranean Voyage visiting Greece and Italy. This year the cruise ends in Civittavecchia (for Rome) but next year it is a complete loop cruise again beginning and ending in Ft. Lauderdale.

According to the Weather Guru’s we are supposed to keep this calm and sunny weather for a few days and if the wind does not turn to the North, then it might get steadily warmer.

I will be throwing one of my specials at the ship tomorrow; An engine fire drill in which we simulate that the whole ship loses power………………. what to do about it and how to deal with it.

During the night we approached Israel and this kept the dog shift on the bridge fully occupied. Israel has a sort of layered security system which means you have to call in every step of the way and you might be called in between your compulsory calls as well. 100 miles (never works very well as it is too far for the VHF to reach) 25 miles, 12 miles and then again near the pilot station.   Then you see fast moving blips on the Radar screen which are torpedo boats or similar moving around without having any navigation or other lights visible. Occasionally you see even a submarine popping up although the dog shift did not see any this time.

So plenty of security around from the shore side and of course the ship did not stay behind. In principle, the flag state or the visiting state decides the level of security. This is called the MARSEC level. There are three levels. I = normal; where we only follow the regular requirements.  II = heightened. Now there are extra patrols on the ship, spot checks and restrictions on visitors. III = Maximize all security measures possible. This means no visitors, no loading of any kind, under water inspections etc. etc. basically now we do everything that can be done with whatever we have available on board. If a home port would ever go to level III than we could not call there to embark/disembark guests so raising a security level can have grave implications. Tunisia went to level III after the recent attacks on the museum and thus no cruise ship is calling there at the moment. Only when the MARSEC level is lowered again might the cruise companies be tempted to return. I did not see our Security Officer walking around with a helmet on this morning so I assume that HAL did not dictate that much of an increase. Israel is already doing more than enough.

Jaffa Old Town

The tour to Jaffa was partly by Bus and then on foot through the little old town. Jaffa turned out to be a delightful old town with little shops and artist’s studio’s…………… and a flying Orange Tree. In Europe Jaffa is very well known as a Brand under which oranges are sold.  Somehow as the oranges were exported from here, the name got stuck to it. Basically Jaffa’s prosperity is largely due to the orange. Otherwise it still might have been a sleepy fishing village. To commemorate this they have this “hovering in the air” Orange Tree. A pot / container hanging in the air. Suspended from three strong wires and in it is a real life Orange Tree which bears fruit as well. The significance of having the Orange Tree hanging in the air escapes me a little bit but it is certainly original.

To commemorate it they have this “hovering in the air” Orange Tree. A pot / container hanging in the air. Suspended from three strong wires and in it is a real life Orange Tree which bears fruit as well. The significance of having the Orange Tree hanging in the air escapes me a little bit but it is certainly original.

Flying Orange ???? Why Not

I stayed on board but had the chance to look at the Thomson Spirit, ex Nieuw Amsterdam, the first ship I was captain on in 1999. Then I sailed her out as Staff Captain after the Olympic Games in Sydney and stayed with her when she was sold to the American United States Lines as the Patriot.

Unfortunately that project did not work out and 9 months later I was back on board to prepare her for hand over to the Greeks from whom Thomson Cruises is now chartering the ship. She looked very good from the outside and I saw they had even added balcony’s to the Suites on deck 10 behind the Crows nest. Visiting was not really possible as port security was a real challenge to deal with.

The Prinsendam is staying until 23.00 hrs. Haifa is just around the corner at no distance away and as you never know if and how long the tours to Jerusalem and Bethlehem might be delayed in returning it is better to build in some extra time, just for the case of.

So tomorrow we are in Haifa and the weather is predicted to be sunny and warm with temperatures around 70F or 21 oC. This time I tend to agree with that prediction as the wind has been dying down during the course of the day and a frontal system with a band of rain is supposed to pass by this evening.  The weather today was more in less with the pessimistic option I offered yesterday. It remained very breezy during the day and that kept the temperatures down.

During the night the strong winds slowly abated and by day time the Ionian Sea had reduced itself from being a Tempestuous to just a wobbly sea. Wind force 7 – 8 down to 5 on the Beaufort scale. It still feels breezy around the ship as it also making some wind by itself.

The route is taking us on a South Easterly course towards Ashdod our next port of call.  That means that around 5 pm we will be between Cyprus and Egypt, although closer to Egypt than to Crete. Then we will aim for a 0600 hrs. arrival at the pilot station for a 0700 docking. Our official arrival time is 0800 hrs. but the Captain has decided to arrive earlier to help out with the immigration procedures as the Israeli Authorities want to see everybody on board in person. Both Guests and Crew.

Due to the local situation the pre arrival procedures are very extensive and the administration department has been very busy the last few days to get all the paper work faxed and pre-approved. A process which started after Barcelona and then kept going on with guests coming and going in the ports since then and the same for crew of course. Then there are always questions about what is being submitted and how it is submitted, European date writing against American, and it all kept the paper work people of the Pursers department happily occupied, although happily  might not be the right word.  Luckily once the initial immigration hurdle has been passed, the other port visits are normally a little bit easier. Thus Haifa, for the day after tomorrow, should have less checks and easier going on and off procedures.

For Ashdod and Haifa we are really there for the various tours to the Biblical places. Shopping is not very high on the Agenda to put it gently. Apart from nearly all the guests going on tour (last year we only had 4 guests left on board during the Ashdod call) also as many crew as possible will get the chance to go to Jerusalem. We are running a Christian tour to the holy city and a Muslim tour. The funny thing is that there is not much of a difference between the two tours. Only when it comes to the Temple Mountain the Christian tour goes to the Wailing Wall side and the Muslim tour goes to the Mosque side.  So tomorrow the Christian buses will be full of Philippino’s and the Muslim buses will be full of Indonesians. But knowing them, they will all end up in the same restaurant for lunch, as both groups like the same  food and through the years we have found a restaurant which delivers to all tastes and religions..

As we now have the experience that in Ashdod not many guests remain on board, the Hotel Director is also quite comfortable with letting a greater number of cooks go out for the day. It is always hard for the kitchen department to get away for a whole day as the service must go on. But cooking for only a few can be done by a skeleton crew and if needed I can always help out. There is nobody more proficient on board when it comes to the professional operation of a microwave. I can even cook eggs in it, sunny side up. (As long as they have this special Tupperware gadget on board…………..)

So the whole ship is looking forward to Israel for the coming two days. Lots of history, lots of emotion and hopefully very little immigration fuss. Weather forecast for tomorrow is a bit of a guess. Looking positively at the weather forecast will mean it is going to be sunny with temperatures around the 70’s. (20oC)  if you see it negatively there might be early morning fog and a chilly day of 58o F or 14oC.

We will see, we are supposed to be in port together with the Thomson Spirit which is the old Nieuw Amsterdam of Holland America Line and my first ship as captain back in 1999. And that is something for me to look forward to.

During the night it was rather breezy, to use an understatement, with a few moments of storm force winds blowing around the ship.  That translated into a very windy arrival as well. However Iraklion has the wind either straight from the North (Etesian winds) or straight from the South (Sahara winds) and thus the docks are lined up North to South to make the docking as easy as possible. As long as you can make the swing safely in the port, from an East/West heading to a North/South one, as the docks are perpendicular onto the entrance of the port, you are in good shape. When you get the nose or the stern into the wind then the ship does not drift anymore and you can park easily and safely alongside the dock.

On occasion the swell broke over the breakwater.

And so we did. But as the dock space was fully open to these Northerly winds barreling in, our guests had a challenge to walk to the Gate. Security did not allow any taxi’s on the dock and there weren’t any golf carts or other mobiles to help with transport. I was able to observe the interesting phenomena of ———-Rollator Against the Wind———-. I felt sorry for the guests but on the other hand, this would have figured greatly in a Marx Brothers movie.

I also had to lean against the wind pulling a suitcase as my Lord and Master descended today on the ship and she will be sailing with me until Istanbul 9 days from now. We have our objectives nicely divided, she goes sightseeing and shopping and I go to work.

Wind or no wind, Tai-Chi will continue………… every morning.

That work took me today by starting to walking around the ship checking where my help can be utilized the best. Normally I take care of a mixture of training, providing training materials and updating procedures. This time an inspection element has been added to it to assist the captain. The Prinsendam is an older ship and as a result has a number of challenges with the way it has to comply with all the rules and regulations. Not that the ship does not comply, it does of course, but as it is an older ship, we have to use a different approach to reach the same result.

Hereby it helps that I am myself from an older era. I went through the ranks when the Prinsendam was built as the Royal Viking Sun in 1988, so old rules make sense to me, much more than to somebody who just starts out. Having a continuous career also means that the upgrading of the rules through the years to the current day is easier to understand.

Thus today was clipboard day and with a General Master Key in hand I went nosing around. I first look at all the hardware (the ship) and after I have met most of the crew for training, I will look at the software (the crew). The two need each other to deliver the complete Holland America Line package for a safe and luxurious cruise.

Crete was a windy but sunny call today and as the winds were from the North it might have been chilly but at least there was no sand in the air. The Sahara winds from the South bring in lots of brown sand and that gives maybe a much warmer day but also a much stuffier day. I do not know if sand affects Asthma sufferers, I know that pollen and traffic pollution does, but I always feel as if I am constantly munching on grit when I am in the Greek islands and the winds are from the South.

We left at 5 pm. and are now having a slightly wobbly ride towards Ashdod in Israel where we will be the day after tomorrow. While heading in the general direction of the Promised Land, we have also been promised improving weather with the winds easing down step by step.