04 July 2010; St. Petersburg, Day two.

As was expected, the loading of oil continued throughout the night and today. Every year we hope that they will have bunker boats with a greater pump capacity but until now it is slow going. In most western ports, pump capacities of up to 250 -300 tons in the hour can be achieved but here in St. Petersburg we are already happy with 70 tons an hour. That makes for long and tedious standby hours for the watch engineers and the chief engineer. Company protocol requires that the bunker transfer at the manifold (there where the hose enters the ship) is overseen by a licensed engineer and there is also the requirement that the chief engineer is in or near the control room while bunkering is in progress. The company is that strict as it wants its most capable people standby in case something is going wrong. A hose rupture could result in major pollution and in the un-likely event that this would happen you want the best people on location, to minimize any impact. So for most of the engineers they only thing they saw of St. Petersburg was an oil barge. Luckily we do not bunker everyday.

For the majority of our guests, being USA citizens, it was of course independence day today. A bit of an unusual spot to celebrate it, with the ship being docked deep inside Mother Russia. Something like this would not have been thinkable about 30 years ago. Some guests were arguing among themselves what time it really should start onboard, as the States is between 8 and 12 hours behind us. Luckily these sort of decisions are made by the Hotelmanager and the rule is always the same; after departure. That is what we did with Canada day and that is what we also do with other high days and holidays, we run the festivities in the evening. This with the exception of Christmas and New Year, which we run all day long, as this is a cruise ship and there is food around all day long.

Today was a sunny day and it was wind still. Thus we saw on the bridge the Eurodam gliding towards the dock on water as flat as a mirror. That is not always the case, as it can be very windy here in the port area as the docks are exposed at all sides to the elements. However today the elements were having a day off and it remained calm of wind all day long. The Eurodam took the place of the Costa Luminosa, which was easy, as both ships belong to the Vista Class design and are thus of the same length. Although the Eurodam falls under the signature class, which is an enhancement of the Vista Class, it is still the same size ship. Today was also the day that there Eurodam’s sister the Nieuw Amsterdam came into service as she was being baptized in Venice by her Royal Highness Princess Maxima, the wife of our Crown prince Willem Alexander. That brings the fleet to 15 ships. No other ships on order, but as usual there are rumors galore. Carnival Corporation is placing orders again and we just have to wait until they get around to HAL again. The question of course will be, more of the same?? Bigger?? Smaller?? How many??? Nobody knows. Time will tell.

Other ships in port today where the Norwegian Sun, The Celebrity Eclipse, who came in with us yesterday and the Empress, which had to dock in the cargo port as the cruise terminal was full with four ships. The Empress is the ex Norwegian Empress, ex Nordic Empress and is currently sailing for the Spanish market.

I was busy today with training classes. I do that on a regular basis as with the ever changing /rotating crew, knowledge has to be continuously passed on by the senior staff to keep up the levels. Today’s subject was the company’s disciplinary system. How to get the paperwork right and how to turn a –perceived negative- disciplinary action into a positive Performance Improvement session. As most of the Hotel officers are not Dutch anymore, it is important that they understand also the Dutch angle towards it all, as were are governed by the laws of the flag state which is the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Kronstadt Submarines.

We left nicely on time, which is one of the advantages of this new cruise terminal. There is less congestion on the roads this way than when having to enter the cargo port. With a slow speed we sailed the same way out as we came in and by 1930 hours we once passed once again Kronstadt with the docks of the old Imperial Navy. The sun was shining full on it, bathing the whole island in golden hues. Most of the derelict ships have gone now, only a few old Oceanographic research ships left and some small fry. We saw three new corvettes docked there, a new frigate, and two submarines so it looks like it that the base is being put in use again as also some of the buildings were spruced up. The large Cathedral was completely packed in, in plastic as it is undergoing restoration.

The Church, built in 1905, undergoing restoration.

Tomorrow we are in Helsinki and we are docking downtown. For that we have to go through “the hole” which is an interesting experience, as it is one of these places where there is no “plan B”. If something goes wrong, it really goes wrong. So we have to make sure that it goes right as usual.

Another hole. This time man made. The flood barrier at the rim of Kronstadt island. The barrier can be closed by moving two half circles of steel into the fairway. The installation is operational and now protects St. Petersburg from waters pushed up by westerly storms in the Baltic. Eargerly awaited is the opening of the ring road, that goes under the barrier by means of a tunnel. This will relieve congestion in the city enourmously, as now North – South traffic has to travel through St. Petersburg.