09 April 2015; Valletta, Malta.

They call the port of Valletta the Grand Harbour and that is correct for more reasons than one. First of all it is a very large enclosed harbor which can handle any draft as long as the ships fit through the breakwater and it is surrounded by monumental buildings erected through the ages until the current day. Although nowadays not much new can be erected as the place is full and the locals are not planning to knock something old down to get a more modern creation in place. This has made sailing in and out always spectacular or just plainly enjoyable encase you are not overawed with what you see.  It is just an amazing place.

Busy day again in Valletta.

We were not the only ones who thought so as behind us was the MSC Magnifica which came in just before 08.00 hrs. and the Seabourn Spirit which was already there yesterday. This is one of the three smaller ships of Seabourn and she is on her last voyage as Seabourn is phasing out the smaller ships. All three have been sold to Windstar which once was also part of Holland America. Seabourn which is now a sister company to us, is replacing them with bigger ships, roughly the Prinsendam size and already has three of those in operation. The Seabourn Sojourn, Quest and Odyssey. Two more ships are under construction, the Seabourn Encore and the Seabourn Ovation. They will come into service in 2016 and 2018. The small Seabourn ships were nice and because of their size they could visit ports not open to larger ships but they lacked one thing and that was balconies. Some years ago the company tried to alleviate this problem by installing French Balconies in the suites above the lifeboats but it did not fully solve the issue.  Hence new ships and to get balconies on, you have to build them larger as well. You are no allowed to have Balconies under lifeboats and that means a redesign of the ship and that means you have to go larger. Still 40.000 tons is not that large.

Most of our guests went ashore and if not on tour, they could reach the city of Valetta easily as it was just across the street from the gangway. If you want to walk everywhere, or better said climb everywhere, you have to be a bit agile as it is all uphill when you leave the ship (although you go downhill when coming back) and that is quite an exercise. Hence the taxi’s and the Big Red Bus being very busy.

I created my first bit of “mayhem” today by throwing an un-expected fire drill today. The last two days I have been busy with paper work today I got the chance to get the crew going.  According to company policy we have to conduct and un-announced fire drill every three months to test the crew’s alertness for a real event; incase that would happen. Normally we have fire& training drills around 10.30 in the morning as this time does not upset the daily operation of the ship too much.  However if you do not occasionally do it at a different – at an unannounced time – then the human penchant for routine and tradition takes over.  Thus today I put the Officer Bar “on fire” and waited to see what was going to happen. Well at lot happened and in no time I had fully dressed firefighting teams barging into the Officer Bar and even crashing through doors in order to get to the fire as soon as possible. I am glad to say there is nothing wrong with the alertness of the crew of the Prinsendam and they followed the Company’s firefighting doctrine to the letter. It went very well.

And I can assure you, they were blanks they fired. This was shot nbr 5.

Sail away went well as well. While sailing out, the city of Valetta greeted the Prinsendam with a 7 shot Gun salute from high up the bulwarks of the City’s old defense works.  Nice to see and even nicer to hear.  Old guns can make a lot of noise.

Tomorrow we have a sea day, and it is expected to be a bit of a wobbly one and then we will be in Iraklion, Crete. To do so we have to get on Greek time and therefore the clocks will go forward one hour tonight. We are scheduled to be the only ship there, so we will have Crete to ourselves.  Wobbly weather caused by North Easterly winds and thus it will also be chilly for most of the day.