09 July 2010; Amsterdam the Netherlands.

Due to our delayed departure from the Kieler Kanal, I really had to crank the Prinsendam up to warp speed in order to make Ijmuiden pilot station on time. Luckily the tide on the river Elbe was with us and that gave a bonus of 5 miles, due to the velocity of the current during the two hour transit. Later in the night when ebb turned to flood, we had the current against us but by then we were out in open waters and there the current is less strong. A river estuary is as a funnel and when the water gets pushed more and more into the narrow part and the only way it can deal with the volume is to start flowing faster and faster and go higher and higher. Sometimes a nuisance, sometimes a help, as it was this time. Thus we raced westwards above the Dutch Wadden Islands and then turned South near Texel, heading for Amsterdam. We just made it to the pilot station at the agreed time with about 10 minutes to spare.

The lock we used was the “Noordersluis” to be seen here in the centre of the photo.

The pilot boarded and then told me, to go slow. There was a big tanker in the locks that was only coming out very slowly. It had only a foot of clearance on each side and hardly any clearance under the keel and that meant that the water could only flow very slowly along the hull and that slows a ship down a lot. At the same time a large bulkcarrier was busy mooring outside the Corus Steel plant (The Hoogovens in Dutch) and that meant that we had to go slow as well to avoid wake. That cost us an hour and that meant we were going to be delayed. I could not make up any speed on the North Sea Canal as there the maximum speed is 8 knots to avoid wake damage and suction into the side canals. Not very nice for a home port call but that is the danger when you deal with locks. We saw it yesterday in the Kieler Kanal and now again in the North Sea canal. The only thing I could do was to reduce the docking time by shooting straight alongside instead of swinging on arrival and docking nose out as is usual.

The only thing great about it all was that the sun was brightly shining and there was very little wind. As we were running an hour late, the guests had enough time to watch the sights while we sailed up the canal. As soon as the steel works were cleared past the locks, we passed Velsen with the ferries and that is always a beehive of activity. As Holland is still in the world cup all the boats, barges, ferries and other floating objects were decked out with the Dutch soccer flag. Orange against the green fields on the sides of the canal did not look bad at all. After we had past “Amsterdam hill” the waste disposal mountain, also covered with grass; the industrial area started with its coal docks, petro chemical industry and the container docks. Then you finally get Amsterdam proper, which on this side is not that wide. Due to the half round lay out with the canals, Amsterdam expanded more to the South, East and North across the canal and that makes the downtown area look remarkably compact. Good for me, less time to make it to the dock. By 9 am the suitcases were coming out of the ship and the guest’s disembarkation was not much delayed at all.

It turned into a very warm day, and I think a lot of guests were happy when we sailed away from the port in the evening producing a little bit of a breeze on the deck. We left the same way as we came in, via Ijmuiden locks and now heading across the North sea to the West to pick up the Southbound shipping lane near the English coast to get down to the West coast of France. The weather forecast is predicting more sunshine and that could mean that the English Channel will get fogged in, in the early morning.

I can not remember where I found this photo but it shows the Prinsendam docked at the Passenger terminal in Amsterdam in August 2007. Thank you, whoever made it.