The bad weather came, only it came late. While all the weather guru’s and local specialists were warning that it would pass through in the late evening, it was not until 03.15 that the strong winds hit the ship. Accompanied by spectacular thunderstorms the wind gusted up to 50 knots around the ship. Unfortunately the rain stayed away from the ship as that would have really cleaned all the sand away. Sand that we have been collecting since Dakar. Our bo’sun cannot win the battle at the moment as the sand is very sticky and needs a real downpour to let go off the sides of the ship. The late arrival of the storm brought the realization that Split might not be an option today. It would take about 12 hours for the whole system to come through and that meant that docking in the port of Split would not be safely possible until mid afternoon at the earliest. Still, you never know, think positive; the local situation in Split might be different and thus I decided to go and have a look. I had no alternative options anyway, as the other nearby ports would take too long to get to and were also suffering from the same sort of weather. Still I always think that the bottle (Mineral water only) is always half full and not half empty. 

To get to Split you have to sail through narrow passages, both when coming from the West or the South. We were coming from the south and had to go through an entrance called Splitska Vrata which is complicated enough for it to be compulsory to have a pilot onboard if you are a tanker. We are not a tanker, and thus the pilot was glad he could stay in bed. With 50 knots of wind on the beam going through was an interesting experience and the whole bridge team was fully focused on keeping the course exactly in the middle of this channel of which the deepwater part is about 500 meters in width. Once through the ship enters the Splitski Kanal. This is not really a canal but a wide bay with Split located at the North side. The wind did not die down very much, although we were now coming in the lee of the mountains. The wind remained a steady 35 knots (wind force 7), sometimes gusting up to 55 knots (wind force 10). Not the sort of weather that you identify with the words “safe docking”.

The pilot woke up at 06.00 hrs and then also came to the conclusion that it was very windy. His main interest was to know what I was going to do about it as he repeatedly assured me that I was in charge of it all. I waited until 07.00 hrs to see if there might be an improvement but there was not. Then the latest weather forecast came by which advised that things would not improve until well into the afternoon. Not much reason to linger here any longer. I could not stay later anyway as I had to be on time in Venice. This is as a change over port for us with 50 guests leaving and 50 coming. Thus I had to cancel Split and left via the western entrance. At least by sailing straight north, once in the open and with the weather system moving south, the ship would quickly be back in good weather.

That good weather appeared around 10 am when all the clouds were to the South of us and the sun could be seen again. The coming three days should be nearly wind still again and that will make up for it a little bit I hope. As I had announced the chance of bad weather already on departure from Kotor, shipside was prepared for it. The Cruise Director was ready with an alternative program and the Beverage manager was chilling the champagne, to be served complimentary during dinner. Alcohol might not solve problems but most people agree that you can at least suffer them more comfortably.

The northern part of the Adriatic is split into a western and eastern side, each with its own Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme. The west side serves Venice and Ravenna and the East side, Montefalcone, Trieste and Koper (in Slovenia) As ships do criss cross between the two systems and fishermen are normally out in force it can be quite busy here, so we will approach Venice pilot with slow speed to have time to deal with anything that might try to impede our progress. I am scheduled for a 06.00 pilot and then expect be docked around 07.30. It should be wind still but very chilly. Still I expect that a lot of guests will want to see the ship sailing into Venice, as we sail right past the down town area with St. Mark’s square. and the Doges’ Place on the starboard side. It will be an early morning for everybody.