13 June 2010; Oslo Norway.

The weather remained overcast and rainy until late in the afternoon but the weather forecast from Iceland (that is where most of the Norwegian weather is coming from) indicates sunshine for the next few days, so things are looking up. The temperature will remain low, due to a Northerly flow but that is something that I personally do not mind that much as it keeps the white hazy stuff away. Thus the guests had to endure one more day of “English Weather” as the pilot called it but as I observed lots of guests going on tour, it looked as if nobody was too much bothered by it. As mentioned yesterday the local nature looks better anyway when it is overcast as there is no glare to spoil your photos.

Today there were two cruise ships in port; the Prinsendam and by 9 am. the Saga Ruby arrived. She was built as the Vistafjord for the Norwegian America Line (NAL) and thus was in the past a very familiar sight in Oslo. For a number of years she and her sister the Sagafjord sailed the North Atlantic route in the summer and made cruises in the winter. When the North Atlantic trade came to an end, NAL disappeared from the cruise business and the ships went to other owners. Eventually both ended up with Saga cruises, catering for the English 55+ market. The Saga Rose (ex Sagafjord) was decommissioned this year as she was not Solas 2010 compliant and she recently arrived in a Chinese port. As that Chinese port has an extensive scrap yard facility I assume it will be the end of her. The Vistafjord/Saga Ruby is a few years younger than the Rose and she can comply with the new rules and is still in service.

The Prinsendam docked at the Vippentangen berth in Oslo in 2009. So we had two blue ships in port today, as the Ruby sports the same hull colours as the Prinsendam, only the funnel coloring is different. She was docked just ahead of us at the Akerhus dock, right under the castle while we were at the Vippentangen dock right behind, both docks very close to down town. As it was a Sunday I was expecting a lot of yachts milling around in the port during the day, however the yearly Oslofjord race was going on and everybody who considered themselves a real sailor was out there in the entrance of the Oslofjord. When we came in yesterday, the whole area around the Faerder pilot station was full of sailing boats, holding a race under strong winds and lashing rain. These were the real sailors. Further in there were a lot of “other sailors or six-pack navigators” who were trying to emulate what there more professional brethren were doing further out. According to the pilot, for a lot of these sail boats, the idea is not to sail as much as possible, but to party as much as possible and after a few drinks the Rules of the Road are very freely interpreted. The river police tries to do something about it but with hundreds of yachts around, where do you start? So they now have the policy to try and catch them before they leave the marina and thus at least leave only when still sober.

By departure the weather started to improve slowly and the rain faded away, things were getting better. It takes about 3 to 4 hours to get from the dock to the pilot station and by 9 pm. we entered open waters again. Tomorrow we will be in the North Atlantic Ocean, following the Norwegian Coast on a North North Westerly course heading for Molde in the mid west of the country. It should be sunny but windy.