14 June 2010; Sailing along the Norwegian Coast.

Today it was a sea day as the distance between Oslo and Molde is too long to cover in one night. The plan was to sail with an average speed of 16 knots to our next destination. However the weather forecast was partly wrong again. The sun did shine but the northerly wind was not 15 knots as predicted but around 35 to 40 knots and that is near gale force. With the Prinsendam going against it with 16 knots ground speed meant that the relative wind caused it to feel as if we were in real stormy weather.. Guests who did brace the elements by walking around the deck, had to battle to the bow on the starboard side in slow motion and were then propelled with great speed towards the stern on the portside. Luckily the Prinsendam is protected at the bow by a sort of breakwater so the guests can safely walk there, even if with some difficulty. With all that wind blowing against us, I had to maintain 18.5 knots on the engines to barely maintain our needed speed of 16 knots. I checked the North Atlantic wind charts three times and this strong wind never showed up in the charts. I think from now on, I will simply look outside. What you see is what you get.

In Skagen we were officially supposed to celebrate Filipino Independence Day but due to cancellation of that port it all fell apart. Thus we had to do it in parts. We did the flag raising ceremony in Oslo and in Molde, (I am jumping a day ahead now) the Games. The flag raising ceremony depends a little bit on the weather for its location but since we have our new cabin section on the stern we have a large covered deck outside behind the dining room.

So I gave permission to use the flag pole there which normally flies the National Flag of the Netherlands but out of respect for our Filipino fellow crew could now be used for their flag. While the flag was being hoisted the Filipino national anthem was sung by two ladies from front the Front office. Then the idea had been to do a tug of war game on the dock side afterwards but the rain made the dock surface too slippery, so we postponed to Molde, hoping for dry weather. The official dinner did take place of course as it was inside in the crew mess.
It is a tradition that dinner is served by the officers and here we can see a group of them very concentrated on their task.

No we jump forward to Molde (which is officially tomorrow’s blog) for the games at the shore side. I had obtained permission from the harbour master to do so and at 10.30am various teams arrived on the dock. In the end the engineers won; the combined weight was simply too much for any other opposition to deal with. May be we should go the boxing world way and weigh each team and balance the weight out instead of the same number of participants in each team.
The engine room ratings trying their best but also they were no match for the combined might of the engineering officers.

A new game this time was the egg-plant race. The idea is to roll an egg over the ground by giving it a push with a piece of fruit hanging down from a string tied around the waist. The challenge is to hit the egg forward in a straight line while walking at the same time. The fruit is not square and the egg not balanced and that gives room for a lot of fun. Here the Sr. Carpenter showed a lot of experience and came first.

The deck dept. was represented by the 2nd officer, who started well but lost the plot halfway.

Final game was trying to find a coin in a container of flour by only using the nose and blowing the flour away with the mouth. Everybody was issued goggles to protect the eyes and a bib for the uniform. Here the kitchen representative, used to messing around with flour I suppose, came first.

Back to our sea day now.

Because we were not going full out on the engines, the Prinsendam rode the waves beautifully and we had a very steady ship. Tomorrow morning the winds are supposed to abate and of course as soon as we are in the fjords, we should be in sheltered waters anyway. The pilot is scheduled by 0400 tomorrow as it is from the pilot station about 40 miles to Molde dock through the fjords. So it will be an early morning for me at 3 am. to be present on the bridge, while the navigator tries to find the pilot station.

Face of the day.

All photos by Human Resources Manager Andrea Consentino.