The nice thing of an overnight stay is for a captain is that for once you do not have to get up that early. Most days start either at 4 am or 5 am. and on the Prinsendam that is nearly every day except when on the crossings. Thus the day started for me at 0700 this morning and Venice looked exactly the same as I left it last night when going to bed. The other nice thing is that the crew has a better chance of going ashore. The Heads of departments normally tinker a bit with the scheduling so crew who normally have a hard time getting ashore under the regular 9 to 6 port schedules, now have the chance as well. I am really try to encourage that as much as possible and when we come to Egypt and the Holy land we will even be running special crew tours for the ships ratings. Normally crew tours are monopolized by the concessions and the entertainment department as they are free in the ports. Except ofcourse when there are drills and some skeleton duties to perform. For cabin and dining room stewards , deck and engine personnel it is much more difficult as they work shift hours that continue around the clock, regardless of whether it is a port or a sea day. So two days in port is a welcome interlude in those busy routines.
I am following the political situation in Egypt and Israel quite closely at the moment as we are now heading that way. Egypt was cancelled before the cruise started and re-instigated on March 28 when things settled down. The US State Department withdrew its no-travel advisory and thus we could go. It is still rumbling in both countries but obviously it is not considered an safety issue as of this moment. So we are still good to go and after a call at Ravenna tomorrow we will be heading towards Alexandria. Originally we had Dubrovnik and a 2nd day in Ashdod as alternatives in the schedule to replace Alexandria and Port Said. If we had to change now again, then it might be different ports, depending on how close we already would be. Those decisions are made by the company’s marketing department. Guessing for those ports, in case of the –what if-, has been quite a popular pastime with the guests recently. Still for the time being, there is no –what if-. We can go and thus we are going.
Today the guests had more pressing things to deal with, namely how to spend a 2nd day in Venice. There is so much to see and do that even when in port for two days it can be difficult to make a choice. A larger number of our guests have been here before and this call will give them the chance to fill in some of the gaps left from last time. I had a vague hope to make it to a nautical book store here in Venice but after scrutinizing the city map and the Vaporetto schedule I came to the conclusion that it would be an almost full day expedition including the time that I would spend inside the shop. Maybe next time.
We had 51 guests leaving us today and 50 joining. At least that is the plan. Most of these guests are independents so they will show up whenever their own schedule calls for it and sometimes these sort of guests miss the ship altogether. Then there is nothing we can do to help, as they did not book their travel arrangements through HAL and as a result we do not know where they are. Still if they all make it before sailing, then the ship will sail with a full house again. We also have had guests leaving in the various ports who had made their own overland arrangements. Some left on 8 April in Civitavecchia and are now scheduled to rejoin here in Venice. Not a bad way of seeing Italy. You can leave your entire -not needed- luggage in the cabin and catch up with your floating hotel when you are ready again. I believe a few guests are making similar arrangements in Egypt and Israel.
My arrangements are to get the pilot onboard as early as possible tonight. If all the guests are back by 22.30, then I will be out of there 5 minutes later. It will give the guests the chance to see Venice by night when we sail out and still be in bed by a fairly decent time. The same will hopefully be the case for me. I hope to be off the bridge just before 1 am, as I have to be back on the bridge by 5 am. for the approach to Ravenna.
Maybe not the Rialto Bridge but even the common bridges in Venice are picture perfect by night. This one is located somewhere between Piazza Roma (bus station) and the Rialto Bridge. Photo by roving reporter Lesley Schoonderbeek
April 16, 2011 at 5:54 pm
I spent one week in Venice and it was not enough. I missed the naval museum and the opera house was still being rebuilt– but that is another reason to go back 🙂