16 April 2011; Ravenna, Italy.

Ravenna is just around the corner from Venice and to ensure that we were not drifting for a few hours, we made a nice slow turn in the Adriatic. Our Venice pilot was off the ship just after midnight and the Ravenna pilot was scheduled for 06.00 In between we plodded along with a sedate speed of 10 knots to get there.  While it takes about 90 minutes to sail into Venice, the sail into Ravenna is only a short hop.  The port itself is quite large but most of it is only suitable for small ships. The downtown berth has draft restrictions of 5.35 meters and is for ships larger than 150 meters a challenge.  To alleviate that problem it was decided by the wise men of the port authority to build a dedicated cruise terminal at the entrance of the port, just to the right of the breakwater entrance.  That meant that from the pilot station it was only 2 miles to the dock. In our case it was just a mile by the time the pilot came onboard. This new port is still under construction and that meant that our only documentation was a photo of the general lay-out, a copy of the sounding chart and the local knowledge of the pilot.  Between the chart having been made and the photo taken, work had progressed and as a result the situation was different when we approached.  Luckily the change was in our favor. More dredging had been carried out and the average depth was now 10 meters, while we had expected no more than 8 or 9. I do not need that much water with the Prinsendam but the more there is, the easier the flow of water under the keel and the quicker the ship will maneuver.

One of the most famous landmarks of the oldest Republic in the world; San Marino. Photo by roving reporter Lesley Schoonderbeek

By 06.50 we were docked and just after 07.00 the first tours streamed ashore. For those not on a tour, a shuttle bus system had been set up as downtown is about 8 kilometers away from the terminal. Ravenna is very popular with tourists and not only by those who are foreign.  It is a ”hot & cool” destination for school classes due to the history and architecture.  Luckily we were in on a Saturday and that meant that at least the local work traffic would be less and thus an easier run for the Busses.  I needed that easier run as I wanted to get out of Ravenna as quickly as possible. The run to Alexandria is a tight one and with the unstable weather of the moment, it is imperative that I have as much spare time up my sleeve as possible.  Our official departure time was 15.00 hrs with an all onboard time of 14.30 hrs so I ordered pilot, linesmen and tugboat for that time in the hope that everybody would be back, especially as the tours had to come back from San Marino which is about a 1 hour 30 minute drive away. It all worked out beautifully and by 14.30 everybody was indeed back on board.  5 minutes later I pulled the Prinsendam off the dock.

The Ravenna cruise terminal. The dock is finished. More dredging needs to be done and the temporary terminal building to be replaced by a more permanent fixture.

I had ordered a tugboat to swing the ship around in the turning basin. Although large enough for a 300 meter ship it is not that deep yet to facilitate a quick swing. The ship really has to labor hard to push all the water aside in order to get around.  With a tugboat which has very little draft compared to its engine capacity it goes very fast.  By 3 pm we were outside and the Chief Engineer was cranking up all his engines to warp speed.

We followed the vessel Traffic separation scheme again and it was gratifying to note that all the ships were nicely sailing in the correct lanes.  By tomorrow morning we will be passing the Italian ports of Ancona and Brindisi and late in the afternoon we will enter the Ionian Sea.  From there it will be a straight S.E run to Egypt.  We will never come close to Libya so I do not think that we will notice anything of what is going on there. We might see a few airplanes though, as NATO is enforcing a traffic embargo against Libya so all ships that are more or less going into that direction might come under scrutiny.  Most of that embargo is enforced by the Dutch Royal Air Force so at least I will be able to tell them in our mother tongue that we are on the way to the Pyramids.  Cruising to Libya will have to wait for awhile, although it is a fascinating destination with a lot of Roman and Carthegian ruins, some in very good condition. 

The weather for tomorrow is a bit unsettled. During the day another local system moved down from the Adriatic, giving yet again horrible weather in Split and this system is supposed to dissipate off the Greek Coast. If it doesn’t we will have a windy day tomorrow, if it does, then I will make extra good speed.  So the focus is on dissipating weather systems.