17 November 2010; Cartagena, Spain.

Cartagena is a port that has only recently become part of the main stream cruise business. I went, with the old Noordam in 2001, as the first HAL ship to this port and then they were just adapting an existing pier to be more cruise ship friendly.
There were the occasional cruise ships coming in, but mainly those who were on far flung itineraries, calling at ports off the beaten track. Since that time the port has been included as a port of call for the 7 day cruise business and larger ships are now visiting. Today we had three cruise ships in port; the Prinsendam, the Discovery and the Azamara Journey. Three ships that are focusing on calling at the less usual ports, albeit for different company’s. Discovery sails for Voyages of Discovery, which is a one ship company, focused on the British Market and Azamara is a sub company of Celebrity which is a sub of Royal Caribbean and focuses on the American market.

The challenge with Cartagena is, is that it is a real Spanish port. The main revenue is still industry and fishing and the main attraction of the town is history and not shopping. The history goes back to the days of Carthage and the Roman Empire and there is still much to admire from those days. Also the locals still strictly enforce the Siesta and that makes afternoon shopping a challenge. We called here in the afternoon and thus the shopping option was severely limited. When going ashore, it had to be with a focus on culture. I could not make it a morning call as the distance from Barcelona to Cartagena did not allow for it. As the guests had two days of shopping options in Barcelona I do not think that a few closed shops resulted in particular hardship in this case. There is more Spanish shopping available tomorrow in Malaga for those who are afraid of withdrawal symptoms. Today the focus had to be on culture.

Focusing on culture with an umbrella. We were really unlucky here. Cartagena is one of the driest parts of Spain but the weather gods had decided that during our afternoon call, it was time to spray the land. The “rain in Spain did NOT stay on the plain” this time but came to town and port today. You can always see if a lot of rain falls in a particular area by looking at the umbrella’s that are carried by the locals. In area’s with lots of rain, such as the British Isles, the umbrella is a tool and especially bought. Sturdiness and functionality are the key words. In area’s where rain is a more seldom occurrence you see a lot of umbrella’s around that were not especially purchased but somehow received and kept for “a rainy day” So you always see a large number of sponsored umbrella’s free-bies from banks, insurance company’s and other institutions. Thus today the pier abounded with advertisement umbrellas in all shapes and sizes.

Cartagena port is split up in two parts. The old port where we docked in a very nice location, less then five minutes walk from down town; and the new port which is for the gas and oil tankers. In that outer port they had a very unusual visitor today not a ship but a self propelled oil pipe laying platform. One of the biggest in the world.

I googled a few details:

Length: 198 m, Breadth: 87 m, Transit draft: 10.5 m, Operational draft: 27.5 m
Lifting facilities main crane: 2 twin S 7000 model fully revolving bow mounted Amhoist
cranes. Main blocks tandem lift: 14,000 tons max lifting capacity. (The Prinsendam weighs about 20000 tons)
J-Lay pipe laying system: Pipe diameter range from 4″ to 32″
Crew facilities: 405 fully AC single or double cabins up to 800 persons.
Helideck: Suitable for two BV234 LR Chinook helicopters (one parked).

We sailed out of the port, the way we came in, with a zig and a zag around the two breakwaters and then followed the Discovery on the same course to Malaga. They will have a change over in that port, while we are on a full day call. It is going to be a sunny and dry day tomorrow, so it should make up for the Spanish rain of today.