Another beautiful day and another beautiful port. As Monte Carlo is facing east, it is always a pleasure to approach the port in the morning as the rising sun shines over the whole area. Apart from a few fishermen there was nothing in the way. The Sunday sailors and gin palaces were still happily tucked away in the harbour and so we could proceed unhindered to our anchorage. As we were banned to Fontveille, due to the preparations for the Grand Prix, I had to find another anchorage. Our regular anchorage is just to the North of the new pier. Right abeam is the Hotel under which the race cars run their race, but using that location now would result in a much too long a tender distance. When going further to the South, the water gets deeper and the only shallow place that is really nice for anchoring is prohibited. The Oceanographic museum has some sort of water inlet system at the bottom of the cliff and thus we cannot drop anchor there.
The Captain of the Azamara Journey was obviously suffering from the same problem and decided to anchor all the way to the south. So far that I thought he was going to run his tender service into the marina of Cap Agile. However the boats were also going into Fontveille making it a long distance for them. As it was nice weather and no wind expected, I had no problem with dropping the anchor in 80 meters of water (240 feet) and could thus keep the tender distance to the port to a minimum. Dropping the anchor is really the wrong phrase here; with such a water depth we lower the anchor on the windlass, shackle by shackle, all the way down. (A shackle is one link of the chain, which is about 30 centimeters) Because of the depth most of the chain is hanging vertically and thus you are never certain if the anchor has dug in when the ship is in position. You can simply not see how the chain is leading and where to.
Thus during a windy day you have to be careful with anchoring in deep water as the anchor and chain might start to drag. On a windless day, as we had today, it is not much of a problem as the friction of the chain on the sea bottom alone is more than enough to hold the ship in place, regardless of whether the anchor had dug in or not. Today we said farewell to about 20 of our guests who were going to continue their travels in France and then it is of course much easier to disembark in Monaco instead of Rome and then having to travel back.
Monaco from the air. In the middle the port of Monte Carlo to the left the smaller gap of the port of Fontveille. This photo was taken before they added the new cruise pier. Photo courtesy: somewhere off the internet.
With such a nice day and little need for me to be on standby, I spend most of the morning exploring my ship. Not in the way as guests by looking around but walking deck by deck and opening up each closed door with my master keys. As the Prinsendam is an older ship it was not built so straight forward as the modern ships. It is full of nooks and crannies, un-expected turns and twists and little lockers in the most un-usual places. Intimate knowledge of a ship is a must for a captain, as during an emergency, that knowledge of a certain space, and what might be stored there, can be the difference from a small issue becoming a big problem. So every quiet day I will be nosing around, apart from my regular inspections.
Monte Carlo turned out indeed to be a quiet day and by 1700 hrs. we had all the guests back onboard. There was of course a boat in the way when I wanted to take off, this time a very big motor yacht called Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, (I am wondering whether there is a sister ship called Vroom Vroom Vroom……….) but soon the seas was clear and we set off for our final port of call of this cruise Civitavecchia, the port of Rome.
Cannot miss this when it comes by, at least 150 feet in length.
In Civittavecchia about 60% of our guests will leave; the rest are staying with us for our next voyage to Greece and the Black Sea. The weather for tomorrow looks great again and thus we will have another grand day to enjoy.
May 21, 2009 at 4:17 am
Dear Captain Albert
As a former boater who’s goal it was to stay out of the way of ships like yours, How much anchor chain does a ship like the Prinsendam actually have on it’s anchors? After many a restless nights swinging on an anchor rode I am very familiar with the fear of dragging the anchor.
Like all your other readers I enjoy your blog! Thank you!
May 21, 2009 at 6:00 am
Good morning low tide.
We have 11 lengths of chain behind each anchor. Each length is 15 fathoms or roughly 27 meters. We seldom use them all but using seven or 8 lengths at Monte Carlo is normal. This time I had the number 7 on the windlass and thus about six lenghts out of the pipe with about three, plus the lLeading End and the anchor, resting on the sea bottom. If it had been windy weather I would have put two more down or would have stayed on the engines.