23 August 2010; Warnemunde, Germany.

By 3.30 am. we were heading for the pilot station of Warnemunde. The pilot was in an eager mood and instead of being there at 0400 as scheduled; he came racing out and was onboard 20 minutes early. We managed to get the Boatmen on standby, just in time. These are the sailors who open the shell doors and rig the pilot ladder. Once the pilot was onboard he came running to the bridge and started giving orders straight away. I do not like that at all, as I prefer the pilots first to get their night vision, give them a proper explanation of the ships characteristics, show them the radar and other instruments and then hand the con over formally. However in ports, where the majority of ships coming in are cargo ships, this is quite often normal pilot behavior but in cruise ship heavy ports the pilots are normally accustomed to these hand over procedures. However this pilot was in a hurry and I had to feed him the information that I deemed necessary for him to know in small bites, between him talking to the pilot boat, port control, the linesmen and another unknown entity on the other side of his mobile phone.

Although not the most central dock, this location gives a nice view over the town from the Bridge wing.

It was nearly wind still weather, although the weather forecasts were getting more and more threatening by the hour. Still this saved me at least one tugboat, so who was going to complain? Today there were three cruise ships in, including the Aida Blue which had change over day and thus docked at the larger cruise terminal. We were at the smaller one and the Regatta at the landing stage. The Aida Blue takes over 2200 guests and that means a lot of –controlled chaos- for the docking area but as the Germans are masters of organization it normally flows very well.

As mentioned yesterday, I was early because of avoiding a potential delay due to the ferries going in and out at 5 am but now with our eager pilot onboard I was docked before 5 am. Still we spent some more time putting out extra mooring lines due to the weather forecast of very strong winds expected in the late afternoon and evening. There is a very nasty depression coming this way with winds of up to force 9. The exact timing is not known but it is either tonight or tomorrow morning. So I put a few extra lines out just in case the wind was going to be early and ordered a tugboat for tonight to help keep the stern under control if the wind would start to blow against the funnel.

Still with the change coming, it was a sunny morning until 2 pm. when we had a torrential downpour. Amazon Forest in quality and intensity. I spent most of the afternoon in bed to catch up on some sleep as the last week we only had early pilots on and late pilots off. The chief officer then fills in the day hours and stands in for me where possible.

For the departure, I was really disappointed as there was no farewell music. Normally they play “Time to say goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli when we pull out, but this time nothing. Not for us, nor for Aida. On the other hand I was very happy that I had ordered a tugboat, as right at the moment that we backed out of the dock and started the turn to line up in the channel, the wind caught the ship. We have about 50 meters spare to work with when swinging and if the ship starts drifting that is not that much. But the tugboat pulled and my bow thrusters pushed and the wind did not get a chance.

Tonight we will cross the lower Baltic on almost a straight northerly course heading for Drogden channel and Copenhagen. Wind force 7 to 8 is expected off Copenhagen tomorrow morning so it is going to be interesting. I have ordered the biggest tug in the port (5000 HP) to pull the ship around. If we get in I will have to swing on arrival, as on departure even more wind is expected and docked nose in, I would never get out.