By 5 am we were approaching the South entrance of Drogden channel on the East side of Copenhagen. This is the shortcut between the Sound or “Sund” to the North and the Baltic Sea to the South. Ships with a draft of less then 8 meters can transit this dredged channel; all other ships will have to make a 200 mile detour via the Great Belt to the West. The Prinsendam with its draft of 7.3 meters maximum has no problems of course and thus we take the short route. The wind had indeed picked up during the night as was predicted and we had about 35 to 40 knots blowing from the South West. As there was no open water available for the wind to build up high waves, the guests did not notice it too much apart from the fact that “it was windy”. Again we had an eager pilot, coming out early, but this time I think it was more because for small boats the water was rather rough with a 1 meter swell. With him onboard the question of the day was: can we get into Copenhagen with this wind? So the pilot got out his phone and called a control station somewhere that had access to a wind meter on top of one of the Windmills located in front of Copenhagen harbour entrance. That gave 15 to 20 knots from a direction of 220o and that meant we were in business. The windmill is about 100 meters high or so and is catching more wind than the lower Prinsendam. Also a direction of 220o meant that the wind was only 10o off the general direction of the narrow harbour entrance and thus the ship would not drift very much.
Not drifting is important as we have to slow down when coming through the entrance because as soon as we are clear the ship is in the turning basin and we had to start the swing. The slower you go, the more grip the wind gets on the ship and the more you drift. So good news for all and there we went. By the time we were in the harbour there was about 15 knots blowing, sometimes breezing up to 25 knots. That I could deal with as I had this 5000 HP tugboat hanging on the stern. So the tug pulled at full capacity to get the funnel into, and then through the wind, and I followed using the bow thrusters to steer the ship to the dock. When almost there, we moved the tug to the starboard side to push and hold the ship alongside the dock while we brought out the mooring ropes. Extra ropes, as the weather forecast indicated a lot more wind in the afternoon. Not pleasant but the good thing was that it would remain coming from the same direction and thus not hampering the safe sail away out of the harbour entrance.
My next point of interest was the weather up north for tonight. The wind in the Skagerrak, between the north point of Denmark and the south point of Norway was set to increase to a wind force 9 during the night and then abate again to a wind force 7 tomorrow. But it would be either following wind; or wind on the beam. Good news as that means that tonight the ship will move a little bit but not too much. Thus I announced that accordingly to the guests; be careful while moving around, especially in the hours around 2 am. (When we would be exposed to those winds) but do not be unduly concerned.
When leaving we applied the “blow away maneuver” and used the tugboat as a safety. First to keep the ship alongside while we released the ropes and then standby off the stern incase the wind would catch the funnel. With wind gusts of up to 45 knots we sailed out of the port entrance and then through the Sound, that body of water enclosed by Denmark and Sweden. Wind force 8 all around, but not enough free water for the wind to build up swell; so the whitecaps and streaky water had to convey the message that it was stormy weather.
Tonight in the early morning hours, we will have some movement but it should be gone again by 5 am as we then come under the shelter of the Norwegian coast. We will be at the pilot station at 07.00 to start our scenic sail up the Oslofjorden to Oslo.
Late entry: Yesterday in Warnemunde we had another German brass band on board for the guests to enjoy. This band is known, apart from playing extremely good music, to drink about as much (German draft) beer with their little group as all our guests combined. Photo by roving reporter Lesley Schoonderbeek.
August 25, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Thank you, Captain, for writing about the 5000HP tugboat (where do they put the motors ?!!) Something new I learned to realize again. Tugboat captains are not just able to make turns of 360° without effort after a happy outcome of a job well done(?) But of course they have to be able to work in tandem with a Captain of a cruise ship. Super team work, if only I could observe it with my own eyes.
Although – recently one ship came in with a tug staying at starboard going through the same procedure you described above to get alongside the dock. At departure the tug showed up again only to “swoosh and bob” sidy-ways at a distance from the ship going at the same speed! It didn’t need to do anything but swoosh and bob! I assumed all was well as the Captain of the cruise ship had all his motors going again. Was Copenhagen good to you?