11 August 2010; Kristiansand, Norway.

The weather turned out very changeable and within a few hours it went from nearly wind still with calm seas to wind force 8 and torrential rain. Although that is normally very unwanted; in this case I saw a positive side to it. This was the weather that was forecast for tomorrow in Kristiansand. If I had it now, 10 hours before arrival then I could not get it tomorrow morning. In the Dutch language we have a saying, after rain there will be sunshine and based on that logic it would mean that we would have nice weather in Kristiansand. So let it rain and let it wobble and then let it be nice while are in port. Well the theory worked out quite nicely. On arrival at the pilot station the wind was down to force four and the cloud cover was breaking up. By the time we were at the dock, the wind was nearly gone and rays of sunshine were coming through. It turned into a very nice day.

There are in Norway two ports, two coastal towns that get mixed up quite often. Kristiansand; where we were today, in the South point of Norway, and Kristiansund, halfway up the West Coast. The town names are only one letter different and that can result in confusion galore. Maybe not for the Norwegians but certainly for the rest of the world, including those who send emails about planning for the cruise ship calls. Last year my navigator came to see me, all excited, as based on the preliminary schedule that he received, we had to maintain 36 knots to get to the next port on time. The Prinsendam can be quite fast, if she puts her mind to it but 36 knots is nearly double the cruising speed and that is a little bit too much. Even if I would ask all the guests to flush all their toilets at the same time, then we would still not make that speed. So my navigator was all flustered because of one letter difference.

Both ports have a few things going for them. KristiansUnd is a small port but you dock all the way in downtown. The gangway almost runs into the local beauty salon but there are limited things to do, unless you go on tour. KristiansAnd is much larger but you dock in the cargo port and it is a 15 minute walk to the town. (Or you can take a little shuttle road-train to get there)

The “cruise terminal” in Kristiansand. To the left of the silo’s a Operahouse cum music centre is now being constructed and eventually the whole pier will be revamped. Archive photo from a few years back. So we were today in the port with the A and at the cargo terminal. However that is in the process of being changed. At the end of the dock a new Opera house is being constructed and eventually the cargo terminal will become part of that complex and house a cruise terminal. Very much needed as more and more cruise ships are calling at the port. In two days they will have the Queen Victoria and the Arcadia in and those ships are Vista Class size and both have to dock at cargo piers that are barely adequate for that purpose. For the Prinsendam it is much less of an issue, but then we are experts in that sort of thing as we dock all over the world at the most wonderful constructions that locals call a pier but hardly resemble anything like it.

Anyway the locals here did their best to make us happy and while docking there was an almighty fuss over which flags to fly. With only three flagpoles and one reserved for the USA flag (because that is where today most of the money spending clientele was coming from) one in use for the European flag (takes care of 90% of our other nationalities on board) that left the 3rd. So major deliberations were going on about this 3rd pole and which flag. Norwegian Flag, Dutch flag, British flag…… the pilot was fully engaged with it. I solved the quandrum for him by advising that I wanted the Dutch flag or else I would stop the ship from approaching. When I indeed did this (albeit for a totally different reason) the issue was settled very quickly. The Dutch flag went up and the Prinsendam was docked shortly after. (The real reason that I stopped was to figure out if all the break doors were clear of obstructions before we decided on our final position)

By the time we left the weather was great and the trend on the weather map makes me believe that tomorrow will be a great day in Oslo as well. That day will start with a wakeup call at 2 am in the morning as at 3 am we will embark the pilot for a 7 am docking in downtown.