31 August 2010; Brest, France.

As this is the Celtic kingdom cruise, we also visit France as in the grey mists of time, there seems to have been Celts milling around there as well. Hence the area around Brest being called Brittany and we still have Great Britain of course; all related to each other in some way or the other. Brest is located inside a large and deep natural fjord and thus a perfect area for a big port. It is also one of the major navy ports of France. There is a regular navy port area and a separate submarine base. In the far end of the fjord there is the commercial port and a very large commercial ship repair yard. In the 1970’s when everybody experimented with enormous oil tankers a number of the worlds largest were built in France. Names as Batillus and Pierre Guimot (not so sure of the correct spelling) have found their place in tanker history. For those ships a special dry – dock was dug in this repair yard and this was the place where we were scheduled to dock. Brest does not have a dedicated cruise terminal yet. The wise men on the City council of Brest only want to consider funding if there are more than 50 cruise calls a year and thus far they manage about 13.

A very nice long gangway leading over all the railroad tracks. In the background the corner of a very large dry dock for Ultra large Crude Carriers or Super Tankers.

The Prinsendam call was one of those 13 and it was the maiden call of the ship as well. Although I should elaborate on that. The ship was here in 2008 but as the port was on strike, the strike force refused to let anybody off the ship and thus the Prinsendam sailed away again. This time, all quiet on the labor front and we could happily dock here. It turned out to be a very nice day, with sunshine and pleasant temperatures. I had a personal record to celebrate myself; I ordered the longest shore gangway ever in my 10 years of being captain. The Prinsendam has its own long gangway but it is a step gangway and not ideal for scooters and wheel chairs. So when possible I try to get a gangway from the shore side instead. Here in Brest, they showed up with the longest one I have come across thus far. They are really pulling hard here to get more cruise ships in and the service provided to us, was very good. Everybody, including customs and immigration, cooperated to make it the best call possible. The Chamber of Commerce and the Prefecture (local government) came onboard to say thank you and it made my deck officers happy as I passed on the bottles of wine received as a gift.

Not all locals got it right. The French busdriver of our shuttle bus made an attempt at a DAM Dutch name but did not get it completely. Photo by Debbie Plewis, Event Manager.

The feedback from the Prinsendam guests was very positive and so it will be reported to the office. We now have to wait to see what the guests of the Westerdam find when she is calling here on September 9. We arrived early in the morning as it was a 90 minute sail up into the harbour area and so it took place in the dark. Thus I was quite happy that our departure was at 17.00 hrs. and that made it possible for the guests to see something of the area. Because it is such a natural harbor, it has been a prime point of focus in history for an invasion. Hence the hills around the bay are dotted with bunkers and other military complexes. Most of them nicely overgrown but still looking quite lethal. Where ever I looked with my binoculars I saw something protruding among the natural rocks and shrubbery, something that fell under the definition of –reinforced concrete or battlements.

The peculiar thing of this cruise is that we do a number of zig zags, to go from one port to the other. So you will see that we will cross the Irish Sea several times and now we crossed the approaches to the Dover Channel for a 2nd time. Simply by going straight north once we clear the North West port of France at Cape Ushant. That 000o course will bring us tomorrow morning at 0645 at the pilot station, which according to the locals is the earliest that I can enter Falmouth harbor due to the tides.

The weather looks very good again, sunny with overcast spells and temperatures around 60F/16C.