So I went to bed with the good feeling given to me by the latest weather forecast. The ship was only gently moving on the remnants of the swell left over from the previous days and all was well in the world. Then about 1 am. the ship started to move; this was not expected. By the time they called me for arrival, the wind was whistling around the superstructure of the Prinsendam and the Officer of the Watch advised me that the winds were up to 35 – 40 knots again. The minor disturbance off Monte Carlo had decided to become a major disturbance and was visiting the Livorno coast. Luckily they have very strong tugboats in Livorno as it is a port that deals with a lot of large tankers, car carriers and container ships. The port was open but the only thing was that I could not get in as the ferries were arriving and they had preference. The problem with the Livorno ferries is that their sailing schedules are not standard, not for the day, or the week or the time of the day. So it is very hard to figure out what the best time is to arrive. Pilots normally say stay away between 6 and 8, but that is when all our tours are going and thus as a cruise ship captain the only thing you can do is wait for a gap in between.

This time we had to wait 45 minutes and the only way to do that was to make a full circle about 6 miles from the pilot station and to line up behind ferry nbr 3. and follow that ship in. With 35 knots of wind in the stern, we blew into the port and just inside the breakwater, when the wind came full on the beam, there were two strong tugs waiting to help us. First with the swing and then with the backing up to the dock. The best dock, from where you can walk into town, was taken up by yet another ferry but at least we had a decent place not too far into the cargo port. Guests had to go from the ship by shuttle bus as walking on these piers is prohibited by the port authority but we still have to pay for the shuttle busses to enforce that rule. Most of the guests are on tour here to the cities of Florence and Pisa, although Livorno itself is also quite interesting. However today it did not show itself from its best side. The strong winds were accompanied by showers and the rain occasionally really lashed through the port.

Time for me to put my safety helmet on again and to start figuring out what to do next……… if this weather was going to persist. The weather forecast did not help very much as the gale was not in it. That only came a few hours later when the bulletins were updated. Corsica is not that far away from Livorno, it is only 95 miles to get to Calvi, so I worried whether the area might be suffering from the same weather. One option; if the weather stayed this bad or got even worse I could just to stay in Livorno. But if the weather got better in Livorno was Calvi going to be an option tomorrow as it is a tender port?? Thus the emails were flying through the air alerting all the ports in the area that the Prinsendam might be coming. If the wind remained from the South West we could go to Calvi. If the wind was from the North, what could be an alternative to Calvi, an alternative within overnight sailing distance??? Would there be a berth, or an anchorage and what was the expected local weather forecast there for the duration of the call? It kept me fully occupied for the whole morning. Then by noon time the wind started to die down and the 1 pm. weather forecast indicated that things were supposed to return to normal. What was more important, the wind was going to blow from the South West and that is the only wind that really does not affect the anchorage in Calvi. After a quick check with the local pilot, I decided to go for it.

We left on time with wind still weather but what I can describe for the rest as only a Dark, Dark Livorno night. Once out of the breakwater we started our crossing to the North West point of Corsica. The distance is not that great and that enabled me to set a few deviating courses that should give us the smoothest ride possible during the night.

Just on departure we received a gale-warning about another minor disturbance off Monte Carlo, that was building up, but that might go in the direction of Genoa. Hopefully, because then it passes North of Corsica and not over it. We will find out tomorrow morning if the weather Gods are with us or not……………..