It is only a short hop from Tenerife to the more Eastern island of Lanzarote, where we were going to visit the port of Arrecife. The island of Lanzarote is even more barren than Tenerife and at day rise; we only saw brown barren mountains all around us. The deep sea cargo port is mainly made up of two long piers leading north to South in the direction of the prevailing winds. Not very exciting but very functional. To the South West is the old port but with depths of only 5 meters it is too shallow for us and basically only used by fishermen and pleasure boats. The cruise ships are all directed to the deep sea cargo port and dock at the inside of the Eastern sea wall. That is a pier of 834 meters long, so multiple ships can visit at the same day. With cruising being so popular it meant that we were not alone. The Corinthian II popped up again and following us from Santa Cruz was the MSC Fantasia. The harbour master had found a creative solution this time for the docking, with the Corinthian in the forward corner, followed by the Prinsendam, followed by the MSC Fantasia. Thus: small, bigger, BIG. We docked first and were happily alongside by 07.30 followed by the other two. So by 08.30 nearly the whole pier was occupied. Later on the Island Escape arrived as well but she docked at the container terminal.
The weather was supposed to change today as the high pressure system above the Azores was moving to Madeira and the Canaries. That meant that the strong and cold winds were supposed to subside. On arrival that was not very noticeable but during the day the wind fell away completely and that is supposed to last for the coming days. It made the Chief Officer a happy camper as it resulted in smooth waters and thus ideal for doing lifeboat drills. With nice weather we can lower the boats in the water and exercise. That might not sound very professional as it can be expected that the boats would be used in bad weather. As in such weather an emergency is most likely to occur. However that is not the issue. Lowering away the boats always work. Just release the hooks and sail away. It is not something that you have to train in bad weather, as it always works the same way. The problem is the retrieval of the boats. It is very difficult and dangerous to hook in the blocks in which the boats hang, if there is swell running along the ship. Also with strong winds, it is difficult to keep the boats lined up, as they are very high up in the water. The boats are made to sit comfortably in the water when fully occupied with 150 people, that is over 11 tons of weight and when we lower them for training they only have a crew of six onboard. Thus we like calm weather for this.
The Arrecife breakwater pier. Nice and spacious with plenty of coach parking space and room for a cherry picker to ride around on doing maintenance.
In the course of the morning all portside boats were lowered away and exercised. While the remainder of the crew, who are all assigned to life rafts, were once again instructed about the how and the why of the systems. The life rafts are sort of inflatable balloons that are stowed in containers on the port and starboard side of the ship, under their handling crane. During an emergency, if times allows, each raft will be inflated while hanging in the crane, filled up with crew and then lowered away. If there is no time to do this, the rafts can be thrown overboard and will inflate when the painter line becomes tight. Option three is when the ship sinks; then when the life raft is underwater, a hydrostatic release unlocks due to the water pressure and the life raft floats out of its cradle to the surface and will automatically inflate. Everybody in the water can then climb inside as the raft is even equipped with a little step to make that easier.
We were scheduled for departure at 17.00 hrs. but as the MSC Fantasia was leaving at the same time, I waited for 15 minutes so I did not have to maneuver around her. We were not exactly in a hurry as we only have to cross over to Africa to arrive at Agadir by 06.00 tomorrow morning.
Agadir is a real industrial port and one of the main reasons we are calling there, is for the morning tours and the overnight tour to Marrakech. The guests on that tour will rejoin us in Casablanca. The weather should be sunny but hazy tomorrow and as the cold Northerly wind has fallen away, the temperatures should go up into the high 80’s.
April 2, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Captain, nice to hear about these islands. We spend a lot of time on them in the wintermonths. Cold in the Netherlands and warm over there. I did a lot of scuba diving over there. upt to 40m, with more than 1000 m beneath you. Nice rifs and lots of fish. In the shallow waters even seahorses. I hope some of your guests did do a diving tour. In the nord of Lanzarote is al lot of green land, in march and april we sometimes had 1-2 days with rain.
April 2, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Captain,
Thank you so much for doing this blog. I admit I am getting addicted to it checking often to see your updates. We have just discovered our love for cruising and have taken two HAL cruises since November on the Westerdam. The last one was in Feb/Mar on a 14 day which we loved. Maybe someday we will be able to travel on the Prisendam with you as Captain. It would be a true delight. Again thanks for your efforts telling us about places I will probably never get to experience.
April 6, 2011 at 12:09 am
How reassuring that there are drills slated for working the lifeboats and life rafts on a regular basis these days, Captain! Pretty nifty invention, those inflatable ‘balloons’. What a difference with what I’m just beginning to read. Better late than never – but I’ve finally picked up a large picture book (with some text …) to learn more about the Titanic disaster. Especially, when I use the Titanic a lot as an illustration in my teaching work. Speaking of which, it looks like the project I was working on since 2007 is finally coming off the ground.