03 May 2011; Cadiz; Spain.

One nice thing about an overnight call is that the ship is so quiet. No movement at all from sea and swell. No wind whistling around the superstructure, only the white noise of the air conditioning in the cabin. With the ship docked by 8 pm and cleared shortly later by the authorities, there was the chance for guests to go ashore if they wanted to. Some did, the majority however was quite happy to be outside and look at the skyline of Cadiz.  I had the ship docked at the cruise terminal, which is the berth closest to the city, and most of the old town is situated directly on the other side of the road. So it looks quite scenic, both by day and by night. On arrival we were the only ship in the port but today we were joined by the L’Austral from the French cruise company Iles du Ponant.  In one of my previous blogs I mentioned that the French cruise market is not served by a dedicated French company with a big ship. There is however this French company and it operates a number of smaller cruise ships including a sailing ship that was hijacked awhile ago off Somalia. There were no guests onboard and the French Navy librated the crew and arrested the pirates.  Now they have commissioned two small very luxurious cruise ships. A bit in the style of Seabourn but then in the French-only- way.  She called into Cadiz on her maiden voyage from Ancona, Italy. Getting used to the fact that quite often the Prinsendam is the smallest ship in port, it is always interesting to see when a smaller cruise ship is parked behind you right under the stern. Also for Cadiz, the summer season is just starting and in the coming months, there will be days that the whole port is full of cruise ships with all berths taken. Luckily for us, this was a quiet day.

Cadiz is a very nice port to call at, not only for me as a mariner, but also for the guests. The town has much to offer in history, culture, and most of the time very good weather, and the downtown area is fairly compact for walking around.  Jerez, for the sherry is 25 km down the road and there are several other points of interest in the area. Cadiz is the main access port to the area of Andalusia, which is worldwide renowned for sherry and horses. Thus not a difficult port to select for a cruise company. For the Prinsendam, Cadiz is mostly scheduled at the beginning or the end of a Trans Atlantic crossing.  In November we were there before we left Europe for the winter season and now we call here before we start our crossing back to the States at the end of this Africa and Mediterranean Grand Voyage.

 So today it was the Trans Atlantic crossing that we are about to commence, that had my undivided attention. I had been keeping a close eye on the general weather patterns for a few days already and what I saw was good. All the Cape Hatteras depressions were nicely moving to the North and even the wave fields were not dipping down towards our intended track.  Although I always hope for nice weather for the guests to enjoy, my main concern is not wind or rain, but swell. As swell running against us slows the ship down, might make us late and can create an uncomfortable ride due to the pitching. Although the number of depressions are getting less as the summertime is coming, Cape Hatteras is producing still one every four to five days, but they are getting less and less in intensity and are following the regular track south of Greenland and then towards  Iceland.  Thus the weather chart is showing very little “wave activity”. And that is very good news.

Our first leg of the voyage is a day at sea on the way to Funchal Madeira. This island is located lower than the Azores and that already means that we start the voyage on a good footing, because the lower we are in Latitude, the farther away we are from the Northern part of the North Atlantic Ocean where most of the bad weather is located.  From Funchal it is a straight course of 3,200 miles towards the Bahamas. From there we sail under Freeport towards our final destination Fort Lauderdale. The port we left on March 13.

We left Cadiz at 2300 hrs. as this was one of the “late departure ports” scheduled into our cruise.  To sail out of the port is quite scenic. First you swing in the port basin right in front of the city and then when you sail out, you see the port from three sides as the bay of Cadiz is curved towards the West. So you see if from the East, North and West.  Tomorrow we are at sea, sailing on a south westerly course towards Madeira.

The weather looks very good. Sunny skies and smooth sea, with a gentle following breeze. Hopefully we can keep that for the next 7 days.

The current wave chart for two days from now. If nothing changes we will be sailing all the way in the green and yellow. That means no high swells. (that is the brown and red)