05 April 2016; Dubrovnik Croatia.

After a less than sunny departure from the dock in Venice, we came into the open waters of the Adriatic and the weather improved steadily. So this morning we arrived with flat-calm seas and sunny skies at Dubrovnik for our ships call between 10.0hrs.  and 18.00 hrs.  We always call this Dubrovnik but only ships who anchor near the entrance to the old port are really in Dubrovnik. The dock is located about 15 minutes down the road at the other side of the hills in a place called Gruz.

And that brings the question: what is better? Anchor near down town and use the tender service or dock and take the (free) shuttle bus into town?  There are pro and cons for both. Where you go, depends on what you asked for and what is assigned to you.  For down town the pro is, with a regular tender service, you are in and out of Dubrovnik in 10 minutes and you have a beautiful scenic ride. The con is, the anchorage is not a very happy one, especially if you are a large ship. If the wind picks up, the ship veers behind its anchor and suddenly the rocks are very close by. Then you have to raise anchor, go further out and hopefully you will be able to get your guests back. Otherwise you have to sail around to Gruz and pick them up over there.

Downtown Dubrovnik. Although it looks quite wide, there is not much anchor space on either side of the green islands. Just look at the size of the speed boat leaving the port.

Gruz has a very long dock which can handle two large ships and one small one, if you look at the maximum sizes. Then there are three anchorages on top of that which are sometimes in use if it is high season. I have been to Dubrovnik with 7 cruise ships on call at the same time. Luckily we are today all by ourselves.  When docked in Gruz you use the shuttle bus to get into town which adds 15 to 20 minutes to the Journey.  Gruz has one major challenge and that is the Bora Winds. A few times a year in the early morning, if the weather circumstances are perfect further inland, a wind picks up which is called the Bora. It funnels down the mountain and through the river gorge which ends at the docks of Gruz. Not just a little bit of wind, but hurricane force winds, the vortex in that narrow funnel made by the river. If you are docked there is no problem, but if still in the process of arriving you cannot sail, as suddenly 65 knots of wind will catch your ship. Then suddenly the other side of Gruz comes closer very quickly.

This is the dock in the port of Gruz. It must have been designed by a sailor as it near perfect for docking there.

The pilots are alert to that, most of the time, and warn if the Bora is blowing. If so, you wait until about 11 am. and normally the wind will then die down. I have been caught in that situation once myself and the only thing I could do was to remain drifting with the nose in the wind until things went back to normal. We docked 3 hours late but we made it and because we were docked we could get everybody ashore very quickly. The ships in the downtown anchorage had to leave as well, although the Bora is a lot less strong there, and had to abort their tender service. And that is much more of an inconvenience to the guests. Holland America Line Captains prefer to dock in Gruz, simply because the anchorage can be very un-reliable and very tight if you go there with a larger ship.

Therefore we docked today in Gruz and we did not anchor. As it was a beautiful day the free shuttle bus ride was not so bad either as it gives a free tour through the Suburbs of Dubrovnik, something you otherwise would never see. Life on board goes on as well and we are now trying  to get the ships operation down to routine as quick as we can and thus my focus went to the safe working practices. In the past period I have been busy with a lot of security related matters and that is confidential, hence I have been rather quiet about what I was exactly doing.

When the crew starts working with the equipment on a new ship, such as the winches, the water tight doors, the lifeboats, or even the more complicated coffee machines, there is apprehension. They have been trained, they know exactly what to do, but now they have to push the button on a new toy. Remember when you bought a new car, you know what sort of a car it is, you know how to drive it but the first few times you are apprehensive about all the buttons and what to push until you grow more familiar with everything and get a bit of routine.  With ship people it is the same and then a wise an old man to give a little bit of support is always appreciated.

Tonight we sail at 18.00 hrs. and then we go around the south of Italy heading for Civitavecchia. The distance calls for a steady speed of 16 knots and based on that average we will be passing through the Straits of Messina late tomorrow afternoon. Stromboli should be around dusk and hopefully she will be a little bit active and we can see fire coming out of the cone.

Weather for tomorrow: partly cloudy 71oF or 22oC. Perfect cruising weather.

A sort of mixture and compilation of Chinese and Delft blue.

For those who are hooked on the Koningsdam art by now: Some more broken Crockery. This display is located on Main Deck in the Aft Guest Staircase.