06 May 2016; Warnemunde, Germany.

Warnemunde is lovely for the Guests, it is lovely for the crew to go ashore but it is a hard work port for the Captain and his team. Due to the full day trip to Berlin arrival is extremely early but it is not early enough to have a good excuse to go back to Bed again. And that means it turns into a long working day. Sailing into Warnemunde is a pretty straight forward affair with only two challenges. One we did not have today: Wind. The entrance channel is fully exposed to any sort of wind and with the multi deck & multi balcony cruise ships of nowadays a Warnemunde approach can be a real challenge. The channel is not so wide for it to be possible to let the ship drift and thus a lot of horse power comes into play to stay in the middle when slowing down near the berth. But today there was hardly any wind at all.

There is not much space with ferries around hence they want the cruise ships out of the way. This is a stock photo from the internet with the Rotterdam alongside. Today the Zuiderdam was at Berth 2, where the two little cruise ships are in the photo.

The second challenge is always there: Traffic. In the early mornings we have all the ferries which go in and out. Ferries run on time and thus have preference. If they are running late, they claim even more preference to get back on time again. Some of these ferries are train ferries and they cannot afford to be late at all as the German Railroad runs on time and likes to keep their efficiency record as high as possible. A disturbance by a ship, whether it is a Holland America cruise ship or not, is not appreciated. Thus we try to get into port before the ferries turn up. Port Control and the pilots are very good in helping with this as it is in their interest as well to keep the flow moving in port. Hence there is a focused effort from everybody to get the ship in without delay and that works the best if you are early.

View from the bridge. This is as much as I saw from the town today. In the front the rail road to Berlin. Takes about 2 hours to get there.

The port of Warnemunde has really developed in the last 10 years that I have been coming here. With direct access to Berlin and the proximity of Rostock (where smaller cruise ships can call at directly) the little town and the area around it has a lot to offer. Through the years the main dock has been spruced up, two new guest terminals built and all of it right on top of the Rail road station and on top of downtown. It really cannot be better. The town was always a sea side resort for the Germans to start with and therefore the infrastructure to make it interesting to stroll into town was already in place. A quick walk long the pier, pass under the railroad bridge, and the town is there.

Today the Aida Diva was with us in town. Aida is a company which also belongs to Carnival Corporation but is part of the Costa Group of ships, in the same way as Holland America is part of the HAL group which also includes Princess, Seabourn and P&O Australia. Aida caters almost exclusively for the German market and thus a certain amount of German language is needed to have a good time on board. And that you can as some of the Aida ships have a complete brewery on board where they produce their own AIDA beer. For a lot of Germans a very important item and hence the “Braumeister” or Brew master is after the captain the most cherished person on board.

Another safe working item. Working on the Davit. Is the scaffolding safe? Wearing a secured safety harnass ?. …..and on a sunny day like this is the sailor wearing safety/sun glasses ?

My day was filled with helping out with drills and diving into workplace safety. This something I have not much blogged about, but it is a part of the services I offer to the Master of the Vessel. I am a handy person for this as I come on board with a pair of fresh eyes to look around. As with every job, routine sets in when you are on board a ship for a long time. Routine is good as it helps people to perfect their job, but the danger is complacency as you do not see hidden dangers anymore. If a box has been standing somewhere for a long time, then people forget why it is there and nobody questions it anymore if it SHOULD be there. So when I step on board, my first question is: what is in the box? (It helps when you are nosey and that is a qualification I certainly have). And then we look if the box should be where it is now?

Is it in a safe location?  (Think bad weather)

Are the contents still in good order and allowed to be where it is? (Think chemicals)

Who is in charge and is this person qualified to handle this box and its contents ? (Think training)

And if there is anything not in order, what are we going to do about it and when and how ?. (Think corrective action)

And thus I made rounds, deck by deck to check for anything that might be amiss. The captain is making such rounds as well but with the Baltic sailing season, it cannot be one of his priorities and thus I step in.

Tomorrow we have a day at sea, when we head East in the direction of Tallinn. Again a beautiful port to visit. But first we will sail the middle part of the Baltic Sea towards Estonia. The weather should be good, with a gentle breeze, partly cloudy skies and pleasant temperatures.