Today was the first day of bad weather that we had this cruise. During the night a weather system rolled in from the East Mediterranean with Winds up to 40 knots. Luckily the swell in the Med. is only wind driven, there is no long ocean swell as the Med is surrounded on all sides by land, so the ships movement was not that bad, just a bit bumpy.

We arrived on time at the pilot station, and where then told to wait as there was outbound traffic. Waiting is no fun in principle as we are on a schedule, but drifting with 40 knots of winds blowing at you is very unpleasant. However the pilot finally made it on board and in we went.

Upon docking we still had 30 knots blowing, mainly on the bow so I could not swing the ship around to dock nose out as was my intention, so we docked starboard side alongside the new cruise terminal in Barcelona. There is an older cruise terminal near the World Trade Centre in down town, but according to the pilot that is only used, when their new terminal is full of ships. So, the guests had to use a bus shuttle service into town, which ran frequently.

The weather improved during the day, and I was hoping for a nice departure, However Murphy’s law applies at all times and just before sailing the wind picked up again . By the time that we were ready to go the 30 knots winds were back. Now I had to swing in order to get out of port. I can hold the Veendam against the wind in position with about 25 knots of wind on the beam but this was more so we used a tugboat to help push the stern around. The ships funnel catches a lot of wind and therefore it is not that easy to get the stern into the wind. With the tug on the stern I swung the ship around in the turning basin as quickly as possible, to get the wind on the stern so the Veendam would not drift towards the piers on the other side of the harbor. Then the pilot took the conn and we basically blew out of the port. Back in open sea, the wind was still blowing, but it got less and less in the evening.

Barcelona is a beautiful port and the Church designed by Gaudi, The Holy Family Cathedral, is something that has to be seen. Although still not finished in construction, the church is the major tourist attraction of Barcelona. Quite a few of our crew are dedicated fans of the Barcelona Football club, so they went sightseeing in the Soccer stadium, which seats close to a 100.000 people.