10 August 2009, At Sea.

Today was a sea day and for most guests a day to relax and to get over the heavy sightseeing day of Warnemunde. Those who went to Berlin for the whole day, came back very happy but very tired and those who stayed near the ship where tired as well after being involved in the German party drive of the HANSA week in the town. When they all stepped back onboard, there was more to enjoy as the Hotel manager had arranged for a German Om-pah band to give a performance. First with a performance around the Lido pool where authentic German food was available; and later in the more formal setting of the Show lounge. We have various sorts of German Beer for sale and the band itself made sure that the barrel level went down considerably in the course of the evening. It resulted in a very quiet morning when the sun arose.

I am already preparing for the next cruise and trying to juggle various interests onboard. There is the schedule according to the brochure, then Shore excursion always wants to stay longer so it can do more or longer tours and there is the other interest of saving as much fuel as possible and having the shops and the Casino open as long as possible. Then we have two ports next cruise that are dependent on the tide, Leith for Edinburgh and Greenwich our change over port. Although the published –brochure-cruise gives the frame work, you have to fine tune here and there as the planners cannot for see what will happen two years after the cruise has been approved. So while the Prinsendam sails between Warnemunde and Tallinn, I am already on the way from Dublin to Liverpool.

That is one of the challenges of the Prinsendam, as not a single cruise is identical; there is always something to preplan in advance. It makes the life of a captain very busy but certainly interesting. As mentioned before I have done rather a large number of Alaska cruises and as those cruises run according a regular routine, you know week by week exactly when you will embark the pilot for Ketchikan. (05.15 at Twin island………) or approaching Juneau (06.00 abeam Marmion Island……….) etc etc. When you only do Newport Wales once a year (and it being a new port on top of that), there is no routine. It is a new and exciting. Thus putting the operational plan for a Prinsendam cruise together is a bit of a puzzle sometimes, but a very interesting puzzle.

It gets even more interesting if something has changed drastically since the cruise was developed and approved. In spring this year, we were supposed to sail coast wise from Almeria to Ibiza and had a departure and arrival time that matched the distance. Then suddenly the International Maritime Organization approved a new Vessel Traffic Separation Scheme and that meant that we had to make a detour of 20 miles in order to comply with the new requirement. 20 miles is an hour extra sailing. That means a lot of extra speed to make up the difference. Somewhere in the May archives you can find the whole story about that one. So, never a dull moment while being onboard this ship.

Tomorrow won’t be dull either as we will be in Tallinn. A beautiful city with beautiful weather. At least as forecasted. It will be a busy day with four cruise ships: Zenith, Costa Atlantica, Silver Shadow and us. Not to mention the constant comings and goings of the ferries to and from Finland.

Note: In St. Petersburg we will dock in the Commercial – cargo – port for 2 days . There is strong interference with our satellite system possible. So I might not be able to upload any blogs until the Prinsendam has left again