After leaving Civitavecchia last evening, we sailed on a South Easterly course heading for the Strait of Messina. In the early morning we passed by the volcano Stromboli, which has been really active recently. However this morning, we could only see smoke coming out. I kept the ship to the West of the mountain, in order to make sure that we would not get the sulphur smells in the ship. The sun was just rising behind the mountain and with the volcano looming above ius it was an impressive spectacle.

From there we aimed for 0900 pilot at Capo Peloro, which forms the North entrance to the Strait of Messina, the waterway between the Italian Mainland and the island of Sicily. This is a very scenic transfer with the port of Messina on our right hand side and the villages of the Reggio di Calabria on our left hand side. We call this scenic cruising and we have the port lecturer on the bridge to give a narration of what can be seen out there and what it is called.

The boarding of the pilot here is a special happening. Anywhere else in the world you have to slow down, make a lee for the wind and then the pilot steps on board. Not here, they like you to go fast, very fast, and the pilot boat sometimes comes alongside at full sea speed. The pilot hops on board runs to the bridge and, after a quick handshake, with the captain’s starts giving rudder orders and talking to the crossing ferries. The latter are the main reason he is on board anyway, as they form the biggest danger while going through the Strait. they cross on the Strait on East/West courses, while all the other traffic is on north/South courses.

As the strait is a narrow opening between landmasses there can be a considerable current. Up to four knots have been measured. We experienced about 2.5 knots, going with us, so the Veendam was more or less “flushed through the hole” with 18 knots over the ground. 35 minutes later after passing Messina the pilot disembarked again,and crossed directly over to the next ship that was going the opposite way.

We sailed south of the Italian Mainland on an easterly heading and entered around 1 pm. the Adriatic Sea. In the meantime I attended the company’s Mariners Party. Holland America has a Society of Mariners, which are the repeat guests of the company. Those who have done two or more cruises are invited. To recognize them we have a medal system that depends on the number of days traveled. There is a pin for up to 50 days, another color pin for up to 99 days, and then we start with medals for 100 days, 300, 500 and 700 days. We have guests who are way above the 700 days. There is even a lady who does the world cruise every year who ihas over 4000 days. We had during this cruise, 900 mariners out of 1150 guests on board, although with a 19 day cruise, in principle everybody was a mariner,but the counting only starts after the 2nd cruise. The biggest group had over 100 days and in total there were almost 200 guests in that category. We throw a party with free drinks, I make a speech, about what the company is doing, where we are going, and what ships we are building and then the Hotel manager and I hand out the medals. A Photographer is present to record the event for posterity.

We were once again lucky with the weather, the Messina Strait transit was under clear skies but then we received a weather announcement on the radio, saying that thunderstorms and wind gusts were expected in the area. So I kept the ship at full speed, running away from there as quickly as possible. For the remainder of the afternoon and evening it was over cast with thunderstorms over the mainland but the further away we got the clearer the view was. During the evening the guests could the lights of Otranto and later Brindisi on the horizon. Tomorrow Dubrovnik.