Dubrovnik is the last port of our Trans Atlantic cruise and a really beautiful one. This was only going to be a short stay so I made sure that the ship was docked nicely ahead of schedule and thus cleared on time. It wroked and the first guests stepped ashore right on the official arrival time. Dubrovnik has only a small harbor on the SE side, outside the city walls and it is only good for tenders and small pleasure craft. Thus the authorities prefer the cruise ships to dock at Gruz, which is a sheltered harbor about 10 minutes on the north side of the town. Only when the Gruz dock is full, then downtown is opened up for cruise ships and their tenders.

We picked up the pilot just after sunrise and the guests had a very nice view of the little islands at the entrance. Islands covered with small churches and red roofed stone houses. It all looks very picturesque and romantic and therfore a lot of outside people are now buying houses here. Since the civil war ended and former Yugoslavia was broken up in various States, Real Estate has been going up in price enormously and a nice apartment or 3 bedroom house with sa ea view in the Dubrovnik area can command as much, or more, money as you would have to pay in the downtown area of a major city anywhere in the world.

We were in port together with the cruise ship Deutschland which had stayed in port overnight and a small old local cruise ship called the Dalmacija. Guests not on tour could use a shuttle bus into town. As there were only three ships in port, with a total of less then 2500 guests on board, the walled city was not so crowded. It can be crowded, especially in high season as the area inside the walls of Dubrovnik is not that large. Lateron in the season there will be port days with 7 or 8 eight ships and then it will be busy, also the European Tourist season will start with bus trips coming in. By that time the real summer season starts, the Veendam will have moved to the Baltic.

At 1 pm. The Veendam left the dock again in order to make Venice on time. This is our change and turn over port for the coming weeks, so it is very important to arrive there on time for our guests to make the airport on time. For the remainder of the afternoon we sailed through the Croatian islands, seeing little villages dotted against the hills. For the Dutch tongue, Croatian is not an easy language. We did not get very far with trying to pronounce names as Brno, Mljet and Glckc on the VHF. Hopefully the locals did not take offense with the way we murdered their town names while advising ships around us, where we were and where we were going. Although on the other hand, I wonder how a Croatian would pronounce: s’Gravenhagen. (Dutch name for The Hague) The local pilot had already given up trying to pronounce my last name, so I think I have to live with being known as Captain Albert throughout the world. I should have taken my wife’s name when I got married. Captain Cox, that would have worked everywhere………..

By 1900 we were back in the Adriatic Sea and from there it was a straight course heading for the Pilot at Venice. We had 17, of the 18 days of this cruise, very good weather and hopefully on arrival the guests can see a beautiful entry into Venice, as I am arriving after sunrise.

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