13 May Kusidasi.

As mentioned before, Kusidasi is the most organized port during our cruise, clean well prepared and ready for everything. So much ready that it sometimes looks like a bit of overkill. The docking itself is a piece of cake as there are two piers sticking out, almost perpendicular, from the shore and apart from a bit of current around the end of the piers there is not much to worry about. However the authorities make a great show out of it.

For the 1 mile approach to the dock we get: 1. the pilot in a pilot boat. 2. a tugboat whose duty it is to prevent ships from bumping into the dock. 3. A security boat to keep fishermen and yachts away 4. a protection boat (zodiac) that races to and from behind the ship. The terminal is protected by a security gate for access to the shopping centre that is part of the terminal. A second security review at the walkway to the terminal. Full security check in the terminal and then our own security inside the ship. For the guests who are less agile there are Bike- Rikshaws to take them from the gangway to the terminal. The latter had very little to do today as I managed to park the gangway of the Veendam almost inside the terminal this time. All these arrangements make it very pleasant to come to the place.

The weather was glorious and my bank account took another hit as my wife revisited the leather and jewellery shops. There must be a lot of husbands out there who will hope for their next cruise that they will have bad weather and the ship will cancel Kusidasi.

We were the only ship until 1300 hrs., when the Oceanic II came in. This is a ship from bygone days and hence it had my full -hobby- attention. It was built in 1965 as the Kungsholm for the North Atlantic service from Sweden with cruising very much in mind. With a tonnage of just under 27000 it is about half the size of the Veendam. When it came out it had some very nice lines, with a raked bow and two funnels. It was later sold to Princess who spoilt the appearance by removing one funnel. Then it became the Victoria under P&O and eventually it disappeared into the Greek Charter market with charters to German tour operators who had her renamed in Mona Lisa with a big picture of the painting on the funnel. That company went bankrupt not so long ago and the ship ended up with the Spanish operator Pullmantur who renamed her in Oceanic II. Due to the sinking of the Sea Diamond, she is currently under charter by Lois Cruise Lines until their new acquisition the (Silja) Opera comes into service.

Thus we saw a ship coming alongside with a German logo in the funnel, owned and named by a Spanish company and chartered for the Greek island cruising by a Cypriot company. There are now plans to bring the ship back to Sweden and to restore her to her former glory as a hotel in Stockholm. Similar to what the Dutch are currently doing with the old Rotterdam (V).

Our guests were all on board by 17.30 hrs so I pulled out for a slow passage to Rhodes, sailing past the islands of Samos, Patmos, Kos and finally for most of the night, north of Nissos Rhodos itself.