03 July 2009, Greenwich, England.

It is normally not the case that two of my blog entries are linked by the minute to each other but while yesterday’s one ended at midnight; this one is starting 00.01 after midnight. Just before midnight we approached the buoy location of Greenwich which would be our home for two nights and the day in the middle. Not a dock, not an anchorage but six buoys to keep the ship in location. The pilots called it going INTO THE TIER. While we were coming up the anchorage we needed the high water to pass certain places, here at Greenwich is a dip in the Thames bottom where we can happily float even on the low tide. To get away from the Tier we will need high water again. A bit like sitting in a bathtub with the ship.

The whole docking procedure is very time consuming and needs a lot of concentration from my side. While the pilot and the chief officer are engaged with the mooring boats and the ropes, I have to try to keep 204 meters of Prinsendam between the buoys, which will eventually be exactly 18 meters ahead and 18 meters astern of us. As the bow has a dead angle from the bridge of about 40 meters, I had to do it by eye balling the relative movement of the ship in relation to the shore, to sit still in the water, while the end of the flood current was trying to push the ship further upstream. Moving too much forward meant hitting the bow buoys, moving too much astern meant hitting the stern buoys. Instruments such as GPS, which give the ships location within 3 feet, are useless as they react too slow in relation to the ship. By the time the GPS figures jump, the ship already has momentum. The only thing that works is looking at the shore side and sense the start of the ships movement. Looking at the water flow does not work either as the current was swirling around the hull. Thus while the mooring lines were paid out the Prinsendam moved a few meters forward or a few meters aft, depending on how quickly I could react to the gathering momentum of the ship. It took about 45 minutes to hook up the ship with six ropes forward and six ropes aft, on three buoys each. Then I could give ALL finished with engines. We will stay here until tomorrow 11 am.

One buoy on the portside, one straight ahead and one on the starboardside. Each taking two mooring lines. When it is flooding, the strain is on the sternlines and when it is ebbing the strain is on the bow lines.

The next chapter was winching the Welcome barge alongside. This is a floating platform which has on it, a small welcome cabin for passenger security check and a second cabin with a scanner for the luggage. The tenders coming from the shore moor alongside this barge for landing and receiving guests. By 01.30 the barge was fully tied up and those who wanted to could go ashore. The immigration authorities had come on board with the pilot boat and could thus do their thing while we proceeded up river. In the meantime another barge was hooked up on the starboard side to form a platform for off loading the luggage as most of our guests were going home today. The last barge that appeared was the water barge. Being on the buoys means that we have no shore connection and with sitting in the muddy water of the Thames we can not evaporate any water into drinking water ourselves. Too much silt and debris.

This barge is anchored in the river by means to two heavy chains connected to anchors. By putting two wires on the ships bollards it winches itself alongside the ship where the breakdoors are.

By 2 am I was in bed, leaving the tender and barge circus to the chief officer. This past cruise he had a fairly easy time as the long standby’s were for me so now it was time for him to add his contribution to the organization. Luggage unloading started in the early morning and by 09.30 all the guests were off the ship. At 11.30 the first new guests were starting to arrive by tender. Turn over has to be fast on a HAL ship.

My day was filled with showing important people around. Representatives from the Cruise industry who wanted to see how the Prinsendam dealt with doing a change over on the buoys; then a meeting with the group editor of one of the major British Newspapers followed in the early evening with receiving a deputation of the Greenwich Council. The latter are trying very hard to have the Prinsendam make as many calls as possible in the future, so I was trying very hard to have them build a dedicated dock here.

Tomorrow we will leave at 11 am. And it is expected that during the evening new guests will continue to board, as a lot of independent travelers are arriving at their convenience (e.g. when the boarding rush is over). My crew were very happy, The Revue Cast went to London to see a West East show and the rest nosed around in the bookshops, open air market and the antique shops, most of which have a pub located next door…………….