05 August 2009, Rosyth, Scotland.

There are several ways for a cruise guest to reach Edinburgh. You can call at Leith as we did a few weeks ago and we will do in a fortnight again. You can drop anchor at South Queens ferry and tender ashore or you can dock at Rosyth. This is just past the Forth bridge and therefore the port is limited to those ships that can pass under this bridge. The Prinsendam is in principle too tall as well but we can fold our mast and by reducing our height by 7 meters, we do fit under it. Thus last evening after departing Kirkwall, the bo’sun lowered the top of the mast in preparation for today. From the pilot station to being fully docked is about 2.5 hours travel up the Firth of Forth and to be on time we arrived at the pilot station around 04.30 in the morning.

The wind had indeed died down and thus I would be able to dock without tugboat assistance. I had advised the guests on departure as well, about the approximate time table for our approach to the port and I was glad that I had done so as it was worthwhile to be on deck to see it all. Quite a few guests were out and about and with the sun behind us, the scenery was magnificent. A golden hue lay over Edinburgh and the surrounding wood lands and the Forth bridge showed up a deep burgundy red. At least part of the bridge as some of the pillars were wrapped in white plastic and scaffolding. The bridge is under going major maintenance at the moment. Coming closer to the bridge you first pass by some little islands that were once part of the defense system of the Firth of Forth. Now abandoned, the ruins of these fortifications make for some interesting viewing.

Due to the way that the Forth rail road bridge was constructed it does not look that impressive from a distance as it lacks height in perspective. You have to come closer to realize that it has a great height but due to the massive construction of the main pillars which look like a bit like car jacks, you are deceived in thinking that it is a low, squat bridge. A normal suspension bridge looks much loftier. However those techniques were not available in 1889 when this train bridge was constructed. They did good work as the pilot told me that the maintenance inspection had revealed that the rivets used in the bridge were still as good as new. A new paint job and the bridge would be ready for another 35 years. As cars did not exist as a form of transport in 1889, the Victorians built a train bridge and only much later a modern suspension bridge was erected for car traffic next to it. That second bridge can hardly cope with the traffic anymore and so another bridge will be constructed behind it. Building is supposed to start around 2012 or so.

This new bridge will hover over the port area where we docked this morning. The Northern Wall, once part of the Royal British Navy complex of Rosyth. The navy is still there but its presence has been scaled down and part of the dock is now a cargo and cruise terminal. Thus under glorious sunshine I parked the Prinsendam alongside and soon after the guests streamed ashore to explore Edinburgh by organized tour or by shuttle bus. The city itself being about 20 minutes away.

Contrary to the weather forecast the wind breezed up to 25 knots in the afternoon and for the departure I needed two tugboats as wind and a strong ebb tide (about 3 knots running in the main river part) made it very difficult to come off the dock. However we managed it all in good time and by 1800 hrs. we once again sailed under the bridges. Now going East, we had the sun behind us again, so nothing impaired a good view of both sides of the Firth of Forth.

Tomorrow we are at sea, arriving at Amsterdam in the late afternoon. After all the cold weather up North, we are now going to get a bit of tropical weather. Temperatures into the 80’s and no wind.