Captain Albert Schoonderbeek
Naples today was the last port of call of our cruise. Tomorrow we are in Civitavecchia where the majority of our guests will go home. Some have been onboard since Fort Lauderdale (April 30th) and some were onboard for only this one cruise. 22 guests that also boarded on April 30th. will stay with us until Amsterdam (June 19th) and some even beyond. Then there is a group onboard of 125 who embarked on 20 May and who will also stay with us until Amsterdam. This is one of the beautiful things of the Prinsendam, as no cruise is the same, you can just keep stringing the cruises together and eventually you will have made it from Antarctic all the way to the Arctic. Not a bad way to see the world from the comfort of the Elegant Explorer.
Being the smallest ship in the port of Naples we were once again assigned dock nbr 5, which is the West side of the cruise terminal (see one of my previous blogs) right on top of the Ferries to Capri and other coastal area’s. The dock is even too small for the Prinsendam and so we stuck about for about 40 meters. My preferred dock at the other side was totally taken up by The Celebrity Solstice which with over 300 meters of length just fitted alongside. The other cruise ship in port was the Grand Celebration which was already docked alongside when we came in, so I had to back the Prinsendam in and at the same time go around her. Naples docking is always preferred with the nose out, as there is a fair chance that in the afternoon the wind picks up and then it is much easier to sail straight out of the port, instead of having to swing around first with the chance of drifting all over the place. Being docked in the corner gave me option to use the lower gangway to dispatch the tours so guests could walk directly to the buses for the tours. Regular guests and crew had to use the upper level gangway and walk through the terminal. Partly to comply with the security arrangements, the scanners and X-ray machines are in the main terminal and partly because shore side likes everybody to see the terminal shops, which are also on the upper level.
The crew was today differently occupied. On June 12, it will be Independence Day in the Philippines and with quite a few of the crew coming from that country it is also celebrated on board. Part of the build up towards this official day are the sports competitions that are taking place. The most difficult one is the tug of war as we do not have enough room
onboard for this. Thus our crew purser had, with my permission, contacted the port authorities with the request if we were allowed to use part of the pier. Permission was gladly given and everything was set up accordingly. Six teams were participating and as it could be done near the gangway, all the guests who were still on board could enjoy the games as well.
All photos courtesy of Andrea Consentino Crew purser ms Prinsendam
Most of the time the Engineering officers win the games, as they have the most muscle and size, but this time they got a good run for the money as the tactics of the deck officers made them loose the first run. Then they had to deal with the kitchen team who has a lot of muscle as well, due to eating good food and stirring a lot of soup kettles.
In the end the engineers prevailed but as the end result depends on the numbers of games won, I do not know the final outcome yet. The referee was keeping a rather complicated registration. Half way through the game the local authorities were complicating things as well, with three officious looking police officers ordering the games to be stopped at once. My security officer spoke the magic phrase “the captain has permission from the port authorities” and that stopped them in their tracks for about 10 minutes. However a snubbed servant of the law is a dangerous person and after those 10 minutes all three were back. They had now found a safety issue with the pier. The railings of the pier can be removed to allow the ships gangways to be put out and these railing are sitting in pods in the concrete decking of the pier. You need four men to lift them out but they are loose. They had now decided that this was dangerous for the crew when they were pulling rope and so because of safety reasons it had to stop. Up on our innocent query if this was not dangerous then for our guests as well who were walking over the pier, the answer was no, it was only dangerous for crew……………………………………. ) Luckily, by the time that they finally invoked their law, all games had been completed so they did not get the chance to spoil the fun.
We sailed about 10 minutes late as one guest had left his camera, bag and credit card on the tour ferry. As I was not in a big hurry, Civitavecchia is not that far way, I decided to wait until it was all retrieved safely. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day as well but with a bit more wind. With 5 cruise ships in port and two navy ships, not to mention all the ferries and regular cargo ships, it will be a very busy port day.
To access Captain Albert’s historical writings on Holland America Line as well as photos and additional information about Prinsendam and his sailing schedule, click here.
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